With his new album Scherzando, the singer Kent pays tribute to Lyon but “does not know the pride of fools born somewhere”
Spread the word, poet-rocker Kent is back. This talented melodist, author of many hits like “Just someone good”, “Tous les mômes”, or “J’aime un pays”… returns with a refined and melancholy album: “Scherzando”. The former Starshooter delivers his vision of the world and sings, a little, in “You are formidable”
The Interceltic Festival of Lorient 2022
Scherzando is a very nice term with a double meaning. It means both “ briskly, cheerfully… and it’s also an Italian word used in music, which means ” while bantering, and which is put on the scores, to indicate that a passage must be performed in a playful and light way “. That’s what singer Kent decided to call his latest album, released on September 16.
“This is not quite the point of the disc which is not nostalgic, but rather melancholy “, according to the artist, who recorded it in a small Parisian studio in a few days, surrounded by talents he appreciates. ” This disc was not planned. I wrote the songs following various confinements -he smiles- and I realized that it was stronger than me. I thought in song, and it came out despite me. I proposed these titles to musicians who wanted to do them, like Marc Haussman on the piano and Alice Animal on the guitar. I wanted to make this record with a very intimate tone, as a threesome. I sing, they play, and we do it together.»
I discovered a real love for Lyon late in life
The first excerpt from this new opus pays homage to his city of hearts. In “Ma ville”, he puts Lyon in the spotlight. ” Every time I come back to wander around your peninsula, I feel really good at home. You are my city…sings the one who was born in Croix-Rousse, and who had a very successful first career, when he was the leader of the Starshooters, in the 70s.
The melody is clean. The lyrics are very poetic. The track already sounds like a hit. This is the hallmark of this complete artist… Composer –he prefers to say melodist-, author, performer, novelist, author of comics… “ I can’t write a song about Lyon because the word itself has no musicality. Phonetically speaking, it’s not easy to place in a chorus. And then I can’t find the angle, so as not to make a chauvinistic song. When we talk about our city, our country, we tend to add a layer of it and pass for what we are not. explains Kent. ” I discovered a real love for Lyon late in life, after many moves…he acknowledges.
He is certainly a native of the capital of Gaul, but Kent has moved quite a bit since then. “ I found myself in Montluel, during my childhood years, before returning to Lyon and doing a bit of all the suburbs, to settle in Croix-Rousse. But when I was in my thirties, I left for Paris for artistic reasons. »
It consecrates Lyon, but keeping a certain distance. ” I don’t know the pride of fools born somewhere. We are all, despite ourselves, children of chance…» specify the lyrics. He pays homage, in passing, in Brassenswhich once pinned “ the happy fools who were born somewhere… “. Kent nevertheless strongly expresses his attachment. ” I have this city in me. I can measure, when I take the train in Paris and arrive in Lyon, that my pulse has gone down.. »
We may have made the wrong progress. I’m one of those people who thinks like that
Kent regularly expresses his thoughts, his outlook, on the world around him. He does this in particular on his website in the form of written chronicles. In ” Scherzando », it evokes in particular the evolution of man, the past of the hunter-gatherer to the simple consumer. A pamphlet? “ A pamphlet is rather mocking or mean. There, there would be rather tenderness. I evoke in this song the loss of something that I feel. We may have made the wrong progress. I’m one of those people who thinks like that. It has always been said that progress was right. We realize, there, at the beginning of 21th century, that we may have forgotten something along the way. »
Kent also offered himself two covers. ” Already come to your place is a song byEmmanuel Urbanettaken from his solo album The big white redhead “. ” Among his songs which are rather funny, there is this piece which is, I find, rather terrible. It’s almost a maniac song. I loved it right away. And then he offered himself a title by George Moustaki, which he listened to as a teenager. ” I discovered it when I was a kid. I was 10 or 11 years old. At that age, it amused me to sing “the metic”. And that song titled “It’s Too Late” meant nothing to me. The lyrics went over my head he explains. ” While I was sleeping, while I was dreaming, the needles turned… it’s too late… (…) pass, pass the time, there won’t be much longer sang Moustaki. While recording his new album, Kent overheard new words on the radio. ” I said to myself: this is crazy! That’s exactly what I want to say! »
video length: 01min 04
Kent sings… Mustaki
•
©france tv
Did you say melancholy? Undoubtedly in the last title of this new album: Scherzando express. Kent gives himself a great flashback. ” In fact, it is already twenty years old, this song. I used to sing it on stage but never wanted to record it before. It’s long, in three parts, and I wasn’t happy with the lyrics. Something was missing. And I think I was too young at the time to sing it. It is a balance sheet from my childhood to my life as an artist. At 40 brooms, it seemed a little premature to me and I waited as long as it took…he comments.
Scherzando will give birth to a tour, which will pass, among others, by the ” dance cafe in Paris on October 7, and October 15 in Lyon, Salle Molière. ” I’m going to sing the new songs on the album, and then some older ones, Scherzando style. There will be many, I think. Finally, if the public wants it…“, he laughs. ” I’m already starting to pick up songs that I haven’t played in a long time. And rework them. »
video length: 04min 32
Kent sings.. his hits and Elvis Presley
•
©france tv
A real comeback for Kent, who recently interrupted his singing career. ” When a brand has chosen me, it translates into verse or music. After… either I keep it in my head, or I transpose it. I could have just made these songs at home, and put them on my hard drive. Period. But what takes me a step further is finding it fun to make a record with such and such a person. I thought of Marc in Alice. I called them and they agreed. My record company agreed. Here we go. But I swear I thought it was over “, he insists.
REPLAY: See or review the entire program “You are redoubtable” with Kent
PODCAST: Listen to this full interview (soon)