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)
Yellow
Yann Tiersen Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Look how they shine for you
And everything you do
Yeah they were all yellow
I came along
I wrote a song for you
And all the things you do
And it was called yellow
So then I took my turn
Oh what a thing to have done
And it was all yellow
Your skin
Oh yeah your skin and bones
Turn into something beautiful
You know you know I love you so
You know I love you so
I swam across
I jumped across for you
Oh what a thing to do
'Cause you were all yellow
I drew a line
I drew a line for you
Oh what a thing to do
And it was all yellow
Your skin
Oh yeah your skin and bones
Turn into something beautiful
And you know
For you I'd bleed myself dry
For you I'd bleed myself dry
It's true
Look how they shine for you
Look how they shine for you
Look how they shine for
Look how they shine for you
Look how they shine for you
Look how they shine
Look at the stars
Look how they shine for you
And all the things that you do
Yann Tiersen's song Yellow is a beautiful love letter to someone special in his life. The lyrics are full of passion and emotion, as he describes how everything this person does makes the stars shine brighter and everything around them turn yellow. His deep love is evident as he sings about writing a song for this person, how their skin and bones are beautiful, and how he would do anything for them. The song is about the depths of love, and how it can make the world a brighter place.
The song also describes the lengths that Tiersen is willing to go to for this person. He swam across and jumped across for them, drawing lines and bleeding himself dry. He is completely devoted and willing to do anything to show his love. The repetition of "Look how they shine for you" emphasizes how much this person means to him and how their presence in his life brightens everything around him.
Line by Line Meaning
Look at the stars
The singer is telling the listener to observe the beauty of the stars in the night sky
Look how they shine for you
The singer is pointing out that the stars appear to be shining for the listener specifically, making them feel special
And everything you do
The listener is so great that even the stars seem to be acknowledging their actions and behavior
Yeah they were all yellow
The artist is associating the bright shining of the stars with the color yellow, which could represent happiness, warmth, or joy
I came along
The artist arrived at some point in the past
I wrote a song for you
The singer created something beautiful specifically for the listener
And all the things you do
The inspiration for the song was the listener's actions or character
And it was called yellow
The artist named the song after the yellow color they associate with the listener and their beautiful qualities
So then I took my turn
The artist was inspired by the listener and wanted to contribute something of their own
Oh what a thing to have done
The artist acknowledges that what they did was significant or noteworthy
And it was all yellow
The singer is again associating their creation with the yellow color, symbolizing the beauty of the listener
Your skin
The artist is addressing the listener directly and focusing on their physical appearance
Oh yeah your skin and bones
The singer is emphasizing the listener's body, but in a poetic way
Turn into something beautiful
The singer believes that the listener's body, as well as their character and actions, are all beautiful
You know you know I love you so
The singer is expressing their strong feelings of love for the listener
I swam across
The artist performed some kind of physical feat for the listener
I jumped across for you
The artist did something daring or risky just to impress the listener
Oh what a thing to do
The singer is acknowledging the absurdity of their actions, but also how much they care for the listener
'Cause you were all yellow
The singer is using the yellow color once again to represent the listener's beauty and worth
I drew a line
The artist made some kind of gesture or created something again
I drew a line for you
The gesture was specifically for the listener
Oh what a thing to do
The artist once again acknowledges the strangeness of their actions
And it was all yellow
The thing the singer created was once again associated with the yellow color and the listener's beauty
For you I'd bleed myself dry
The artist is saying that they would do anything for the listener, even to the point of extreme sacrifice
It's true
The singer is emphasizing that their feelings and actions are sincere and genuine
Look how they shine for you
The stars are still shining for the listener, emphasizing their importance and worth
And all the things that you do
The listener is once again praised for their actions and character
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, BMG Rights Management, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Written by: CHRISTOPHER ANTHONY JOHN MARTIN, GUY RUPERT BERRYMAN, JONATHAN MARK BUCKLAND, WILLIAM CHAMPION
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@MrGuillemmm
alaa¡ son retratos muy bien captados, tienen toda la sensacion de la imagen pero con un dibujo esquemático con sentimiento lleno :) tiene un cierto espejismo difuminado de kukushumushu
@salvatoregeracivideo
Questo brano è meraviglioso =)
@k100oLo
la parte del 0:36 es una completa basura de resto es chevere