TETU - SEPTEMBER 2008

Translation by Shane Ludwig

QUOTE: "If I were a man, I'd like to be awfully sexy"

She fascinates, puzzles, even irritates sometimes, but no one can deny her success.  To our questions about girls, her gay audience, her lyrics, her new album, and her tour, she answers ... "sans contrefacon."  (no lie)

What hasn't been written about Mylene Farmer? The world she's created, her style, her absences... Star among the stars or marketing genius?  When you meet the singer for the first time, therefore, the meeting is an important one.

Will you at last break through the veil of mystery surrounding the greatest selling Female French singer, who's been doing it for the last almost 25 years?  In a large Parisian hotel on rue de la Paix, the beauty waits patiently.  Relaxed, smiling, laid back and casual.  She gets up, greets me shyly and invites me to sit down across from her.  The interview can begin.  A discussion punctuated by long silences, shy smiles, and even several bursts of laughter.  With her, it's not going to be about the same tired, hackneyed old questions, to which her rare interviews have brought timid answers.  Forgotten are the orang-outang, coffins, marketing and her private life.  Here Mylene touches on - still modestly - her career, her feelings about the tidal wave of ticket sales for her concerts at the Stade de France in September 2009, her gay fans, and her future plans.  In summary, no mysteries, just her life as an artist.

Te: You agreed to pose as a boy for Tetu.  Would you like to be a boy "sans contrefacon" (for real) and without a "mouchoir dans le pantalon" (handkerchief stuffed in your pants)? 

MF: You mean a real boy?!  I can no longer remember who said: "Spring is the season when boys barely begin to understand that which girls have known since the beginning of winter"...  I think about that every morning when I'm shaving myself! (Laughs.)

Te: What type of man would you like to be?

MF: I'd like to be an awfully sexy man. (Smiles.)  I like elegance and style...

Te: What would you find seductive about women?

MF: Their unpredictability.  That's what turns the daily routine into an adventure and life into a destiny.

Te: You who sang "J'aime l'infirmiere..." (I love the nurse) and "Sans contrefacon, je suis un garcon" (I'm a boy, no lie), is bisexuality something that could shock you?

MF: That's something personal, but no, of course not, that doesn't shock me.

Te: Since the beginning of your career, you have been a gay icon with a very large gay fanbase, who are very loyal.  How does that affect you?

MF: I'm wary of the term "icon"... Those are the ones they burn first!

(Silence.)  I feel that I'm very fortunate.  It's a fanbase who are very sharp, sensitive and avant-gardist.  We've been following each other for many years, and that's important to me.  I also think that I share with my gay fans, as with other fans, by the way, the feeling of being "different", a feeling which makes it hard to live in this world around us.

Te: What do you think of marriage and adoption by same-sex couples?

MF: That's a societal issue that certain people would like to address from a moral point of view... For me, it raises the question of legal equality.  In the 21st century, it's about time to address the topic!

Te: People says you're the "French Madonna", another gay icon.  Does that flatter you, amuse you, or irritate you?

MF: No, I couldn't care less about it, really, but the expression is odd.  To characterize one person by another... It just shows that people need a point of reference, comparisons.  That kind of logic is preposterous.  She's a great artist and she's unique in her field.

Te: And yet, some go even further, and claim that you copy her style, her steamy side...

MF: Copying is not in my vocabulary.  It's boring and it doesn't last.

Te: On the other hand, your new single, Degeneration, doesn't herald a boring album, but more "up tempo" than the previous one, Avant que l'ombre.  Is that something you really wanted, or is it an "obligation" as far as the 2009 tour?

MF: Like Degeneration, my mood these days is evolving... It's more about a mood than a desire.  Certainly not an obligation!  "Je ne sais pas moi, mais faut que ca bouge!" (Smiles.)

Te: Talk to us about this new album, the titles on which are suggestive: "Je m'ennuie" (I'm bored), "Sextonik", and "Si j'avais au moins revu ton visage"

(If only I had seen your face again)...  What were your influences when writing it?

