She swore she'd never speak about her private life in her songs. But the tender presence of Johnny Depp, her companion, and the chirping of Lily-Rose, their daughter, dissolved her resolve. Vanessa Paradis sings about her happiness in Bliss. She is small and tiny, without make-up like she is without defense, and yet, very much on the defensive. Vanessa Paradis released a new album Bliss (Barclay) on which she talks about her daughter, her man, her life. A very personal CD where, for the first time, she composes music and wrties lyrics all by herself, or with M. (Matthieu Chedid) or with artists that are less known but just as gifted, like Frank Monet, Didier Golemanas, and even Johnny Depp. A jewel of an album, but there's one problem: how to talk about this album that talks about nothing but her private life, without talking about her private life? Bliss means perfect happiness, felicity, beatitude. Is this your state of mind today? It's a word I learned recently, that has a nice sound and which, I think, does not have an equivalent in French. To answer your question, yes, "bliss," that's the perfect happiness, yes, that's what this album is all about, yes, that is the core of my thoughts and my songs. But I have bad days, like everybody! "I won't give anything away about that with you," you declared in Elle, while you were pregnant. But, on Bliss, you talk about your daughter, your fiance, your pregnancy, your love, and yourself! What happened? From the very start, I wanted to make a very personal album. Making an album, it's like childbirth, it's like releasing something you've kept hidden in your belly. This CD, very selfishly, I did for myself and for my family, so that we can listen to it in 20 years, to say: this, this reflects that time in our life. I wanted it to be a slice of life. How to honestly tell my story without opening my private diary, that was my big problem. It was all the more complicated because writing is not my forte! To be honest, sincere, but modest, that was hard. These lyrics aren't brilliant purhaps but at least they are true. You who hate to speak about your private life, you make an album that talks about nothing but your private life! That's a bit paradoxal, no? Yes, there's a paradox between wanting to make an album for yourself and the obligation to present it to everyone. I'm well aware that I'm poking myself in the eye. One gets the impression that you are so happy that you want to share it with everyone. When you are in love with a good person, a magnificent person, you want to shout it from the rooftops. And perhaps I would, if he wasn't someone famous. But, it's already difficult to talk about intimate things with the people close to you, so with people that you don't know, like journalists... Moreover, things I say always get damaged, deformed, and afterwards I worry I've said too much. At the same time, a door is opened, right? No. But, if you make me talk about my daughter, it's hard for me to stop, because that's my favorite topic of conversation. I don't want to talk about it with all the world, but I don't want to pass for someone in bad humour who hides something ugly. How did you become a writer, a composer? Until now, my albums were always served to me on a silver platter: they proposed songs to me, I accepted or I didn't. With Bliss, I wanted to be in the roots of the album. Everything's a part of me, I guided the authors and the musicians with little stories about me, I gave them examples, images, and afterwards, they gave me their poetry. Why M? Four years ago, I heard a song from his first album that I adored, I thought he was a girl. I called my record company to find out who it was, they gave me his number, I left him a message, he called me back, we met, and bam! We started to work! He is very gifted, a plus, he gentle, generous, and cool. Serge Gainsbourg, Lenny Kravitz, Patrice Leconte, now, M. One gets the impression that you are always in the right place at the right time to meet the right person. I don't know if you can say this is a magazine as refined as Elle, but, yes, j'ai le cul bordé de nouilles! [My butt is full of noodles???] Your beloved as well has composed songs on Bliss, like a little family enterprise? I wanted to work in totally Zen state! Because to make music, it's of course a blessing, but it's also suffering. You doute, you tell yourself: "I'm stupid!" To write the music for "Que Fait la Vie?", I was doubled over my guitar, in vain. The days passed and I had the impression that I was wasting my time. I finished by sitting in front of the piano: I play very badly, but in an hour, I had the melody, a gift from God! Precisely, "Que Fait la Vie?" is a song about contemporary women... Who do a million things all at once. My mother is for me a marvelous example. She worked, she raised us, my sister and me, kept the house, did the essential things that you never realize, she always ensures! Nobody is ever preoccupied with her and she is always there to reassure everyone. Do you want to give the same education that you received? Yes, even if I have my own way of doing things. I was raised according to a sublime philosophy: discipline, but without taboo or rigidity, contrary to school which I hated. My parents always asked me my opinion, they made me responsible. The song "Les Acrobates" is a declaration of affection to your parents and your sister, why "Les Acrobates"? It's rare to have parents who live together after 30 years and who still look at each other like they did the day they met. She look at each other like acrobates: in all situations, they are welded, gracious, they circle but they don't rumble. It's very beautiful. When I doubt, I turn towards them. You travel a lot, where do you raise your daughter? In the South of France. After her birth, she lived a lot in the countryside, we never remained a long time in the cities. The stroller on the sidewalk, I'm afraid! A child feels so much better sitting in the grass listening to the wind filtering through the trees and collecting stones. In what language do you talk to her? We talk French and English, she understands both. She is 5 months old, she talks, she walks, she sings, she dances, she runs... She is incredible. I've never seen anyone who cute in my whole life, she makes me melt. The baby in the song "Firmaman," it's her? Yes, it's very selfish, it's for me, not for the people who hear it. But they will hear it! I wrote the song while pregnant. When I recorded it, my daughter was there, in the studio, and voila! Mom, it's really the role of your life? Yes. It is the absolute love, everything is true. To come home and see stars in my daughter's eyes, I've never lived anything that's felt stronger. All the mothers will understand me! Your daughter has changed you? A baby, it changes everything for the better. You're not a couple anymore, you don't look each other face to face, you look together at the baby. You have to put your selfishness to the side, more so that, in the first several months, you don't sleep, you don't slow down for one second. Me, I breastfeed for long time, I had the impression that I was a travelling breast. But, at the same time, I adored that. When you become a mom or dad, you're obliged to become a better person. When you are tired, in a bad mood, when your back hurts, you have to forget about it and feed her. It's easy, because, even when you have a gloomy monster, all it takes is one look at your daughter for it to past. "The Ballad of Lily-Rose," did you write it for the album or for Lily-Rose? I also wrote it while I was pregnant! You were very prolific while pregnant? I had nothing to do! I wrote three songs about my daughter, like by chance, they were the ones who came to me easiest. You sing a lot for her? She adores that! I should mention that, while pregnant, I often had an acoustic guitar on my big belly! Today, she's crazy about the guitar! You wrote the song "Saint-Germain" with Johnny Depp. How did you two work together? It wasn't work, it wasn't thought about, we didn't say: Ok! We are going to write a song together. In a moment of relaxation, he strummed some chords -- he was a musician before he was an actor -- I hummed over it, and voila! This CD is also a declaration of love? No... yes... perhaps... That's a pretty alarming term. Let's say that I wanted to write persnonal songs... Not to say that it's me who made them, but because it's nice to create. It's like a meal, the result is nicer if you've done it yourself. "You asked me yesterday / My vision of happiness / Each day it's clearer" you sing. What is your vision of happiness? It's my man, my daughter, and that's already enough!