“It’s a bit of a luxury”, he observes. Indeed: for the occasion, he opened the Aristide bar, a tiny speakeasy hidden on the first floor of the Lutetia, normally closed in summer. Mirwais Ahmadzaï has his habits in another cafe, more ordinary, on 6e Parisian arrondissement, where he moved twenty years ago, but the Aristide, with its library in the background, suits the circumstances better. Because, after several lives, he returns as a writer, with a novel of anticipation, The Almighty (Séguier, 272 pages, 21 euros).
In front of an Americano commissioned above all for his photogenicity, Mirwais begins by going back in time. Layers of superimposed history, which he describes more or less like this: 1978-1986, Taxi Girl period, punk band ” extraordinary “ of which he is the co-founder and guitarist. Between 1999 and 2006, period “show business” : after becoming “Total unknown, even has-been”, he realizes with Madonna three albums that are huge commercial and critical successes. There are also other phases, made of long empty passages, made especially of all that he refused to do, convinced that it is useless to compromise himself artistically, because “there is always room next to large systems”. This is where it is good, at intersections, to boost “directions” ; it is from there that he crossed the ages. “When people tell me ‘I’m a fan of you’, I tell them ‘but from what period? »
“Little by little, I was moving away from the concerns of the music world. People no longer understood what I was saying, we had to move on to another form of expression.
Born in Lausanne, Switzerland, to an Italian mother and an Afghan father, Mirwais Ahmadzaï arrived from Afghanistan in 1966 – he obtained political refugee status in 1979 and kept it until 2010, when he was naturalized. .
As a teenager, he speaks French but feels isolated, and fantasizes about the idea of being part of a rock band. With five other boys from the Guy Môquet district, at the intersection between the 17e and 18e districts of the capital, he sets up one, ” weird “, which brings together punk and the electronic music that interests him, that of Devo and Kraftwerk. This sound, this aesthetic, “it was the absolute novelty”.
Mirwais, who sees his chance there, stops drugs at 19 – the others sink deeper and deeper into it. The group loses more or less a member each year, by overdose or discord, before breaking up in 1986. There remains a single album, a few hits (look for the boy), the suicidal fantasies of the singer, Daniel Darc, who opens his veins on stage or who appears stoned on TV, and a black legend of a cult group who had the good taste to be scuttled.
You have 66.67% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.