Sebastien Schuller interview

Αρκετοί στην Ελλάδα έχουν πάρει χαμπάρι την ρομαντική ποπ του Sebastien Schuller. Ο γάλλος "τροβαδούρος" ετοιμάζει για το 2008 τον καινούργιο δίσκο του και απάντησε σε μερικές ερωτήσεις μας.

Your first album was called “Happiness”, but the sound was mainly “sad”, for a lack of a better word. What did the word “happiness” symbolize for you?
i've been reading a book this summer Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer, a story of a young man, Christopher McCandless, who hitchhiked to alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north. he abandoned his car and most of his possessions, invented a new life for himself. i read in an interview of sean penn (he adapted the book for a film) that he felt chris was searching for serenity. i felt a bit of the same sentiment in my research with "happiness". i think this album was witness to most of my past life, maybe happiness is a search of serenity.

Paul Hanford (Brothers In Sound, Sancho) produced “Happiness” and in my opinion did a good job. How did you come to work with him?
i produced happiness mostly by myself but paul came to give a helping hand, an external point of view, some additional production here and there.
it's pretty hard to be in a studio by yourself for a short time and i thought it would be good to have a friend with some good taste to help me with advice during the recording. he is a great creative person.

Your new album is coming out in 2008. More than a few people in Greece are expecting it, so please, give me some info on that.
at the start my new demo's were in an organic direction with a lot of piano, horn, clarinet and flute. then the electronic part came back. so at the end i think it will be a mix. my wish was to have more rhythmic songs. i could say it's in progress. it will be recorded next march and should be released next september in france.

I first heard your music through the ep “Weeping Willow”, almost 5 years back and I said to myself this guy is a film composer. And now, I find out you are writing music for two films. Give me some info on these projects.
i've composed 3 soundtracks after happiness, but i felt more appropriate for one of them, Summer Day. for the others you can feel that the movie producers are always tempted to use and place the music as they do for some commercials. you have to catch the audience, there's not so much place for subtlety. they don't believe in the intelligence of the audience, it's the same for the television.

I bet you watch a lot of cinema. Which are your favorite directors/movies?
gus van sant,sean penn, jim jarmush, david lynch, ken loach. i love the guy who made donnie darko too. so many for a short list.my own private idaho,rumble fish are also in my favorite.
i could also say dreamy movies or road movies or any kind of movie with ordinary people or anti hero .
I bet you get a lot of comparisons with Air and maybe Thom Yorke. What would you say are your biggest musical influences?
i'm really selective in the music that i listen to and even in a band that i like i could focus on few songs i would say that i keep some songs for some years in my heart until some part of them resurface in my compositions. sometimes it could take some years and take me by surprise.
during the past years i've been loving the knife "pass this on", animal collective "banshee beat", panda bear "bros". the cure and depeche mode stay as big influences from my childhood. the lastest radiohead is fantastic.

You live in Paris. How does this affect your sound?
i live partially in paris and partially in philadelphia. from each town i get something different. from philadelphia i'm discovering the roots of folks music in a way across the sentiment of this country. there i'm more surrounded by nature, but in the same time new york is not so far away and with bands like animal collective they open my mind for a different approach for composing. i think i had already this kind of open mind before but in the same time maybe i was shy to accept to deal with it. from france i'm able to watch the rooftops of paris when i play piano in my flat and it's a big luck.
maybe it brings me back in time and makes me imagine paris at the start of the century.

I am hooked on your song “1978”. Can you tell me a little bit about the history of the song?
it's a tribute for one of my sisters who died when i was young. she is a lot on my mind when i'm composing. she didn't survive the 70's.

You started off in EMI France, but your debut was released by Catalogue. Why was that and how do you feel about record labels?
i started with EMI for an ep and they chose to not realize the album afterwards. it was a time of fusion with another company and i think that an ep like weeping willow didn't represent so much for them at that time. i had directly several propositions from labels and then Catalogue released "happiness".
the next one should be released by Village Vert.

Your music is released in the USA through Minty Fresh. How did that happen? What are their plans regarding your music? For example, bands like Air (with similar sound) have their music featured in TV series.
my label searched for some distribution in other countries, they found minty. but i'm not sure the next one will be on this label again. some of my songs have been used for commercials, tv series or other movies. it helps me to create my album as i like in a way without any pressure from the outside.