Pete Doherty arrived this Saturday morning in Barcelona after a night trip by van from Tolouse, where the night before he closed his tour with the Frenchman Frederic Lo. Kind, punctual and thoughtful in his speech, the artist world famous for being the partner of top model Kate Moss in the first decade of the 2000s currently presents a very different bearing from the skinny drugged guy who dominated the covers of the British tabloids. He now calls himself Peter, he arrives accompanied by Billie-May, his four-month-old daughter, and carries a few extra kilos after giving up drugs and replacing them with Normandy cheeses. He marched to the north of France during the pandemic with Katia de Vidas, his wife, partner in the band The Puta Madres and director of the documentary Stranger in my own skin, which was presented this Saturday at the In-Edit Documentary Film Festival Musical.
“I'm not so frantic and desperate anymore when it comes to issues of fame and ego,” says Peter when comparing his current life with the past, when he used drugs (plural) on a daily basis, as reflected on screen through a good number of Personal recordings of the leader of The Libertines that document his chaotic lifestyle, a time in which he recognizes himself even if he doesn't like it. “There was a lot of chaotic thinking, trying to explain yourself while taking crack is difficult, you should never trust what you say.”
With a mojito on the table and smoking one cigarette after another, Doherty takes his time before answering the journalists' questions with a thin voice. When he speaks, his words are more like the cursed composer that everyone saw at the beginning of his career, the reader of Rimbaud and Keats, than the sensationalist bait he became after his two-year courtship with Kate Moss, an unnecessary distinction. For his wife, “he's still the same, except the addiction is gone. But there is no media Peter and a private Peter, he is always the same person,” explains Katia, who takes the opportunity to remember that her treatment of her husband by the British press was “really horrible.”
“Lately I have been playing the guitar a lot and I have written quite a few songs, I am very happy but it is difficult to compare it with other times,” Doherty responds when asked about the inevitable comparisons. “Even really destructive or gloomy times made for interesting music. I have done things that I am very proud of, like writing or painting, it is very difficult to compare.” What is clear to him is that, “on a cultural level, I will not be remembered as an artist,” although he claims to have connected through his work with other people “in a way that only they and I would understand, with lyrics that could change your life.” forever". But he comes down to earth to remember that all these thoughts are “self-analytical,” and happen while “bombs are falling in Israel and Gaza.”
Drugs have never had a direct influence on his composition process, something that has not changed since he was 17 years old “and did nothing but smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol.” ”. In his view, it is as simple as “sitting with the guitar or with the musicians and waiting for the magic to arise, and once something beautiful appears, you take advantage of it and if it is worth it, you repeat it and play it again, that that's all". The drugs, in this aspect, allowed him to hear the sound in a different way and above all increase his resistance, “you know, you stay awake for five days and compose a lot, but then you are screwed for a couple of weeks in which “You can’t even pick up a guitar.”
Away from excess and the big spotlight, Doherty's artistic life has mutated to return to his origins and continue living within his own songs, “the only place where sometimes I feel like I'm doing something positive for the world.” Now he plays in small stages, and is able to go on stage by surprise hours before performing to, accompanied by his guitar, sing before a handful of spectators and enjoy the music without dressing, as he explains that he has done on his last tour. “When you play for a few people with just a guitarist, a small amp and half a drum kit, you have much more control over the environment and the sound.” Quite the opposite of a stage “with lots of lights and a massive audience, unless you are very confident as a performer and know exactly what you are doing and what you want.”
It is another of the stages that has been left behind for the multifaceted artist, who sees himself reflected in the young people who in the future "will wear hats and work for two weeks in a bar to buy an old suit", the same ones that are presented in the backstage to try to steal some object to take as a souvenir, “that's always a good sign, I see myself reflected,” he explains while glancing at his wife, sitting next to him, who gives him a reproachful look while breastfeeding their daughter. “Peter doesn't treat them like fans, he opens the door for them and treats them like friends. “He is beautiful, but he is also my home when we are on tour,” he recalls, “and sometimes I would like to close the door.”
And speaking of home, Pete Doherty points his finger at the Collserola mountain range when asked about the time he lived in a squat in La Floresta in 2016. “We arrived by motorhome during the tour of Western Europe and we had nowhere to go ”recalls the artist, pointing out Rafa, the drummer of The Puta Madres, as the person who invited them to stay there. “There we found a home and started composing with Rafa, it was in Barcelona where The Puta Madres were born,” he explains, concluding that his stay in the city was “one of the happiest times of my life.”
Leader of numerous groups, painter known for using blood in his paintings and enfant terrible of the new millennium in England, Doherty jokes when asked if he considers himself a survivor. “We all are, right? At least as a species,” but Katia reprimands him and reminds him of all his colleagues who have died before their time, like Amy Winehouse. “I guess so, a little,” she relents, “But you shouldn't say things like that because it's bad luck, I might fall off the roof or lose my hat.”
