Silvain Vanot, who was born in Normandy in 1963, had his artistic creativity encouraged from an early age by his mother (a sculptress) and his father (a painter.) When Silvain was a teenager the family relocated to Criquebeuf-sur-Seine, in the suburbs of Rouen, and it was here that the aspiring young musician started hanging out in cellar night-clubs and listening to Bob Dylan and The Rolling Stones. Silvain formed a number of teen rock bands over the years, none of which survived for long. His most successful venture was a group called The Clay Eaters whose edgy punk-rock sound was modelled on The Sex Pistols and Les Dogs (a leading rock band from Rouen whom Silvain regularly ran into at the local record store "Melodies Massacre.")

Silvain went on to play with Les Regrets and Les Ennuis, but he eventually turned away from music to concentrate on his studies at the Lycée Victor-Duruy. He worked hard for his "agrégation" (a competitive exam for posts on the teaching staff of lycées and universities) but, much to his disappointment, he failed. This precipitated his decision to leave the family home in Rouen and relocate to Paris where he got a job teaching literature at the Ecole St John-Perse. Silvain was not overly enthused by his pupils or his new position and he turned his hand to journalism for a while on the side, submitting articles to specialist magazines. Meanwhile, Silvain continued to play his guitar in his spare time and soon assembled enough material to record a number of demo tapes. He duly sent these off to Paris-based record companies, but barely got a single reply.

1993: "Corvéable à merci"

By a stroke of luck one day one of Vanot's demo tapes landed in the hands of Jean-Louis Murat. The poetic singer-songwriter from the Auvergne was instantly struck by Vanot's plaintive tenor and his striking vocal intonations reminiscent of Neil Young and Lou Reed. Murat passed the demo tape on to the head of his own record label, Virgin, and urged label bosses to sign the young singer. Thanks to Murat's support, Silvain Vanot went on to release his eponymous debut album on Virgin in 1993. The album contained a number of musical gems including "Corvéable à merci" and "La vie qu’on aime", an existentialist ballad into which Vanot poured a lot of dark thoughts and personal angst. Vanot's quirky debut also featured a musical adaptation of an anonymous 15th-century poem: "En douleur et tristesse."

Vanot's cultivated mix of 15th-century poetry, Gérard Manset-style lyrics and Neil Young influences combined with his consummate guitar-playing skills brought him attention from the critics. But beneath the enigmatic lyrics some of his songs were actually based on much more prosaic themes. (Vanot later admitted, for instance, that the poetically-titled "Le jour se lève" is actually about the act of masturbation.) Vanot's debut album sold a mere 8,000 copies, but it put him on the French music map nevertheless, establishing him as a new addition to the 'family' of dark, tormented singer-songwriters spearheaded by the likes of Miossec and Dominique A.

1995: "Sur des arbres"

After putting in an appearance at the "Inrockuptibles" festival and supporting his mentor, Jean-Louis Murat, on tour, Vanot locked himself away in the studio and began work on a second album. "Sur des arbres", released on Virgin in 1995, found Vanot channelling Neil Young's "Crazy Horse" period via saturated guitars and Americana-style vocals that the French singer had worked on intensively with a voice coach. Stand-out tracks such as "Le soutien du Roy", "Le reste de mon âge" and the title track "Sur des arbres" confirmed Vanot's reputation as a tortured soul whose work was fuelled by blistering guitars and raw passion.

In the making of this second album, Vanot was joined in the studio by the same musicians who had contributed to his debut. But this time round he also recruited the services of the American guitarist Marc Ribot on a song entitled "Rembrandt." Interestingly enough, "Sur des arbres" also found Vanot teaming up with Dominique A to record a French cover of British glam rocker Marc Bolan's classic "Seagull Woman." Vanot also adapted a poem by the 19th-century French poet Charles Cros ("Bonne Fortune.")

On "Sur des Arbres", a far more elaborate work than his debut album, Vanot expanded both his vocal and musical horizons. However, his arrangements still reflected the pared-back, minimalist trend that was the trademark of French rock at the time. Vanot claimed that his second album was also an attempt to change his image as a dark, tormented soul. "'Sur des arbres' is about me striving towards a little more lightness and a little more diversity," he said. The release of this second album was followed by another tour, this time with Vanot performing as the headlining act. While sales of "Sur des arbres" remained limited (album sales came in at around 10,000) Vanot's reputation spread by word-of-mouth. And the singer enjoyed a personal moment of triumph performing at the Printemps de Bourges festival in the spring of 1996, where his concert was greeted by the same rapturous applause as sets by fellow Bourges head-liners Miossec and Dominique A.

The following year, Vanot was invited to contribute a song to the collective fund-raising compilation "Comme un seul homme" (from which proceeds went to charities campaigning for organ donations.) The album also featured contributions from the likes of Daniel Darc, Clarika, Autour de Lucie and Mathieu Boogaerts.

