Christophe - Les Mots Bleus
Alors, Christophe is gone, one or two months ago. This guy is a French singer, very famous in France and some strange countries. This guy was my hero; for me he was a master. I discovered him when I was very young, maybe around seven, and it was at Christmas. My parents gave me a little stereo, you know with a tape player and with a compilation, because if you remember during the 80s the market was full of compilations, and on one of these compilations I had one song of Christophe, ‘Succès fou’. I listened to it in my bedroom, I imagined I was singing it in front of all the school, in front of my friends and also school teachers – and that had a big impact on my life, because now when I compose I imagine I’m in front of all the world, you know like it’s a show.

Les Mots Bleus is fantastic, I love it because the lyrics are done by Jean-Michel Jarre. And so Jean-Michel Jarre and Christophe, for me, it’s a perfect duo; you know, they could have a band or something. The album is really beautiful in general, because the sounds of synthesizers are just great, the drums beautiful, the reverb on the voice is so beautiful, the delay – and so all the textures of this record are a kind of subbasement of a side of my music. It’s not using a synthesizer to be cold, but using the synthesizer to be warm, and for me it’s really important to use the synthesizer in a warm way. It’s because of Christophe.

When he passed, at first it was hard for me to believe in it. I said to myself ‘no, it’s not true, maybe there’s a mistake.’ And after that when I realised he’s really dead, I was lost – very, very lost, and after I was sad. Now I feel much better because now I understand how much I was lucky to know him, because he invited me a lot of times on stage to sing with him. We did a lot of studio work together, fantastic parties; I went to his place, he came to my place. He was a friend. And so now I just tell myself I am so lucky to have known him.