Etienne Daho. “Retirement, we take it when the body says stop, mine says ‘again'”

Sparkling. Velvet. Sensory. Symphonic. Intimate. Iodine. Etienne Daho’s thirteenth album, Shoot the stars at night (1), is a gorgeous set with several gems, most notably “Boyfriend,” a future summer night pharmacology. A modern ’80s youngster turned godfather of French pop, Daho is a quiet, secretive and feline sexist who nicknames himself “Dorian Gris” in reference to his (rarely) silver hair. Interview with a living elder.

Video clip boyfriendBy Etienne Daho

Love always

Miss Figaro. – The name of this album, shoot the stars at night looks like Rambo “I have spread golden chains from star to star and I am dancing.”
Etienne Daho. – I adore ! I didn’t think about it, but it’s there, inside me.
It is my young youth, Rimbaud’s poems. But I was especially thinking about Ava Gardner and Frank Sinatra, their crazy passion, the beginning of their relationship, the exaltation. In the album’s opening, I noted this image of the pair “shooting the stars at night,” with this somewhat edgy piece played by two drummers.

An avalanche of collaborations across twelve titles, incl Vanessa Paradis opening time?
I love it. He moves me because I have heard his song “You, who are my only double” (“Tell yourself that I love you”, 1990). I have a strange sense of brotherhood towards him. I asked him to sing, he immediately accepted. Our voices blend well.

“Lighthouse”, this is the highlight of the album.
This is the beginning of love, the dazzling. I was in Brighton, found the DVD of the film love is the devil By John Mayberry, about the maddened and destructive relationship between painter Francis Bacon and his lover George Dyer, who committed suicide in Paris in 1971. And I was thinking about this infernal binary, the artist and his muse, how the artist cuts the muse, what he does with her for the sake of creative impulse. Musa generally ends up like an old dress. Never assume this role to survive…

Vitality

Are you careful? You take care of yourself, knowing all kinds of 80s and 90s chic, after putting into practice these words of Françoise Sagan: “speed, sea, midnight, all that is dazzling, all that is black, all that , what is lost and therefore allows to be found’ I am not denying anything ?
It is the eternal need for intensity… I knew Sagan, we had dinner at Bettina Graziani’s with Yves Saint Laurent and Alexis de Rede. I was young! Intimidated! We were talking about Algeria, Cap Falcon, Saint Laurent, also uprooted from Oran. Sagan was so much fun. He left and came back, not knowing where he parked his car. He told me. “Minu, come and help me find him!” We are still looking for it. I am very careful to return to excesses. I cherish my vitality, I take care of my body. I love what I do, this job, so much that I have to protect my car, this body of a 67-year-old guy, so that it can take me as far as possible.

Pension?
We accept it when we no longer have inspiration, when the body says “Stop”. Mine says “Again”. Being near Jeanne Moreau was a source of optimism. He lived, wished, sang at the age of more than 80. I have the niac. But I know that my car is not forever.

Are you worried about death?
I have lost many loved ones over the past fifteen years. Like Dani, who I thought was indestructible. I have a rather complicated relationship with death, between horror and denial. But I live with my dead. I swallowed them. They live in me.

In this regard, your friend singer Françoise Hardy spoke in favor of euthanasia two years ago. Do you share his vision for end-of-life and active aid in dying?
I think you should be able to choose when you die. If I were unfortunate enough to one day suffer from an incurable, degenerative disease, I would go to Switzerland, where assisted suicide is possible, to end it. But it would be better to be able to do it here, to benefit from active assistance in dying in France.

Without borders

Your rule in life. travel lightness?
Yes, that’s my way of life. One bag on my shoulder and phew, I’m off camp. I was forever marked by exile, the uprooting of my native land, Algeria. Since then I’ve been all over the house and lived in Ibiza, London, Lisbon, New York.

Have you sacrificed much for music? Couple life, family life, parenthood? Is there an accepted sacrificial dimension?
I find myself in what the wonderful singer Barbara said: sing. is to pick up the habit. Entering orders because the title is like a calling that is beyond you. For 40 years I have attached the greatest importance to this. Except when someone crosses me. There, I stop. Otherwise, it’s music, songs, albums before everything else. I was made for it. But since I’m a big fan, it’s a part-time sacrifice.

In love and not looking at the gender of the beloved, you said beautifully.
That’s right ! We should immediately label ourselves, say what we are and what we are not. I fall in love with a person, not a sex assignment. My discretion on the subject does not mean I have a secret. But explaining yourself is a little too much like apologizing. And that’s not an option. I am a great lover, which gives me phenomenal strength.

Does love have many faces?
Yes! The love of society, the eternal source of disbelief and gratitude, carnal passions, romantic friendships, platonic loves. It takes many forms. I don’t think I’ve ever been so honest… Finally, let’s just say I’m not pansexual, I’m a sexual being. N/A!

“I’m glad you’re alive”

You sing some titles, particularly with the insistence of the “Boyfriend” singer.
My mother and my sisters adored Dionne Warwick, for whom the great Burt Bacharach composed dozens of songs. “Walk On By,” we listened to it until the disc melted. Harry Belafonte’s death saddened me too. Family idol! We were listening to “The Banana boat song” and every time I heard his famous “Day-O” I thought that was me, “Daa-Hoo”. I then realized my mistake! In 1991, on “Disaster Sights,” the chorus sang “Day-O,” a nod to this master, this civil rights hero.

You bequeathed 38 of your street and stage clothes to the Palais Galliera, the Paris fashion museum. Daho’s heritage, musically and also in terms of clothing?
I tidied up my closets at closing time. I came across clothes I hadn’t seen in decades. Ellie Medeiros advised me to give them to Galliera. He had done the same with 800 outfits. I contacted the museum, I gave them everything. Brilliant stage outfits designed by Hedi Slimane and city outfits.

In life you are dressed in black and navy blue, the uniform has never changed.
Passing the wall! Sailor Sweater, Peacock, Perfecto, Hoodie. The invisible boy…

The Invisible Star when it suits him. The eternal youth and the perfect godfather of French pop music?
A man who is happy to be alive.

(1) Etienne Dahoe, Shoot the stars at nightPolydor Universal.