Words by Nicole Atieno

A New Chapter: In Conversation with CHARLOTTE CARDIN

Prior to her SWR3 New Pop Festival performance, we had a chat with Canadian pop sensation Charlotte Cardin, the voice behind hits like Feel Good, Confetti and Meaningless, as she gets ready to make her first appearance in Germany. With her highly anticipated third album on the horizon and a new era already taking shape through songs like Tant Pis Pour Elle and The Way We Touch, Charlotte is stepping into a new chapter. We talked about the parts of herself she’s had to unlearn, what she knows now that she didn’t when Phoenix came out, the women inspiring her right now, and what it means to bring her music to the SWR3 New Pop Festival stage.

© SWR/Aime-Elle

Where are you right now?

I’m in Montreal right now, so my hometown, Canada. I grew up here and I’m still not used to the winters, so I can’t imagine just visiting for a few days in the winter. It must be a little bit traumatizing.

Are you traveling between Montreal and the world or are you’re mostly US-based?

I’m actually mostly sharing my time between Montreal and Paris. I have a place in Paris and I mean, obviously, with touring and stuff like that, I’m kind of always in a different place. But, the two main spots are Paris and Montreal for me.

Where do you feel mostly comfortable in?

I mean, my heart will always be very tied to Montreal because my whole family is from here and I grew up here, but I do feel very inspired being in Paris right now. So it’s very much both. Montreal is a small city and the Quebec music scene is interesting, but it’s very small so it was exciting for me to kind of just, broaden my musical inspirations and to see new faces and new cityscapes, to just kind of immerse myself in a new space. So that’s what Paris has been for me in the last few years.

Is there something in the past years that you had to unlearn as an artist?

I feel like I’m always unlearning certain things, but I mean, I think that’s kind of a life challenge, I’m very much of a homebody. I love being at home with my family and that to me is like the biggest sacrifice of being an artist. And so I think in that way I have to kind of deprogram my brain to just be comfortable in new spaces all the time. It’s not something that comes supernatural to me, but I do, I love traveling. I’m super comfortable traveling. It’s just that feeling of, like, homesickness happens really easily for me, so that’s something I’m trying to slowly unlearn. I’ve been touring for over 10 years and I still struggle with that a little bit. So I think it’s gonna be a bit of a lifelong unlearning process, but I’m working on it.

©SWR/SWR3/Arne Becker

If we look back at the time when you wrote the album Phoenix and now, what has changed? Who have you become?

Phoenix came out in 2021, so it’s been a minute. I think as I get older, I get more comfortable with myself. And that also comes with being able to explore musically and just trust that I’m not an imposter in what I do, but also I think just in my personality in general. I’m grateful that I get to experience life and get older and gain new experiences. And I consider myself really lucky to be getting older and to feel a little bit more assurance in myself as I get older. That’s probably the main difference with how I put out my album Phoenix and how I, or who I was at the time, and the evolution of who I am.

Obviously, we all have insecurities. You know, that’s for everyone, that’s something that you work on for a long time. But I think just being grateful and overall having a little bit more fun with my music, like taking it a little bit less seriously because it’s supposed to be fun. It’s my passion and I’m so grateful I get to do it for a living and just remind myself that it’s just, it’s supposed to be fun. When you first start with a project or you put out an album, things can get serious a little bit because the pressure feels really high. But yeah, I’m always reminding myself to have fun along the way.

When do you think you’re most honest with yourself: when you’re writing music or when you’re performing them in life?

When I write music, I very much allow myself to be fully honest and to explore parts of me that I don’t necessarily acknowledge elsewhere than through my music. I think that honesty and even that freedom to explore certain feelings we’re not as proud of as humans. Allowing myself to explore those feelings through my music is something that’s really healing to me and helps me understand certain parts of me. So I think, definitely writing music, I allow myself that total honesty.

Is there a female artist who inspires you? If so, who is she?

I have a lot of female artists who I absolutely love. I grew up listening, I want to say, like, mostly all strong female vocalists. I grew up obsessed with, obviously, Celine Dion, coming from Quebec, but voices like Nina Simone and Ella Fitzgerald and those beautiful jazz voices that I discovered when I was a teenager definitely had a big impact on me. I love artists like Kacey Musgraves at the moment. She’s a country artist who I’m obsessed with. I just love how unapologetic she is. Her voice is beautiful. I just find her so unapologetically herself and I absolutely love that. I love Lana Del Rey, Sade, obviously, she’s an incredible, incredible artist. So, lots of female artists who I definitely look up to.

If you could pick one song that you can’t stop listening to from the female artists, which one would you pick ?

There’s so many right now. You know what song I’ve been really into lately? It’s the song “Fast Car” by Tracy Chapman. It’s such a classic and so beautiful. So that’s one that’s been on repeat recently. And then I’ve been listening to a lot of The Cranberries as well. “Zombie” and “Dreams” and all the bangers.

©SWR/SWR3/Arne Becker

Tell us a little bit about SWR3 New Pop Festival. What do you expect people to feel when they see you on stage or when they listen to you live, maybe for some of them for the first time?

I’m really excited because it’s my first festival ever in Germany. So I think a lot of people will get to discover my project and my music for the first time. I love live performances because music just makes the most sense when it’s shared in such an intimate context or in a physical way where it’s like, you can see people’s reactions and you can really address the songs to them. And so I’m just looking forward to performing for my German audience. I’ve never been to Baden-Baden before, so that’s gonna be really fun. I know that I enjoy performing very much, so I hope that they feel that joy, have fun and that we get to share a nice moment together.

And if you could pick one song from your past albums that represents you fully, which song would that be that you feel most drawn to on a deeper level?

I think every song is a little glimpse of a moment in time. And so sometimes I feel very connected to a song and then a few days or a few months later, I’m like, you know what, I don’t relate to this one as much. It’s like little snapshots of parts of me in a moment in time and so sometimes you go back to certain songs and you’re like, okay, actually, I’m feeling this one more right now. And so I think maybe for this next show, because it kind of changes all the time. But the one I’ll be playing in Germany, I’m excited for, I have a song called “The Way We Touch.” It’s a super fun, like, pop song that I put out a few months ago and that one I’m really looking forward to. I feel like I’m just excited to sing and perform and do something that just makes me feel good and that one definitely does that. So I think that would be the one that comes to mind today.

Is there something you’re curious about for the present moment and for the future?

I think for the present moment, I’m curious to work on the rollout of my next album because I haven’t put an album out in three years now. And so I’m curious to approach this very exciting time where I’m so close to putting out my third album and I feel like I have grown as an artist and as a person, so just kind of living this experience that has only happened to me twice. I’ve only put out two albums and so kind of getting back into it with a fresh perspective. I had a little bit of time off this summer, and so that’s something I’m excited about, definitely. I’m curious to approach music again with a rested spirit.

For the future, I’m just curious to see how many, I guess, different genres of music and different styles of albums that I might do eventually. I’m so passionate about the fact that music is, infinite and you can always rediscover yourself and you can always tell stories in a new, different, fresh way. And so I’m excited to just explore musically and to keep doing what I love. I think those would be the two things.

I’m hearing correctly, you might switch genres in the future?

I mean, who knows? That’s just kind of… it’s not something that I’m planning on doing soon, but I feel like it’s so fun to feel free to do it. Who knows? Maybe at one point I’ll do an album that’s all ballads, and sometime maybe I’ll do an album that’s a little bit folkier, and maybe I’ll do an album that’s a little jazzier. All of that to me is exciting because it’s infinite. Art is so broad and so wide, and who knows what’ll inspire me in a few years. But I’m not planning on, like, drastically changing my style now, but who knows?

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