The Quebecois, a model in her spare time, is gradually establishing herself as one of the major voices of the moment. His songs are inhabited by a singular grace and pose the eternal question of love with a thousand and one spells, solar or dark. Meeting on a wire from the heights of Montmartre.
She preferred the telephone, a dialogue of guessing shadows. She lives on the Montmartre hill, with Paris at her feet. “I live at the foot of the hill, with Paris on my hand.» If we had known, perhaps… Charlotte Cardin, from Montreal, has this Quebec accent which disconcerts for a fraction of a second – just as our funny accent must disconcert her. No reason. I watched his clips, looked at images from magazines where he sometimes poses in fashion series. For the model she was from 15 to 19 years old, no effort there. Role playing is always fun. “You get your makeup done and your hair done in styles that aren’t always yours. You're telling someone else's story. It didn't suit me. But since I became a singer, I am happy to reconnect with fashion, because I can reclaim it by telling my own story. It’s a real chance.”
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Didn't she parade during the last Fashion Week for Miu Miu? No longer as a simple “number” on the catwalk, but as an artist. The scene always, in a way. And then this name? A nickname in homage to Cardin (Pierre), the pioneer of the futuristic look, the man who sublimated women? Would we imagine a fake Marilyn Chanel, a counterfeit Natacha Saint Laurent? That would be stupid. No. Cardin is his name. The first thing that comes to mind? Charlotte is beautiful with, fortunately – perfect beauty is soporific – something powerful in her nose that adds personality to her face.
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Charlotte Cardin and her love at first sight for Music – Conversations
SHE SINGS EVERYTHING SHE LOVES
I listened and re-listened to his music one night of silence around me, read the lyrics, in English most of the time. I noticed that she talked a lot about incomprehension between women and men, about stifling love, about betrayed passion, about pleading with the loved one, about relationships “toxic” (to use this catch-all fashionable word), of disappointment in love, of those sadnesses which sometimes boil down to “I can’t live with you, I can’t live without you”.
The endless enigma: how two such different sexes manage to get along. Unresolved miracle, and fortunately, otherwise what a bore on Earth! But Charlotte renews the question by sometimes bringing cruelty to the lyrics, a strangeness to her melodies and her singing, a groove possessing something of the touch of black velvet while the yellow eyes of a cat would stare at her in the darkness . A cousin inspired by Billie Eilish.
“Not being locked into a style stimulates me enormously. »
“When people ask me what kind of music I make, I always say that my style is pop, influenced by everything I loved growing up and everything I love today. Not being locked into a style stimulates me enormously.” It smells like sleepless nights working on the piano, the recording studio until the thrill of the day.
Explanations: From a very young age, I felt a great connection to music, something that allowed me to express myself on a level that I feared I might not achieve later with normal language. I was very introverted. Everything at home, as a child, came through music and the little shows that I loved to put on at home. Music was very quickly a tool for connecting with others, I found my place in life thanks to it, because it allows me to know myself.» And to eliminate, with this radical profession of faith: Goodbye to my worthless ego, she proclaims somewhere. Charlotte Cardin or the benefits of music therapy. Take turns «passive agressive», «Sad Girl», «Good Girl», intoxicating siren, Bovary from Sunset Boulevard, midnight demoness, all these women in her do not inhabit the world in the same way… a thousand and one intimate routes which, of course, are not always hers, confidences of boys and girls. girls from whom she makes her hemlock honey. Conclusion of the interested party: “Complicated relationships fascinate me. In life, it's something else, we'll see that later…
On the phone that morning, Charlotte suddenly brightened the grayness of a zinc sky. Intimate confidence flows naturally: the enchantress grew up in a happy family – scientific parents -, where everyone gave free rein to their imagination. Which changes us from the thousandth doloristic “bad family-I-hate-you” verse, popular ad nauseam in publishing. His music is sometimes dark, but his life is clear. Of course, she proposed to Jim Carrey in the title track, featured on 99 Nightshis latest album: «I got so many personalities/Jim Carrey ; will you marry me?» *.
Just for fun, though… Worried, the protean genius called him. Wasn't this funny girl in love going to play Anna Karenina for him? He hung up, reassured. They had a good laugh. It was all just a song. More seriously, Charlotte is in a relationship with the charming Alyocha Schneider.
The Franco-Canadian actor and musician was raised in a family just as charming as Charlotte's, where children are taught the grace of politeness and interest in others as certificates of aptitude for happiness – Niels , the “big brother” that I know a little about, is made of the same soft wood. Charlotte and Alyosha or two mirrors which have nothing polished, each retains its shine and its reflection which leads it towards other shores. Tours for her, filming for him. The best way to walk hand in hand when distance fuels lack. A surprise: how can we explain that these two gifted musicians did not undertake a four-handed fusion for a project? “We have some musical explorations to do on our own before we feel 100% comfortable doing something together… but that’s definitely going to come.”
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Aliocha Schneider and Charlotte Cardin, Together in music as in life
At the moment, Charlotte is reading, or rather devouring, Pretty Evil by Emma Becker, literary success of the school year. The story of a woman who cannot live with her lover, nor live without him. An eternal story that questioned her during the 99 nights of recording her album, although at home, we understood, the question is settled. His most beautiful song is called I leave. For us, it will be enough to hang up.
* In French: “I have so many personalities/ Jim Carrey; will you marry me?”
Charlotte Cardin will be on tour from November 26 and at the Zénith in Paris on December 6.
