Fifteen minutes is now enough to know everything about the steps of making a legendary title. With “Deezer Originals”, since May 2019, French artists confide, in podcast format, on the why and how of the creation of their greatest hits.
Directed and produced by Stéphane Basset, these podcasts give the floor to the artists throughout the interview, on a musical background which they discuss. First scheduled every Tuesday, the posting on the platform is becoming more and more irregular. The last part published to date honors Gaël Faye, for his song Petit Pays, released ten years ago, followed, in 2016, by his book of the same name (Grasset, Prix Goncourt des lycéens 2016).
The particularity of this program is that we hear the samples, the recording sessions and the different tracks used, to understand the method and the path towards the final version of the piece. The sound of the instruments, the voice experiments or the familiar air of the melody, everything is analyzed and explained, mixing the inspirations, memories and feelings of the artist, as well as his creative spirit.
Sifted through all generations, New World, of Fire! Chatterton, Nue, by Clara Luciani, Grand Paris, by Médine, On s’attache, by Christophe Maé, Raggamuffin, by Selah Sue, Safe and Sound, by Justice, Jardin d’hiver, by Keren Ann, Déjeuner en paix, by Stephan Eicher, Ballade de Melody Nelson, by Serge Gainsbourg (narrated by Jane Birkin), Sarbacane, by Francis Cabrel… Behind the scenes unveiled by authors, composers and performers give new life to hits.
“It’s Like That” by Catherine Ringer
“I get close like that, I talk like that, I hear you like that, the music is called C’est comme ça, tout est comme ça.” “Catherine Ringer, “tracked” on January 25, 2021, reveals the secrets of the anatomy of the cult title C’est comme ça, from Rita Mitsouko’s second album, The No Intégro (1986), created with Fred Chichin (of whom she widowed since 2007). The creative process, she says, began with Fred Chichin playing arpeggios from a David Bowie song. The singer then took another guitar and the two melodies played immediately worked together.
“What’s funny is that we had a big hit, which was Marcia Baïla, then another, which was Andy, and that song is another style of music. It’s the affirmation that you could go from one atmosphere to another: it was a wonderful adventure and a magnificent achievement”, reveals Catherine Ringer. The meaning of the song comes from something that “is secret and endless, which oppresses me and hurts my heart”. The singer also liked to create a phonetic game with the word snake, which crawls inside her, which sways and consoles.
Ringer and Chichin, a mixture of Iggy Pop and the Bee Gees, composed their melodies by playing together, to create a particular blur and dynamics, thanks to their difference in style. Also inspired by the music of the Andes and produced by Tony Visconti, C’est comme ça is uninhibited, to the point of letting the band’s assistant play the final guitar solo. “Just talking about it makes my heart wring, it makes me want to cry,” says Catherine Ringer. She is not only talking here about a song, but about an era, her life. It’s a song of pain and ill-being, she says.