Aperitif with Alyosha Schneider: “Sometimes it sounds insulting, as if it is impure to continue to exist”

The meeting was held at Rochechouart Hotel, room 9^e Paris district, basement, Club Mikado. Soft lighting, 1930s chandeliers, disco balls, thick velvet curtains. gatsby the greatBy Baz Luhrmann. Except that we came to meet not Leonardo DiCaprio, but Alyosha Schneider. Dressed in all black, wearing a pair of Westons, espresso martini in hand, the actor and songwriter waits at the bar in the center of the room. “I like it when you’re bent over”– says the photographer.

Here we are in the quietest nightclub in Paris, no wonder, at 7pm on a Tuesday. While Pioneer’s drone sits at the entrance, it’s a wind tunnel drone worthy of an ocean liner that accompanies us for this aperitif. We recently saw Alyosha in two series: everything is fine by Camille de Castelnau (Disney+) and Greek Salad, By Cedric Klapisch (Prime Video). Apart from appearing on the small screen, he is best known for his music and his title: together. He’s on his third album and is on tour in 2024 with Olympia in Paris in December.

before A success storyHis first record, very much inspired by Bob Dylan – about whom he says “fanatic” – gives the impression of offering something “obsolete” at festivals. The second album, with a similar tone, chooses its times poorly: “He came out and… nothing happened!” It was in the middle of Covid, it was a bit of a disaster. » « At one point I said to myself: Damn, I’m not talking to my generation »he sighed.

With this third opus, views change. Accompanied by a guitar, he sings in French the hits that are played on the radio. Tour in progress. In front of his turner, who offers him a date at La Cigale, in Paris in March, Alyosha becomes giddy: “Inwardly I’m telling myself crap, he’s doing something stupid, nobody’s going to come. My last concert, in the small hall of La Cigale [La Boule noire], It didn’t even have refueling and it was difficult. He tells me about a room for 1200 people there [rire étouffé, gêné]… And then I thought, “Fake it till you make it!” [‘fais semblant jusqu’à ce que tu y arrives’]. » It is six months before the date of the concert sold out (“complete”). “It’s crazy to me” Alyosha commented, still a little out of breath.

A founding drama

To end his tour in style, he will stop at Olympia in Paris in December. It is symbolically strong. He recalls his father, Jean-Paul Schneider, a film director and classical dancer, hearing Brel there, an important event in the family’s legend. For the Schneiders, music is a key ingredient in education. When he thinks about his childhood, Alyosha hears the sound of one brother’s drums and the other’s piano notes. As adults, they all work in art-related occupations. “I have an older brother who used to sing and who I admire on stage… I mean the end-of-year concert organized by the singing teacher. But I was very impressed with him. He gave me my first record. He was a fan of Robbie Williams. So, by association, I was too. That’s what made me want to singR “, He remembers the last of the siblings. Between two spun almonds, he always reminisces a little about his childhood activities “Surrounded by Girls”Both at singing lessons and at dance school.