EXCLUSIVE: Interview with Yann Destal (Ex. Modjo)

       Yann Destal is a french songwriter, performer and multi-instrumentalist. Yann where a part of project Modjo, with Romain Tranchart. After releasing five singles, one album and toured Europe and Asia, Yann & Romain went solo.
       You'll discover why, in the interview below, also you'll find out what news has Yann Destal.

1.Hello, Yann! How are you?

Yann: Real fine, thank you; trying to have holidays, but God it's complicated...

2.You were part of project "Modjo". After releasing five singles, one album and toured Europe and Asia, you and Romain Tranchart went solo. What happened? because “Modjo” had a real success…

Yann: I know it's a hard thing to understand for a lot of people, but for this you have to know that the music I'm making today is the one I was already trying to make, long before Modjo started to exist.
I've enjoyed the Modjo time so much, musically speaking and personally as well, but the "Yann Destal" project is not only about enjoying music, but also expressing myself as I am. Yes Modjo had a lot of success,
but I 've chosen music as my own "religion" since I was a kid, and it was not about having success. Success is enjoyable of course, but to me it's not more important than making the music that is the one that
defines what I am. We've had some tension with Romain, in the end, and maybe it made things end faster than they could have, but anyway it didn't change much. I knew, before Modjo started, that
my destiny was to do those songs that came in my mind even since I was a child, and that didn't fit with an electro project like Modjo.

3.You still talk with Romain? How are relations now?

Yann: Of course we still talk to each other; we've been through things that just him and I can realize, and that makes us close forever, even if we don't spend much time together; like people in a family, or something like that.
We both have our own path, now; Modjo was a long time ago!

4.How does it feel to have millions of people that know and feel your songs, classics like “Lady” or “What I mean”? (Personally, even now, after a long time, I can't get enough of the song "Lady"!)

Yann: Today I just find it funny. I don't feel very much involved now in what happens with Modjo, because my energy is in another music, and also because all this was 12 years ago. Seeing people very enthusiastic
about what we've done back then, it's funny. I feel like saying "Well, great! I will tell them you like it, that will make them happy!", like Modjo was somebody else. But it shows as well that music that is done with heart doesn't disappear, even when it's a summer hit, and I'm proud of that. I've always been proud of Modjo, and I'll always will be, I still think today it was very good music.

5.After you have chose a solo career, haven't wanted to relaunch the project "Modjo"?

Yann: We've sometimes said with Romain "let's try a little something", but we never planned to "relaunch" Modjo. As I said, music makes me happy more than success could ever do. It's not that I reject success,
but I would welcome success by doing the music I'm doing today, that's my goal now. And I'm pretty confident it will come soon, hopefully with the album i'll be releasing after summer.

6.Which are the 3 secrets to become a superstar? :>

Yann: The first one would be that you shouldn't want to become a superstar. If you really wish so, maybe you should wonder who's the person around you that didn't give you the love you're trying to find in the people
that you don't even know. Romain and I stayed quiet and let the music be the star, because music was the thing, not the idea of being seen on TV or magazines. Music, you know, for people who really are into it,
is much stronger than that, much more interesting.
I think also that all the people that became superstars not because of their abilities in music or whatever, but just because they wanted to be superstars, they succeed some time, but get forgotten very easily, replaced
easily by other people that want to be superstars. Then, life becomes sad for them. It's terribly dangerous.
Don't believe that being famous is such a great thing; it's enjoyable sometimes, to see people you don't know feeling very positive things for you, but what really matters is people that you know, or that you can touch.
Sometimes you feel you want to go home, you're tired, or worried, or you're dreaming about something, and it's not great to be stopped in that moment by people that recognized you in the street or whatever.
And believe me, if fame was such a great thing, the richest bank directors would all be famous, but they stay very quiet!

7.Tell me something about your solo career...What news do you have? :)

Yann: I'll be releasing my second solo album after "The Great Blue Scar", after this summer. It will be called "Let Me Be Mine". It's been several years since I didn't put an album out, because I had to get free from my old
label, and because I enjoyed making music again outside the marketing thing. I made some concerts, and recorded new songs like in the old times when I didn't have to think about what the market would say.
Then I met some people who wanted to work with me and promote my music, without wanting to change anything, or asking me to do what they thought people will like. That's why a new album is coming out.

8.Which has been the toughest moment in your career? Has you ever thought about giving it up?

Yann: I never thought of giving up music, because I just couldn't ever stop. The only thing that could make me stop for a while is that I wouldn't have enough time to do it, but I would fight to have time. What I've done as a solo artist is not a big commercial success yet, and it didn't make things easier, but it never made me think about stopping. If you stop making music because you don't reach success, that means somehow you used music to reach success. If you make music because you really like it, then you will always carry on. I think success comes, goes, that's destiny, we're not God so we shouldn't try too much to decide about it.

9.Which are the most important lessons you have learned throughout your career?

Yann: A lot. One of the most important one is that: I've seen it's a real strong fight you have to go through, if you want to keep your faith and dignity, in this world where everybody tells you that your life will be better
if you accept to do and to wish everything like everybody else. They tell you should forget about your dreams, look at the world around you and how it works, and have the same way of thinking than them, or else you will end alone. When I see all I've been through, even if success is not here yet, I'm pretty sure it will come, and anyway the fact of fighting for my way of thinking is already making me happy, whatever the result is. If you reach success by taking off your pants, you might be successful but unsatisfied. I talk a lot about this subject in my new album; that's the reason why it's called "Let Me Be Mine".

10.When are you planning to release a new album?

Yann: Like I said in the seventh question, it's gonna be after this 2012 summer.

11.And now about your private life… What do you do in your spare time? What’s your hobby?

Yann: Lately I like to go on the Internet, trying to look for other points of life about the world's history. I think we should as much as we can go and check this in the Net while it's still a free space where anybody can talk, not like TV. That means you can hear different point of life about the history of our countries, different visions about the reasons why there were those wars in the world, and I find some incredibly clever theories, who sometimes seem to be closer to the truth than anything they say on TV. That's what I like to do now, when I don't play or make music.

12.Thank you so much and I can't wait to see you as soon as possible in Republic of Moldova. Any thoughts for your Moldavian fans?

Yann: Yes, I hope I'll have the chance to go to Moldavia again soon, because I've been there two times already and I always enjoyed it. I've met there very smart people, and very kind.