Daniel Lavoie “I have an appetite for life”
“Questions
de Femmes”
November 2002
Laurance Aiach (LA)
Since
the 1st October the billboards have been up for the musical show
“Le Petit Prince”. After having put on the costume of Frollo the priest in
“Notre Dame de Paris”, Daniel Lavoie is this time taking the role of
Saint-Exupéry’s beloved airman. A meeting with a secretive man…
LA:
Have you flown an aircraft before?
DL: Yes! It was several years ago when we left on a tour of the Magdalen Islands.
We had hired some light aircraft to transport all the equipment and the
musicians. I was with the pilot in the plane containing the gear and, once in
the air, the pilot let me take the controls, I found it quite extraordinary.
LA:
What does the story of “Le Petit Prince” mean to you?
DL: It’s at the same time a nice story and a simple vision of the world. When
Saint Exupéry wrote that work he had had to live through bad times. “Le Petit
Prince” represents an interlude in course of his own life. It all happened,
one day or another. He wrote it very calmly, simply and in a poetic way.
LA:
What is the meaning of the lost child?
DL: It’s Saint Exupéry’s nostalgia for his own childhood. I think he held
onto the memory of his own childhood in an extraordinary way. Afterwards, his
life became very difficult. He had a suicidal side to him, he wasn’t very fond
of life. He took risks with his life.
LA:
Have you anything in your own character in common with that?
DL: Like him I don’t get unduly fazed, nevertheless, I don’t follow the Zen
Buddhist techniques of the East. I’m detached like him. We also have in common
a pre-occupation with physical things. I like manual work. At home I’m greatly
into D.I.Y. I’m the one who gets everything ready. I love to work with wood, I
love tools. I love this diligence one has when one concentrates on tiny detail.
You get lost in your own world.
LA:
Exactly what do you do when you are not singing?
DL: I’m very physical. I chop down trees, I’m a lumberjack! I work in my
studio at home every day. I love cooking too. Cooking is like songs, one
composes bits. One does it for one’s own pleasure and to give pleasure to
others. I’ve always found that to write a good song and to make a good dish is
the same thing. I make a mean curry!
LA:
What would be for you “the most beautiful scenery in the world”.
DL: I have a big weakness for deserts. It’s a scenery which never tires me.
When I’ve the time, I go to the South West of the United States and walk in
the desert.
LA:
From your childhood, passed in the company of the Jesuits, did you base the
character of Frollo (Notre Dame de Paris) on those imprinted on your mind whom
you had known?
DL: Yes, that’s obvious. I based my Frollo on several Jesuits I had known.
Happily, they weren’t as depraved as him. But, in effect, they allowed me to
form the idea of a strict priest, intellectual and tortured by his passions.
Because the Jesuits are very empassioned by all they do. One can truly say that
this was the school of Frollo!
LA:
You seem to be very fond of this character …
DL: It’s a character I like a lot. He’s a strict man, passionate, also
sympathetic. He is truly shattered by this passionate love that he discovers
rather late. He has never learned how to live with it, he doesn’t know how to
keep it under control. I like that a lot in him. His days and nights are well
ordered, all except that for that which he is not prepared, love and desire.
LA:
Talking of love, what’s your own temperament like?
DL: I’ve an appetite for life, I jump in enthusiastically. At the same time
I’m calm and fiery natured inside. Sometimes I get angry, that’s o.k! I hate
injustice and then, at times, I clearly have to speak out about these things.
LA:
Tell us exactly, what do you find attractive in a woman?
DL: She must be interested in me and be interesting herself. I don’t like
mysterious and distant women. I prefer woman with an appetite for life, a lively
interest in things, in love with life, vivacious, intelligent with bright eyes
and a ready smile.
LA:
And you, what would you do to turn on a woman?
DL: I try to be as natural as possible, that might or might not work. I don’t
want to base a relationship on false hopes and lies. If the woman whom I want to
seduce doesn’t know me “publicly”, above all things I’m not going to
tell her. I’ve lived with this false screen of fame for such a long time that
I’ve become very suspicious. Woman are often attracted to me by something they
think I am.
LA:
What sort of woman are you attracted to?
DL: There’s no one type. I like natural women who don’t give themselves airs
and graces. I don’t like anything when it’s artificial.
LA:
Are you jealous?
DL: No, not at all. Moreover, that’s to my wife’s great despair!
LA:
Are you romantic?
DL: Not that either. I’m very much around and attentive. I have a lot of
affection for my wife and I show it to her non-stop. For me, romanticism is
false, it’s just lying stories. But I know that women love it!
LA:
What’s the daftest thing you’ve ever done for a woman?
DL: At the time when I was making a record in London, I left again for Montréal
for a weekend to see the woman who is always the woman in my life. I was
carrying with me a take-away from an Indian restaurant in London which I adored.
I had fetched the hot dishes just before boarding the plane and I arrived with
dinner. I left again two days later.
LA:
You’ve been married for 15 years, is it hard to keep the flame of attraction
alive throughout a love story?
DL: No! You must want to do it, that’s all. It takes just a bit of effort.
It’s a choice that one makes, therefore one must take it on. If you don’t
want to do it you might as well stay single. It works by small efforts, that’s
it, affection.
LA:
What is for you the big turn on?
DL: A mixture of confidence and shyness. This awkwardness affects me greatly.
It’s this that pleased me about my wife, she’s altogether like that.
LA:
And what is love’s death knell?
DL: Unreasonableness, conceit, arrogance.
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