Interview by Anne-Cécile L.
Photo credits: Raymond Le Menn

Clique ici pour la version Française.

Friday 24th February.
One day before his sold-out show in Plouguerneau, I had the pleasure to meet Miossec and ask him a few questions at L’Armorica.

Brest a few months ago, Lampaul, Morlaix, among others… And Plouguerneau tomorrow, you often come back here, where you are from, people are always there to see you too. I guess that playing here is a bit special for you. How do you see these dates: pleasure or challenge?
Miossec: It is both, really. Let’s say that I like playing around here a lot because I know that if I fail, it’s going to be hard afterwards. When you do this job, you want to prove things to yourself but you also want to prove yourself to others…
It moves me that the audience is still there, but it’s mainly to know if it is deserved or not? Is it justified to make money today by making music when times are hard? If you’re not good enough, it doesn’t look great, so if I fail like a piece of shit, well… What do we do next? But it’s a real pleasure to play around here. We have played at Le Run Ar Puns and Cast too… And we have other shows planned for the spring…

You’ve played in almost every venue and festival in France. I read somewhere that you used to be dead anxious about going on stage. Having seen you lately at La Carène, this anxiety seems to have disappeared, hasn’t it?
Miossec: Yeah, completely, we played in lots of festivals and venues, but at my level. I’ve never been a big « machine », but it’s been twelve or thirteen years, well I don’t know how many years, of suffering, it was horrible… It’s always that thing… In the beginning, I wanted to make music but not to stand in the position of the singer, not really. It took me some time to get used to being a singer… I still have this feeling that I’m an impostor anyway. When you don’t like your voice, everything, you always feel like it’s not going to work…

Nowadays, you seem less hard on yourself, how does Miossec see himself as an artist?
Miossec: I think it’s easier now. I’m more accepted. I’m more part of the industry, so I don’t have to kind of justify or prove anything anymore. I’m starting to take on more of the « job », and in any case, I can’t help it, it’s not up to me… I listen to what people say about me but… You know, we always feel like tomorrow will be better… Otherwise, we wouldn’t do this job. We are always excited about what’s going to happen, but perhaps I don’t realise it… Maybe the best I’ve been able to do is in the past, and it will never be as good as it was! It’s a funny thing, we have to fight against that idea, and most of all we cannot get too comfortable. Two or three years ago, I was touring with a great team. It was working everywhere but, in the end, I try not to keep going that way, even if it works. It’s like undoing everything and building again, trying to put everything back together every time… Sometimes it’s not as good as others but…

You have been touring with your « new band » for a while now, in small and also bigger venues, I know that was your goal. What changes has it brought in your way of working?
Miossec: I wanted to see if I could keep doing it in clubs, go back to small venues, small places where there’s no sound system sometimes, where it holds to nothing, so it’s been good for me. It was funny because when we first met and worked on the tour, I was the only one who wanted to play in those venues, the band wanted to play in bigger ones.

I started listening to you when I was five years old, I am twenty-two years older now. It took me some time to « understand » your music, by that I mean how it could kind of speak to me. I think I was too young before. Having listened to all your records over the years, I have the feeling that your music has « evolved ». I don’t know if that’s the right word, but, as if you’ve turned from negative into positive. Do you also perceive this change?
Miossec: It was more an obligation for me, not to do what I do naturally, i.e. the song of a desperate guy who can’t take it anymore. I have no problem to do this. I could write that kind of songs until the end of times. There, it was like forcing myself to move my ass to come up with something new, to try to move on, to change my point of view. Also, times are so dark that I was thinking « No, it’s not possible », if I keep doing these desperate songs I feel like there is no way for me to do this job again, or then it would become much too dark and given my age… There wouldn’t be an issue to do something really dark if I was 20 years old, but right now I can’t do anything like this, with kind of « my head underwater ».

Well, you are celebrating your 22-year career, you’ve released an album almost every two years. Are you constantly writing/composing? Is it « vital » for you?
Miossec: Oh yeah, it’s like a disease! Since I started this job, I mean, I always feel like it’s going to end tomorrow because the funny thing is that you don’t decide for yourself when it will stop. It’s your audience… They are fed up, they have moved on. It happens like this in the Music Industry. In 22 years, I’ve seen many people that had to stop their job and had to do something else. It’s not always easy to bounce back after that… It can be pathetic, violent. Maybe it’s this fear that I have, that makes it last. When I started especially, I thought it wasn’t going to work or last for me, so I had to say what I wanted to say, as quick as possible. So I kept doing it, and I really like that. It became my reason to be and, most of all, it helps me a lot in life to do things that way.

