They have resumed service and will be in concert in the capital in a few days. Silmarils will open this Friday, September 8 Paris Paradis, the Parisian festival which will be held for three days at La Villette (19th) with Martin Solveig, Julien ClercKendji Girac, Joe Dwet Filé, Franglish, Zaho of Sagazan and many others as well as several sets of young comedians and the exceptional presence of Thomas NGijol and Manu Payet.
The sextet led by David Salsedo will play his clics “Va y avoir du sport” or “Cours vite” and probably new songs from an album which will be released in early 2024, the first since 2003. Meeting with its leader.
Why this return after fifteen years of rest?
DAVID SALSEDO. Three years ago, I gave an interview for “Une chanson, l’addition”, a show on YouTube. At one point I mentioned Silmarils. Apparently, when I spoke about it, there was a mixture of emotion and liveliness in my voice. Seeing this, our former manager called me to tell me that we absolutely had to do something for the 25th anniversary of the first album. For a long time, I was afraid to call the band members back. I was afraid of failing. One day, I started and Silmarils reformed in two minutes and a half because everyone agreed. In 2021, we made our comeback with a concert at the Bataclan. It was moving because we had prepared a short one-minute film that traced our journey since we were 14 years old. Some members were in tears before going on stage. At that time, we did not know if Silmarils still interested many people. But, when we realized that the room was full and that we had Guillaume Canet, who is a fan of the group, and joined us on stage, we got a kick out of it. That’s when we knew we couldn’t stop Silmarils. However, it is out of the question to chain the “best of” tours. If we left, it was with new songs. This is how we released a single, three months ago, which is called “Welcome to America”, the first title of a new album.
What can you tell us?
The album will be released in early 2024. It will be Silmarils: in the lyrics, the voice and in the flow. There’ll be guitar and big beats eyeing up hip hop and towards rock. On the other hand, it will be a good evolution of Silmarils because we didn’t want to come back with the sound of 1995 which would have aged badly. The production is a little more current but those who liked our first albums will appreciate it too.
Apparently, this new album will have a collector’s cover?
We greatly admire a French painter named Robert Combas. He doesn’t take orders, but we still gave it a shot by sending him our album so that he could design the cover. Then, one day, we received a video of him painting a 2m x 2.20m canvas that featured our songs with bits of text. It is therefore an original work created exclusively for the record. On the other hand, the group does not possess it. We are not millionaires (laughs).
You directed the clip for “Welcome to America” with filmmaker Olivier Dahan, who was already behind the clip for “Cours vite” in 1995 and to whom we owe “La Môme”, “Simone”. You work with Live Nation France for the concerts. Are you going back to sure values?
At the time, we were the only rock band to tour with NTM, precisely because of our hip-hop side. It was there that we met Angelo Gopée, current boss of Live Nation France, because he was their manager. When we called him to do another tour, he remembered us well and immediately agreed to work with us. On the other hand, we produce our disc on our own label. We are independent and that suits us very well. In this way, there is no dissonance with what we say in our texts.
Silmarils in concert at Paris Paradis at La Villette on Friday September 8th. Reservations: paris-paradis.leparisien.fr