MF: "Point de suture" (Stitch) is an important event.  Influences?  I don't know... I think that I'm affected by life, by time passing relentlessly... To address the titles you mention, after all, it's only one moment in life, we begin with boredom, then comes the time of the "Sextonik"...  And, in "Si j'avais au moins...", we end with a statement of fact: "He who hasn't known immense pain, will have but a glimpse of time."  But there's also "Appelle mon numero" (Call my number): everything is not lost!

Te: Your album is called "Point de suture", then.  With this record, what wound did you heal? 

MF: In the booklet for this album, there is a line from Al Pacino, who plays Carlito in the movie Carlito's Way.  Before dying, off-screen, he says: "All the stitches in the world couldn't sew me back together."  That's also the way I feel.  As for me, I chose ambiguity... "Stitch", here in the singular, suggests just as much that there's no possibility of suturing the wounds, as it gives hope of healing.

Te: The publicity picture for this album shows surgical instruments.  A little daring, even unconventional, for an album cover, no?

MF: That's not the definitive cover but one detail from the selected photo.

Those surgical instruments will take on their full meaning when seen on the album as a whole.  Those photos were born from the discovery of the unique, even unbelievable, world of a Japanese photographer.  If it's daring or unconventional, in any case it's a world to which it's impossible to remain indifferent.

Te: Even if your previous album, AQLO, sold well, it's not an album "of hits".

How did you feel about that?

MF: A career isn't just about a succession of what you call albums of hit singles.  I'm lucky to be able to share with my fans many songs which were never released as singles, but which, I think, touched people's hearts.  That's much more important to me.

Te: The video for Degeneration is very well done and shows you once again set in a very particular world.  Like in the video by Bruno Aveillan, do you feel that you're "a sort of creature" living on Earth to give love?

MF: Bruno Aveillan is one of the most talented directors of his generation.

He's also someone of great skill.  I've wanted to work with him for a long time.  This video is his vision.  You'd have to ask him that question yourself...  But if you think about it, what else can we do but live on Earth to give love and receive it?

QUOTE: "One thing I have in common with the gay audience is the feeling of being different, which can make life hard in this world."

Te: Your duo with Moby, "Slipping Away (Crier la vie)" was a great success, and yet, you still remain faithful to the composer from your early career, Laurent Boutonnat.  Don't you feel like trusting the arrangement and production of an album to someone else?

MF: Anything's possible!  But that's not a current topic... We're talking about the album Point de Suture... I'm living in the present... As much as possible anyway.

Te: And so why not an album 100% Farmer since, few people realise it, but you composed a track on the album Anamorphosee, and 5 on the album Innamoramento...

MF: You are "Tetu"! (stubborn!) (Laughs.)  It's true, but I prefer, I think, to share those moments with someone, bounce ideas back and forth, bring vocals to a verse or a refrain... I could do the same thing again, but I really don't feel the need.

Te: Your concert tour will, without a doubt, be the event of 2009, notably your concerts at the Stade de France.  Will it be a retrospective of your 25 years in this business or a show geared more towards your new songs, leaving your old hits behind a bit...

MF: I don't know yet which songs will be chosen.... But it seems rather obvious to me that there will be songs from all of my albums.  Each time I think about, for example, Desenchantee during a show, it's an excitement recorded deep inside of me!  The audience has taken that song as their own and it blows me away when they start singing it, the energy stirring.  It's incredibly strong... Indescribable.

Te: Do you plan to invite "guests" during your tour? 

MF: No one knows!...

Te: The concerts at the Stade de France were "sold out" in just a few hours.

Does that help you to forget about the "financial aspect" of the show, or, on the other hand, does that tidal wave put even more pressure on you?

MF: The immense happiness that the fans gave me by showing up like that at first made me shed a few tears... and that very quickly turned into an incredible anxiety!  Afraid of disappointing ... I've locked in my heart the energy transmitted by 16 000 people every night at Bercy, and I know the gift I've been given for the Stade de France, and the tour... Provided my heart doesn't give out!

Te: In 2009, it will be ten years since you last toured outside of Paris and in other countries.  Are you happy, impatient, to see your "non-Parisian" fans again?

MF: At Bercy during my last show, the audience wasn't only Parisian, they came from everywhere in France, and even sometimes from overseas... But yes, I am happy this time to go to them.  You know, this audience is unique.  I'm aware of that!  They are the ones who give me the desire to go beyond myself each time.  They help me move forward.

