Song Exploder - Christine and the Queens - Doesn't Matter

Episode Date: August 15, 2018

Christine and the Queens is a singer, songwriter, and producer from France. Her debut album was first released in 2014 in French, and in 2015, she released an English version of it. It was critically acclaimed and she won the Victoire de le Musique—France’s equivalent of the Grammy—for Best Female Artist in 2015.In July 2018, she released the single “Doesn’t Matter” in advance of her second album,Chris. Like before, she made a French version and an English version, but this time she wrote both versions simultaneously. In this episode, she talks about what that translation process was like, and the possibilities it opened up, as she takes apart "Doesn’t Matter." The song and the story first began in Chris’s basement. songexploder.net/christine-and-the-queens

You're listening to Song Exploder, where musicians take apart their songs, and piece by piece, tell the story of how they were made. I'm Rishi Kesh Hirwe. Christine in the Queens is a singer, songwriter, and producer from France. Her debut album was first released in 2014 in French, and then in 2015 she released an English version of it. It was critically acclaimed, and she won the Victoire de la Music, France's equivalent of the Grammy, for Best Female Artist, in 2015. Earlier this year, in July 2018, she released this single, doesn't mean. matter in advance of her second album, Chris. Like before, she made a French version and an English version, but this time she wrote both versions simultaneously. Coming up, she talks about what

that translation process was like and the possibilities it opened up as she takes apart doesn't matter. The song and the story first began in Chris's basement. My name is Christine and the Queens. I'm actually starting to make music without any clear purpose, like flexing the muscle every day of, you know, sitting and writing. And this time around, I just started to I opened my laptop and I was like, I'm going to maybe just try and do a beat and we'll see where it goes from there. So I'm working on Logic Studio 10, mainly sometimes using basic sounds on there. And I just found at some point this kind of like morphing sound. And I warped it a bit and add some filters on it.

The move of it felt really organic. Like it felt like taming an animal. And I started to do the bass line. And it was like, I don't know, I created it. this loop and it was hypnotic to me. Sometimes you get totally crazy over a sound and you're like, I don't know, something was quite groovy and at the same time quite animalistic to me. Most of the time in my productions, there are mistakes.

But when you try to remove the mistakes, because I can hear the clicks of, I think it's the attack of the filter or something like that, and it's kind of weird. To me, it sounds like a spine. The attacks feels like, I don't know, the end of the bone, it's weird, it's weird. But it feels like if you remove that, everything crumbles. So I was like, oh, let's keep the mistakes then. I remember that that night I was quite sad. I'm a writer who desperately wants to relate to people.

But I'm socially awkward. And I tend to be a bit tortured, right? Because I felt like I was not fitting in. To me, it was because I was a girl and a queer one. And being a girl is an immense pain in the ass today because you are made to feel not pretty enough, not strong enough. I mean, it's a nightmare to be a girl. I like it, but society is such as this, that it's nightmare.

And especially when you feel like you're not fitting the norms and you're queer, it's a second problem. And with Shalor Remen, my first album, and everything that I received with it, warmth and acceptance and being listened to and understood as I wanted to, I was like, oh, maybe something is going to mend at some point. And maybe I'm going to, you know, restore a positive narrative. Maybe it's going to heal me. But success never heals. And actually, it can sometimes even be. harder to relate to people because people talk to you but they don't talk to you because you're a projection of their own ideas that they have when they listen to your music.

So I stopped touring and I was back in this kind of solitary life. I only felt comfortable on my own late at night on the streets and I kind of started to build the beat around that. The PON-T-A-PON-K came from my logic again, the roughest kind of lo-fi sounds. There is a toughness that suited the kind of slight desolation I had. Like to me makes me think of the loneliness in cities where when you really feel lonely and sad, everything resonates in your head as signs of desolation. Images of grey concrete and subways and blasts of claxons and everything is a sign

because it feels like the whole world is resonating through your sadness. And to me, because the beat is rough, it allows me to be sad on top of it. It felt like, less obscene to do it that way. And it felt like the right beat to be totally and utterly honest that night. I was like, well, shall I unfold totally? Like, shall I try to write the rawest, most exposed song I could write? And I was like, let's do it. You're going to hear a really raw, a first draft, huh?

Bear in mind that it was the first draft at 2 a.m. And I was crying, okay? I started with the first line and I carried the first line. And you can actually tell that it's kind of like a stream of consciousness. The track started in French, but I had to translate it. I mean, actually, I wanted to translate it, because I had the opportunity to release it in the US and the UK and I didn't want to be an exotic, just French singer.

I wanted to try and relate more. I don't know if people get my English most of the time, but it's very much me trying. But the chorus was immediately in English actually. And if God does exist, if I believe in God, and if God does exist, it doesn't matter, does it. I knew I would have to have some translating process happening because the song has two versions. But because of the pace of the French, it's quite wordy. It was kind of a challenge to make it work in English as well and have that same quality and honesty and sonically to have the same pace and melody.

