Music

Yann Tiersen: Ask the dust

Ray Jackson | Tuesday 8 November, 2011 23:19

Yann Tiersen, the reserved (not shy), musician (not composer) and enigmatic Breton (not Frenchman), appears to be back ‘en-scene’, and as it transpires, available for a chat to discuss ‘Skyline’ – the ‘quick-and-easy’ apparent sister album to last year’s acclaimed Dust Lane.

As I find out during our laid back telephone chat, despite the album not being released until October 17, almost exactly a year after its predecessor, the tireless Tiersen is already on the road showcasing new songs. Albeit, minus the company of his charming VIP pooch Voltaire, whom I had the pleasure of meeting when Tiersen played the La Route Da Rock festival in his home town of Brittany last summer. Did he take the delightful creature with him this time round?

“What? No I can’t take a stinky dog on a bus on tour!’ Yann laughs in his amiable broken English-French accent. Fair enough.

On the subject of his seventh record, Tiersen is often reflective, wistful, without giving too much away, even when pressed. “Well, you know when I started to record the previous album, at that time I had the idea to work on two albums back to back kind of, so I’ve had the basic material for this one (Skyline) since that time two years ago.” He explains.

“The new one is really not that close to the last,” he continues, “it is a proper stand alone album, done really quickly. It was very quick and easy to do. Strangely while Skyline musically comes across as lighter as and happier than Dust Lane, the subject matter is somewhat darker – there is certainly a sense of moving on and what thoughts are left having dealt with loss.” He muses. Which loss in particular? I ask – “Oh I dunno,” he says, laughing nervously. “I think that Dusk Lane was musically darker in a way in sound at least, Skyline is more open and more bright, musically, but if you look at the subject matter and the lyrics, they’re quite serious.”

On the actual subject matter, Tiersen is again cautious on giving out details, preferring to outline the basic themes on his mind while he fine-tunes his art and craft. He’s an immediately likeable character.

“I suppose it’s about love,” he offers, “love and lots of different things, as you might expect. There are some political songs on there, but done in quite an abstract way. But I like it when songs can all have their own meaning to the person listening, and the meaning is not too direct.”

“The music is very personal,” he continues, warming to the theme. “For me, the music is free and physical also. I like to capture some ideas, let them go, then get them down and then see what happens. When I start a song I never know the final result and where it is going, I like to experiment and improvise and just touch on new ideas, and I like the idea that music is just sounds together, and nothing more. The Dust Lane thing was kind of something special for me because there was a long time between that one and the ones before. It was like a new fresh start for me in a way—Skyline is a continuation of that.”

Yann Tiersen most notably came to the UK’s attention via the platform of foreign cinema, having soundtracked Amelia and Goodbye Lenin, and it would be folly to suggest otherwise. His songs were hand-picked for both and a large amount of his music has an unquestionable home when coupled with the moving picture. But why is that? “Oh I dunno,” he inevitably says. “Maybe because they were instrumental songs? Someone picked up the excerpts from my previous albums. It’s a bit strange for me because I don’t like working on soundtracks, its really artificial for me.”

So its safe to say you are not a composer? “I consider myself a musician,” he says, firmly. “I don’t like the idea of composing as such. I work really simply, it’s more like a physical thing with the instrument, trying to play with sounds and instruments to search for something – its nothing to do with composing.” He pauses, before finishing enigmatically – “Its like a game in a way.”

Skyline was released out on 17 October

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