Writing and finding inspiration, “it’s like a healthy exercise to keep yourself alive,” he recognizes. “I’ve always done that, I’ve never had any other activities, even if I like to enjoy a corner of the garden, I need that, otherwise I have the impression of fading away. “Yet Alain Chamfort knows it better than anyone, it is neither an exact science nor a recipe written in advance… Always, he must confront the exercise of creation without knowing if he will have the happiness of encountering inspiration.
To end his tour, Alain Chamfort performed on the legendary stage of La Cigale in Paris. “Performing on stage means organizing a meeting with the public and trying to find real contact again.” If he now favors small venues, it is, he admits with a smile, because he “does not fill Bercy”, but basically these places allow him to meet a younger audience and to create proximity.
Music in the age of streaming
“Today, I have the impression that we are a little out of step with the way people listen to music.†Alain Chamfort recognizes that more and more music is listened to on platforms and songs are put more in playlists than they are enjoyed on an album. Sometimes even the youngest discover them on TikTok in accelerated fashion, he quips. For the singer, “the album medium is a fixed medium which seems disconnected from reality”.
Besides, Amain Chamfort no longer prefers to oblige himself to make a 12 titles. To release his music more freely, he opts for EPs (“extended play”, a format between the single and the album). “It’s less engaging and it allows you to approach creation with more lightness,” he confides, who is not nostalgic for the vinyl years. “I look back on the past gently but I don’t stay glued to my rearview mirror,” admits the artist. In 50 years of career, although he has seen media come and go, he keeps his passion for music intact.
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