It's a really interesting challenge. It's like working the course. core of the song twice. One is my native language, one is something I'm still taming. So it's different weapons, different strength in each language, and it becomes really interesting because with French I do have the utter intimacy, the poetic force because I master it really well as a language. With English, I do have something more straightforward sometimes and more naive and sometimes it helped me to actually move forward in the English version

it unlocked something and then I was back in the French it really became something thrilling to work on it doesn't matter does it I love working on harmonies it's one of my great pleasure it's like eating chocolate if I know in the exit if I believe in God and if God does exist if I believe in God and if God does exist it doesn't I mean, it's quite a desperate chorus in a way. I mean, it doesn't matter, does it, if I know any exit, and if God does exist. But to me, the harmonies feels like something is resolving in a way. There is kind of hope in the harmonies, which is interesting because the line is not so much

hopeful. The line is desperate, but the music says otherwise. And so then what does it create? Like, does it indicate that I'm actually going to be okay? when I'm actually saying I'm not going to be okay. This song is a bit like a Greek tragedy to me. It's actually theater as much as music to me because it really has a theatrical progression in Greek tragedies. There is like the figure of the hero is speaking.

but there is a Coropheus The Coropheus is the leader of a Greek chorus that sometimes gives comments the hero is like, I'm not feeling good and the chorus is like, you're not feeling good and this song was calling for this dramaturgy of a tragedy the lead vocal is lonely and feels immensely lonely but it's actually surrounded with the Greek chorus

and it just is coming from the harmonies and it's just a different story telling I didn't want to add to much harmonic information in that track, I wanted it to remain really aggressive and bare. So the only thing to add was like rhythms instead of too many harmonies. The hi-hat centering at the second verse. It's kind of like an extra information of rhythm, like make the pace a bit more urgent. And in the French version I'm saying it's rage that makes me go forward.

And to me the hi-hat is an indication of movement. It's like I'm starting to walk. There is a moment in the track where I really wanted it to get super intimate and almost naked before actually the track reopens again and I'm projecting my voice even more. It has to be almost like in theatre when someone suddenly acknowledged the public and you get a sense of intimacy because the character is actually breaking the fourth wall and talk to you directly and you feel this close to the character. And I wanted to create that moment and it was already in the lyrics.

It's like, forget I said it. I soliloquoise. It's me breaking the narrative and talking directly to people. The whole track is actually my voice. I sang it twice and layered the vocal for it to be really thick. But this time it breaks down to just a single one, really compressed like this close to you. If you want to be listened to, just don't speak too loud.

It's actually way more efficient than if you scream at it. It's kind of like knowing when to pull attention. The whole rest of the production breaks, there is just like the bass line and synthesizes. And then it starts again with like bv-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-v-v-w-w-w-w-w-w. And I remember spending like a week on that, like, the right sound of like the bv-b-b-v-v-v-to for it to be hectic and not to... I mean, it's like doing lace details. Like it was finding the right kick who could distort well. And it sounds maybe deceptively simple now.

but it took me a week to do it properly. So at that point in the lyrics, in the song, there is another character entering and it's unclear if it's a projection, a ghost, someone I would want to meet and love, something I am, it's unclear. But I'm talking to someone who, in French, that figure is called the Voleur de Soleil,

which means the sun stealer. And it's a figure of hope, I guess, and I'm just, at that point, I start to address that figure and tell him, run away. I'm in the place of despair and he basically represents hope and I'm like, just get away from me and run and steal the sun and go away. Sometimes you're surprised by what you write. I mean, writing the track I actually helps me turn this order into a lamento. I'm basically saying, go away. And the choir is like, go away. Sometimes you're surprised by what you write. I mean, writing the track, I actually realized how sad I was. I was like, oh. I'm really sad.

Because it's a cathetic way of expressing yourself. You have to put your hands in what hurts you and, you know, in order to be raw and unfolded. So it's never like a pleasing thing. Like catharsis is not pleasing, but it's needed. I was listening to it and crying and be like, I'm so sad. I can't believe I was so sad.

But, you know, I was like, well, This is maybe something other people could relate to it differently Because I do believe loneliness is a great disease that is shared by many people Yeah And now here's Doesn't Matter by Christine and the Queens in its entirety And the Kiss In a kiss Ninto was the service

And of lately the only people I can stare at the on rather ones with the hands lay bare with their hands and on Visit the Or silent so there's a meal I whisper's in my back As if I could kneel Though I left goes behind But they're just coming in it doesn't matter

Does it? In the exit For God does exist If I barely forgot And we've got the success From jazz of fabric Visit songexplor.net To learn more about Christine and the Queens

And for a link to buy or stream this song I have a new album of my own coming out on April 24th. It's been about 15 years since I last put out a full length, and this is the first one that'll be out under my own name, Rishi Kesh Her Way. I started making Song Exploder when I was feeling lost in my own music career. And then for over a decade, I've gotten to have these incredible conversations about the process of making music talking to other artists, and it made me completely rethink my relationship to music and my way of writing songs.

And this album is the product of all. All of that. It features contributions from some of my favorite artists, including some folks that you may have heard on this podcast, like Iron and Wine, Kevin Morby, Vagabon, Fenlily, and the producer Phil Wine Robe. I'm going to be on tour playing in cities across the US starting in April, and I'm trying to bring the spirit of the podcast with me. So every show that I'm playing will begin with a conversation about the album with a different

amazing guest moderator in each city, like Adam Scott, Samin Nosrat, Jason Manzukas, Josh Melina, Minjin Lee, Ken Jennings, John Roderick, Austin Cleon, and more. They're all going to be my conversation partners on stage, and then I'll play with my band. The album is called In the Last Hour of Light, and the first couple songs are out now. You can listen to the music and get tickets for the shows on my website, rishikash.co, or just go to songexploder.net slash live. That's songexploder.net slash live. Thanks. If you heard about a sponsor in this episode and you want to learn more,

you can always go to songexploder.net slash sponsors to find all the current offers for Song Exploder listeners. This episode was produced and edited by me with help from Olivia Wood. The illustration for the episode was done by Carlos Lerma. Next time on Song Exploder, The Decembrists. Song Exploder is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX, a collective of fiercely independent podcasts. You can learn about all of our shows at Radiotopia.fm.

I'd love to know your thoughts on this episode. You can find Song Exploder on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at Song Exploder. My name is Rishi Kesh, Hereway. Thanks for listening. I've been waiting.