He writes both stories and songs for Jane Birkin, Cerena, Florent Pagny, and even Johnny Hallyday. What a repertoire! Jérôme Attal is a lover of words. An author? Not just that! Because he seasons his lyrics with musical notes, and this mix earns him the role of a singer. With his bittersweet pop, this man in his thirties talks about women, and with his “handsome face,” he dazzles them all.
Nice-Première has also been bewitched by this gifted storyteller. On the occasion of the release of his first studio album entitled “Comme elle se donne” (As She Gives Herself), Jérôme Attal lent us his pen.
Nice-Première: In October 2005, you released your first studio album “Comme elle se donne”, which is also the title of your first single. What’s the vibe of your first album?
Jérôme Attal: It’s a rock album with a very Anglo-Saxon identity close to bands like Pulp, Interpol, Joy Division, or Nick Cave for the music, and with French lyrics that could be described as literary or even poetic, though I always strive for the utmost simplicity, the best impact. I also like to make songs open enough for the listener to bring their own imagination, to find echoes and resonances.
N-P: Why did you title a song “Audrey Anderson”?
J.A.: “Audrey Anderson” was a somewhat facetious song that originated from the name of a young American actress from the sitcom “Once and Again”. I really liked this girl, and then the rest of the song has nothing to do with it, it goes a bit in all directions (like the actress’s career since. I hope I have nothing to do with it…).
N-P: Is it true that for the song “The Land of Girls Who Smell Nice” you brought a large number of good-smelling girls into the studio?
J.A.: In recording studios there are mostly boys, and it quickly becomes suffocating. So yes, I was forced to conceive such a song because it became unbearable. There’s always a moment in one’s work when you have to bring in both venom and grace.
N-P: Why did you end your album with “The Christmas Song”?
J.A.: It’s very Anglo-Saxon to offer one’s version of a Christmas song. Oddly, it’s rare in France. I wanted to find an original angle and also for the song to convey all the melancholy of the holidays, the idea that no matter how much creativity and goodwill we deploy, we will never recapture the magic of our childhood Christmases. So as it’s too sad, the only solution is to have children of your own. That’s why this song ends an album that is very sexual and erotic in places with titles like “As She Gives Herself” or “Let Me Become Your Man.”
N-P: The re-release of your album is planned for Valentine’s Day. A gift that lovers can offer to their beloved. And you, what is the most beautiful present a woman can give you on February 14?
J.A.: Her best friend.
N-P: You are also the author of several stories and since 1998, you have been keeping an online diary on your site. Why do you write?
J.A.: It’s a difficult question to answer. My online diary is a full-time job, just like the songs or the stories, the next of which will be published in March by Flammarion in the journal Bordel created by Stéphane Million and published by Frédéric Beigbeder. I believe I write when something doesn’t go through… and then afterwards to make sure it doesn’t go through! To try to heal a wound, and to capture, develop or specify an emotion, a sensation that is bound to be ephemeral. So I would say this: I write first because it doesn’t go through, and then, once I’ve intervened, to make sure it doesn’t go through.
N-P: You wrote to Florent Pagny the only “love song” of his album “Ailleurs Land” called “Mon amour oublie que je l’aime” (My Love, Forget That I Love You). Why did you do “a bit of poetic activism in a song by Florent Pagny!”, as you say?
J.A.: I really enjoyed imagining and then writing what Florent might want to sing at this stage of his career, especially in the love song genre. There are several things I like about the text, notably an entire verse that doesn’t rhyme. The music by Daran adds an undeniable depth to the piece, and it was a great pleasure to see Florent Pagny on stage appropriating the words and giving a very moving and vigorous interpretation.
