SOUNDCHECK. Pregnant Guy channels his (lack of) regret on cover of ‘Je Ne Regrette Rien’

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After Pregnant Guy, alias of Gorik van Oudheusden, dropped the single ‘Hoelang Nog’ in June, a collaboration with his Antwerp colleague Ramzi that responds to the whirlwind of #BlackLivesMatter, the Brussels resident pur sang in these culture-smashing corona times of a new single: a cover of Édith Piaf’s classic ‘Je Ne Regrette Rien’, featuring his fellow townsman Arno. The video clip – a project of Telenet YUGO – has been on YouTube since yesterday. And watching is more than ever an act of charity, because the more views the clip gets, the more money YUGO will donate to a selection of Brussels charities: We Love BXL, Coderdojo and VOLTA. Metro Strict Pregnant Guy for more text and explanation.

Goodbye Gorik. Are you actually a fan of Arno?

“Absolutely, I have about eight of his albums in my record collection, especially from TC Matic. Personally, I have known him for eight years, we often go out for a pint or a glass of wine in the same café. ”

What unmistakably unites you is that passionate love for Brussels. Are there other similarities with Arno?

“My love for Ostend (laughs). You are there, so to speak, faster than on the other side of Brussels by public transport. It has an urban feel, and of course there is the sea, which makes me so happy. I wrote a lot of my material in Ostend. Furthermore, we are both good living with a love for music and good food. Isn’t that life in a nutshell? ”

The combination of a young, ambitious rap sensation and an established rock icon at an advanced age in itself stimulates curiosity. What attracted you to the project?

“Besides the fact that I ‘Je Ne Regrette Rien’ is simply a whole clean song, the lyrics are appropriate to my life. The collaboration with Arno is not a first in itself, because I had already played with him a few times in the past. The matter was actually settled very quickly: the recordings took two days. ”

As you yourself indicate, the theme of the song is made for you: “Je me fous du passé”, Piaf sings. You too have dealt with your turbulent past in your music. Koen Mortier, director of the accompanying video clip, described it like this: “If you want to do your thing, you have to move forward without doubting and above all without regrets. Regret is not necessary, regret is totally unnecessary, regret only holds you back. ” Does that sum up your philosophy of life?

(enthusiastic) “Fully! Completely suits my lifestyle and my career path. Sometimes you cannot make choices. But if you have the choice, make sure you make the right one. I have learned that: you cannot return to a choice. ‘Faut assumer’, they say in French: taking responsibility for your choices. I don’t want to regret the path I walk. I can sometimes take a wrong turn, but that is part of it. ”

You invariably proclaim that you don’t regret anything, but in a mood of self-reflection beneath that armor, is there never a voice in your head that looks back and asks, “Damn, what if I had acted differently then?”

“Yes. I am not a rapper who is only concerned with himself and is unconsciously trapped in a false world. That little voice, that moral, is certainly present and you can also hear it in my music. Sometimes I am almost speaking to myself in a kind of fit of supreme self-awareness and doubt: ‘Fuck, everything is going so well, but wouldn’t you have done it better this way? ‘. Look, I like doubt, but it should never take the upper hand. It should never gnaw at my self-confidence. ”

“Professionally, I don’t regret anything at the moment. Certainly not about the fact that I stopped working in construction, otherwise I would never have had so much time to make music. The private area, that’s a different story. ”

To pick up on that: in an interview with De Standaard from 2018 you said that you “automatically build a large wall around yourself” that shuts out your close family. You said you “had no time and no enthusiasm quality time with the bomma, bompa or other bompa ”. You also let slip that you already realized then that you would regret it later, when it will be too late.

“I still remember that interview very clearly. I then shook myself awake by telling very personal things. Since then I have had contact with my mother again, I often visit grandma and grandpa and we call each other. So I tightened up again. Sad that I had to say something like that in a newspaper to realize it. I don’t want to stand at the funeral of a close relative and say: ‘fuck, I have failed’.”

I don’t want to stand at the funeral of a close relative and say: ‘fuck, I have failed’

Do you think regret is also a matter of mental attitude, which you can unlearn by putting things in perspective and looking at things differently?

“Not really for me, although I have learned very hard in recent years to put things into perspective. I used to be a shortsighted person whose world was very small. I got up at 6:30 am, went to work, came home, smoked a joint and the next day the same song: that was my routine, that’s how I spent my days. A world has opened up for me in that area: I have learned to understand many new things, which allow me to put things into perspective. Regret is only part of that. ”

“A vibrant city like Brussels, where there is a lot of movement, keeps me constantly busy. My girlfriend is a psychologist, which leads to many interesting conversations. I gain new insights about myself and start to better understand where certain choices come from, or where the seeds of some behavioral disorders lie. For example, I am very selfish during the process of creating my songs – I want to be able to do my thing – and that is diametrically opposed to how I use my money. I share everything. I was raised by five different families, who themselves shared everything with me. ”

Self-reflection is a common thread throughout your oeuvre. Does that work therapeutically?

“Definitely! I like to dissect myself and put myself under a magnifying glass. And I try to explain those insights to the outside world. Introspection sometimes produces the most intense and powerful music. Chet Faker, for example, who quasi cries in his songs, or an Amy Winehouse or Kendrick Lamar, singing their demons. My favorite James Brown song, “Public Enemy # 1,” is about his heroin addiction. And self-reflection is also fascinating: I can hardly fill 12 songs with grumbling about how good and tough I am and how much money I have? That’s not how I am. “

Édith Piaf was of course a great figure of the French song. Did you feel any hesitation in venturing into such an iconic song that is almost considered French musical heritage?

“Yes you do. But at some point you have to settle for that. Our version will never be better than the original, it goes without saying. My approach was: dissect Piaf’s text and relate it to myself. I’ve been so fine-tuning my text until I thought ‘dees I think nice‘. Anyway: it remains a cover, so testing against the original is comparing apples with pears. ”

Was it a challenge to give the song a new, personal look, or did the words appear effortlessly on paper?

(thinks) “It was a challenge. Music history tells us that the vast majority of covers cannot match the original, so making a cover is always dangerous. With that statement I hit my own cart, right? ” (laughs)

“I have found much more confidence in my pen in recent years and have also perfected the art of rewriting. I am not easily satisfied. For example, I re-wrote this cover four times and submitted it to a few proofreaders. Beware: I am open to feedback, but from a close, limited circle. If too many people propose suggestions or adjustments, it quickly turns into a soup and I react irritably: ‘Weete wa, write it yourself ‘” (laughs)

The clip was directed by Koen Mortier. Did you make a creative contribution to the realization of the video?

“As soon as Koen has a plan in mind, you can stand on your own head: he will not budge.”

So you had nothing to do.

“But no, that’s the Koen. It’s one pateeke. But as he has nothing to say about my music, I am not entering his territory. It’s that simple. Everyone’s thing, then we progress faster. ”

Watch the clip below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxhQ3SFd-Vs

Quentin SOENENS

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