Jean-Emmanuel Deluxe interview
Jean-Emmanuel Deluxe recently released Rouen Dreams – an interior voyage: Hollywood seen from the eyes of a Frenchman who has never been there, but knows that no matter in what part of the world we live, our collective unconscious has been shaped (brainwashed?) by the “dream” factory.
Musically, the album is inspired by a sort of tradition of weird Pop from Francois Werthheimer to Dashiel Hedayat… as well as seeking its roots in music ranging from the very popular Gilbert O’Sullivan to the baroque experimentations of Stevie R Moore. Rouen Dreams is featuring: Helena Noguerra, Fifi Chachnil, Bertrand Burgalat, April March, Sean O’Hagan (High Llamas), Don Fleming, Werner “Zappi” Diermaier (Faust), and artwork by Bart Johnson.
“In life you have to ruin your dreams, rain on your own parade to rip it up and start again!”
Would you like to talk a bit about your background?
First of all I’d like to thank you all to have thought about me. I was born in Rouen in 1970. The city where Joan of Arc has been burnt and where Flaubert spent a lot of time and used the local bourgeoisie he despised in “Madame Bovary”. Marcel Duchamp was born and buried there too. In the meantime I think he killed art. Therefore when I went to Rouen art school in 1989 unfortunately the teaching body rained on my parade with conceptual art. I was and the school still is in a post deconstructionist madness. The problem is that if you want to deconstruct – fair enough you have to know how to construct – And that’s where the problem is: these people have no skills and technique. Along with that they had an annoying contempt toward anything that had to do with “popular art”. Thank god I came from a working class background used to sweat to get money – so I was infused with “common decency”. So I came to the conclusion that as “fine art” was plagued by po-mowankerism I had to see if I wouldn’t be better to pursue a career in popular arts – that’s what I did! Salvation for me also came from the UK as I thought that their pop music was more exiting and vital than what I had here. Don’t get me wrong, there’s great music and art in France. But I think our showbiz and state funded cultural institution are the enemy of freedom. Not that everything is bad here in these fields. But I think a good shakedown would be needed. Otherwise France will end up culturally completely irrelevant in the eyes of the rest of the world.
“I think pop music can have a great effect”
When did you decide that you wanted to start writing and performing your own music? What brought that about for you?
I’m a Johnny came lately in the world of music. When I was 17 or so I thought that pop music would be a nice tool to convey emotions and ideas to a wide audience. But as I was under the influence of the “industrial ethos” that 3 chords are already too much. I didn’t had technical practice of any instruments. Then I changed my mind – better late than never! But I think it’s important to work as a team with people helping you when they are better than you at some crafts. So for example Kevin Coral was very important for Rouen Dreams, my last album. To sums things up I think pop music can have a great effect. A song can’t change the old, but can make it more bearable!
Can you share some further details how your latest album Rouen Dreams was recorded?
Well I did my first album, Tribute To Alain Delon And Jean-Pierre Melville with a great friend: Alexander Faem in 2001. I had great responses for this LP but nevertheless I went to a phase of self doubt. See I was seen as a fringe artist, a weirdo even with some patronizing nudges. Then I met Kevin Coral and some others like Olivier Collet and the creative system get simple and smooth again. I send them acapella melodies and lyrics and they build from it. So part of the albums were recorded at Kevin Coral studio, then everybody added their bit wherever they lived (UK, USA, Japan, France, Germany…) and finally Kevin mixed and mastered the whole shindig. So parts of my LP were done in vintage studios, part home studio and the whole result was made coherent thanks to Kevin.
You have quite a lot of very impressive names being part of it.
Yes I was happy having Helena Noguerra, April March, Bertrand Burgalat, Don Fleming, Zappi (Faust), Sean O’Hagan and others… well that’s pretty simple… it’s just a question of being like minded and sharing friendship. See I can’t work with people I don’t like.Of course the whole casting wasn’t made out of some marketing agenda but out of their simple sympathies.
“I really do believe that Hollywood as a propaganda machine really colonized our minds.”
Would you like to share what’s the concept behind Rouen Dreams?
