Enfnts Terribles

Let’s talk about your new album Empire, which is finally coming out after three years. What’s the biggest life lesson you learned in those years?

I can’t really say one exact thing. I definitely learned about life, though. The more music you make and the more songs you write, the more you understand who you are and what you want to do in life.

You made the album in London and Brussels. Did that help you get different perspectives on the songs?

It definitely influenced things a lot. A song can be influenced by many factors like your current mood, the people in the room, and their moods, but also the space you’re in. Being in London, another city with another mood and other cultures, inspired me in another way. When I’m in Brussels, I wake up in my own place, go to the studio, and go back to my place. In London, I’m living somewhere else. I’m interacting with different people. It was very interesting to get to experiment with people from different cultures and experiences.

Empire is such a mesmerizing contemporary pop album. How would you describe the concept of the album?

I never really think about what kind of album I’m going to make. In the beginning, I just wanted to write the songs that I wanted to write and that I feel good with. I would only block myself if I limited myself to a single concept. The kind of album I was making and the kind of songs that would fit inside of it were decisions for later.

Of course, now that I look back at it, I can look at the songs I made and link them all together. I think the true concept of the album is life. It’s about honesty and sincerity with yourself and with others. Life can be full of doubts, but the main thing that you can be sure of is how you choose to live your own life.

The album is a mixture of melancholic songs, but the total picture comes across as very hopeful. Why do you think that feeling of hope stays with you after the album?

I made the album with the idea that people can bring their own meaning into it. So, if you felt hopeful, that’s because you wanted to feel hopeful. People can make it into whatever they want. I leave the message open for people to give them space to feel things. If I fill it up with details about my own life, it may be harder to relate. Sometimes though, I make songs that are very specific to my own life. In “Lonely” I do try to bring that message of hope.

Let’s talk about the music videos for the album because they seem like paintings come to life. What was the idea behind these visuals?

Our artistic director showed me this painter, Gertrude Abercrombie, and we felt a strong connection to her work. Surrealistic paintings are also open to interpretation, which was also the vibe of the album. So, I thought it was super interesting to bring that artistic movement into my music. It goes hand in hand with the idea I had. I, myself, know the links I’m making to the paintings and my life with the outfits and visuals, but I’m not explaining that to my audience.

Do you think making music videos is still important because they aren’t being broadcasted on television anymore?

The music video I made for “Empire” isn’t just for one song. I wanted to create a whole universe for the album. That’s why we have visuals for each song on social media. It’s all happening in the same universe so, I wanted to make links to all the songs with these visuals.

How are you going to translate the magic of these videos into the live shows?

I have no idea yet. When we started working on those concepts, everything started getting canceled because of the lockdown. We have ideas and concepts, but for right now, that’s what they’ll remain to be. It’s very hard to plan things without having an idea of which venue or place you’ll be performing in, so it’s definitely a bit frustrating. I guess we’ll see.

Empire’ is out Friday  May 29th on all platforms.

Photos by Marie Wynants