He does not look like anyone, does not fit into any framework … and captivates viewers of completely different generations. Who would have thought that a shy perfectionist is hiding behind a bright image and androgynous appearance, who dares to say from the stage what he does not dare to say in life!
Despite his two-meter height and the status of an international star, to whom even the New York Times magazine devotes articles, more than a hundred million views of his Papaoutai video on Youtube, more than a million discs of the second album Racine carée, Stromae sold in France and Belgium – also known as Paul Van Aver (Paul Van Haver) – on this rainy day modestly sheltered in a corner of the hotel lobby. He notices that the gray sky affects his mood, casts a barely noticeable evaluating glance at us, and, with his usual grace, making himself comfortable, begins to tell us about himself – simply, frankly and without embellishment.
The artist, who receives unanimous admiration from the most diverse public, turns out to be an ardent supporter of introspection and insistently talks about his internal discords. “I am sometimes reproached for the fact that when everyone around me compliments me, I do not stop talking about my shortcomings. This is my defense. If I recognize them myself, we can not talk about it. ” The 29-year-old author, composer and performer has a lot of such protection systems. His support is the family, which is “super important” for him, more important than work. His professional environment is a stylist, artist-designer, choreographer, manager, director, photographer. “If they tell me:“ you are talking nonsense, ”I believe them.” “It is very important for me to receive recognition, confirmation of love from the public. Who do I take myself for? Do not know. Maybe this is my way of self-healing, ”admits Stromae.
Psychologies: How to explain such a sharp contrast between your stage image (you look like an exemplary student) and your tough lyrics?
Stromae: It seems to me that in music I exist the same way as in life. I am always very polite, courteous, sweet, smiling from the very beginning of our acquaintance. At the same time, I have a hard time getting close to people at first meetings, I am somewhat paranoid, and it takes a long time to gain my trust. I prefer to look like a naive simpleton and buy time to see the people with whom I deal. If people don’t know me and don’t know my demeanor, I’m afraid they won’t like me, I’m afraid to offend them … It’s the same with music: I go on stage in high boots, with a backpack, sing super simple tunes and talk about real life.
Why do you prefer to show the dark side of our lives?
S .: Well, I don’t have such dark songs. Why do we hide from life’s difficulties? Indeed, due to the fact that there are mistakes and delusions, difficult conditions, we have the opportunity to enjoy other, brighter moments. After all, we love each other precisely because we are imperfect, thanks to this we manage to live together. Otherwise, we would be very bored, life would be infinitely insipid. There is no need to hide from dark spots, this is the circle of our worldly concerns. And you have to live with it. It enriches us. Losing a loved one, we will not feel good, but having survived this, overcoming this grief, we become even better.
You are always very thoughtfully dressed. Since the first album, you have been carefully working on the stage image of Stromae – your famous collection of polo and boots. This kind of “schizophrenia” is your remedy?
S .: Yes, absolutely right. In life, I’m rather shy and generally an introvert, but when I go on stage, I understand that I can no longer reverse, that the moment has come when they expect clowning from me. I manage to be completely different there. This is my job and I’m not going to trade my life. I play characters, I talk about a mother who has breast cancer, about my father’s lungs, but it’s all made up. There are no autobiographical motives here. No, of course, some of my own details of my life slip through, but I keep a certain distance: I myself do not live what I sing about, and you would be very bored if I told you about how I live.
What can Stromae say that Paul cannot say?
S .: All the things that need to be spoken about harshly. In life I am a great diplomat, even too much. With very few people I can be myself, very few people I can scold … Except perhaps those moments when I sit in my car and no one hears me. And so I keep my opinions, ridicule, rude words to myself. I am very patient. And at some point it has to come out. And it goes into music. Or when I’m all alone. I’ve had occasion to pound my fist on the table with all my might when something went wrong. Then, after a couple of seconds, I told myself that I was a fool. But I’d rather hurt myself than hurt others. If someone hurts us and we hurt in return, we are wrong, it is better to ignore. I try to communicate well. Grudges pass with time. Maybe I’ll start answering things like that a little more often soon, because I’m getting older. I’m actually very proud.
Your drunk Formidable character is the opposite of Paul, isn’t it?
S .: Yes, the exact opposite. In fact, this rarely happens to me. And even if I drank a little, it is not necessarily noticeable from the outside, because I am very in control of myself.
Such self-control is connected with your upbringing, what do you think?
S .: May be. Mom was quite strict, did not allow any excesses. It is very important for me to follow the rules. I think it shaped me. Most importantly, I learned to deal with frustration. I think if a person has not learned this at a fairly early age, he can have a lot of trouble later on. If you are successful, there is a danger that you may run into falsehood when you are not denied anything. This is what I am very afraid of. To what point is the person who speaks to me sincere? It’s easy to get paranoid here. I continue to believe that it is possible to meet sincere people, even if we are successful and famous. Otherwise, it would be impossible for me and very sad. I keep in touch with many old friends and not much has really changed in my life.
Are you an anxious person?
S .: I’m terrified of the transition to adulthood. It seems like this is happening to me right now. And that makes me a little sad. I don’t want this at all. Although I’ve always been a big boy, a little crazy. However, this did not prevent me from perceiving life, comprehending it and the importance of some things. But adulthood entails something else, you have to make a choice. And that means disappointing, making mistakes. It’s normal for everyone, but it’s hard for me to accept. I must be very demanding. How long can you afford to be a child? No, at my age it’s not good anymore… But who said it’s not good? Not to make any choice means not to build your life in any way, to remain a belated teenager. And I can’t make a choice. I prefer not to choose, then it entails nothing, and I have not yet learned how to chop something. The result is still the same, only I am not responsible for this choice.
