Après 7 albums avec Sousbock et 2 avec Lunear, je me lance dans un nouveau projet musical solo, “Esse”, et pour la première fois en anglais.
L’album s’appelle “A Frenchy Moody Evening”. Il est écrit et enregistré mais il doit encore être mixé et masterisé.
Le premier titre, Just a Boy, est sorti sur Youtube pour un Défi Galago et a remporté un fort succès d’estime..
En tout, 11 titres sont sur l’album. 11 titres différents mais qui vont créer une atmosphère, une ambiance calme, posée, relaxante. Si vous aimez Just a Boy, il y a de grandes chances pour que le reste de l’album vous plaise.
Imaginez-vous partir pour un voyage d’environ trois quarts d’heure, avec un verre à la main, un bon fauteuil et des lumières tamisées. Dehors il fait froid, il pleut un peu et la nuit est bientôt là. Vous montez le volume après une journée de travail : a frenchy moody evening est, comme son nom l’indique, un album qui a été écrit pour faire du bien à l’âme, pour offrir une parenthèse dans la vie, une bulle de douceur.
Pourquoi préciser “Frenchy” dans le titre ? Tout simplement parce que j’ai choisi d’assumer, après plus de 20 ans à ne pas le faire, de chanter en anglais, malgré l’accent imparfait qui est le mien et qui est pourtant reconnu comme un des plus beaux au monde par les anglophones.
Pour les spécialistes qui veulent tout savoir, les arrangements sont un mélange subtil de moderne et d’ancien avec des instruments comme le piano, le CP-80, le mellotron mais aussi des synthés vintages, des sons de violons, de harpes, de basses électros ou taurus et des batteries évidemment. C’est aussi un mélange assez paradoxal d’arrangements riches et dépouillés. À ce titre, la chanson Just a Boy est bien représentative de ce qu’est le disque : dépouillé dans sa première moitié, l’arrangement s’envole et se densifie dans sa deuxième moitié.
Sur ce disque, j’ai écrit tous les textes et les musiques (avec un coup de main pour deux chansons).
J’ai également joué, avec mon ami Paul J.No tous les instruments et très sincèrement, si la partition semble compliquée, c’est qu’elle a été jouée par Paul. L’ami Gilles Snowcat joue sur un morceau et le tout est mixé par JP. Benadjer.
Seb
mai 2021
esse - a frenchy moody evening - 2021
1 - just a boy
I’m just a boy on the Earth
I’m just a boy on the Earth
Cos I’m just a boy wandering the Earth
Sometimes I don’t know what to do
Sometimes I don’t know what to think
But I am here and I’m gonna stay there
I am not going anywhere
It’s such a hard life
It’s such a hard place
I don’t know what to do
For you, for me, for them
It’s such a mess we’re stuck into
Cos I’m just a boy wandering the Earth
Yes I’m just a boy lonely and scared
Sometimes I don’t know what to do
Sometimes I don’t know what to think
But I am here and I’m gonna stay there
I am not going anywhere
It’s such a hard life
It’s such a hard place
I don’t know what to do
For you, for me, for them
It’s such a mess we’re stuck into
So I shut myself from the world
Yes I shut myself dodging the bad news
Cos I’m just a boy wandering the Earth
Yes I’m just a boy trying to figure it out
2 - if it’s not worth it
Sometimes things are out of reach
And despite your better self you just can’t compete
If you really think that it’s not worth the trouble
Then don’t do it
No one is gonna blame you
I know I won’t
I know I won’t
I know I won’t
Sometimes you have to put yourself first
No one knows yourself better than you do
If you do believe that it’s not worth the pain
Then don’t do it
No one is gonna blame you
I know I won’t
I know I won’t
I know I won’t
Sometimes it’s simply just can’t be done
No one knows better you just need to trust you
If you know deep inside that it’s not worth it
Then don’t do it
No one is gonna blame you
I know I won’t
I know I won’t
I know I won’t
3 - foreign amnesia
Musique : S.Bournier/L.Duflos
I can see nothing else for now,
Think this story has gone too far
I’ve got to learn from all those talk
And discover who were my folks
Don’t have a life, nor have a name.
Every morning seeing my face
A face that I don’t recognize
Is such a pain, such a disgrace
But I’ll remember your smile, the first thing out of this shadow
My brain is like it’s gonna blow
It’s so empty, I’d like to know
So from now on, I’ve got to leave you alone
I’ve crossed a hundred thousand roads,
And met a thousand of people,
But no one had a clue for me,
Still don’t know what was my “me”
Got lost in the maze of my thoughts
With all this blurry haze around me
And if I want to be relieved
Then I will have to face my past
But I’ll remember your smile, the first thing out of this shadow
My brain is like it’s gonna blow
It’s so empty, I’d like to know
So from now on, I’ve got to leave you alone
4 - trusting you
We have known each other for most of our lives
We grew up together and trusting you came easily
But these last few years we grew apart
And I realise I’m having a hard time trusting you now
I know it’s not your fault and it will never be
A different day, a different mood
But you let me down too many times
Too many disappointments or broken promises
Cos there is this dark place
Where you go sometimes
And where I can’t follow
Where I won’t follow you
So I need you to know
Not trusting you doesn’t mean that I don’t love you anymore
Cos I still do and I will always do
You were my best friend, my soul mate,
My real life brother and now I hardly recognise you
You’ve become so unpredictable that I dread meeting you,
Not knowing what it’s going to be like
Cos there is this dark place
Where you go sometimes
Where I can’t follow
Where I won’t follow you
So I need you to know
Not trusting you doesn’t mean that I don’t love you anymore
Cos I still do and I will always do
Truth is, I don’t think I trust someone anymore
I don’t even trust myself sometimes
Cos there is this dark place
Where you go sometimes
Where I can’t follow
Where I won’t follow you
But I need you to know
Not trusting you doesn’t mean that I don’t love you anymore
Cos I still do and I will always do
5 - nowhere feels like home
I don’t know what I need
I don’t know what I want
I don’t know what wish
I don’t know how I feel
But I know deep inside me
That I don’t belong
That I don’t feel home
Nowhere feels like home
I don’t know what to do
I don’t know what I’m supposed to do
I just want to feel free
And never again feeling lonely
But I know deep inside me
That I don’t belong
That I don’t feel home
Nowhere feels like home
6 - shut down
Stop.
