Jean-Patrick Capdevielle

Jean-Patrick Capdevielle is a French songwriter, composer, singer, musician and painter. He was born on 19 December 1945 in Levallois-Perret near Paris.

Biography

Jean-Patrick Capdevielle was significantly influenced by painting in his youth. He received his High School Diploma when he was 15 years old then embarked upon a Medicine and a Law Degree. However, he preferred to watch movies in the film libraries and finally decided to give up this life to become a journalist-ad man-photographer for several French magazines targeted towards teenagers such as Hey Buddies, Mademoiselle Age Tendre, SuperHebdo) or Actuel (dedicated to counter-culture), and Lui or Paris-Match. In rapid succession, he became an artistic director and decided to personally create a teen magazine which he sold as soon as it became a publishing hit.

In the 1960s, Capdevielle was fully immersed in the alternative culture and lifestyle. He traveled to the United States and lived there for two years in a Volkswagen camper van, and lived in London, where he met The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix and he became a close friend of Eric Clapton.

In 1970, he moved to settle in the Balearic Islands, Ibiza.

In 1978, Capdevielle received an electric guitar as a gift from a friend and started writing his first songs. They led to the recording of his first record. The 45 Single "Solitude", described as "Reggae in French" and produced by Ketchup Music (a label owned by French/American artist William Sheller), met some success. When this record label stopped operating, this first success allowed him to sign a contract with CBS.

In August 1979, Capdevielle's first album was released, Les Enfants des Ténèbres et les Anges de la rue which was made into a 45 Single highlighting the song "Tout Au Bout De La Ville". But unexpectedly, it was the B-side, entitled "When you are in the Desert", which became a success. Thirty-five years later, Capdevielle is still remembered for this song in France. His first album became a platinum album in August 1979 with 450,000 copies sold in a short time.

The second album, 2 was released in 1980 and was a real success as well. The songs "C'est dur d'être un héros" and "Oh Chiquita" were successful. The latter was even more successful than "Quand t'es dans le désert".

His first and second albums are still classified as "100 essential CD's of French Rock," respectively ranked in 27th and 55th place in the magazine Rolling Stone, (February 2010).

Capdevielle completed three concert tours between 1980 and 1982 with two tours at the Olympia and one passage at The Palais des Sports in Paris.

In 1982, his 4th album L'Ennemi Public was released and the song "Qu'est-ce qui va rester" also met success.

In 1983, a live album Dernier rappel was released but the following albums (Mauvaise fréquentations, Planete X, Nouvel Age, Vue sur cour) released between 1984 and 1990 did not meet the same success as the previous ones. Even the blues-rock album Vertigo recorded in Nashville and released in 1992 remained nearly unknown by the large public.

Parallel to his musical career, he experienced other artistic activities. He hosted a TV Show, Les Totems du Bataclan between 1985–1986 on a famous French TV channel and in 1986, he acted in a telefilm L'Enigme des Sables directed by Philippe Valois.

He also co-founded a production company with Paco Rabanne, Cadrages, which produced the feature film, directed by Mira Nair, Salaam Bombay that won the Caméra d’Or at the 41st Cannes Film Festival in 1988.

He also authored Linda William's musical success Traces released in 1988 and, the same year, participated to the charitable French song "Liban" with other French artists.

In 1993, he moved to the United States, where he studied cinematic techniques at UCLA in California. When he returned in 1995, he directed several video clips, including "Si tu te bats (If you fight)" (Renaud Hantson) or another one for Richard Cocciante.

In 1995, he also released the album Politiquement correct (a compilation signed on the Sony Music label, with four new titles).

In 1997, re-connecting with his old passion for classical music, he wrote, composed and directed Carmine Meofor the soprano Emma Shapplin, an album of contemporary opera, sung in 14th century Italian. The CD and the following tour were an international success and the CD sold more than two and the half million copies; obtaining 39 Gold records and 17 Platinum records.

In 2001, Capdevielle wrote and composed a neo-romantic opera, still in the 14th century Italian : Atylantos… A legend of Atlantis,^[1] with Chiara Zeffirelli, Elena Cojocaru, Jade Laura Angelis and Nikola Todorovitch. The final goal still remains to produce a show based on this album.

In 2005, he co-produced the album Pop Tasty written and composed by MontparnassE band.

In 2007, he wrote lyrics for several songs on David Hallyday's album released this year and the same year, his 13th album Heretique #13 was released.

In 2008, Capdevielle supported Sweet Air in taking part in the Baltimore project in support of the hostages of the world.

In 2015, after 6 years of writing and composition, he decided to select 11 songs. The first drafts of these songs were released on social media and Capdevielle decided to launch a campaign on the crowdfunding platform KissKissBankBank. Within a few hours, the budget needed to achieve the album recording was reached and even exceeded. The album Bienvenue au Paradis (Capdevielle 14th) was recorded in "Britannia Row studios" in London and in Paris, and the Premium Version Album was released in November 2015 on his official website.

Following the release of this album, the "Welcome to Paradise" Tour, a participation tour, has been organized by his fans in French speaking countries during one year. This very successful project and unique concept in France has been covered by several French media.^[2][3][4][5]

A live album was recorded during this tour and is due to be released in 2017.

Discography

References

External links

• Official Website