In his new album, Bernard Minet uses the credits of cartoons that made his success with saturated guitars.
“But he hadn’t done Bioman in hard rock? It was really good! ” with swe smile and her cheerful pout that radiates through the phone, Bernard Minet tells franceinfo the remark of an official of the record company Universal who allowed the release, Friday, February 14, of his new album. The former Muscled drummer – the group that accompanied Dorothée in the 1990s – lends itself with pleasure to the game of the promotional tour to support its new opus and its new group: the Bernard Minet Metal Band.
His album is a collection of cover credits of cartoons with … hard rock arrangements. On the program, emblematic titles such as Bioman, goldorak, The Knights of the Zodiac, Denver, the last dinosaur, Olive and Tom or Conan the adventurer. Songs that rocked a whole generation of children between 1987 and 1997. Above all, many of these cartoons were broadcast in the “Club Dorothée”, a cult program on TF1. Bernard Minet, he was illustrated at the time by interpreting the French versions of the opening titles of several of these cartoons.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbg-InH7EGo
Varied artist, Bernard Minet recalls having made his weapons, from adolescence, in rock. “At 15, I did several springboards at Golf Drouot and one day, I joined Magpye, a group of Angers from heavy rock”, he recalls in a press release. At franceinfo, the native of Hénin-Beaumont (Pas-de-Calais) indicates that the American group Metallica, and more particularly their famous Black album, was his reference for the sound of his new album. “For me, it is really the group which found the effectiveness”, he says.
But the final record of the disc is far from being metal. The sound lacks thickness, heaviness and harshness. All the voices are in clear song, as in the initial versions. Nothing is shouted or sung gutturally. In summary, the whole sounds harder rock than metal, as Franceinfo found when listening to the disc, and as shown in the clip of the new version of the credits Knights of the Zodiac. Basically, the general aesthetic inevitably brings to mind Saint Seiya, the original version of Knights of the Zodiac.
“Bernard knows classic hard rock bands … But the metal of 2020, I don’t think it know. We are there to guide him. This is where we come in “, comments Chris, one of the guitarists from the Cannes hardcore band Heart Attack, who forms the Bernard Minet Metal Band.
The difference between hard rock and metal, I don’t see it.at franceinfo
“For me, it is tiny”, readily admits Bernard Minet, who won first prize in percussion at the National Conservatory in 1974. The musician, who has played fifty times at Bercy, admits having voluntarily decided in favor of“a disc accessible to everyone”. He underlines in passing his inability to produce a shouted song and his choice to remain faithful to his image: “I am lucky to have a voice signature, I was not going to hide it.”
In reality, the formula that mixes generics of drawings and saturated guitars is not new to Bernard Minet: he experimented with a group that called itself the Cowboys of hell (a nod to the album Cowboys from Hell of the American group Pantera). In 2004, everything started with a collective of musicians (rather amateurs of saturated music) from Colmar (Haut-Rhin) who organized concerts and festivals. “We had a group of friends to make music, to have fun. One evening, we were raving, we wandered a bit and we started to write our ideas on a flipchart”, says Jérôme, 38, guitarist from Cowboys of Hell, who grew up with the credits sung by Bernard Minet.
Musicians get to work saying that the former Muscle “didn’t take itself too seriously, but did things seriously”. They record one of their rehearsals and send it to Bernard Minet, who calls them back a few days later, enthusiastic. “We absolutely wanted to keep the wigs, the costumes, really play it like in Spinal tap [un faux documentaire mettant en scène un groupe de hard rock parodique], recalls Jerome. Bernard had a very clear and framed vision of what he wanted. He was uncompromising on the technical aspects: the mixing of his voice, the harmonization on the guitars. “
After numerous exchanges and several rehearsals, they finally perform together for the first time on stage, on September 17, 2004, in Colmar, during a festival organized by the Cowboys of Hell and their entourage.
