Mano Solo

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Mano Solo, born Emmanuel Cabut, is a French singer. He was born in Châlons-sur-Marne on 24 April 1963 to the artist Cabu and Isabelle Monin, co-founder of the ecology-related magazine, La Gueule ouverte.

1 Early life
2 Recording career
3 In the Garden
4 Other works
5 Discography
6 External links

[edit] Early life

From age 17, Mano Solo played guitar in a punk rock group, les Chihuahuas. He began singing his own compositions in the early nineties. He then sung regularly at the Tourtour theatre in Paris, alongside singers Marousse and P'tit Louis.

[edit] Recording career

His first album, La Marmaille Nue ("The Naked Children"), was released in 1993 and sold 100,000 copies in the first year. 1995 saw his second album, Les Années Sombres ("The Dark Years"), a somber album that also went gold in its first months.

In 1996, he regrouped with part of the Chihuahuas for the album Frères Misère (Brothers of Misery). Its rhythms are closer to punk, and the texts are more topical than his solo albums. With little media attention, the album failed to meet immediate success.

1997 saw the release of a new album: Je sais pas trop ("I don't know much"). Recorded live and featuring, once again, original melodies and sounds, it was a Golden record in France.

Two years later, Mano Solo recorded the double album Internationale Shalala, live at the Tourtour, a little theatre where he has played regularly since his beginnings. He sings and plays guitar on the album, accompanied only by another guitarist, Jean-Louis Solans. The songs come from earlier Solo albums, except for Shalala, a hymn of "inner revolution" that the artist sings with his audience at the end of every concert, with a positive and dynamic message.

His second live album, La Marche (The Walk), was released in 2002. It consists mostly of songs from the album Dehors ("Outside"), released earlier (August 2000). With the album comes a DVD featuring photos and videos from concerts, and CG animations from Mano Solo's imagination.

In 2004, Les animals has been released. As in every album, the sound is new, and the lyrics contain much poetic language, always peformed with the same energy. Some titles are new recordings of old songs. The song Botzaris, recorded with Les Têtes Raides, is featured in this album.

He makes two appearances on the album Dans le caillou from Karpatt.

[edit] In the Garden

In 2006, Mano Solo didn't renew his contract with Warner, his label. He self-produced his new album In the Garden, announced for March 2007. He proposes this record by subscription sale since 18 September, 2006 : Every month, subscribers get access to new material (songs or videos), and is delivered the album on release. The subscription fee goes towards the album's promotional costs. By operating this way, the artist wishes to make a difference with the mainstream music industry, while showing that artistic production has a cost.

[edit] Other works

In parallel to his singer career, Mano Solo develops other talents. He draws and paints, e.g. the covers of his albums. He also writes, and founded his own publishing press (La Marmaille Nue), that released two books : In 1995, a poetry anthology, Je suis là ("I am there"), and in 1996, a novel, Joseph sous la pluie ("Joseph under the rain") (sold-out).

Since 2001, Mano Solo has been very interested in the Internet; he created and developed his own website around his artistic, social, and political interests, while encouraging his visitors to be creative themselves.