David Hallyday in Toulouse: “I say what I think and what I feel through my music”,
On strong themes and carried by an energy never denied, the new album of David Hallyday, “Imagine a world”, speaks of today but also to the generations to come with a faith in the human being pegged to the body. The singer comes to present it this Sunday on the stage of the Casino Barrière …
Comment have you experienced the reception of your previous album “I have something to choose to tell you”?
It wasn’t a tribute to my dad, it was a album of a human being about how someone can keep moving forward having lost a loved one. The media did what they wanted with it, but the reality is that I did this album for that. I stopped reading everything and anything that was going around and took this moment, one of the most difficult of my life, to try to make it something creative, for myself selfishly, to be able to m ‘get out of it and move on through that difficulty. And I see that it was perceived by the public like that, not by the press which has fun creating a buzz with themes that have never been real with this album.
Do you think that being public figures like your entire family absolves a certain category of media from any restraint?
Yes there is a kind of side “He’s a public figure so there is no humanity”. It is not a human being in fact, it is something. Through this we saw the denaturation of the media which uses the networks to find a truth, their inventions and do what they want with it. It has always existed but here we are overflowing with it, we are in the fake news, in the buzz. Especially when people lose family members it is indecent. And still I don’t care, I manage to do very well, I have broad shoulders but I imagine people who are weaker, we do not have the right to make them go through that. There is still a limit to malice, you have to know when to stop.
You who have always been under the gaze of goals, the influence of social networks, do you care?
Today, when we don’t show up all the time, it’s because we have disappeared or we are depressed, it’s incredible! I communicate when I have something to say, that’s how I’ve always worked. I think that when we get older we get rid of things and then we are perhaps less sensitive to the eyes of others so we can necessarily feel more free. And then, what makes me happy is that people love my work, what I like is what I manage to communicate to them, the emotion that I try to share with them, the rest doesn’t is that literature. I say what I think and what I feel through my music, I’m not going to argue on the sets because that would take me away from my job. If I do promotion it’s to talk about my music, my work and tell what I say in my songs. And the rest is not my job, the rest does not interest me.
With this album you have tackled current themes, important subjects for you …
I think the world is going badly and that we are a little in purgatory, it is really in between. We are experiencing a new beginning and whatever it is we feel that a new world is emerging, that we are going there with great strides without knowing where we are going, which has created a lot of problems, anxiety among us all. And so it deserves to talk about it and to talk about human values, to talk about hope and to give strength to continue moving forward rather than replicating ourselves. This album, concocted during the first confinement last year, allows me to ask myself a lot of questions about myself about our destination, our objective. Songs like “What do we do with us?” “, Obviously” Imagine a world “,” Live your dreams “,” Why is love so fragile? Go in this direction at a special time for all of us.
Like you, your mother Sylvie Vartan is in the spotlight of the news (1) …
Yes everyone is on the boards it’s great! (laughs) In her show she does a retrospective before she came on stage, a lot of what she did and I even discovered things. I didn’t know she sang during the Olympics, she did crazy stuff! And precisely after all that has happened I think it is good to put the church back in the center of the village and to commemorate, not only my mother, but all those who have worked, who have done beautiful things in their careers, who went to great lengths, who were shared, who were turned towards others and towards their audience.
A golden career
1988: Two Gold Discs for “True Cool” and “High”
1991: Gold record for “Rock’n Heart”
1999: Platinum record for “Un Paradis, Un Enfer”, composition and production of the album “Sang pour Sang” by Johnny Hallyday sold 2 million copies.
2000: NRJ Music Award for Best French-Speaking Male Artist, SACEM Vincent Scotto Prize for “You didn’t leave me the time”
2010: Gold record for “A New World”
2018: Gold and platinum record for “I have something to choose to tell you”
2021: Release of “Imagine a world” and tour