And twenty years ago, did you imagine yourself here, on stage, today?
Miossec: Oh no! No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Twenty-two years ago it was quite savage, pretty wild. I thought I’d take a little walk and then leave, in fact when you’re on a musical adventure you don’t realise what is really going on. Even at the time, I didn’t realise the impact of the record Boire. I was completely out of it… Or I didn’t want to see, maybe to hide, or not to completely assume it either…

I have read in an interview that you need about six months to judge one of your albums… So what do you think of Mammifères?
Miossec: I’d have to listen to it again! I forgot to listen to it again as we’ve been touring for a pretty long time… Anyway, it had to be done the way we have done it. We have made this record without thinking about it too much, with the luxury of allowing ourselves to do things « in the moment »… I liked the accordion on my songs too, unlike a lot of people who weren’t going to like it at all, I was happy with it!

And how would you define your music then?
Miossec: Ooh!

Yeah, I know, every time people are telling me, « But why are you asking that question?! »
Miossec: No, it’s an effort that everyone should make… I don’t think I have the right ear… When I listen to my music, it’s only frustration – for me – because I always want to do better. You’re always disappointed by what you do, it is never good enough!

But then, it can be positive, it pushes you to do better afterwards, no?
Miossec: Those moments, where you’re trying to do better, it’s more during concerts, because when you are listening to a record is sounds more like «What the fuck?! »

In all the interviews I have read, journalists often only point out your « provocative » side / the mistakes you may have made at the beginning of your career. I find that quite unfair as it is far from reflecting the person I think you are. That kind of provocation, is/was it to protect you?
Miossec: Let’s just say that at the time, there were so many bands that were « demagogue » that it made me quite sick, and provocation was also related to the audience. It’s not because we pay for a ticket and we applaud that the guy on stage is going to find us nice. It was to fight against this demagogic thing, which does not exist much today in new bands. It was something that also made me laugh… It was like independence, not being afraid to set everyone against you and being alright with it actually.

Well, let’s move to a funnier part. I always have a few « quick questions »…

You used to be a journalist, what question do you hate being asked?
Miossec: Ah, there was one earlier… I had a guy on the phone… He wanted to know where I was from*… (* Miossec is really famous from being from Brest in France.)

What made you want to start doing music?
Miossec: The day my older brother, who is six years older than me, brought an acoustic guitar home. Knowing that you could pick up a guitar and suddenly a track could be made like that, in two seconds. But what has really made me want to start making music was when the punk movement came along. You could start a band without knowing how to play, and that was great. We made a band, Printemps Noir, when I was a kid in Brest, between my 14 and 18 years old, it was really… It was great adolescence. Today, a young band is recording straight away whereas, at the time, with Printemps Noir, we didn’t have a record, it was too expensive…

Of all the collaborations you’ve made as a songwriter, which one was your favorite?
Miossec: It’s the Greco – Birkin – Hallyday trio. And what I could learn from them – who are not of the same generation as me – their relationship to music, singing, to words, all of that… I never thought I would have the luxury of getting to know that. To have Greco, Birkin or Hallyday singing your words when you’re in a venue is surreal, I still can’t believe it.

And if you had to keep only one of your songs, which one would it be?
Miossec: It would be one of the songs from the next album!

Best answer!
I know that Bashung and his album Play Blessures were one of your biggest influences. Who are the other artists who have influenced you the most?
Miossec: Colin Newman, he has been really important to me. He made an album called A to Z, which is absolutely incredible. This guy was in the band called Wire when I was a kid… It was rock but arty at the same time! So it would be Newman or Wire.

And which musicians/bands do you listen to today?
Miossec: I discovered William Z Villain the other day, it’s amazing! It’s a guy from the middle of nowhere in the States, his record is half self-produced, it sounds incredibly free!

Your favourite records?
Miossec: Van Morisson’s Astral Weeks and well Colin Newman’s A to Z. Then there would be many more…

What are your favourite movies?
Miossec: L’Atalante by Jean Vigo. Yes, L’Atalante.

Speaking of Mammifères, if you could be one animal*, which one would you like to be?  (* Mammifère means Mammal in French)
Miossec: I still haven’t figured it out yet! Birds, and all of that kind, they are pretty but if you look at them, they are always scared as fuck! There is always danger for them, always a predator around. I’d be more something living in the water, like a sea mammal.

And finally, what are your plans for the future?
Miossec: Right now, to tell you the truth, it’s not too bad… We’re going to play in New Caledonia in September. The plan would be to take a break there. To rest a bit, since I’ve been on tour for three years now.

And, you were talking about your new album just now…
Miossec: Yeah I’m working on it! Going on tour is great, but it’s also good to have your head working… It can’t hurt and it doesn’t bother anyone!