Charlotte Cardin on Juno wins, her new album and facing her own ego | 24CA News
A bit over a yr in the past, Charlotte Cardin was standing on the end line of Juno Awards weekend, her arms filled with golden statuettes.
With a number one 4 wins in among the Canadian music award present’s high classes, together with artist, single and album of the yr for her 2021 debut Phoenix, the Montreal singer-songwriter was the present’s breakout star.
All eyes appeared mounted on what she would do subsequent.
But Cardin says she didn’t really feel a lot strain as she readied her sophomore album 99 Nights, which was launched final week.
“I never had time to stop and think, ‘Oh, the stakes are so much higher now,’” Cardin recalled in a latest interview within the Toronto workplaces of her report label. “It took us 4 years to write down Phoenix and when it got here out, I used to be already engaged on this album.
“And right now I’m already on to the next project.”
The 28-year-old’s profession has been in a state of fixed movement ever since she landed a spot within the Top 4 of French Canada’s model of The Voice in 2013. It took her a couple of extra years earlier than Quebec embraced her as its new vital pop darling, helped by early standout singles Meaningless and Daddy.
Like each artist whose first album leaves an impression, Cardin confronted how you can comply with it up with one thing substantial. Luckily, by the point these Juno wins had been on her mantle, she was already almost completed a lot of 99 Nights.
Named after the tough time span of its creation, the album explores a interval when the Paris-based Cardin was popping out of the darkest corners of a long-distance relationship with Quebec actor Aliocha Schneider. She mentioned the problem put each of them at a crossroads the place they had been pressured to “reconsider a lot of things” about their relationship.
“The distance really takes a toll on you,” she mentioned. “And we were in a bad place.”
The couple persevered and 99 Nights finds Cardin feeling higher about their future as she displays on the “endless possibilities” of getting her ft on strong floor.
“I used to be within the headspace the place I used to be realizing that on daily basis with this individual — but in addition on daily basis within the greater image of your life – is a alternative.
“I was expanding my musical playground in the studio, exploring all these things, and it was mirroring how I was feeling. Like, I could do all of this, I could date all these people if I wanted. But I choose to be in this relationship.”
Her perspective provides the album a playful sense of humour at instances, most memorably on Jim Carrey, a cool not-quite-a-stalker tribute to the Canadian actor who impressed her along with his web sermons on how you can free oneself from their very own ego, and Daddy’s a Psycho, a tongue-in-cheek reflection on fathers written with a number of different songwriters.
“We connected on the fact that we had strange relationships with our dads,” she mentioned.
“I have a great relationship with mine in a lot of ways. It’s just never been a simple relationship.”
Her downtempo tracks Puppy and Next to You bookend the album with confessional takes on romance.
Cardin describes 99 Nights as “the diary of a very precise moment” in her life over the higher a part of summer time, two years in the past, as she frolicked in a tiny recording studio on the Montreal condominium of her musical director Mathieu Sénéchal with a couple of songwriter buddies.
“He had just moved in, so it was basically an empty apartment with a studio set up and a tiny couch,” Cardin mentioned.
“We were having fun between friends and it was one of those vibes where music can be such a therapy.”
As the album lastly sees its launch, Cardin admits she’s already moved previous 99 Nights in some methods.
She’s been onto the subsequent album for fairly some time, and sees all of those efforts as half of a big, career-spanning catalogue of unwritten albums she affectionately refers to by the all-encapsulating label, “The Project,” a simmering sequence of tales that may chart her progress as an individual.
“It’s not as if I’ve had that big viral moment but I’m at a place where I’m so happy to be able to share my music with an audience.”
“I feel like my music has grown in a very organic way.”
© 2023 The Canadian Press
