Hanging on the Bright Side of the Moon With Christian French [Q&A]
Interviewed by: Sarah Evangelista
The pop/alternative artist has making music for a few years now, and I speak for everyone when I say he's great at what he does. After his first single was in the Viral Top 50 charts on Spotify, and his new EP has caught many people's attention. I had the opportunity to chat with Christian French about all things music and his upcoming headlining North American tour. (See tour dates below).
Photo: Angelo Kritikos
This is a basic question, but what inspired you to start singing?
So I started out just listening to a bunch of music like John Mayer, Gavin DeGraw, and James Morrison, and other artists like that. Those were kind of my influencers to music when i was little. As I got a little bit older, I had to be in either choir or band class, so I was kind of - I'm not going to say forced into singing, but definitely walked into that. Then once I was in choir class, I had a friend that was in it with me that learnt "Love Song" by Sara Bareilles on the piano from YouTube and showed me and I was like 'okay, this guy learnt piano from Youtube, then I guess I can as well'. So, he taught me that song, and I just kind of fell in love with like learning covers on the piano, and after I was doing that for a little bit, I got comfortable enough to start singing with it. I never really had an interest in singing before that. And after I started doing it, with covers I actually wanted to do rather than scripted choir songs that I didn't really like, that's when I really started liking it. Then over the next couple of years, I kept doing covers, and after doing those for a while, I got comfortable enough to start writing my own music.
Awesome! Your first single "Fall For You" had much success, what was your reaction to that?
Yeah that was the very first song that we put on Spotify, and it was one of those things where we just kind of released it while we were in college - Triegy and I, he went to my college, and he produced the song. We released it on Soundcloud and a lot of our friends were like 'yo this song's really good, you should put it on Spotify', and so we did. Then, a few weeks later, somehow it ended on the Viral Top 50 charts, and we were like 'oh shit, we can actually do this'. So we kept making music together. After "Fall For You", we made "Dying Alive", "By Myself" and "Done From The Start". It totally gave us the confidence to keep doing it, and pushed us to keep making better music every single time. That's kinda how this whole music thing started for me.
And your new EP bright side of the moon, was released not long ago, do you think your music has evolved since your last album?
Yeah I would say 100% it has. I feel like I have more of a direction now, I just know what exactly I want to say, and then put that into music it's not really like - I'm not saying my previous music is a shot in the dark, but it's kind of taking songs from writing about relationship stuff to writing about stuff that's impacting my life right now, like anxiety, writing about that with "heavy snow", writing about my mood, and going against what normal society is doing, wrote that with "breaking all the rules". Then bright side of the moon was just like being out here doing a whole bunch of new stuff. This is my first year of being completely submerged in music. I'd had to kind of figure it out as I go, and sometimes it's really really hard to stay mentally positive about it all. But I've kind of been - not been forced, but I've definitely learned just how to look on the positive side - look on the bright side, I guess you could say. It's just helped my life so much that I had to write about it, I had to put the idea out, just so that other people could start using it in their daily lives. I've definitely gotten to see how it's helped some people and just brighten their day, so that's all I can ask for.
Now did the name of the EP come first, or did the single inspire the name of it?
I had the idea of "bright side of the moon" for a long time, and I sat on it and I wrote about it in my journal, just kinda wrote the general gist of what it meant. And I really sat on it for a minute, and it was kind of around this time - like a month before tour, I kinda just kept seeing how important it was, so I decided to name the tour after it, then followed the EP and the single. I think I made all of the decisions - the tour name, the EP name, and the single name, all at the same time!
Cool! Was the writing process easy?
I wouldn't say it was easy. Like I said, I really like sat on it for a while - kinda bullet pointed out what I wanted to say, before I even started the actual writing. I wrote one with Sam Fischer, who's just an incredible writer. So writing with him and explaining the whole idea to him - he was really into it as well and I think he knew exactly what I was trying to say, because he already read so many bullet points inside of my journal. So together we were able to lay it out in one day, it was one of those songs that honestly most of it was finished in one day. It was like a spark of energy in the room that everybody was feeling.
That's great! You'll be going on tour soon, and I believe it's your first time headlining a show in Montreal? Are you excited?
Yes! First time ever being in Montreal and I'm so excited! Yeah I got to go to Toronto and Vancouver last tour, and it was my first time being to either of those places and I absolutely LOVE Canada! I heard Montreal is beautiful and I'm really stoked to be there. I always loved being in Canada, it's like - I don't know, it's weird being out of the country. It's still the only place I've ever been other than the United States - I don't know how but yeah! We get to do so many new things this time around, cause we've just been openers before, you know it's a 30-40 minute set. This is the first time we really get to do everything we wanted to do. We get to play all the songs we want, and I get to have a drummer this time around. So many things I'm excited about.
And what will the setlists look like? Will it be a mix of older and new songs?
Yeah totally. I got a couple of old tracks that I've never played before, I've got a couple unreleased tracks that I've never played before, and then a whole bunch I've played before, but not with a drummer and not really with the same energy that I feel like we have this time around. So we get to do that, we get to strip back some songs - play them acoustically, I'm not going to giveaway which songs those are because that'll ruin the surprise but just like a lot of different energy in the set and I think it's going to be great!
Great! Thanks so much for letting me interview you.
You asked some good questions!
Thank you! Do you have any last messages to fans who may be reading this?
Just keep looking on the bright side!
Stream bright side of the moon, here.
Connect with Christian French:
Website|Instagram|Twitter|Facebook
Catch Christian French on tour, get tickets here.
September 4 - Ann Arbour, MI @ The Blind Pig
September 5 - Chicago, IL @ Subterranean
September 7 - Indianapolis, IN @ Hi-Fi
September 8 - Cleveland, OH @ House of Blues Cleveland presented by Cricket Wireless
September 10 - Toronto, ON @ The Drake Underground
September 11 - Montreal, QC @ Le Ministère
September 14 - New York, NY @ Mercury Lounge
September 15 - Cambridge, MA @ Sonia Live Music Venue
September 17 - Philadelphia, PA @ The Fillmore Philadelphia
September 19 - Atlanta, GA @ Aisle 5
September 21 - Nashville, TN @ High Watt
September 22 - Columbia, MO @ Rose Music Hall
September 24 - Denver, CO @ Lost Lake Lounge
September 25 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court
September 27 - Seattle, WA @ Barboza
September 28 - Vancouver, BC @ Biltmore Cabaret
September 29 - Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge
October 1 - San Francisco, CA @ Rickshaw Stop
October 2 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Roxy Theatre
October 4 - Phoenix, AR @ Valley Bar
October 6 - Dallas, TX @ House of Blues - Cambridge Room
October 7 - Houston, TX @ Bronze Peacock - House of Blues
*with support of ASTN