Charlotte Gainsbourg — daughter of ’60s pop icon Serge Gainsbourg — is releasing an album jointly created by U.S. cult musician Beck. Metro World News caught up with her.
IRM is a very eclectic album — were you surprised with the result?
I wouldn’t say surprised because we worked on it for months, but I discovered new universes that I didn’t know existed with Beck!
Did you have a list of ideal collaborators?
Not really. I’ve always wanted to work with Radiohead, but that wasn’t possible. I was recording with Air and met producer Nigel Godrick who was also recording with Beck at the same time. And that’s how we met.
Did you ask Beck directly?
No, my label called his manager. I didn’t want him to feel uncomfortable if he didn’t feel like doing it. We worked together for five days, then three months later he sent me the songs. I was immediately convinced and I really wanted him to do the entire album.
How did you find working with him?
It was just incredible to watch him actually create one song after the other. He has a huge amount of creativity. I had the impression he woke up with his guitar and started composing all day. He would think of lyrics while talking to the sound engineer. The album was going in many directions at the same time and, the more we tried new things, the better I liked it.
Beck seldom collaborates — why do you think he chose you?
Well, I never asked him openly whether he was happy or not to work with me. Instead I tried to figure it out by calling his wife and his manager. From what they told me he was very happy … but he is a very secret guy and I don’t know much about him.