Te: Do you plan to go once again to Russia or, for the first time, to Japan, where you have a lot of fans?

MF: The concert dates have just been definitively set for Russia, in July 2009.  I am thrilled about it.

Te: After the tour, it's been said you'll return to movies.  Where does the film project stand, the adaptation of your friend Nathalie Rheims' novel, "L'Ombre des autres" (The Shadow of Others)?

MF: It's a project dear to my heart.  But I prefer to remain cautious.  We don't yet know precisely when the filming will take place.  It's being written now.  It's a magnificent story and role.  I'm waiting...

Te: This return to films, is it a challenge for you, especially seeing the commercial failure of Giorgino in 1994?

MF: Even if it's a commercial failure, that doesn't make it any less of a film which I love.  As for the "challenge" as you call it, *I* see it more as a desire to do another film.  That and nothing more.

Te: There are always a lot of rumors flying around about you.  For example, some claim that you have bought the rights to the movie musical "Peau d'ane"

(Donkeyskin).  True or False?

MF: That's just... rubbish! (Laughs.)

Te: In his memoirs, Michel Polnareff talks about your plans to do an album together.  A project quickly abandoned according to him.  Can you tell us more about it?

MF: No! (Smiles.)

Te: Another project, announced over a year ago, is your line of clothing and associated products, Lonely Lisa.  How's that coming along?

MF: I'm delighted to learn that there's a clothing line!  There has never been any official announcement made.  The trademark was indeed registered and a certain press made up the rest.  But since you ask me the question, Lonely Lisa will soon have a community website in months to come.  I can't say more about it for the moment.

Te: Aren't you tired of being confined to the style of a gothic, gloomy singer, some might even say depressive, while your lyrics show your having a real sense of humor and even being tongue-in-cheek?  I'm thinking, in fact, of songs like "Je t'aime melancolie" or "L'amour n'est rien" where you seem to even make fun of yourself...

MF: I don't feel myself confined to any particuler style at all.  All of that is a part of me and much more besides.  Humor is what makes the melancholy bearable on a daily basis.  Tongue-in-cheek humor is, it seems to me, part of keeping a healthy mind, and it makes things lighter... Perhaps those of whom you speak don't have your inquisitiveness?  That is also their right after all.

Te: In the same way, on stage, you're smiling, at ease, close to your fans.

However, journalists, and often the majority of the audience, remember only the emotional parts like "Ainsi soit-je..." or "Redonne-moi..."

MF: And to me it seems that's absolutely how it should be.  However, those moments full of emotion wouldn't exist without all the rest of it.  In the same way that words realise their full meaning thanks to the silence which surrounds them.  A concert is a special kind of meeting, a unique exchange of more than two hours with every sort of emotion buzzing around.

Te: You seem sensitive to childhood.  You sang a song for the soundtrack of the film "Rugrats in Paris", dubbed the voice of Princess Selena in Besson's "Arthur and the Invisibles", and you wrote the lyrics for the theme song of the cartoon "Creepie".  What kind of relationship do you have with childhood?

MF: An amnesical one... I have no memory of it, or very little.  It was really an enormous pleasure for me to work on the projects you mentioned.

Te: Can you talk to us about Lisa, who sings "Drole de Creepie"?

MF: (Silence.)  She's extremely sensitive, already asking herself a billion questions, has her feet on the ground in spite of her young age and loves, just like me actually, Sigur Ros. (an icelandic rock group - Ed.)

Te: What do you think of illegal downloading which, due to your success, is affecting you?  Like 52 artists who supported the bill against illegal downloading, do you feel that "the bill (...) gives us a great deal of choice so that the Internet, culture, and creativity can be brought together"?

MF: I'm sorry that it has come to that and I wonder about what, to me, seems to be a deeper societal problem.  The ability to obtain for free, and whenever one pleases, the work of another for personal gratification.  It undermines the value of an artist's hard work, and what would a society be without artists?

Who would want that to happen?  It's absurd.

Te: To wrap things up, let's imagine that someone doesn't know anything at all about your work, what would you tell him to start with to get to know you?

MF: With the hidden track on this new album, but shhhh... it's a secret!

*Point de Suture (Polydor), Sept. 20 release*