After the success of your first album, Cheese, did you have a hard time with the next one?
S .: The fear of disappointment is proportional to the success you achieve. I want to be liked. And I took a sip of this fear to the fullest, because I began to compose and what I did at the beginning, I didn’t really like. My self-esteem has changed because I have not written music for a long time. I worked to the point of exhaustion, not even interrupting for food, the percentage of demagogy and inaccuracies decreased to normal levels, and then I began to like what I was doing. Of course, the success of the first album put pressure on me, but the audience gave me a luxurious opportunity to live for a while the way I wanted, in silence, with myself, asking myself the right questions. This silence did me good: I was all alone, I talked to myself, sang, drew, made something for myself, cleared my brain. It’s almost logical to sink into such a mini-depression at the end of the tour, in which you received your dose of adrenaline, such a nightly light drug.
Aren’t you frightened by your wild success, the frenzy of the public, the excessive manifestations of enthusiasm?
S .: I don’t know what I’ll say in a couple of years, but for now I think that this is normal, because this is work and people don’t give applause to me, but to the results of this work, for which we all worked hard, so everything is in order. I perform and write, but ultimately this thing happens during H. If I lose this state of sincerity, I can no longer do the same. We never feel safe, and on our team we all back each other up.
Does the title of your second album, Racine carée (“Square Root”), reflect your desire to feel connected to your African roots?
S .: To some extent, yes, probably. Although rather this name has to do with the musical roots (salsa, rumba, coladeira) that I explore, while maintaining the main trauma of the northern European, that is, electronics. In Africa I am perceived as white, here – as black. I immediately realized that here I was perceived differently from the rest, in adolescence it resented me, and then it passed with time. Aside from the few racists you inevitably run into, there are plenty of great, super cool people around. Yes, maybe this album is an attempt to reconnect with your roots, but the delicacy is important here. If a person suddenly begins to make himself an African with might and main, this is unnatural.
What traces did the father leave in your life, without whom you grew up?
S .: Still, I was lucky to see him many times, but in general, my mother really brought us up and we lived alone with her. I was 9 years old when my father was killed during the Rwandan genocide. So it would be difficult for me to say that I grew up without a father. We could make up for some lost time. His traces, of course, remained, first of all, this is what I am in the world, and, of course, the occupation that I do. Maybe I got to know my father more through my aunt, his sister. She has been living in Belgium for a long time, and I perceive her as a second mother … or father. My aunt lost a brother she knew intimately, so my pain is nothing compared to hers. What right do I have to claim the role of a victim of genocide next to her? It is out of respect for her that I keep my distance from this pain, which, despite everything, exists and tells me that I will never have her view of these events and I will never know what it was. I will never have anything but stories on behalf of other people, facts passed through them and, therefore, changed. This is what hurts me the most. It is still not too late to meet all the people who knew him, and I hope to do so someday. I experienced not so much pain as bitterness. We always get a little angry with our fathers, especially in our teens. Now I’m looking at it from a greater distance. Life is what it is. It seems to me that a man becomes an adult when he forgives his father. And if you go further, then why should I be offended by him? He gave me life and did everything he could. And when I have a child, I will also tell him that I did my best, more or less taking care of him. And I’ll have the remorse that I should have.
What kind of child were you?
S .: In my family, I have always been such a simpleton fool. Maybe a little too cute. Too good, too stupid. I was the penultimate of the children, and together with my younger brother we made up a party of small ones. Our older brother looked after us, he was partly a father to us. They told me: “Paul, go get this from my room.” I went up to the room and forgot what I went for, sometimes this was repeated several times in a row. I was terribly lacking in concentration, I was terribly absent-minded. The same thing at school, they said about me that I was not stupid – but as soon as a fly flew by, I was already absent from the lesson. On the other hand, I did not miss the opportunity to explain myself, so that they would pay attention to me … But I never put malice into it. My grades were always at the low limit, in my studies I kept to the required minimum. I am now a hyperperfectionist. From the people with whom I work, I demand the maximum, but I also ask them to be strict with me (I am strict with myself) and tell me directly to my face what they think. In this way, a healthy atmosphere is maintained.
Did you maintain a close relationship with your mother?
S .: Yes, I left my native nest at the age of 26-27. I’m really a late teenager. In some matters of my personal life, her opinion means a lot to me. She taught me concentration, practical things. Family means a lot to me. I can even sometimes ask them questions related to my profession. And it is from them that I am ready to hear criticism – after all, they know me well.
Paul Van Aver (Paul Van Haver), pseudonym Stromae, was born March 12, 1985 in Brussels. His mother is a Flemish who speaks four languages, his father is an architect from Rwanda, who lived alternately in Africa and Belgium, died in 1994 in Rwanda during the genocide. Paul has three brothers and a sister, at the age of 11 he entered the de Jett Academy of Music, where he studied solfeggio and drumming. Having started rapping, he came up with the pseudonym Opsmaestro, which he later replaced with Stromae – a distorted Maestro in the French verlan slang. At the age of 18, Paul, together with JEDI (Didier Jean-Longand), creates the group Suspicion. He is studying to be a sound engineer and works part-time at the fast food chain Quick to save money to release a four-song album. The first single Alors on danse was released in 2009, in 2010 he released his first album Cheese on the Universal France label, in 2013 his second album Racine carée. On December 12, Stromae will give only one concert at the Crocus City Hall.