Confessions: Sebastien Tellier
The French pop sensation and Eurovision entrant tells us what turns him on.
“My new album Sexuality is my attempt to create a really beautiful story of sex. It is the story about the perfect night of sex: in the beginning you talk with a girl about your past, you take her to an exhibition; after that if it seems to be going well, we talk more, we smoke some joints, we make love, and then I think very deeply. Think about everything – my problems, my previous mistakes – because when I make love I feel so good I can go against my past. I’m full of energy and happiness, I can look my destiny in the eye, and I can be in front of myself; I can think about all my problems in a different way. But afterwards, I fall into deep introspection. Sex is the best school for the mind. Making sexual music is very hard, because sexual harmonies are very rare. It’s very easy to play simple chords, and then after that the intellectual music that you can learn at school. But sexual music is impossible to learn at school, it’s something you have to find by yourself. It’s a very deep adventure to find these kinds of notes. Usually when you find a sexual harmony, it’s so rare. That’s why all the great musicians – Michael Jackson, Curtis Mayfield, Stevie Wonder – play sexual music, because sexual music is the most pleasure for a musician because it’s so hard to find. You can find the real flavour of art there.
It was very important to get in the mood. So I changed my apartment, I changed my car, I changed my girlfriend. And my new girlfriend is really obsessed by sex. I moved from the outskirts of Paris, to the centre – the most sexual place in Paris, Place de la Madeleine. To have a good sexual life you have to organise that, it’s not just natural. You have to think about it, and you have to be a particular person. Before, I was someone really afraid of life, with paranoia, so I did work on my mind to become someone new, someone full with sexuality; before, I was not really intellectual about sex, although I thought I was. Then one day I discovered, you have to use your intelligence not just to create something or make money, you have to use your intelligence just to feel good. It’s important to try to use your intelligence in everything. A happy guy is a curious, thinking guy; a sad guy is a stupid guy. I just try to be the condition of my music. I want to ‘be’ my record so I wear a beard to be mysterious like my music, a tuxedo to be sophisticated, and long hair to be almost a woman – because when you want to be in that mindset to talk about sexuality it helps to be almost a woman as well.
I create new characters for every record. One of my main inspirations for this character in Sexuality is a beautiful Italian guy – I have always this image of a beautiful guy, making love in the wind. For me, a guy can be sophisticated, but he has to be a real guy: rustic, with a touch of bling bling. I love the style of Karl Lagerfeld, the German/French designer. Sophisticated, almost a woman, but, at the same time, a touch of bling bling.One of my most intellectual songs on the album is about my fantasies of sportswear. You know, those small sport shorts for women. This may sound like something light that I’m talking about, but these fantasies,
they give me a small shock. The uncontrollable desire I feel when I want to touch a woman’s sport shorts: that is the spark, the meaning, the beginning of life. Reaching out, alive, tearing them off with my teeth. There is no life without desire.
But I don’t want to listen to my music when I make love. I used to make love to music when I was younger, but now my favourite soundtrack for sex is noises from nature: wind, water, birds. Outdoors is the best. I never think about making love in a bedroom, it is the most boring place for sex. The kitchen, outdoors, the beach – perfect.”
Posted by Daniel Stacey in Other | May 29, 2008 10:39AM |