Christophe, who was born in Brest in 1964, did not come from a musical family; his grandfather was a workman, his father a fireman. But Christophe discovered music at an early age thanks to his elder brother (six years his senior). By the age of 13, young Christophe was already a passionate Rolling Stones and JimI Hendrix fan.

By the age of 14 Christophe had already started playing music himself and he soon went on to form his own group, Printemps noir. He took his new lifestyle extremely seriously, shaving his head and wearing make-up. Fortunately, his parents did not object to his new look. On the contrary they actively encouraged their son, allowing his group to rehearse at home. Meanwhile, Christophe continued studying for his "baccalauréat" in literature. His group, who had started writing their own songs, soon began playing gigs in the Brest region, performing about 90% of their own material. Their music was fairly sophisticated for a group of teenage boys and they soon found one of their songs, "Les yeux de Laura" covered by the group Goût de Luxe. The song went on to become a best-selling single. Despite this early success, Christophe called a halt to his music career at the age of 17. After passing his "baccalauréat" he went on to study history at Brest University.

Début album : "Boire"

Rather bored and disillusioned with his history degree, Christophe began to devote his time and energy to writing articles for the regional newspaper "Ouest France". He was soon given the job of writing rock reviews in the head office at Rennes, but he eventually grew tired of this work, giving up his journalistic career after just four months. Christophe then headed off to Paris where he found a series of odd jobs, working as a house painter and delivery boy before being taken on as a proof-reader by a major French publishing company.

Christophe then went on to land a job with the privately-owned French TV station TF1, where he worked as assistant to the creative director for two and a half years. Yet, Christophe was still dissatisfied with his work, and eventually he began to think of taking up music again.

After quitting his job at TF1, Christophe moved to Brittany and started setting up his own makeshift studio, ready to start recording a series of demo tapes.

In 1993 Christophe met guitarist Guillaume Jouan, with whom he began working on an album project. Guillaume and Christophe shared the music side of things while Christophe took charge of all the song-writing. His deeply personal lyrics, which involved a great deal of soul-searching, explored existentialist ideas and his own vague feelings of failure. As for the musical arrangements on the album, these could not have been further from the Anglo-Saxon music the pair were listening to at the time.

The album "Boire", which would be released in April 95, was a sober, almost minimalist affair. Meanwhile guitarist Guillaume and Christophe, who had assumed the role of singer, had been joined by a third musician, Bruno Leroux, who used to play in the group Les Locataires with Guillaume. Following the release of the highly-acclaimed album "Boire", the trio set off on a marathon tour of France. Miossec released a début single, "Non, non je ne suis plus saôul", closely followed by a second entitled "Regarde un peu la France". In January 1996, he appeared in concert at the Cigale in Paris, performing with special guest stars Sylvain Vannot, Dominique A and Jean François Coen.

1997: "Baiser"

Miossec then disappeared from the music scene for a while to chill out and begin writing songs for his forthcoming second album. "Baiser", recorded in the Rennes region and partly mixed in Montpellier in the South, was released in the spring of 1997. The existentialist melencholy of the first album "Boire" had practically disappeared from Miossec's songwriting (although certain traces did hang over some of the new material). "Baiser" left behind the world of introspective self-questioning to explore the world of relationships, which Miossec described with very direct, at times, crude lyrics.

The singer appeared to have found his own singing style on the new album, using his voice to its fullest potential. A drummer had also joined the original trio of musicians, giving Miossec's music a more powerful sound. Miossec, who has gathered his own small posse of about a dozen musicians, producers and technicians around him, is set to embark upon a new series of tours very shortly. He will then settle down to begin work on his much-awaited third album.

Although he was nominated for the 1997 "Victoires de la Musique" as "Best newcomer", Miossec was eventually ousted from the competition since he confessed not to want to take part in the event.

At the beginning of 1998, Miossec had a son named Theo. As it might have inclined him towards a more settled lifestyle, he started working again. With his friend Guillaume Jouan, he worked out a new album, "A prendre", that was released in November. In most of the songs, his voice seemed more mastered and his music gained in variety, but his texts kept in the same style. He depicted again daily-life that had slightly gone wrong, as in "le Voisin", the first single of the album, ‘la Maison", "l’Assistant parlementaire", and "les Bières aujourd’hui s’ouvrent manuellement". That record was less successful than the former ones but 120,000 copies were sold nevertheless. A few months later, the singer collaborated to other artists’ albums, such as Johnny Hallyday’s, Jane Birkin’s and Axel Bauer’s.

2001: "Brûle"

It was not until 2001 that the Brest-born singer brought out "Brûle"(Burning), his fourth album so far. Unfortunately, it proved a failure—Miossec admitted himself to having taken the wrong track for that first and mostly improvised version. Despite having lost some money in the venture, he went back to the studio and kept at it, sending for the renowned Matthieu Ballet to produce the new version. Its mood slightly differs from Miossec’s usual tone even though most of the melodies are rather non-existent. The lyrics are typical of his dark inspiration, though they are probably lighter than previous ones. Miossec seems to have put the emphasis on the penning of the lyrics, reviving his literary inheritance as can be seen in such songs as "Madame", a tribute to Juliette Greco written in Alexandrines or "Ainsi soit-elle", adapted from a poem by Georges Perros, and his quotes from Stig Dagerman’s poems. The Briton singer’s next performance is programmed for the beginning of 2002.

In February 2002, Miossec hit the road again, embarking upon an extensive new tour. Despite the fact that he admits to not always feeling very comfortable on stage, Miossec seemed to have a very positive contact with audiences on this tour and confirmed his reputation on the French music scene. A 'logbook' of the tour was published on the singer's website and fans were invited to add their own contributions. "Miossec, you really know how to put everyone's most intimate moments into words. Thankyou so much for that!!!" wrote one enthusiastic fan named Bérangère.

