Neil McEwan talks to Belgian singer Micheline Van Hautem, who’s appearing at The Famous Spiegeltent with her fabulous interpretations of the works of Jacques Brel, as well as guesting in La Clique.
Micheline Sings Brel @ The Famous Spiegeltent, Edinburgh until Sun 25 Aug (not 12, 19) @ 19:00
La Clique @ The Famous Spiegeltent, Edinburgh until Sun 25 Aug @ 22:00
So Micheline, how did you come into this business called show?
I knew as a child that I wanted to be a singer. I used to entertain the neighbours singing on the swing in my garden and I also played the flute. Then there was a competition where I scored pretty high and I got the chance to work with a band and record a song. Things started rolling and I went from one band to the next, eventually creating my own band.Then I started making recordings and got into a movie; Crazy Love based on Charles Bukowski’s book of poetry: Love is a Dog From Hell. In the film there was a ballroom prom scene set in the nineteen sixties where the main character goes through a major change, so I had a big Mari Wilson beehive hairdo. Sean Penn attended the premiere in LA and Madonna was there. A little claim to fame I have is that Madonna actually enquired about me. She asked if the lady on the screen was also the voice of the singer? The director said yes, I asked him did she like what I did? and he said sure.
So one concert, one band, one CD led to another but at the time it was much more American influenced; I was singing Janis Joplin and even some Led Zeppelin. Smoky bars, loud guitars and amplifiers. Until, at the beginning of my twenties, I got offered the chance to join a bigger ensemble called Anonymous Society to sing Jacques Brel and that was how I ended up coming to the fringe for the first time in 99 where we won the Fringe First award. On the last week we moved to The Famous Spiegeltent where David Bates saw me for the first time and the year after he invited us to come to Melbourne and now I think this is my fourth time coming to the Fringe.
Before you joined the ensemble how aware were you of Brel’s work?
Well, Brel is well known in Belgium. Everybody knows his big hits. So I immediately knew which of his songs I wanted to sing. I got more and more respect for him as a songwriter as I translated his poetry. He used a lot of words I didn’t know yet even though I am Belgian and I got French classes at a very young age. He’s very particular in his use of language, he chooses his words so well. So I really took the dictionary and fell more and more in love with his repertoire.
Brel is famous for the emotional content of his music. How important is that to you and what do you take from it?
I think it’s pretty important. He’s not scared to open up and put that on a page. It can be a broken heart but it can also be something very funny. When he picks something up and he wants to mock it, he has a skill to put it down in a way that talks to the people who don’t know the situation. When he puts his heart or frustration on the page it’s a gift for a singer like me because there are so many layers in his lyrics. That for me is part of the Brel experience, that his songs are universal.
In terms of his appeal, you’ve toured around the world with his songs. Have you noticed different reactions to the songs in different countries?
Definitely. The audience that likes to laugh the easiest and most are the Australians. The Belgians will wait for the song, they will enjoy it but they will applaud when the song is finished. Dutch people will cheer you on during your song and I’ve had some of that in Edinburgh this year already at my opening concert so I would say the British audiences are not perhaps as uptight as they are often painted.
How did your connection with Bruno Brel (Jacques’ nephew) come about?
When I was recording my very first album back in 2001 the twin towers happened and so I flew back to Holland and finished recording it there. My publisher Universal Publishing also published Bruno and they suggested we do a duet. So we recorded Marieke together and we both clicked immediately.
We both like to interpret the songs of Brel in his spirit. As a female singer I can’t copy Brel; I don’t have his voice or his looks but I like to get in there and sing how I think he would have wanted it. And that’s also what Bruno does. Bruno is a songwriter in his own right and when he saw what some singers did to the repertoire of his uncle he said I want to do it the way I think it should be done and the way Jacques did it.
There are a lot of different takes on Brel. There are people who make a very modern version out of it. There are people who copy him and look like him and there are audiences for that but it’s not my thing and it’s not Bruno’s. Bruno has the advantage that he really sounds like his uncle. He doesn’t look like him but sometimes when I’m standing next to him when we sing Marieke I get the feeling I’m standing next to Jacques.
You’ve played The Famous Spiegeltent before. How do you find it as a venue?
Well this year the Famous Spiegeltent has its best location. It’s just perfect, not just the tent but the whole Spiegel Gardens with all the greenery and places to drink and the Assembly Rooms next door and the tent where live performances can happen as well. It’s a perfect site.
You’ve also collaborated with Tim Finn of Crowded House so how did that come about?
I’d recorded a French translation of Four Seasons in One Day and Tim Finn came to Utrecht and we met after the gig and we agreed on writing a song together. We both needed to find a connection, we both meditate and so we found a sort of spiritual connection and we wrote ideas to each other by email and then connected via Skype. He was very particular and we worked very hard on the songs final melody. We put that song called Your Reign Will End on my first solo album.
Click here for information about Micheline sings Brel.