”How Is It That You Sound So Eerie?” - A Talk with Michel Notko

An interview by Antoine Fabre in the music magazine Club, September 1966.

We sat down to have a glass of wine and talk about life and music with Michel Notko, who has just released a new record, Une valse pour l'océan. I wanted to know what he’d been up to and what were his plans for the future. It seems he isn't too fond of the crowds, but he sure knows how to put his words. If you'll let us, we'll begin.

Antoine Fabre: So your new record leads you to a new direction, what are your thoughts on the album, personally?

Michel Notko: I'm glad you asked, Antoine, and may I say you have a lovely bow tie [chortles]. Well, I think a man should never walk the same road without changing his clothes in between. I had an epiphany of sorts, when I bumped into William Burroughs and his cut-up method. I was visiting Paris, where Burroughs had come to do some readings, and, well, I went to one of the readings, I believe it was at Le Chat Noir, and I was mesmerized. I sort of felt that everything I had done had been mundane, and that I really needed to take things to a new level. The very same night I sat down at my typewriter, and wrote lyrics for at least fifteen songs. Obviously, they were not all used on the album, and I had to do some serious re-writing, but the core was there. I did use the cut-up method, and some of it was used on the record, but in the end I felt that a more secular approach was necessary to keep things attached to the ground, so that the audience could find the record, too.

AF: You have refused to play your older songs on the concerts, why is that?

MN: May I be honest with you?

AF: Of course.

MN: I hate the old songs [laughs]. No, they were fine in their time, but that's not the world I live in anymore, if you know what I mean. I think they're too comfortable, too homely. You need to challenge yourself, you need to grasp the night by it's bow tie – no offence – and seek for the treasure that is, if not at the end of the rainbow, somewhere you dare not look at first. With Claude [Perreault, Michel's guitarist] I feel like I can seek those hidden treasures, explore and find other continents. Sorry, that sounds too exaggerative. With Claude I can whisper and still hear a scream on the recording. Does that sound a bit pompous, too? Well, I guess I'm a pompous man. What was your question? Right, about the older songs. They're a bit daft, but they do pay the rent, and that's a reason to be grateful. Nothing is free in this world.

AF: Do you like poetry in general?

MN: Yeah, I like the surrealists, André Breton, Louis Aragon and Lorca, but lately I've been into Apollinaire and Villon as well. I think there's much in this world that is inexplicable, and poetry goes into that area. It's not what they say, it's what's between the lines. To some it's just words, but for me it's sort of universe, an explanation of the world in paper. I wasn't like this before, you know, but I've been hanging out with the wrong sort of people, the people of the dusk. They say all kinds of things, and I just listen, take everything in. I feel like I'm really getting somewhere now. But I'm not that interested in where that is. It might be the moon, or it might be the hanging tree, who knows, but at least I'm not going places where they don't serve you bread.

AF: Are you comfortable with the guitar? I mean, is it the instrument you think suits you the best?

MN: I'm somewhat comfortable. We did a lot of guitar tracks for the new album, but they were mainly Claude's handprint. I just brought the motifs to our sessions, and from there on it was just ideas going wherever they would lead us. I had some ideas too, but I'm not that much of a virtuoso, I stick to the basics. You know, sometimes I get a chord that I don't even know what it's called, but mostly I play the basic chords. That's what I've grown to, and that's something that is still left from the earlier days.

AF: To me the new record is beautiful, but also haunting. How is it that you sound so eerie?

MN: I guess I've never thought of that. I tried to sound a bit like the newest folk artists, but with my own twist. Maybe it's that twist – I was headed somewhere, but couldn't really do it in a conventional way. And I have to say again: Claude did most of the arranging from my rudimentary compositions. Some chords were entirely replaced, and to me it almost always sounded better. And I don't know, do I sound eerie? I think I have a somewhat ordinary singing voice, it must be the songs.

AF: I can live with that. Do you have any new material, what are you gonna do next?

MN: We're gonna tour France and maybe somewhere abroad if someone asks (I wouldn't count on that). The first single wasn't that much of a success, as you may know, and we're trying to build the sales and release a couple of more singles. I believe in this music, but maybe it's a bit too eerie, or something, I don't know. We have recorded a couple of demos with Claude, but they weren't exactly anything remarkable, and for me the next album must be remarkable. Don't know if you have noticed, but I tend to like things remarkable. If you want to go fishing, you aren't exactly satisfied if you catch some little fish or two, you want the big fish. Enormous pike or salmon. Then you go and have a feast with your friends. I enjoy a little feast now and then, and when I hit the right spot with my music, there's gonna be a feast. But you wanna enjoy a feast with a lot of people, and I don't know if the people are gonna want to join my feast. You gotta have to learn to live with that, too.

