Philippe Blanchard was born on December 8th 1968 in Chantonnay in the Vendee department in western France. In this very conservative region, he was raised in a family where Catholicism and traditional values were important. His education was very classic, but at a young age Philippe took an interest in art and music. It was with one of his uncles who was keen on the guitar that he learned the basics of this instrument and in particular Brazilian rhythms.

At the age of 8 in 1976, Philippe had open-heart surgery.As a teenager, he started to form groups whose repertoire looked towards Anglo-Saxon Pop music. His artistic voice became apparent and after his baccalaureat, he enrolled in Art College in Rennes (in Brittany).

1992: "les Mariages Chinois et la relecture"

It was between Rennes and Nantes, where he spent more and more time before moving there that Philippe/Katerine started writing and recording his first songs on an 8-track recorder in his student room. This was how in 1992, he put together his very first CD, "les Mariages Chinois et la relecture". Surrounded by his sister, nicknamed Bruno to offset the feminine pseudonym of her brother, and his girlfriend Anne, Katerine appeared on the music scene by arousing general curiosity. Difficult to categorize and to identify, this record highlights the feminine voices through short songs and texts. Moreover, the entire album cultivates briefness. Katerine presents himself more as a writer of music than as a simple singer. His musical influences are varied, from the bossa nova to French music like Francoise Hardy early in her career.

After the birth of his daughter Edie in 1993, Katerine started on a second album, "L'éducation anglaise" which was released in '94. Lightness and mystery are still in place on this CD where Katerine doesn't sing at all. He leaves this task to Anne and Bruno, his same partners from his previous CD. That year the man from the Vendee got a lot of attention when he did a cover of "L'Eté indien", the famous hit by French singer Joe Dassin, in a compilation dedicated to him called "l'Equipe à Jojo".

His heart hesitates

Cultivating a certain sense of enigma, people started talking about Katerine, without him becoming very famous or popular because of it. In '96, he released several four-song CDs, before reaching the record bins with a third album "Mes mauvaises fréquentations", the singer gets his first public success ,"Mon coeur balance"(my heart hesitates). The feminine voices vanished and Katerine finally puts himself in the spotlight of his work. He thus comes out of a confidential circle where he had been confined up to now. The reviews were excellent and his concerts attracted more people. His fame grew as far as Japan, a country that loves French Pop music. Katerine definitively made his unusual style known.

Parallel to his own creations, he worked for some friends. This was how he produced Mercedes Audras' album in '96 and wrote for the young Japanese singer, Kahimi Karie. In '97, he wrote an album for two Anglo-Japanese singers, "Les Sœurs Winchester". Lastly, we saw his name in connection with the French group the Little Rabbits whom he worked with in '91 and would work with again in '98.

After a performance at the springtime music festival Printemps de Bourges in April, Katerine set off on tour with Mercedes Audras as his opening act. We saw him on December 19th, 1996 at the Bataclan in Paris where he shared the billing with Mathieu Boogaerts.

Duo, Duality

Undeniably inspired by singers like Brigitte Fontaine or the female voices of the Sixties, Katerine undertook a musical collaboration with the Dane Anna Karina, the oracle of New Wave cinema and in particular of director Jean-Luc Godard in the Sixties. Together, they put on a show where they re-did the old songs of the singer-actress, including reorchestrated Rezvani and Gainsbourg compositions, and songs by Katerine and unreleased ones by Anna Karina. Created at the festival in the city of Mâcon in Burgundy, les Voix Si les Voix La, the result was celebrated by the critics for its originality and freshness. We found them again at the festival of the music magazine Les Inrockuptibles at the beginning of October '99. The two artists are thinking of starting on a tour in 2000.

At the same time, Katerine released a double album made up of two CDs which are very different in their content, and sometimes even sold separately. On one "les Créatures" and on the other "l'Homme à trois mains". These records ended up convincing the public of Philippe Katerine's unique talent. Improvisation, texts, collages, his work resembles nothing and at the same time seems very fashionable and timeless, cultivating the unusual humour, which is sometimes biting. The song "Je vous emmerde" stands out of the bunch by its irreverent stench. Without a doubt, Katerine revigorates French music by giving it a good dose of insolence and sophistication.

