by Ben Richel
During my childhood in Savoie, France, most of my free time was devoted to one activity: imagination. I imagine grandiose destinies but also standard and common stories: From fishermen in the Philippines to Western rockstars, from 19th-century wars to post-collapse scenarios, from my Star Wars spin-offs to projecting myself on stage later… I could imagine revolutionary flying machines, and the same day imagine the realistic routine of the today’s French middle class (I am myself in the middle, like Malcolm!)
For me, everything is interesting.
My life has been built by imagining and connecting lives. It was obvious that one day I would invent characters, partly because expressing my whole personality cannot be done by simply embodying a predefined, cliché role given by society.
Listen to the song while reading the text.
I started music by imitating my favorite pop stars, rock stars, and DJs, which developed my very high head voice in an interactive dance with my original voice, deep & low. This gap drives me to an eclectic approach, expressing my mixed personality with my versatile voice, a voice that I also often use in one of my concepts: Expressing emotions vocally & without words, as with another instrument, but in a very human way, with articulations, tones & sounds directly coming from what is in me, my moods, my influences, and my inspirations.
I sing mainly in English because I want to reduce the boundaries of language. As Charles Aznavour said, “We are the best in texts, but we have to translate; otherwise, they don’t know it.” I keep my accent and use some French words because I want to show that behind my Folie des Grandeurs and behind my characters, there is the real me.
My approach consists of not being limited by what music, art, society, and the rest have been until now. The idea is to sincerely do the music and the things I want to do, however various they may be.
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