The Olympia box is plunged into bluish darkness on this scorching Monday July 18. Jack White, the former guitarist and singer of the White Stripes, herald of the garage rock revival of the 2000s, performs in the Parisian temple three evenings in a row, a few days before the release ofEntering Heaven Alive, his fifth solo album. Frank and friendly handshake, before turning on the lights in the room. The imposing guy with peroxide blue hair searches in vain for a can of soda in the refrigerator.
Jack White: “Vinyls have nothing to do with discarded plastic bottles. They are valuables”
John Anthony Gillis, his real name, born in Detroit (Michigan) in 1975, is particularly fond of this room, “my favorite in the world to play”, he says. He is asked if he intends to take advantage of the capital during his stay – the day before, he visited friends, Warren Ellis (close associate of Nick Cave) in his house in Ivry-sur-Seine (Val-de- Marne), and director Michel Gondry, for a filmed barge ride on the Seine.
The esthete rocker concedes that he is not the type to visit the Eiffel Tower, but says he takes the book with him everywhere Atlas Obscuraa travel guide that “list strange things in every city”. And then also go in search of 33-laps at record stores, “although[il] now buys more to give as gifts than to [lui] ».
At the head of his label Third Man Records, created in 2009, Jack White is one of the most fervent defenders of the return of vinyl. Based in Nashville (Tennessee), the premises of Third Man Records combine a recording studio, offices, a concert hall, a vinyl pressing factory and a record store (another store has opened in London, in 2021).
Already, in 2003, when the microgroove only interested some DJs and the Internet began to upset the music industry, the leader of the White Stripes, with his accomplice Meg White, had distinguished himself for the promotion of the fourth album of the group, Elephant : the specialized media had been surprised to receive the album in 33-rpm format in their mailbox, the duo believing that any music critic should have a turntable. “Everyone thought I was crazy!he recalls. But now was the right time to act, the White Stripes had gained enough notoriety to afford it. » This first burst of brilliance was amplified by the planetary success of the single Seven Nation Army, with his stadium-ready guitar riff.
You have 61.6% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.