Yann Tiersen (born in Brest, Brittany, France on 23 June 1970) is a French … Read Full Bio ↴Yann Tiersen (born in Brest, Brittany, France on 23 June 1970) is a French musician and composer. His musical career is split between studio albums, collaborations and film soundtracks. His music involves a large variety of instruments; primarily the guitar, piano, synthesizer or violin together with instruments like the melodica, xylophone, toy piano, harpsichord, accordion and typewriter.

Tiersen has been honing his musical aesthetic since he could stand on two legs. He started learning piano at the age of four, taking up violin at the age of six and receiving classical training at musical academies in Rennes, Nantes and Boulogne. Then, at the age of 13, he chose to alter his destiny, breaking his violin into pieces, buying a guitar and forming a rock band.

Yann Tiersen has collaborated with vocal artists like Claire Pichet ("Le phare" and "Rue des cascades"), Elizabeth Fraser ("Les retrouvailles") and Shannon Wright ("Yann Tiersen and Shannon Wright"). Other musicians he has worked with include The Divine Comedy, Noir Désir, Dominique A., Francoiz Breut, Les Têtes Raides, The Married Monk and Sage Francis

Tiersen got a musical education from the city of Rennes' annual Transmusicales festival, seeing acts like Nirvana, Einstürzende Neubaten, Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, The Cramps, Television and Suicide. When his band broke up a few years later, instead of hunting for some new musicians, he bought a cheap mixing desk, an eight-track reel, and started recording music solo with a synth, sampler and drum machine, poring over the grooves of old records on the hunt for loops and orchestral strings to plunder.

As it turned out, though, the key to his new approach lay in his own past. "One day I thought, instead of spending days on research and listening to tons of records to find the nearest sound of what I have in mind, why don't I fix this fucking violin and use it?" Through the summer of 1993, Tiersen stayed in his apartment, recording music alone with guitar, violin and accordion, guided not by the classical canon, but by intuition and his vision of "a musical anarchy".

By the end of the summer of 1993, Tiersen had recorded over 40 tracks, which would form the bulk of his first two albums. 1995's La Valse Des Monstres, inspired by Tod Browning's Freaks and Yukio Mishima's The Damask Drum was the second album to be released on Nancy-based label Ici, d'ailleurs. It would be followed six months later by Rue Des Cascades, a collection of short pieces recorded with toy piano, harpsichord, violin, accordion and mandolin. Six years later, the record would find a much larger audience when several tracks, along with a couple of Tiersen originals, would be used on the soundtrack to Jean-Pierre Jeunet's film Amelie (2001).

Tiersen's commercial breakthrough would come earlier, though, and off his own back. 1998's Le Phare (The Light House) was recorded in self-imposed seclusion on the isle of Ouessant, where Tiersen spent two months living in a rented house. At night, he watched the Creach'h, the most powerful lighthouse in Europe, as it illuminated the surrounding scenery. "I was amazed how the rays of lights from the lighthouse revealed some hidden details of the land, how we can rediscover something we have everyday, just in front of us, by a light pointing on it," says Tiersen.

Le Phare went on to sell over 160,000 copies, confirming Tiersen's status as one of the most pioneering and original artists of his generation and commencing a run of successful albums like 2001's L'Absente (featuring orchestral group Synaxis, Lisa Germano and the Divine Comedy's Neil Hannon) and 2005's Les Retrouvailles (with guests Stuart Staples of Tindersticks, Jane Birkin and Elizabeth Fraser of Cocteau Twins). In this period, Tiersen also took his music out around the world, playing shows with a full orchestra and an amplified string quartet – a set-up captured on 2002's electrifying live album C'etait ici. And following the box-office success of Amelie, Tiersen's skills as a soundtracker were much in demand, leading to scores for the likes of Wolfgang Becker's tragicomedy Good Bye Lenin! (2003) and Tabarly (2008), a documentary about the French sailor Éric Tabarly, who ate his final meal on Ouessant Island before he meeting a watery end in the Irish sea.

Discography:
La valse des monstres (1995)
Rue des cascades (1996)
Le phare (1998)
Tout est calme (1999)
Black session (1999, radio concert)
L'absente (2001)
Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001, Soundtrack)
C'était ici (2002, Live and Best Of)
Good Bye Lenin! (2003, Soundtrack)
Yann Tiersen and Shannon Wright (2004)
Les Retrouvailles (2005)
On Tour (2006, Live)
Tabarly (2008)
Dust Lane (2010)

In Our Minds
Yann Tiersen Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

In our minds, they're a town in our minds
A town we go to sometimes
A town we know just in our minds

With different people, living different life's
In different streets, under a different sky

How can we know, how far we go

How can we know, how far we go

In our minds, they're a town in our minds
A town we go to sometimes
A town we know just in our minds

With different people, living different life's
In different streets, under a different sky

Overall Meaning

The lyrics for Yann Tiersen's "In Our Minds" depict a town that exists solely within our own minds. The idea is that we may create and imagine a town that we can only visit in our thoughts. The town is made up of different people, living different lives, on different streets, under a different sky. However, this town is unique because it is without the constraints and limitations of the real world. This town is perfect in our minds. We have control over the town and the people who live there.

The lyrics ask "How can we know, how far we go?" This implies that we are capable of exploring this town in our minds, to wonder and to create more beyond what exists already in the imaginative town. The idea of being able to retreat to a corner of our mind where everything is perfect and ideal is comforting. In a way, this song is meant to encourage and inspire the use of imagination as a means of escape.

Overall, "In Our Minds" by Yann Tiersen is a beautiful exploration of the power of imagination. It conveys just how much creative and imaginative a person can be. The concept of having a town that exists only in your mind can encourage you to tap into your imagination to make your own perfect world.

Line by Line Meaning

In our minds, they're a town in our minds
Our imagination creates a town that exists solely within our minds.

A town we go to sometimes
We visit this town within our mind occasionally, perhaps as a form of mental escape or introspection.

A town we know just in our minds
This town is exclusive to our own personal thoughts and perceptions, and cannot be experienced by anyone else.

With different people, living different life's
Within this imaginary town, there are inhabitants living unique and diverse lives, as our mind creates a world without limitations or boundaries.

In different streets, under a different sky
The world created in our minds is not bound by the physical laws and confines of reality, allowing for a range of environments and surroundings.

How can we know, how far we go
Despite the vividness and depth of the imaginary town within our minds, we cannot know its full extent or reach in our thoughts and imagination.

How can we know, how far we go
The repetition emphasizes the sense of uncertainty and wonder in exploring the depths of our own minds.

In our minds, they're a town in our minds
Reiteration of the concept of an imaginary town within our minds.

A town we go to sometimes
Reiteration of the idea of visiting the town within our minds as a form of mental escape or introspection.

A town we know just in our minds
Reiteration of the concept that the imaginary town only exists within the confines of our own thoughts and perceptions.

With different people, living different life's
Reiteration that the inhabitants of this imaginary town within our minds continue to live diverse and unique lives.

In different streets, under a different sky
Reiteration that the world within our mind is not limited by the physical laws of reality and allows for diverse and imaginative environments.

Contributed by Anthony D. Suggest a correction in the comments below.

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