AF: What do you think about the hippie and the beatnik movements?

MN: Burroughs is a beatnik, isn't he? I think they're ok. I mean, I like it when young people take things into their own hands, and speak out. Of course the beatniks aren't that young anymore, but I think the hippie movement is on the right path. Anti-war and anti-establishment, that's the way it should be, don't you agree? I've been to some concerts and social evenings where the crowd has been rather hippie-oriented – it's still not that much of a big deal in France, but what I've heard from The US, I'd sure like to be there, experience it while it's still fresh. All things tend to go downwards, when they get too much attention or grow too big, and I believe that's what's gonna happen to the hippie movement too, eventually. You can't liberate yourself for eternity. It's always against this or another thing, and when you need to create something of your own, things get a bit more trickier. But yeah, I read On the Road, and I think it was fabulous.

AF: What is your biggest dream?

MN: My biggest dream? I guess it would be living on the mountain or in the forest with only my guitar and the animals. I would sing to the wolves, and they would howl back. I'm not that much into the city life, though that's what I've got accustomed to. When I was younger, I didn't get along with people. I just sat and watched them. I think they're interesting from afar, but when you get to know them, they all just wanna benefit from you some way or another. Maybe that's a bit cynical, but that's my perception, false or not. Sometimes I also dream that I live in a different age. Were the Middle Ages as dark as they say? They had all sorts of things going on, we only hear about the misery. Or was Jesus really a historical person? I'd like to take a walk with him, and talk about ethics.

AF:I heard that you got into fights when you were younger...

MN: Yeah, I did a lot of things when I was younger. I had an imaginary friend, his name was Henry, and I swear to you, his head was a balloon. But I hate violence nowadays, and if the nuclear weapons were never invented, I think things would be much calmer. What's with the need to conquer and make people do what you want? Why would a leader want to invade a country, and have a shitload of people to reign? Isn't that always a start of a revolution? Or a massacre, if things go wrong. I think there should only be small communities that decide of their own faith, who needs a government? See, I'm an anarchist, too.

AF: Where do you see yourself in ten years?

MN: I don't wanna think about that. I just hope the sky is still above us and that the flowers are still yellow and blue, that sort of things. With all the craziness in the world you just wish things don't get too shaky. There's peace in Europe now, but just look at what happened in Algeria. The a-bomb may explode any second now. I really like Resnais' Hiroshima mon amour, by the way. Why don't you ask me about films?

AF: OK, what's your favourite film?

MN: That's too hard a question. Just kidding. There's two, and I can't decide. Shall I tell them to you?

AF: Please.

MN: The other one is Mr. Deeds Goes to Town by Frank Capra, and the other one is Orpheus by Jean Cocteau.

AF: What do you think about the New Wave?

MN: I like some of their stuff, almost anything by Truffaut, but mostly it's too intellectual for me. I don't like that meta-nonsense. Tell me a good story. That's what it's all about.

AF: Lyrically speaking, as you said yourself, you've gone to more experimental areas. Don't you think lyrics should tell a story?

MN: Well, I tend to think that you can tell a story in many different ways. I don't trick people, or make them question my motifs, or tell a story inside a story. You can tell a story with random words, if it's between the lines. I like some experimental movies, too. If they're poetic. But I'm not that much into the process, where you become aware that you're experiencing an artwork, and are made to analyze and chop the work in pieces. I want to be lost in the world of cinema or a poem, buy the illusion, dream. I want to wake up in the beach, and not remember how I got there. Art should be magic, not science.

AF: Do you ever wish you were born somewhere else?

MN: No, I think France is beautiful. You can't always love your roots, if you live in a war zone for example, but when things are stable, I believe you need to explore where you are from, where you are now, and live in peace with it. Of course there are horrible things in our past, too, but there are so many great thinkers, philosophers, poets, and statesmen, even, that our whole lifetime isn't enough to study them all. And I have done some research of my family, they came from Finland in the beginning of the century, and I love Finland, too. I've visited there twice, it was pretty cold the second time, but I got to see the estate, where my family's house once was, it was pretty exciting, though there was a new house and some strange people. But the Finns are very warm people, though they tend to curse a lot. Perkele!

AF: Is there anything else, that you'd like to add?

MN: Be kind. Being a prick is out of fashion. Remember to wash your teeth, and if things get hairy, just think of the queen. I'm out of thoughts, that's what all the meditation and yoga has done to our youth.

AF: OK, thank you for your time, I wish you all the best with the new record!

MN: Thank you, Antoine, it was a pleasure talking to you.