In a recent interview, Eric Cantona has spoken about his debut live album, ‘Cantona Sings Eric’, collaborating with Liam Gallagher, and his hopes of performing live at Glastonbury one day.
The Man United legend released his debut album, Cantona Sings Eric last month (March 29), following his EP I’ll Make My Own Heaven, which was recorded at the end of his first European Tour last year.
Cantona had started out by writing lyrics to his wife, Rachida Brakni over a decade ago.
In fact, it turned out that the Frenchman presented an album to the music editor of well known French arts magazine, who refused to listen to “lyrics written by an ex footballer”.
However, Cantona then wrote a song called ‘Le Temps Passe’ for his wife’s band, Lady Sir, under a pseudonym, Auguste Raurich, named after his favourite uncle, Auguste. The music editor who was unaware of Cantona’s role, praised the song.
Since then, Cantona’s jaunt into the music world has gone from strength to strength.
“music is what makes us human” – Cantona
In this interview, Eric Cantona revealed that music appeals to his love of performing in front of an audience.
“I love to be on stage – and I love to be in front of the people, you know, singing or playing football or acting in a play in the theatre,” he said.
“I think music is a part of what makes us human. Even animals, you know, can feel the vibes of music. It’s like music was there before us. It can take you into another world, like sport can – if you play or as a fan. Playing live gives me a very, very strong feeling. I love it”.
The ex footballer also added that he would love to expand his live band, hinting that he would be keen to play at festivals in the future.
“Maybe at the end of this year, I will have a drummer or electric guitarist, more musicians – which is a better way to play Glastonbury or another music festival,” he said. “They asked me to play a festival in France. But I said I’d prefer to go with a bigger band”.
Elsewhere, Cantona has also spoken about working with former Oasis singer and known Man City fan Liam Gallagher.
On their friendship, he explained, “Yes, of course… I listened to his new album with John Squire, the guitarist of The Stone Roses [titled ‘Liam Gallagher John Squire’]. It’s a great album. I love it. And they invited me to go and watch them live. I hope I can go, but I don’t think I can with all the [gigs I’m playing]. We’ll see”.
Earlier this month, Cantona also collaborated with Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie, to perform a track he wrote for Palestinians. More on that here.