The first date was a real success. At the end of the set, Bernard told us: ‘We can’t do only one date.’ And we made a dozen of them.at franceinfo
The Cowboys of Hell tour notably passed through the capital in 2005. “The atmosphere was simply enormous: slams, pogos, fans who go on stage to kiss Bernard Minet, and the audience who sings in unison”, reported the specialized site Eklektik-Rock at the time.
If Bernard Minet keeps “good contacts” with its ephemeral group, the experience stops after ten concerts. “Economically, it was not possible: there were too many of us, it was too expensive. And I didn’t have a turner “, Explains the former Musclé drummer.
Bernard Minet then resumes his “traditional shows”, that is to say galas during which he sings the credits of the cartoons which made his success with a pre-recorded classical orchestration. An exercise that he fully assumes and appreciates. Above all, he confines himself to the stage.
For twenty years, I haven’t recorded anything. I didn’t want to do anything in the studio.at franceinfo
“But in 2017, for the twenty years since the end of the” Club Dorothée “, for the fans, I thought that I could record songs in the country sauce. I make four or five songs like that, and three jazzy songs in bass-drums-piano training because I was humming in the car. “ It registers under this formula the generics of Captain Flam, of Knights of the Zodiac and of Bioman.
He then offers them to Mediawan [le fonds créé par Matthieu Pigasse, Xavier Niel et Pierre-Antoine Capton] in 2018, when the group wanted to release a compilation (in three CDs) of Bernard Minet. Mediawan seeks to make the most of its catalog after having marketed a compilation of Dorothée then Hélène Rollès. The group accepts the jazzy versions of Bernard Minet, but Universal encourages him to take up the formula experimented with the Cowboys of hell.
This is how the credits project with sharp guitars and a big sound comes back to life. Bernard Minet did not abandon his original intention. There is talk, for a time, he says, of releasing a double album: one jazz, the other metal. He ends up giving up the first one so as not to “penalize” the two sides.
Driven by Universal, the drummer who accompanied, among others, Charles Aznavour and Nicole Croisille finds himself on track for the Bernard Minet Metal Band. In order to defend the new versions live, Bernard Minet is looking for musicians. “Our turner puts us in touch. For the tour, Bernard wanted musicians who are already used to playing together, he wanted musical and scenic coherence, an established group “says Chris of the Heart Attack group. It turns out that the training of which he is a part has existed since 2007. “We thought for a little while, not long, and we thought there was only positive to be learned”, traces the 36-year-old guitarist, stressing that his first 45-turns was that of the credits of Bioman.
The first concert of the Bernard Minet Metal Band, in Limoges (Haute-Vienne) on December 21, somewhat disappointed in terms of vigor, according to Stéphane, one of the organizers of the event. “It was much less powerful than the artists before and after”, he told franceinfo. But the good humor was in the party, nuance immediately this responsible for festival.
Bernard Minet was obviously happy to be there. (…) It was a fun moment with a generous and warm artist, without any headache.at franceinfo
And to comment: “The audience who subscribed to the concept were happy to see the singer of the credits of their childhood and sang the lyrics loudly.” For Chris, from Heart Attack, or Jérôme, from the Cowboys of Hell, Bernard Minet’s sincerity is beyond doubt. “What is crazy is the connection he has with the public, people love him. We feel a mutual affection”Chris reports.
Asked about the release of any original titles, composed and written by him, (and therefore outside the metal register), Bernard Minet decided without a wooden tongue: “It is absolutely useless, everyone does not care! We are not there to waste our time. And there is a high demand for these generics, this nostalgia.”
With the growing success of metal bands in the offbeat and comic register, as Ultra Vomit, Bernard Minet risks prolonging his adventure on the saturated rock scenes for a long time. On promotion in Hauts-de-France, on February 4, he explains that he produced four live television sets on the same day: “It never happened to me!”, is surprised the one who has been in the business for fifty years.
–
