Christian French Releases “make or break up” [Q&A].
Interviewed by: Sarah Evangelista
Making optimistic and fun pop tunes, Christian French is definitely not a new name to The Music Enthusiast; since we’ve already interviewed him a while ago. Since then, he’s been on a couple of headlining tours, and released so many new singles along the way. Read our second chat with the singer/songwriter below.
Sarah: We haven’t spoken in a year! How have you been since?
Christian: I know! I’ve been good, a lot has changed in the past year. I don’t even know where to begin over the past year. I went on my first headlining run, I went on my second headlining run, and then quarantine happened - and it’s made 2020 an interesting year to handle. I’ve just been making a lot of music and kinda diving into my personal growth while I can and just trying to make this a positive beneficial time.
S: Of course! Like you said, you went on two headlining tours and you had just released your second EP, so since those two amazing things, what has been the most special moment in your life?
C: Oh man, well especially thinking about it now that I can’t do it, those tours just like were like the very best feeling ever and I just cannot wait to do them again. Like, it’s just such a good memory for a first headlining tour, like having a crew that is all your best friends is one thing to make it amazing, but then just like, I don’t know, just for the first time really like seeing fans connect with my music. Every show I had done before that was like me as an opener, and although there were people that were really stoked to see me, they were there to see somebody else. And so this was like the first time that people were like there to see me, and I don’t know just like the positive energy and the happiness that just literally radiated through the crowd every single night was just the coolest feeling ever, and I definitely have more of an appreciation for it now, now that it’s kinda put on pause, and concerts are just online.
S: Definitely, have you been doing any virtual concerts?
C: Yeah, it was a lot heavier at the beginning, like I was doing a whole bunch more. I spent the first two months in quarantine back in Indiana, then I came out to LA, and I’ve been here since. But, I was probably doing one or two a week for a while, just kinda like playing the songs acoustically. That’s been like a really cool thing about quarantine is that you kinda have to carry the weight all yourself and that kinda means you know, learning the guitar or piano sufficiently so that it can fill out a song with just you, and it’s a really good challenge. But yeah I have been doing quite a few of these virtual concerts because that’s literally all you can do, and I don’t want to like not perform for my fans, and not not let them hear these songs done live, so yeah I’m just kinda rolling with the punches.
S: And you’ve obviously gained so many new followers since we last spoke, and as you’re getting more recognition, what are the big positives and negatives to growing fame?
C: Oh man, so the positives are- well I feel like my music is optimistic and carries like a positive feeling with it, whether it’s talking about personal growth and mental health, or if it’s just like you know the mood of the song. I just feel like it carries optimism in it, and it’s really cool that a lot more people are getting to hear it, and are getting to have that connection. A lot of people have been like reaching out to me on Twitter and on Instagram, just kinda saying how much its helped their life, and that’s just like the coolest feeling ever, that’s like all I can ever ask for as an artist. That’s like a main reason why I want to grow; is to reach more people and just kinda like let the word be heard by more people. I think a negative, that I kinda stress out about a lot is - I don’t know I’ve kinda grown my brand, talking to everybody on Instagram, like going in my DMs and answering all of them every single day, and the same for Twitter. And now that there’s more people - like, I wish I did, but it would just be me sitting at my phone all day every day, and I just can’t do that. So, I don’t know, it’s been tough to balance the whole like, diving into that versus diving into like, you know, practicing a live set or writing new music. It just takes a lot of mental energy for me and I’ve just kinda struggled with trying to like keep a connection…. I don’t know what I’m trying to say, because I definitely still have a connection with my fans, but not in a sense of me talking to them face to face every single day.
S: Yeah I could totally understand that, like my emails obviously aren’t as much as yours, but when I see like 5 unread emails I get so overwhelmed.
C: 100%. Yeah, it gets a little overwhelming, but it’s not like a bad problem to have though. I’m not going to sit here and complain about it.
S: For sure. And like you said before, your songs are a little more optimistic than others these days, do you have to push yourself to do that or does it just come naturally?
