Behind the mirror
Sandrine Collard published a splendid Je communique (Need Records, 2002) dominated by elegant arrangements based in synthesizers in which she invited us to play a Cache cache dans le noir while she expressed her deeper thoughts. Dan Lacksman, former member of Belgian band Telex, was the producer. Telex were a very important band in the European electronic music scene. Barbara Boulet and Françoiz Breut, a very good friend of Sandrine, sang the second voices in the last track of the album, Le trio des petits mots. Sandrine composed the entire album at home with her PC and sent it to Lacksman almost finished. Her sensual voice is deeply irresistible. It seems Sandrine doesn’t want to quit her creative bubble from where she gives us a luminous electronic pop although born from her personal darkness. She has directed her own videos showing a very good aesthetic taste which is the best allied for her own songs. She’s truly Le coup sensass.
After leaving definitely behind the idea of a second solo album, she’s now defending The Ideal Husband by which she’s making real her dreamy obsession with Hawaiian music. She met Louise Peterhorff, a contemporary dancer, and then the sweet voice of the ideal husband Sandrine was looking for, suddenly came true. The research of musicians and arrangers for her new compositions, having Gabby Pahinui as a reference, was long and exasperating. Fortunately, she met the musician Benjamin Clément and along with the best from the musical Belgian scene, as well as Boris Gronenberger, Daan, Jacques Duvall and, again, Dan Lacksman, but also including her friend Françoiz Breut, The Ideal Husband came finally true. No bye no aloha (Strickly Confidential, 2008) and her breeze reaches us full of nocturnality.
It was almost eight years ago when you published your unique solo album, Je communique (2002). Its sound it’s dominated by synthesizers and the lyrics are very melancholy and sometimes very raw. However it has a delicious sonority. Perhaps were you trying to balance your deep lyrics with a lighter music?
Yes. We could say that I was living a very difficult personal period at that time. So I needed to express my deep feelings and go towards a self parody that can help a lot in that kind of sad moments. In the other hand, I always have in that periods the need of fronting live in the best spirit. I’m not an obsessed person, ha ha ha! I always try to create a positive and cheerful universe in order to guide my own feelings.
That kind of music is very cosmopolitan linked to the night life in big cities. But your lyrics are also deeply personal. Do you think urban life can be too impersonal?
Yes, life in big cities can be too impersonal but I like that. Brussels is a mixed city where if you want to be popular you must wish it strongly because here people always leave you alone, people is very respectful here. There’s a kind of anonymity and positive collective depression which I really love. And nobody hides it!
I’ve read you composed the whole album at home with your PC and one of your songs is called La bulle. Did you really live in a bubble then?
Yes, in a certain way. I’m very home-loving, I like to be at home but I can seem cold-looking. I’m not very expressive, I don’t like people come close to me. There’s a kind of security perimeter around me, ha ha ha! For all that reasons, I think there’s a bubble around me.
What can you tell me about Petite maso?
Petite maso is a song I wrote as a part of never published second album. Few years ago, I decided to not continue with my solo career because going on stage is not good for my character. I have nothing to demonstrate and I’m too paranoid to be happy. Stage was really making me a nervous wreck. Now? Who knows? Maybe I will return. But that second album won’t exist because I’ve just given some of its songs to a Flemish actress called Veerle Baetens. We’ve just created together a new project called Dallas! I compose the music and she writes the lyrics but sometimes our roles become intermingled, of course... She provides a new dimension that only belongs to her. I love the role of a composer in the shadows.
Synthesizers remind me the music from the eighties and Dan Lacksman, former member of Telex, has contributed to your two albums. Do you like especially the music from the 80? Of course you love Telex but which are your favourite bands?
I listen to a lot all the old sounds like Elo, Roxy Music, Elvis...but my revelation from new bands is MGMT! I love them.
You collaborated with Amnesty International in the Pas la peine against the death penalty. What’s your opinion about the European diplomatic relations with countries with no respect for the human rights?
