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)

Les Jours Heureux
Yann Tiersen Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

It's hard,
Hard not to sit on your hands
Bury your head in the sand
Hard not to make other plans
And claim that you've done all you can
All alone and life must go on

It's hard, hard to stand up for what's right

And bring home the making each night
Hard not to break down and cry
When every idea that you've tried
Has been wrong
But you must carry on

It's hard but you know it's worth the fight
Cause you know you got the truth on your side
When the accusations fly, hold tight

Don't be afraid of what they'll say
Who cares what cowards think anyway?
They will understand one day, one day

It's hard, hard when you're here all alone
And everyone else has gone home
Harder to know right from wrong
When all objectivity has gone,
And it's gone but you still carry one

Cause you, you are the only one left
And you've got to clean up this mess
You know you'll end up like the rest,
Bitter and twisted unless you stay strong
And you carry on

It's hard but you know it's worth the fight
Cause you know you got the truth on your side
When the accusations fly, hold tight
And don't be afraid of what they'll say
Who cares what cowards think anyway?
They will understand one day, one day

It's hard but you know it's worth the fight
Cause you know you got the truth on your side
When the accusations fly, hold tight
And don't be afraid of what they'll say

Who cares what cowards think anyway?
They will understand one day, one day

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of Yann Tiersen's Les Jours Tristes Instrumental describe the difficulty of staying true to oneself in a world that often demands conformity and compromise. The song is a contemplation of the challenges of being principled in a society that values conformity, success, and pragmatism over individuality and idealism. Tiersen acknowledges the temptation to withdraw from the world, to give up the fight for one's beliefs, and to accept the status quo out of fear of being ostracized or misunderstood.

The first stanza talks about the struggle of resisting the urge to give in to complacency and resignation. With every passing day, it becomes increasingly difficult to remain steadfast in one's ideals and values, especially when it seems as though everyone else has given up. The second stanza encourages the listener to persevere, even when doing so seems unbearable. Tiersen emphasizes the importance of fighting for what is right, even if it means going against the grain or facing ridicule.

Finally, the third stanza speaks directly to the listener, urging them to stay strong and committed to their principles, regardless of what others may say or think. Tiersen highlights the potential consequences of abandoning one's values, warning that the alternative is bitterness and regret. He stresses the importance of carrying on, even when the road ahead seems unclear or daunting.

Line by Line Meaning

It's hard
Life can be tough and challenging.

Hard, not to sit on your hands
It's difficult to resist the urge to be inactive.

Burrow your head in the sand
To ignore or turn a blind eye to a difficult situation.

Hard, not to make other plans
It's tough not to distract yourself with other things to do.

And claim that you've done all you can
You might think that you've exhausted all the possible solutions.

All alone
Feeling lonely and helpless.

And life
The constant changes and challenges we face in our lives.

Must go on
We have to keep moving forward, no matter what happens.

Hard, to stand up for what's right
It's tough to fight for what you believe is right and fair.

And bring home the bacon each night
Striving to provide for yourself and your loved ones takes a lot of effort.

Hard, not to break down and cry
It's challenging not to cry when your ideals and values are threatened.

When every ideal that you tried
When the things you believe in are being challenged or rejected.

Has been wrong
It's tough to realize that what you once believed was right, is in fact wrong.

But you must
It's important to keep going, no matter how hard it gets.

Carry on
We have to move forward, no matter what.

But you know it's worth the fight
You know that your effort and struggles will pay off in the end.

Cause you know you've got the truth on your side
You're confident that you're fighting for what's right and just.

When the accusations fly
When people accuse you of something you didn't do, or when they attack your beliefs.

Hold tight
Stay strong and don't give up.

Don't be afraid of what they'll say
Don't let others' opinions discourage you or make you feel afraid.

Who cares what cowards think? Anyway
People who don't have the courage to stand up for what they believe in don't matter.

They will understand some day
Eventually, those who opposed you will come to realize that you were right.

Harder to know right from wrong
It becomes more challenging to distinguish right from wrong when our judgment is clouded by our emotions.

When all objectivity's gone
When we stop examining our situation in a rational way.

But you still
Despite everything, you keep going and moving forward.

You are the only one left
When you can't rely on anyone else, you still have yourself.

And you've got to clean up this mess
It's up to you to fix the situation, even if you didn't cause it.

You know you'll end up like the rest
If you don't take charge and work on finding solutions, you'll end up like everyone else.

Bitter and twisted, unless
You'll become resentful and negative, unless you take responsibility and act.

Stay strong
Keep your resolve and don't give up.

And you
You, as an individual, have the power to create change.

Carry on
Continue to move forward and stay motivated.

Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: Christian Olivier, Edith Begout, Pascal Olivier, Serge Begout, Yann Tiersen, Anne Gaelle Bisquay, Gregoire Jean M. Simon, Jean Luc Millot

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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