C: I definitely have to push myself to do that. These songs are for me as much as they are for other people, just like, I don’t know, there’s like a lot of times where I can get lost in my own little world inside my head. And writing these songs is like a reminder for myself to just kinda get out of my head and realize that there’s things a lot bigger than just me and my new problems that I’ve created just for the sake of creating them, if that makes any sense? I think a lot of writers could relate to this, like writing a sad song is so much easier than writing a happy song. And I don’t know why that is, but it’s just kinda the way its been. I really try to dig deep in my journaling and everything, I’m always trying to find that positive twist to things, which is a good habit to have.
S: Definitely, and you just released “make or break up”, how does it feel that it’s finally released?
C: It feels so good. I have really loved this song since the day we made it and it’s really been something special. And kinda the process of getting a record out is kinda slow, you gotta wait months before it comes to see the light of day and I’ve just been patiently waiting for this to finally come out, and it finally has. I just think it’s like a cool step in a direction I’ve never gone musically before.
S: The first time I listened to the song I was like ‘oh, this is different, but he’s making it work!’
C: Oh yeah, I appreciate that. I don’t know if I’m like supposed to say this or anything, but we wrote that song like the last day of kinda like a long writing camp, like writing five days in a row. This was the last day and we really just wanted to like switch things up, and we all decided to microdose mushrooms, and we came up with this song that just feels completely different. And I think we really captured this like altered state of mind feeling within the song. So that’s just kinda a cool little thing we did for the last day that kind of sparked a different avenue of creativity.
S: Cool! And the song focuses on a lack of communication in a relationship, was the idea from a personal experience or someone else’s?
C: It was definitely from a personal experience that I had with somebody. Just not really seeing eye to eye, and both kinda feeling like the other person was in the wrong, and just literally sitting there in silence for so long until one of us was willing to budge and have like an adult conversation, and like really hear the other person out. And then after we both like got to say our sides, we understood where the other person was coming from and we were able to like fix it, but that moment stuck with me, because I’m totally not a fighter. I’m the nice, just want everyone to like each other, type of guy, so that’s like a super rare thing for me. So when it does happen, it really like affects me deeply and I really think about it for a long time.
S: And since you’ve already released so many singles this year, could we expect an album or EP soon?
C: Yes! I know we’ve been releasing the singles like crazy, it wasn’t meant to be exactly like this, but during quarantine, we felt that the best way to release songs was just kinda have them come out one by one. But yes, there’s an EP coming next month called good things take time, and I’m so ready for it to get out in the world. There’s going to be 7 songs on it, and they just all have their own life.
S: Yay! Can’t wait for it to be released. And these next questions don’t go with the flow at all-
C: I love it.
S: but, during quarantine, what have you been doing to keep you sane?
C: I have kinda like established a morning routine for the first time in a long time. Like, waking up and reading a book for a little bit, and then going on like a walk or a run, or working out of some sort. That’s really helped me get my day started really well. And I also meditate like 20 minutes a day, which is something I never really got into before quarantine, and it’s just been like a huge benefit for feeling more at peace. You just kinda like capture what your vision for the day is, and you focus on gratitude, and compassion, and all these really good things that are just good to have a daily reminder of. So those three things have been like starting out my morning, and every day is either writing a song or hanging out with my team, talking about how we can do something more with a song, like a music video, or a lyric video, or even TikTok, like just kind of consistently trying to create a better version of myself.
S: Amazing, and our blog is all about up and coming artists and bands, are there anyone’s that you have your eyes on?
C: Ashe is one of my best friends in the music industry, I love her to death, and she’s absolutely crushing it right now. Her song “Moral Of The Story” is doing really well, she just actually released a new single that I really love. I really hope to work with her in the future. ROLE MODEL is another artist that I think is just really dope for what he does. We’ve got a lot of mutual friends, we haven’t hung out too much, just like us two, but we’ve met a couple times and he’s just a really cool down to earth dude. And then, keeping the list going…. I don’t know how underground Still Woozy is, but I think his really special as well. It’s really cool that he does a lot of his stuff by himself, and just, I’m kind of a nerd when it comes to listening to music. I can’t just listen to a song, now I like dive into the lyrics and dive into every detail of production, so from like an artist to artist stand point, I just really respect the detail he puts into his music. There’s more, I could go all day, but we’ll keep it at those three for now.
S: Awesome! Those are some great picks for sure. It’s so good to talk to you again.
C: Same here, we should just keep talking to each other once a year!