Among the figureheads of French disco, Bernard Fèvre, better known as Black Devil, probably had the shortest-lived carreer but was the most brilliant and unique mind of them all. Although his first album Disco Club, released in 1978, went unnoticed at first, it has since become a must-have, a collector’s item which has led a lot of listeners to further investigate into his extensive work. From rock music to music hall, sound illustration to disco, pop to reggae, through film music and advertising, Bernard Fèvre has experimented with so many genres that it has been hard not to lose track. One of his best albums even has such an unambivalent title as The Strange World of Bernard Fèvre. Please make your way to a cosmic dimension, verging on the unknown.

You were born in 1946 in Asnières, on the outskirts of Paris. What do you remember from your childhood? Where and how did you grow up, what’s your background story?

One of the first memories I have is my hometown wastelands, we used to play in the mud and have so much fun. Asnières had been spared by the war. My father worked in labor as an assembler in Gennevilliers for the Chausson factory, which belonged to Renault and built engines for buses and trucks. My dad’s parents lived in Burgundy and worked as winemakers and my grandparents on my mother's side made cider in Normandy. My mother was an ironer and a laundress. I grew up in a low-income household with a family who had accounting skills and didn't drink (laughs). I'm an only child.

How did you become interested in music in such a context?

Like other children I went to kindergarten. There was a piano in the playground and I played it with both hands without having learned before. “This isn’t normal, we have to tell his parents,” one of the teachers said. My mother found a piano teacher. I learned to play a bit, to read music, but after a while I got bored because what I was playing wasn't as good as what I would hear on the radio. I thought it wasn't really helpful and I quit.