1997: "éGérie"

For his third album, "éGérie", Vanot headed out to the U.S. to record in Nashville, Tennessee. There, he worked with the American sound engineer Robb Earls, renowned for his work with the 'alternative country' band Lambchop (of whom Vanot is a big fan.) Recording sessions took place in the legendary Quad Studio where Neil Young had recorded his seminal album "Harvest" two decades earlier. "éGérie" proved to be the most accomplished album of Vanot's career to date, an album on which the singer brought together his musical 'savoir-faire' and his extraordinarily rich songwriting. While "éGérie" was strongly influenced by Americana in terms of the music, the lyrics were all in French (and recorded in France.) As to the mysterious title ("égérie" is French for muse), Vanot simply explained that the capital G was a personal acknowledgment to the person who had accompanied him through the trials and tribulations of his songwriting career over the years.

Vanot confessed that he had abandoned his "natural rigidity" on his third album and experimented with a more eclectic style, varying the tempo from whip-cracking rock numbers to softer, dream-like ballads such as "C’est dans ma tête" and "Il bouge aussi." Vanot also introduced the sound of Indian sitars on "L’Hirondelle" and penned a strange and disturbing ode to a town/woman entitled "Mary, ville morte." In short, the singer-poet pulled out all the stops on his new album, attempting to "use a language people will never hear on television." The musical line-up on Vanot's third album changed significantly. "Sur des arbres" drummer Philippe Sirop had left to form the folk-rock group L’attirail. Meanwhile, Dominique Depret, who manned guitars on "éGérie", would also go on to form his own band, Holden.

1999: "(En attendant) Tout brille"

The new album was inevitably followed by a new tour, but Vanot already had his mind focused on his next recording. He struck out in an innovative direction on his fourth album, "(En Attendant) tout brille." The album, released in 1999, was basically an acoustic session of a selection of his old songs and the simple acoustic arrangement of the material brought the quality of Vanot’s music and the poetic quality of his songwriting to the fore. "(En Attendant) tout brille" contained a number of Vanot classics including "éGérie", "La Norme", "Petit bois", "La vie qu’on aime" and his 1993 gem "Corvéable à merci", but also featured a number of previously unreleased tracks such as "Un air à deux voix", "Tout brille" and "Vipère." Vanot also included two unexpected covers on this new album: a reworking of the Ivorian musician Gustave Gbenou's "La bêtise humaine" and a 1930s Greek standard,  "Yannis."

2002: "Il Fait soleil"

Vanot was soon hard at work on a new album, shutting himself away in a Paris studio between July and November 2001 with producer Jacques Erhart (the man behind Henri Salvador’s successful comeback album "Chambre avec Vue".) Vanot's fifth album, "Il Fait Soleil", was released in February 2002 and the title track (a cover of a little-known Jean-Roger Caussimon song) was chosen as the first single release. Moving away from the chanson-rock sound Vanot had experimented with in the past, this new album revolved around warmer, exotic tones with the Madagascan accordion-player Régis Gizavo joining Vanot in the studio, for instance, for a reworking of "Rame le canot" (a song by the Reunionese artist Alain Peters.) Elsewhere, Vanot mellowed the atmosphere on "Il Fait soleil" infusing all eleven tracks with his trademark slow tempos. "Il Fait soleil" received rave reviews from the critics who hailed it as the work of a "great singer-song-writer." Combining his passion for music and literature, Vanot went on to write a biography of Bob Dylan (published by Les Editions Librio in 2001.)

Over the years, Vanot admitted to having become increasingly frustrated with the hectic schedule of the recording industry which forced artists to go straight from the studio onto the road to promote a new album. He thus made the radical decision  of terminating his contract with his record label and taking a break from his singing career. His silence on the recording front lasted several years, but in the meantime he turned his hand to composing film music and documentary soundtracks. From time to time, Vanot also picked up his guitar to accompany other artists such as Sport Murphy and the Tahitian-born singer Mareva Galenter. 

2009: "Bethesda"

Vanot gradually took to writing songs for himself again and he finally made a comeback on the recording front in September 2009, releasing a new album, entitled "Bethesda", on an independent French label. All the songs on the album were recorded under live conditions in a studio in Wales and the French singer and guitarist collaborated with a number of talented English musicians including bassist John Greaves and drummer Iain Templeton. Working on an independent label with a much tighter budget than usual appears to have had a cathartic effect on Vanot, freeing him to do exactly what he wanted. The ballads on his new album profit from taut, sparse arrangements and Vanot's slim tenor voice quavers with heartfelt emotion. In short, "Bethesda" weaves the usual magical Vanot mix of atmosphere and poetry.

October 2009

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