I guess you are familiar with Carl Gustav Jung’s “collective unconscious” notion. I really do believe that Hollywood as a propaganda machine really colonized our minds. So more people all around the world are familiar with the Street of L.A than the streets of Ljubljana. I’m not complaining about that but I just wanted to explain that one way or another we may already live in a parallel universe. And see how right now during this worldwide viral phase everyone is living in the world of make believe! But don’t think it’s negative I also owe a lot to US and Californian counterculture figures. I’d like to add that Rouen Dreams as a pun for “Ruined dreams” is a way to say that in life you have to ruin your dreams, rain on your own parade to rip it up and start again! I’m an optimistic person and I think forces of life will win over forces of death and as Daniel Johnston used to sing, “true life will find you in the end”.
Bart Johnson did the cover artwork.
He is a great artist but I’m mainly in touch with his ex wife Marcia who was a key element of getting things done. So I’d like to thank her.
“I think music and art and general are good only if they are life changing!”
How do you usually approach music making?
As a game, but a serious one. I like ideas – but I’m not a conceptual artist. I prefer to imagine myself as an antenna receiving streams of consciousness and putting these in some kind of order. I think that in France Descartes has done a great harm. I prefer the idea of the shaman in ancient civilizations. There’s no messages or slogans, but I hope a key to get to a world above us that maybe is the “real one”. On a more pedestrian level I write lyrics and melodies. Try to get a whole picture of where I want to go, then call my friends. For my next LP, I got the wonderfully talented Jerome Braque, Rodolphe Coster and Kevin Coster. So I’ll start from there, then I see the making of an album as a spiritual journey. I think music and art and general are good only if they are life changing!
What are some future plans?
My next album with Jerome Braque, Kevin Coral and Rodolphe Coster as I said above. But I’m also working for Lio new exiting album and a radio show. I think you should check Lio’s music. She is really a francophone pop icon but also recorded with the Sparks to give you an idea. I’m also planning a compilation to go with my book about French new wave music. So I asked some people including my dear friend Helena Noguerra (she is on my album and was really cool on Thomas Cazals’ “Lushy Life” music video), Djemila Khelfa and Jerome Braque again. With Ramuntcho Matta and others… I’m working on Lio’s Wandatta reissue with Lion Productions in the USA. I just wrote the sleeve notes for a Juliette Greco Anthology for Rev-Ola Records in the UK and Michel Colombier soundtrack for the French label Le Pop Club Records. I’m also working on a film and serie project… The film and TV industries are hard places. I’m writing my own novel, got back from drawing etc…. So I hope the current situation won’t stop my endeavors. So far my mood is fine and my spirit is up. Some people are at war and get bombed – so we should remember that when complaining – but that does not mean that people and artists should see we are entering a new world and that art should be vital and not an ego boosting affair!
Are any of you involved in any other bands or do you have any active side-projects going on at this point?
I know what you mean by side projects. But I prefer to think that everything I do musically are real projects with no hierarchy. I was working on live shows before the confinement stopped it. I also have my label Martyrs of Pop. In the past I did release records by April March, Purple Submarine Orchestra, Penelope, Jay Lanski, Jacques Duvall (Leatherman) and various reissues with Lion productions (Guy Skornik, Rotomagus…). Next release will be the work of Ian Chippett (with musical supervising by Olivier Collet). Quite an incredible story not unlike Sugarman. Ian is a British citizen who took French nationality and had to wait to be retired and divorced to feel able to get his first album released! He is one of this yet unknown genius songwriters with bitter body of work that will blast your mind!
Thank you. Last word is yours.
I’d like to thank my friends: Véronique, Adélaïde, Annie, Clément, Gildas, Olivier and the people who will recognize themselves – and Amélie Rétoré my publisher for their help and support. And sent my deepest homage to my mum Marie Mendès -Dubois who left this earth in 2013.
And remember this are some last words but not my epitaph! So “ne travaillez jamais” and “semper fidelis”!
Take care, God bless you and please leave the place as clean as you entered it the first time. Oh and please buy my vinyl LP! local heroes needs support!
– Klemen Breznikar
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