Fear.
Hate.
Doubt.
Deny.
Leave.
Endure.
Surrender.
Hide.
Refuse.
Resign.
Fragile.
Bubble.
Shut
Myself
Down
From
The
World.
7 - like it dark
Musique : S.Bournier/L.Duflos
I was standing all alone
I was standing on my own
Two paths were prepared ahead
I tried to remember what you said
I was going all around
In this small place in my mind
I was fighting my demons
Throughout all the seasons
But wherever I went, I had this choice to make
Was it better light or dark
And even though I showed weakness
I chose deep in my heart
I liked it dark
And chose the dark
We were waiting together
For bad forthcoming weather
I couldn’t make peace with my mind
And I couldn’t leave you behind
I was standing all alone
I was standing on my own
Two path were prepared ahead
I couldn’t remember what you said
But wherever I went, I had this choice to make
Was it better light or dark
And even though I showed weakness
I chose deep in my heart
I liked it dark
And chose the dark
8 - absence of pain
I used to be in pain for so long
Most of my adult life
My body that ached 24/7
My illness, my sickness for so long
The pain defined me 24/7
The pain used to be a part of me
And now that it’s gone
There’s something missing
Now that I’m cured
There’s something missing
Now that I’m healed
There’s something missing
I don’t wish for it to be back
But sometimes it feels like
I’m someone different
And sometimes the pain comes back
I welcome it like an old friend
That toxic friend from your past
That you wish were gone for good
The pain used to be a part of me
And now that it’s gone
There’s something missing
Now that I’m cured
There’s something missing
Now that I’m healed
There’s something missing
You might think that it comes with relief but
The absence of pain is still pain somehow
Absence of pain is somehow still pain
Absence of pain is somehow still pain
9 - spiders
I was wondering the whole night long
Waiting for the sleep to come
Wandering among my thoughts
In search of a dream to come…
When I caught sight of a spider
Crawling on the ceiling
I was so terrified and hypnotized
That my body was paralysed
I’ve got to kill all those spiders on the ceiling
I’ve got to get rid of those snakes on the floor
So please tell me I’m not the only one
Who encounters problems sleeping at night
Though I’m aware that my monsters
Are a hundred times than me smaller
Please someone come and rescue me
There’s no escape, I cannot flee
I’ve got to kill all those spiders on the ceilling
I’ve got to get rid of those snakes on the floor
So please tell me I’m not the only one
Who encounters problems sleeping at night
I see spiders, spiders everywhere
Under my bed inside my brain
They’re the nightmare that haunts my dreams
That keeps me away from sleeping
I’ve got to kill all those spiders on the ceilling
I’ve got to get rid of those snakes on the floor
So please tell me I’m not the only one
Who encounters problems sleeping at night
10 - daily struggle
I need coffee in the morning
To live through the day
I need X pills in the evening
To sleep through the night
I need comfort food
To cope with basic daily life
I need music every day
To keep my mind at ease
I need the latest tech toys
To fill a unfillable void
I need quiet time and silence
To rest and heal
Then I might feel relief
For an hour or two
Sometimes a day when I’m lucky
But it never lasts…
Oh, and please
I don’t need you to tell me about the future
That there may be none
Cos I don’t want to know
I want to live through the day
So don’t tell me about tomorrow
There’s only today
There’s only today
11 - the day after
I don’t really know how I’m feeling
But I think I’m feeling like a mess
I haven’t really slept and
I drank way too much coffee.
How can I choose between my selfish fun
And everything that I stand for
It should be a no-brainer
But sadly it’s not
I do believe that everybody deserves a second chance
But I know that you’ve already given too many of them
I do hope you’re ok
Better than I am
I just want to sit in the dark
And listen to Lana all night
With a glass of whiskey
But who am I kidding
I don’t even drink
But still,
I have this bad hangover feeling
This persistent headache
And my whole body hurting
Do I need to walk away?
It is kind of hard to stay
Look at everything we’ve got
And we still manage to hurt ourselves anyway
I do believe that everybody deserves a second chance
But I know that you’ve already given too many of them
I do hope you’re ok
Better than I am
I just want to sit in the dark
And listen to Lana all night
With a glass of whiskey
But who am I kidding
I don’t even drink
But still,
I have this bad hangover feeling
This persistent headache
And my whole body hurting