2004: "1964"

In the spring of 2003, Miossec took his tour down to the south of France, playing gigs in major towns such as Marseilles, Istres and Aix en Provence. He recorded a series of new songs in the summer and then tried them out live on stage in the autumn. One major highlight of this tour was a concert with the "Orchestre Lyrique de Région Avignon Provence," who invited Miossec to fuse his texts with stirring symphonic arrangements. This collaboration gave rise to several new songs, four of which were included on Miossec's new album, "1964", released in 2004.

"1964," recorded now that Miossec had turned 40, marked a new stage in his career. Coming ten years after his recording debut, the album found Miossec just as angry and discontent in his lyrics, but experimenting with a new musical approach, forsaking his usual minimalist, monochrome arrangements for a lighter, airier tone. Miossec wrote the majority of the music on his new album himself, but surrounded himself with a bevy of talented contributors such as Joseph Racaille (renowned for his arrangements for Bashung, Thomas Fersen, Dick Annegarn and Arthur H), Edith Fambuena and the other half of Les Valentins, Jean-Louis Pierrot. Miossec and his group hit the road again after the release of the album, touring his new songs across France, Switzerland and Belgium.

Once his busy live schedule was over, Miossec enjoyed a spot of well-earned rest before setting to work on his next album. Meanwhile, he also managed to get involved in other collaborations, writing material for the likes of Mass Hysteria, Yann Tiersen and Joseph d'Anvers. Between 20 and 25 September 2005, Miossec headed off for a mini-tour of Brittany, recharging his batteries with this return to his roots.

March 2006 saw the publication of "Cali et Miossec : rencontre au fil de l'autre", a book written by Grégoire Laville and Yves Colin, featuring photographs by Claude Gassian. The book revolved around conversations between Miossec and Cali, a singer Miossec claims is "the future of French chanson."

2006: "L'étreinte"

Miossec’s sixth album, "L'étreinte", arrived in record stores on 21 August 2006. Recorded in Brussels, the album featured Miossec’s habitual part-poetic, part-protest creations and guest vocals from Stef Kamil Carlens (the singer from Zita Swoon) which gave "L'étreinte" an innovative touch that had perhaps been missing from his recent work. "L'étreinte", produced by Jean-Louis Pierot, also included contributions from Jacques Brel and Juliette Gréco’s accompanist, Gérard Jouannest.

The album cover was created by one of the singer’s friends, the Brest-based painter Paul Bloas, who managed to convey something of Miossec’s artistic and psychological metamorphosis. The first single release from the album, "La facture d'électricité", a hardhitting song about unemployment, received extensive airplay on French radio stations. And from the moment of its release, the album proved to be extremely popular with both fans and music critics. As a prelude to his extensive tour, Miossec performed two concerts (on 12 & 13 October) in his hometown of Brest.

After putting in an appearance at the "Francofolies" music festival in La Rochelle, Miossec rounded off the first part of his tour with a concert at the "Aux Zarbs" festival, in Auxerre, on 21 July 2007.

On 17 September 2007, Miossec released his first ever compilation, "Brest of", a selection of his greatest hits specially re-recorded for the occasion. In the autumn of that year, Miossec hit the road again for a series of concert dates. The following year, in July 2008, the Brest-born singer returned to his native Brittany to put in an appearance at the Maritime Festival in Douarnenez. Here, he paid a musical tribute to the late Breton poet Georges Perros (born in Douarnenez in 1923.) 

2009: "Finistériens"

Towards the end of 2008, Miossec teamed up with fellow Breton musician Yann Tiersen (the talented multi-instrumentalist and soundtrack composer also happened to be a close friend of his.) The pair began work on a joint album together, entitled "Finistériens", based on a series of melodies Tiersen sent to Miossec. The latter than penned some highly personal lyrics to these, inspired by his usual themes ranging from stormy relationships ("Seul ce que j'ai perdu") to topical social issues ("Les chiens de paille.") The songs, including "Fermer la maison" (a song Miossec originally penned for Alain Bashung and which he himself sang as a tribute to the late French music star on "Finistériens") were recorded in Tiersen's studio, in Paris.

Before the official release of "Finistériens" in September 2009, Miossec and Tiersen premièred songs from their new album in front of a live audience. The duo played a dozen dates (including a concert at Le Quartz, in Brest) in January and February 2009.
In October, Miossec resumed his solo activities, teaming up with his usual backing band for a mini-tour that lasted through until the end of November. The tour includes a date at La Cigale, in Paris, on 25 October 2009.

On 24 March 2010, he performed at the Olympia in Paris.

Moissec’s lyrics featured on Nolwenn Leroy’s CD, “Bretonne”, released at the end of 2010. She did a version of “Brest” and also interpreted a new song written by the Breton author: “Je ne serai jamais ta Parisienne”. He was also responsible for reviving interest in the sea shanty singers, Les Marins d’Iroise during the summer of 2011.

2011: "Chansons ordinaires"

In September 2011, Miossec released his eighth album, "Chansons ordinaires". To record it, he took on three musicians playing with or in the group Montgomery: Sébastien Buffet, David Euverte and Thomas Poli. The quartet shut themselves away in a farm cum studio close to Rennes to record a collection of stark dry, and ultimately very rock, songs. Mixing was carried out by Mark Plati in New York.

Christophe Moissec applies a blisteringly direct treatment to the album’s eleven songs: “Chanson pour les amis”, “Chanson d’insomniaque” and the ironically titled, “Chanson que personne n’écoute”, in a style reminiscent of a pre-war repertoire (something like Damia or Berthe Sylva).

From 20 to 23 September he was at the Nouveau Casino in Paris to perfect his new tracks before taking them off on tour.

January 2012

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