From his beginnings in 1980 with various bands (including the punk band TC Matic) to his duet with Stromae in 2012, through a dozen solo albums and his duet with Beverly Jo Scott, Arno has forged a composite repertoire and a reputation as a soft-hearted rocker. He gradually reached the status of reference of French song, perhaps because over the years, he used with delight a delicate mixture of a characterful Belgian language and a poetic and pictorial palaver. The 2 strengths (among others) of the last Arno: we are willing to bet that some titles of "Human Incognito" will not fall into oblivion anytime soon, as was the case for "In the eyes of my mother" or "I want to swim". Listening and interview. 
"Human Incognito" is the title of the new album, and it is a bit like Arno: the rough English of the old bluesman, the old man in general, the human being in their mid-sixties, who live their old motherfucker days. And incongito : Arno is neither Bashung, nor Gainsbourg, nor Bowie, and Ostend, his city, is the city of a country that contains fewer inhabitants than the island of France. On the margins, in secret, that's how he likes to be: anonymous among humans without whom "he would be nothing". He owes everything to humans and makes songs that talk about life, the banal in short. But with the talent of an inspired lyricist and the aggressiveness of a rocker: crooner less enticing than poet, less rowdy than maker of dreams. The absurd and surrealism , it will indeed be discussed in the album, but not without having addressed his favorite themes: the body, romantic relationships, loneliness.
Organic arrangements
And these themes are cleverly put forward by sober and classical arrangements : with John Parish at 
the helm, the producer from Bristol, "who looks like Ostend because we eat mussels there", and having produced many albums, such as those of Eels, PJ Harvey or Sparklehorse. A veteran, too, although not so old, with whom Arno knows how to communicate without frills, almost with the gaze, which is excellent for giving musicality all the freedom and breath it needs. This is how very obvious and catchy pieces can line up in an excellent blues cake, bittersweet songs, poetic and sensitive to wish. In the implacable existential inventory "I'm Just an Old Motherfucker", Arno mourns the imperfections of life experiences ("Old too soon, smart too late, young to short, stupid too long") but not devoid of wisdom, where the rough embittered mingles with spades of crescendo hope, It's the hoarse tone that we love and that we find in his choruses.
Human after all
And it is also the sensitivity, the naivety almost, that strikes listening to "I want to live": tired of the chaotic evolutions of our dirty world, Arno unfolds in a naked and confounding ballad of fragility the desiderata of his world. A world "without jealousy, without lovers, where pessimists are happy". Out of context, it makes you smile, but not out of this debonair and sincere human, said with the accent and French that makes academicians cringe, but which speaks to all people of spirit, simple as dreamers: Arno, simple human after all. Arno, nostalgic for the first kiss, "when your tongue came into my mouth like a stir-fried noodle" in "Forget who I am". Adept of the absurd, the surrealism of Arno, it is Magritte and Walt Disney who would have co-signed his dreams. In the very Tom Waits ballad "Dance like a goose", he dances like a goose, or in the crazy and Oulipien "An absurd song" he sees a "cow dancing tango" or a "wet fish". And "health", because it is the essential, in life as in this album: this last and heartbreaking piece is the lament of the cuckolded buccaneer who would have misguided his boat to land by mistake in a port where no woman is waiting for him. So he sings it, failing to take it: "you the mistress of my body, your body is a perfume that I adore", all in a capsized and intoxicated waltz, during which "we drink to the health of all the cuckolds of the whole world", raising his elbow when others give up. Cheers, Arno! 
35 years of career evoked during his coffee break
It is therefore musically seduced that we go to the café "La Fontaine", right next to the Maison de la Radio in Paris. Just out of lunch, Arno is satisfied that he gives himself up to Just Focus to answer various aspects of his album and his career. Tell us the context of this album and how did you find the title "Human Incognito"? It was above all an excuse to go back on stage. I am a man of the stage. The title is because without human beings, I am nothing. This album is musically more sober, rougher than the others, you seem to lay bare. Do the arrangements need to be sober to express more sincerity in the singing? I wanted the arrangements to be organic. Let us feel all the details of the instruments. With John Parish, the good thing is that we understand each other very quickly. It was also Catherine Marks who during the recording allowed me to work on certain aspects of singing important for this organic rendering. We were again amused by many textual finds, as in "Health": "You the mistress of my body, your body is a perfume that I love". Have you ever thought about writing poems? Or is it impossible not to think of these phrases in music, in rock 'n roll? Nothing is ever certain, but I am and will remain above all a musician. After that, who knows, maybe it will happen. You said on Europe 1 that the most difficult thing was not to record an album but not to do the same one as before. We find indeed the same themes of loneliness, sentimental relationships, the body ("Lonesome Zorro", "Marie tu m'as", "Les yeux de ma mère"), at what point do you feel after listening to the album that it is satisfying, that it fulfills the contract of change? What differentiates this album from others is I think my "Walt Discney to me" side, this absurd side, Magritte. I talk in "Absurd Song" about invented characters, animals that do weird things, like a "cow that in tango", or "a wet fish". That is the differentiating aspect. Otherwise, I try like all my albums to sing what surrounds me, life.
"Rock has become as conservative as the Eiffel Tower"
You say that rock has become too conservative, does it take a new wave of punk, or no-wave, for the break and the return of musical chaos? Could your song "Putain putain" with TC Matik from a few years ago be sung today by a singer like you? I don't think so, because we don't know if in 5 years Europe will exist (Damn fuck, it's really good, we're still all Europeans, he chanted in this title, Editor's note). There are trades that young students are learning today that will probably no longer exist. What remains, and what conservatives love, is the Eiffel Tower. I think rock is as conservative as the world, unfortunately. 
About TC Matik, I listened to the first one, and I was impressed by your register of the time (1980), which was completely worth large-scale post punk albums like those of Killing Joke or Public Image LTD, even noise, then emerged less rebellious songs and the turn towards song, How do you explain this shift? We even arrived before these groups. That's a good Question. I think I've always sung what was there at the time, punk, and then the song. I was always what the music around me was, in my own way. What records do you listen to the most today? At the moment I listen to a lot of Stuff, a very instrumental Belgian band that mixes jazz, electro and hip-hop. Have you written new songs for a future album, already? Yes, but a long tour awaits me in the meantime, especially in the United States. I'm going to go through a lot of cities. A bit like Stromae last year… He went through more cities him! He's my buddy, I received a text message from him today. Thank you Arno! Thank you, and don't do stupid things (laughs)! Arno is touring throughout France and Europe, including May 19 and 20 at the Trianon in Paris.
