When saying goodbye, in the office of a production company, Jane Birkin slips to Thomas Dutronc: "I texted your mom two or three nights ago."
All the charm of the singer, friend of Françoise Hardy in these "nights" rather than "days", all the bond between two families who do not necessarily see each other very much, but who share a common history.
Even on “Frenchy”, the singer's new album, covers of great classics, where the most British of performers sings with this young 47-year-old “Ces petits riens” by Serge Gainsbourg.
A double news: at 73 years old, Jane Birkin delivers a magnificent album on the edge of the razor, of the intimate, which comes out this Friday, the first unpublished for twelve years, produced by Etienne Daho, “Oh!
Sorry, you were asleep… ”We made them meet again, trying to be forgotten.
Who came up with the idea for this duo?
JANE BIRKIN.
Thomas!
THOMAS DUTRONC.
No it's you.
You invited me to “Taratata.
"
JB
That's right.
It was I who invited you and then you asked me to do this duet on your record.
And who chose this Gainsbourg song?
TD
That's me.
During the first confinement, I had the idea of giving guitar lessons on the networks.
To make a Serge song, I chose “Ces petits riens”, which I find so pretty, with these chords, I rediscovered it.
#Taratata Thomas Dutronc / Jane Birkin "Ces Petits Riens" (Serge Gainsbourg) (2020), via @Taratata https://t.co/0jpJfeDOUC @ThomasDutronc #JaneBirkin
- Rock In Pop (@rock_inpop) September 26, 2020
Jane, did you know Thomas as a child?
JB
Not that much.
It was Serge who had really known Thomas as a baby.
He often went to Corsica with Françoise and Jacques.
I, Thomas, have seen him professionally a lot.
What amazes you about each other?
JB
I find it slim.
Musically and in person.
It has an elegance that is very seductive and very original.
Thomas made me love jazz.
I used to feel uncomfortable before because I felt like we were starting from a theme and going everywhere, which freaked me out.
It was cowardly for Serge who adored jazz and would have liked to listen to more, but me, that did not give me the drone.
The last record he had to make was with the best jazz musicians in New Orleans.
The hotel was even reserved for them and then…
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What about you, Thomas?
TD
It's a bit dizzying for me to sing with Jane.
There are lots of generations, of eras that mix.
What blew me away when she sang in the studio was how the words take on a force, a very particular weight in her voice.
We tell ourselves that your families have always known each other, right?
JB
There is a historic friendship.
It's almost inbred!
I had great affection for Françoise.
The first record I bought in France was “All the boys and girls of my age”, when I was at boarding school, at 15 or 16 years old.
I lived in the same building as Edith Piaf.
When she died, there was a crowd, and personalities coming.
People whispered when they saw me: “It's Françoise Hardy.
I was so flattered that I didn't open my mouth.
I was taken for her, what happiness!
Jacques Dutronc, I knew him on film sets.
We could have spent the holidays together, but it happened later, without me, when Serge was living with Bambou
(Editor's note: his last companion)
.
Thomas was an ideal child.
He took the best of both parents and created something very individual.
And charming.
He could have been my child.
It's weird to say that and, at the same time, it's normal.
What about you, Thomas?
TD
It's this mixture of eras that I did not know, I was a child, but this friendship between my father and Serge, it makes me dream.
JB
Serge adored Jacques.
And when Jacques had to stop drinking, Serge would say: “Oh my, he has to stop the white, otherwise it's done.
I said to myself, it's funny that he takes it so seriously for Jacques and then he used another Pernod without a problem
(they laugh)
.
He was panicked that something could happen to Jacques.
TD
It feels like family, even if we don't know each other that well.
A family by extension, at heart.
JB
Absolutely.
Were there no Sunday lunches between Gainsbourg-Birkin and Dutronc-Hardy?
JB
No.
I rather remember bringing Jacques back with Serge, and it was already 4 o'clock in the morning, and Serge said:
"
Françoise has blocked the door.
!
"
Thomas, have you known this freedom too?
TD
When you are the son of, you take care.
I would have liked to be more insolent, to be like my father perhaps.
Plus the zouave.
You have less of the right.
The son to Dutronc, to Françoise Hardy, he cannot afford to do too big bullshit.
Because of that, I couldn't quench my thirst for doing stupid things.
I did a little, but discretion ...
JB
Jazz gave him a sort of personal zany, a certain madness.
TD
People always ask me if I took my first binge with Serge.
Yes, it's true.
We were in a Chinese restaurant, he passes me glasses of champagne under the table.
I drank two or three, I was 11, in the end I was drunk.
I said to mum on the way out: "How I understand daddy!"
I saw him drink all day since I was born
(Jane laughs)
.
Jane, your album is inspired by a play you wrote about the couple twenty years ago ...
JB
.
It was even a movie that I made.
Agnès Varda told me: “If you don't want to be betrayed, do it yourself.
»I didn't know that it would become a play that I was going to play with Thierry Fortineau, and even less that Etienne (Daho) was going to push me to make it a kind of musical for one person, twenty years later.
Etienne was the driving force behind me, with his energy.
Both of you had planned to tour with your respective albums ...
TD
I had no luck with the epidemic because we wanted to shoot a lot.
We were supposed to go to New York for an American outing.
Everything has been canceled.
We managed to put on a show, with kinds of sketches, in October, it was half-halls, we did four or five concerts, that's missing, but there you go ...
JB
It seems surreal to me that we're on the road in April, but that's what was planned for my tour, after rehearsals in March in Brittany.
As everything changes at any time, I don't know.
I touch wood…
A great Jane Birkin
“My daughter got screwed up / On the ground we found her.
This is the first line of the album.
Jane Birkin returns for her first unreleased record in twelve years and she's not here to laugh.
Or chat.
But touch the heart.
Open his own, on his words and music by Etienne Daho, who produced this diamond.
We think of Kate, of course, her missing daughter, but here the confession from song to song bifurcates towards poetry, play with oneself, a diary from one chapter to another from childhood to middle age .
The words lash and soften in turn.
The album is called “Oh!
Sorry, you were sleeping… ”, a couple's argument between acid fury and fun - in a duet with Daho - like the film and the play that she created twenty years ago and which bore the same title.
It was the singer, a lifelong fan, who pushed her to make an album, the same intimate atmosphere, but new songs, often overwhelming.
Light with what could be heavy, Jane Birkin plays against all odds.
There is like an enchanted round a little out of tune - as one would say crossed out - and a wisp nervousness in this disc on the breach, very catchy, muted pop, direct in the face.
Jane Birkin had been missed.
"Oh !
Sorry, you were sleeping… ”
Jane Birkin (Barclay / Universal).
The editor's rating: 5 stars.
Thomas Dutronc in crooner class
He often takes country roads, towards music that we no longer listen to, jazz, crooners.
In “Frenchy”, Thomas Dutronc revisits French classics that have traveled abroad, sometimes very recent classics, since they range from “la Vie en rose” by Edith Piaf to “Get Lucky” by Daft Punk, passing through " As usual ".
We meet Jane Birkin for a cover of "Ces petits riens" by Serge Gainsbourg but also Iggy Pop, Diana Krall or a ZZ Top.
Thomas Dutronc leaves the guitar to his admired friend Rocky Gresset.
We let ourselves be carried away by this stylish club atmosphere.
"Frenchy",
Thomas Dutronc (Universal).
The editor's rating: 4 stars.