SEBASTIAN TELLIER
A sponge and a vampire who walk through the world in order to build a peaceful corner, far away from the mess. His strug- gle is to face society with spirituality, fighting the universe by flying high with elegant melodies, nuances and beauty. A man could be the means to reach an improvement and not a change, because we are smaller than what surrounds us and we can just have an attitude and not a weapon to face what remains. Faith, mysticism and naivety are the keys to open the “Blue door” where we will find a musician, a modern poet, just a man, who is drinking with Salvador Dalì and George Michael. A fascinating compromised between art and voice, who is lo- oking for an escape exit from human madness. Here you are a freaky elegant monsieur, Sebastian Tellier.
I am fascinated by being a singer-song writer. It has always grown in me a deep curiosity, because you have two weapons in your hands, a kind of team of which you are the author and the front face. Do you express your message more through your sounds or your words? Are you more fond of your texts or your melodies?
Yes, for me, the words have to be the slaves of the melody. For sure I express more my message through my sounds.
But a master is nothing without slaves, so the lyrics are still very very important.
Melancholia is a thick and tangible atmosphere both in your songs and in your tone of voice. It seems like you let yourself go and you feel the flow. However, in the mean time, other songs are ironic, a kind of slow wooing of a few minutes, always light, always charming in a way that starts from you and goes straight to the audience. Do you prefer to define yourself as the leading actor of your message or as a part of a chorus, where every single part is involved in sprea- ding the message throughout the atmosphere of your songs?
I am the leading actor of my music, I try to be my music tran- sposed in a human. It’s a kind of game with myself. With that, I always want to give the audience something fresh, deep and fun.
The theme of the second issue of “The Greatest” is the storm.
I think that there are different kind of storms, especially when we are talking about the interior storm. Every artist is stimulated in a different way concerning what happens to him and what surrounds him. Every storm is different and it will bring us to talk about different things. In your albums you pass through themes like the family, the politics, love and spiritual energy. Which was the biggest storm you had to face concerning the themes of your albums?
I like topics stronger than me. Family, politics, sex and God are more powerful than the human spirit. I need to be smaller than my subject, to be like a child in front of the world. I make a naive art, so for me it’s really important to keep this position again and again.
Talking about your last album “My God is Blue” you have said that a huge blue wave is going to come, made of energy. This wave is going to flood us and is going to help us finding the truth. Which is the truth you are looking for?
The meaning of life could be a good goal. With “My God is Blue”, I tried to explain in music what is faith, the feeling of faith.
I ask modern societies not to forget the spiritual side of life, because it could be a good starting point for happiness.
You often talk about women in your songs. Sometimes they are painted as sensual and beautiful creatures, other times they are the protagonists of the love you tell and the energy that love is able to release. Who are “The Golden Ladies” that you quote in your “Poseidon” (from “My God is Blue”) ?
They are women who want to be beautiful. Desire creates be- auty. Desire is Poseidon and beauty is the Golden ladies.
When words are united to melody you have the possibility to divulge your message with more strength.
Which is the message that you tried to spread the most? The one you are more linked to?
Give me your money because I have to build an amusement park for adults. I think it’s easier to think better with fun and joy. We need a place for freedom. Today, we live in a community ocean which pours into the black hole of non-sense. “L’Alliance Bleue” (the Blue Alliance) with and thanks to its worshippers proposes to the world to use this “virtual community energy” to ease man’s curiosity, suffering and frustrations. We don’t want to change the world but to create a better small one beside it. Together, we must move forward step by step, guided by the truths of the universe, toward the eternal felicity. “L’Alliance Bleue” is a chance given to humanity to escape the world madness.
We love to define “The Greatest” as our own hero on paper, the one who faced all the difficulties and the mouth of our philosophy. Have you got a hero or who would you say that was or is the most capable singer to divulge messages through music?
My real hero is Salvador Dali, I try to be him but as a musician. My other dream is to sing like George Michael, I love his voi- ce, a kind of modern Elvis voice, just perfect.
I love people who have many sides and interests. They are the ones that will always surprise you and never make you bored, because you are curious to find out more and more about them. Your music is always different, contaminated by many genres, but always recognizable under your signature. How do you live contaminations? Who or what is in charge of so many references in your melodies?
I am a sponge and a vampire, it’s really important to be fresh over a longtime. For me, to be a sponge and a vampire is a part of my process. The world is full of different beauties, I want to taste them. So I fly and I drink.
I have a free and personal relationship with spirituality and re- ligion. My idea could be easily summed up in the title of your last work “My God is Blue”, because I firmly think that everyone is free to imagine his own protector. Why is your God colored in blue?
This record was born during a trance in which I submersed myself, under the influence of a magic potion. In this awa- kening dream, the colour told me things, revealed me some truths. Everything was blue. I don’t remember any advanced aesthetic but only associations of nuances, the way the blue material pixelated. This trance is the origin of all my new ar- tistic ideas. It is at the heart of my new beliefs.
One of the things that I like the most in a movie or in a story told by images is the soundtrack. Music has the power to give a taste and even a smell to things and, sometimes, it could also change their meaning. How do you see your music as a soundtrack of a movie or a short film?
The French movie “La Belle Et La Bete” could be perfect for my music. I love to do soundtracks. It’s like a working holiday. It’s very good to record music without pressure.