The singer-actor signs a second album, “Saxophonia”. He evokes his first love for tennis, up to an accident that occurred in adolescence.
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I like the composition of this photo, taken by a friend of my brother. I am seen, at the age of 3, in 1990, during my very first steps on a tennis court. We are in Vilethierry, in Yonne, a place where we sometimes went during the holidays. Basically, sitting, it is my mother who seems to spread sunscreen on her face, waiting for training to end, surely with a book not far to pass the time, while a shoveler s’ active in the background.
My parents were not athletic, but, from the outset, tennis caught me, literally: child, I clung to the mesh of the land, as magnetic. My parents came to see me in matches, were encouraging, but fortunately without this over -flicker that certain families of other players had later, around 10 or 11 years old, adults who terrorized their children hoping to make professionals and seemed to live tennis By proxy.
I still remember the physical pleasure that this sport gave. The fluidity, the pleasure of exchange, this particular position of playing both with and against the opponent. But what really fascinated me was having a style of play, this ability to play in a recognizable way, that Boris Becker or Stefan Edberg had – my favorite players, of which I had posters in my room . I had fun imitating the services of the world’s first worldwide, dissecting the way they lifted the racket, whose speed they tamed. At this level, it is dancing. And, since I was subscribed to Tennis Magazine, not a change in the classification was escaped me.
An accident at one knee at the age of 15 made that I had to stop everything brutally. It was at that time that music has gotten importance in my life. I was already singing in my corner, but my friends started to create guitar chords to sing on it. The first French and American raps reached me from my brother’s room, which collected vinyls. And my mother made me listen to standards that changed my life: Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Summertime … There was in there, as with tennis, this feeling of being carried away towards something to which we cannot resist, which Suddenly hangs on you and don’t let go, sticks you.
without regret
I was fascinated by the blues, gospel, which resounded in me obviously, and the beauty of live music, the weaknesses, the acoustics of instruments and voices. On my new album, after a detour by the pop that did not convince me and looked less like me, I wanted to come back to this approach: play everything and sing live, by valuing the stamp of instruments – saxophone in Head -, without keyboard or rhythm box, without an amp or guitar effect. I wanted to find a ground on which I feel comfortable.
become a tennis pro? Of course it tried me and my accident was really a shock that saddened me, made me feel a great injustice. Since then, I haven’t been the tournaments anymore. But, when I think about it today and I see this photo, I have no regrets. It’s like a step that is part of the route and finally opened to other things, made me branch off. It’s my way.