Katerine continued to be as versatile as ever, proving his talent in many different fields. He would soon step in front of the camera to act in "Nom de code: Sacha", a medium-length feature film by Thierry Jousse. Katerine then turned his hand to songwriting once again, composing material for his girlfriend Helena Noguerra's album, "Azul" (released in the spring of 2001).

Katerine was back on the set again in 2002, acting in Jonathan Demme's film "La vérité sur Charlie." In the autumn of that year, he went on to release a new album "8ème ciel", recorded with The Recyclers. The album featured appearances by two very special guest stars: a 70-year-old singer by the name of Général Fifrelin and an 11-year-old girl called Boulette. On 11 November 2002, Katerine performed at the legendary Olympia music-hall in  Paris.

Continuing to flit back and forwards between the music and film worlds, Katerine composed the soundtrack to a new feature film by the Larrieu brothers, "Un homme, un vrai" (which hit cinema screens the following year). In the meantime he hit the road again for a mini-tour of 30 concert dates. Katerine then started work on his own personal film projects, shooting a short film entitled "Un km à pied", then a full-length feature film, "Peau de cochon" (for which he finally found a distributor in 2005). In 2005, Katerine also starred in another Larrieu brothers' film, "Peindre ou faire l'amour" (for which he also wrote the soundtrack).

2005: "Robots après tout"

In October 2005, Katerine released a new album "Robots après tout" (the title is a tongue-in-cheek reference to Daft Punk's "Human after all"). This album found Katerine embarking in a new musical direction after splitting from The Recyclers. This time round, he worked alone in the studio with a groove box, a tiny machine on which he composed his songs in the most minimalist way possible. The album, co-produced by Renaud Letang and the Canadian producer Gonzales, was infused with a certain electro feel that broke with the 'pop dandy' image for which Katerine had been famous up to that point.

Not content with having diversified as a singer, songwriter, composer, actor and film director, Katerine added another string to his bow in 2005, working with the choreographer Mathilde Monnier on a new showcase for his songs. He is expected to tour this new show some time in 2006.

The show took place from 24 to 26 February at the Ferme du Buisson cultural centre just outside Paris.

After the album’s release, Philippe Katerine set off on tour and in 2008 he travelled round the summer festivals. The mauve polo-necks and pink tights sported by Katerine and his musicians, the picture of Jesus drawn on his torso, and his hit “Louxor j’adore”, transformed the artist into an exuberant, over-the-top stage sensation, morphing his image from that of intimate singer to nationwide star.

He performed at the Olympia in Paris on 30 October, and in March of the next year he was at Paris’s Zénith. In July 2008, Philippe Katerine spent three nights interpreting his “Chanson chorégraphiées” – songs choreographed by Mathilde Monnier – in the courtyard of the Palais des Papes during the renowned Avignon Festival.

Along with the Canadian Gonzales, Philippe Katerine produced the Arielle Dombasle album that came out in April 2009. He sang a duet with her entitled “Extraterrestre”.

Partial to partnerships of all kinds, Katerine performed in Saint-Nazaire on 31 October. Following a residence in the town, he got together with the group Francis et ses Peintres and proposed an immersion into the eighties, doing covers of hits like Michel Jonasz’s “Le chanteur de jazz” and “Coup de folie” by Thierry Pastor. The covers could be listened to on the Internet.

2010: “Philippe Katerine”

After five years of artistic agitation, the singer returned to a more minimalist form of expression. The songs on the album that was released in September, called “Philippe Katerine”, are unsettling, yet underline a creativity still highly coloured with derision. The album’s mixed reviews swung between praising the genius in him to disparaging him as a troublemaker. Musically speaking, Katerine this time opted for instruments like the guitar, bass and drums. One of the album’s first tracks, “La Banane”, is in praise of idleness. Another track, “J'aime tes fesses” sees him accompanied by his partner Jeanne Balibar, and yet another by his daughter Edie, “A toi – à toi”. The cover of the album is a photo of Katerine posing with his parents. 

In November, he set off on a tour of France.

November 2010

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