I think Europe is not the worst. Neither is Belgium. But in fact, there’s a lot of hypocrisy in the world and in all of us. We have no theoretical lesson to give because in the end all we are just thinking of our own little comfort. I’m really touched by the last earthquake in Haiti and I think we could do more, I could do more.
The Ideal Husband was born from the collaboration with the dancer Louise Peterhorff. Why did you decide he was “your ideal husband”?
I’ve always been obsessed with Hawaiian music. It gives me peace an enormous peace of mind. I was looking for a sweet voice in that sense like the Louise’s voice. I wanted to respect the Hawaiian style but with a Belgian touch. So I really indulged myself. This album has also given us only positive things. Each one who has worked in has a great memory from it. As I said before, I like to create a positive universe. Some artists have done it perfectly in cinema, for example Jacques Demy. And lapsteel in the Hawaiian music gives you an instant peace of mind...It’s strange.
Louise and you, are you in love with Hawaii?
We’re especially in love with its sonorities but it’s true that everything linked to them is really good, ha ha ha...Flower collars, palms, sun, surf...Yeah, we’re northern people so we really need the sun.
You have enjoyed illustrious collaborators. For example, Françoiz Breut who had already sung in your first album, sings Dors in the present one along with Louise. What are you looking for in her voice?
Françoiz has a wonderful voice. It’s very singular too. We’re friends since a long ago. We always help and suggest each other. But talking about her voice in Dors, I have to say it’s quite magical. It’s celestial voice and gives you a lot of peace as no others can, as the ones from the old movies of Walt Disney. All I dreamed suddenly came true with her voice.
How important was Benjamin Clément in the final result?
Before I met Benjamin Clement, I was contacted and tested with other musicians but it was very specific instruments, and few musicians who play them. I gift some references like Gabby Pahinui. But I wasn’t convinced by the suggestions I received. When I listened to Benjamin’s arrangements rehearsals for my songs, I was thrilled. Instruments recorded on four tracks. A wonder! I had the impression that Elvis was going to appear in the studio... It was exactly what I had in mind! Without him, I would have been desperate.
We can also hear some important musicians from the Belgian scene as well as Daan and Jacques Duvall. How do you see the musical scene in Belgium?
I’m not very up to date. I just listen to the old sounds but I know I’m not alone, ha ha ha... Full of mew musicians and bands but there are too many things and it’s really difficult to judge. Yes, Daan and Jacques Duvall are really talented and they’re so nice. They deserve their success.
We can read on your myspace you want to forget the grey. Do you thing life is so sad that we need our dreams to survive?
No bye no aloha (2008) is a musical jewel with a retro air. We can hear words as fantasy, fair, etc. Do you have a romantic view of the past?
I don’t think so. I’m not a nostalgic person but it’s true that I really love the style from the fifties. And also the mix we can do today with the sixties, the seventies and eighties... Our generation has all that richness, and it’s a big thing... The music and cinema from the fifties and sixties use to be forgotten by not by me!!! They inspire me a lot
The ritornello could be a good song for the Bonnie and Clyde’s movie and you have already made some videos and shorts. Are thinking on a longer film?
I never thought I would become a musician but I couldn’t resist. As a child I always did music but I didn’t get fun. I wanted to make films but finally it always ended up recording an album. And yes, I’ve been writing again and I hope I will make a film with my husband in a few years.
Will you come soon to Barcelona?
It’s a pity No bye no aloha haven’t been published in Spain. If it was possible it would be a great pleasure to come to Spain. I use to go there very often.
Is it time to say... bye or aloha?
Aloha!
Frightened by the objects in the mirror and always desperately looking for the moonlight in order to not get lost in the night, her poetry is a no return seduction. The ritornellos take us to a retro and dreamy atmosphere and in Dors Louise Peterhorff and Françoiz Breut whisper us all the Sandrine’s tenderness: Dors, mon petit ange, auprès de toi je resterai à chanter le temps qu’il faudra…If it could always be like this, Sandrine...
Interview by Juan Carlos Romero
Photos by Lieven van Vaelen