Why don't you perform live more often ?

: There are basically 2 main reasons to that. First, I am a solo act. Which means that I don't have a permanent band to back me up. So whenever I decide to do live shows, I have to find musicians to peform with, guys that are willing to do so, who are interested enough in my music, who have time and energy to commit themselves and learn the material... I mean, that in itself is already a big thing and a difficult thing to find too... Not to mention that most musicians are already part of a permanent band and have also solo projects of their own on the side... I mean it's already a hassle before anything starts. And the second reason is : if I want to be honest with you, I've never wanted to be a live act that much and spend my whole life on the road. My main goal has always been to be a recording artist first and fourmost. A songwriter and an album guy. From day one, my goal has been to build a body of work, a series of albums that will define bit by bit my whole life as an artist. I've never been much of a concert-goer myself. I hate crowds. I hate group mentalities and group dynamics, I feel always unconfortable with these things, and cautious about them. As a music lover, my whole music culture and background came to me through the records, all the great albums in the history of Rock and Pop, not the concerts ! I never cared for live concerts ! I must have gone to, like 3 or 4 concerts in my whole life, how do you like that ? That's why I'm always a bit pissed with this usual attitude about what a singer or a songwriter should or is supposed to be... I mean, you can pretty well be a recording artist without playing live and still have an audience. There's not just one single way of being a musician. I like to think of myself as a songwriter and a producer who makes albums exactly like a writer makes books. Or a sculptor makes works of art. To me, an album IS a work of art in itself, with a beginning, a middle, an end, a title, a cover. It is self-sufficient and self-contained ! It doesn't need a live concert to exist already ! Like a film. Or a painting. I'm a writer who makes albums. And I'm sorry but I do believe that an album is way more important than a live show. Because in 10 or 20 or 30 years from now, what you'll be listening from an artist or a band will be their albums, not their concerts, right ? I mean, to me, the most important thing to have, if I love a band or an artist, is the studio album folks ! Not their live performance ! The real work is the studio album ! That's my personal vision of course... I like to think of myself as an iPod artist ! I want to be an artist you listen to on your iPod sitting in the subway on your way to work. And from what I can gather, this is pretty much what I've become... And I love this.


But you HAVE performed live in the past, haven't you ?
: Of course I have, and some gigs were nice and some were just unpleasant experiences to be honest. In live shows, the sound is often bad. You often can't hear yourself properly on stage because most of the time, especially in small venues, the P.A. is just crap and I really hate it when I have to sing and play with a shitty sound... It sucks and it's not doing anything for me nor for the audience really... To me, concerts will always be like bonuses, like the icing on the cake. But the cake underneath the icing is the studio album. And I'm sorry but if live performances were really all that were for artists, we wouldn't spend that amount of time shut in our studios everywhere working on tracks and sounds and mixes and productions ! I've always thought it was stupid to work that much in the studios like we all do for the most part, and then say : "Oh what I really like is playing live man ! Fuck the albums ! Because first and fourmost an artist is a dude who plays live man !"... As if the studio work was secondary ! If it was that secondary, we wouldn't spend nights and weeks and months and sometimes years even in the studios working like crazies ! I'm an artist one listens to in the dark through headphones. This is what I've always wanted to be more than anything else and this is what I am. There will be concerts here and there no doubt, but they'll always be exceptional. And that's cool. Besides, I'm a home buddy you know... I hate traveling around. I'm not one for this. I need my nest. I pity the guys who spend their lives on the road away from home all the time, ending up in crappy motels on their own at nights in cities they don't even remember the name of... If that's what an artist's life's supposed to be, I don't want to be one. Luckily I don't have to, thank you Internet !





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