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He plays this Sunday at Les Vieilles Charrues, Monday evening Salle Pleyel in Paris, and the 25th at the festival of Carcbadonne (Aude). While celebrating his 70th birthday next August, Robert Plant remains creative and eager to share his joie de vivre on stage. We joined him by phone in his Breton hotel to talk about his current career, but also the group that made him known, a certain Led Zeppelin, which is expected an illustrated book and a reissue of the live "The Song Remains The Same "for the end of the year
You play this Sunday in the largest French festival (70 000 people per day) and Monday Pleyel Hall in Paris (3000 seats). What are the advantages and disadvantages of a festival and a normal hall?
ROBERT PLANT. It's like on the Richter scale. By seeing what kind of environment we are going to have, what sort of building, infrastructure, we can say how things are going to be. We adapt our music according to the place, festival or hall. Besides, I choose the rooms we play in.
The Pleyel room was recommended to me. I wanted to give a show in Paris, but I also want to continue exploring, and I have already performed in so many places in your capital. And, if I aim too high, I may not sell all the tickets, so I prefer to stay in smaller, but also more intimate.
You give two concerts in two days, another in three days, you do not spare your voice!
No. I can not complain. It seems that the more I use it … (He pauses to clear his throat and resumes, in a tone of derision) … The sea air is extraordinary here in Roscoff … No, if my voice works , everything is fine. If it's not right, we do something else.
Your latest album, "Carry Fire", goes beyond rock, pop or folk. There are musical atmospheres from different countries, even continents …
Yes. We are 7 on the album and on stage, we each have different tastes and interests, we do not try to make our "music of the world" (19459007). The musicians are younger than me, but they are not kids either, they are not born of the last rain.
There is in us the trip hop to the Mbadive Attack, Justin Adams, guitarist, brings with him his work with Tinariwen, Jah Wobble or what he did in Algeria or Morocco. Skin, also guitarist comes from a brit-pop band; Cast. Billy Fuller, the bbad player, plays in Beak, a derivative of Portishead. All this mixes naturally.
During your tours, you have already played in Mali, recently in Turkey … Want to perform in as many countries as possible?
The first time we went in Turkey, we also went through Romania, Bulgaria. But the promoters put us rock bands in the first part. This is not what we wanted. Instead, we got gypsy bands …
On one of your tours with Led Zeppelin's former guitarist Jimmy Page, you performed with an Egyptian orchestra. Would you like to repeat this experience?
I am not sure. Everything was very repeated, programmed, it was always the same thing, because of the arrangements. What I play today allows greater freedom. I loved doing that at the time, but I prefer what I do today, it's more "wild" (in French).
Play seven with your group the Sensational Space Shifters allows you more of freedom?
Yes, to me, but also to them. It's a kind of free expression, not like in contemporary jazz, but as a kind of steady progression.
Does the formula seem to work, since you regularly release albums?
Yes, c is a three-year cycle. Next October, I will play with Van Morrison at the O2 in London, which will mark the end of 13 months of touring.
And after, holidays, then the writing of the next album?
Life is only vacation, you know, right? At the end of the year, it is cold and dark in Europe. It may be time to change the environment … I write when I travel.
Critics of your latest albums often talk about you as a shaman. It suits you?
I have no title to award me. I like the concept of shaman, but I do not fit the description. I like football, I like cycling, I love my life, I do not think I am particularly mysterious or profound. I think I'm just a traveler in many musical worlds.
How did Chrissie Hynde from the Pretenders come to sing on your last album?
She's on a song ( Editor's note: "Bluebirds over the mountain", a cover of rockabilly singer Ersel Hickey) I was singing by car or walking down the street when I was 12 years old. I always thought she might have a second life in another era. So we worked on her rhythm, but I was aware that it was a walk for teens about insecurity, love, so I needed a female voice. So I called Chrissie
In 2007, you released an entire album in collaboration with a singer, Alison Krauss. You could republish the experience?
This kind of album only works because you sing old songs. But sitting down and composing new songs for a female voice would be very difficult, and would take a lot of time.
Can a concert by Robert Plant without a reprise of Led Zeppelin be possible?
I did it in 1981 and 1982 (note: at the very beginning of his solo career) . I was suffering from the death of my friend (Ed .: John Bonham, drummer of Led Zeppelin, died in 1980) . Today, I am a stage artist. I have to create a kind of myth, or propagate it.
No one could have imagined, by the time you were writing your songs with Led Zeppelin, that fifty years later, people would still be applauding them on stage. is not it?
No! And these songs, they are much more fun to play now than at the time. At the time, it was necessary to respect the score. Now they go to another dimension!
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