Ashley: What did you go to school for?
Chantal: I went to Humber College in Toronto and I studied [jazz] music.
Ashley: When you first started working on [French Press], where you performing as French Press over seas?
Chantal: No, I guess it was only incubating at that point, it was kind of an idea and I had to decide what I was doing. Was I playing jazz, I didn’t know if I was staying with the band [I had been currently working with] or if I was going to branch out. IT was a lot of push and pull. You just have to settle before the work could really begin, in terms of songwriting.
I played my first show in the summer of 2012 so I guess at that point I had accumulated enough songs to play a set. So I had given myself a song a week challenge, and it didn’t last forever maybe five or six weeks, but pretty much 90% ended up on the record that I’m going now. It took a lot of focus and dedication, but it paid off.
Ashley: Where did you get project name “French Press”?
Chantal: I‘m French Canadian so I wanted to come up with French name but I was worried about people mispronouncing it or sometime people are awkward about saying a word they don’t say. I thought [that wouldn’t be good] if people were hesitating to mention my band name so I just came up with “French”. It came from a little brainstorm session when I was in Thailand. I also liked the marriage of French and Press. The imagery, the crunch and the tension I think that those are themes that arise in my music so I think it worked it. And people seem to like it.
Ashley: So you went to school for Jazz but now you are doing pop, how does you jazz background influence your music?
Chantal: I think the act of being constantly on the spot. We had to take improvisational classes so you’d get used to finding your flow really fast because you kind of have to. I think that really free me up melodically so coming up with melodies because I was doing that in class, and I had to so and lock into that moment, I go better at that which I’m really grateful for. I love playing music, listening to music, I love everything so I wasn’t entirely sure where I was going in that program but I got complete absorbed by it. I don’t think you can still hear Jazz in what I’m doing other than maybe my chords are not always super standard. I think that I allow myself by being exposed to those jazz options let me get outside of the common pop chord form.
Ashley: What’s your songwriting process?
Chantal: I find that melodies come pretty easily to me and I’m happy that one part comes really easily. Usually, if I’m faced with some kind of strife or some kind of conflict I like to be able to work through it by exploring it through music. Unless there is a good conflict going on in my life or in my morals or something like that, it’s kind of hard for me to come up with a song that I’m going to stick with that I will want to continue to play. If I have a topic to talk about, if I’m feeling a rush or a strong emotional response to something, then I can take that and have it guide the music or the sound. I’ll basically just improvise and riff and try to always make my music as hooky as possible, something that I would get about and I hope that people get excited about.
Ashley: How do you decide if this topic you’re picking isn’t too personal or if it appropriate to write about?
Chantal: Unless you’re making yourself a little uncomfortable, it’s not exciting as the artist or it doesn’t feel worth it. You want to be pushing a little bit; for example, when I wrote the song Back on the Mattress (WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW) I had people saying,“ Wow, that it was really gusty of you to just be a woman and talk about that.” Maybe for reasons of worry of slut shaming or I’m not too sure what; but, it’s by no means controversial but it is pushing a little bit and it keeps me excited and I hope that it keeps others excited.
Ashley: What is it about?