A Chat with Frank Rabeyrolles (23.02.23)
Finding the dreamy fusion of ambient shoegaze, intriguing art-pop and enchanting old-school folk, French artist Frank Rabeyrolles is described as “prolific and insatiable”. We speak with Frank Rabeyrolles about his new album Boat Songs, musical inspiration, what he does in his spare time, and much more!
OSR: What drew you to music?
Rabeyrolles: Well, it s not easy. I used to go to many gigs with my mother when I was very young like Archie Shepp, Santana and also Miles Davis when I was 7 and I wanted to write songs and play with my friends. It took time to record something listenable.
OSR: What does music mean to you?
Rabeyrolles: Music is like a Priesthood, I mean it’s really precious and soulful and I love music made with passion. I’m an Atheist but music has something really irrational.
OSR: Do you think a world could exist without music?
Rabeyrolles: Music is part of our DNA, it’s primitive, ritual and connected with the body and soul, rhythm characterises us. A world without music can’t exist, consumer society has quite change the deal with music, it’s more superficial sometimes but it is still something important for each one.
OSR: What can you tell us about your new album Boat Songs?
Rabeyrolles: It’s an important record for me because I recorded it with two musicians, Sebastien Pasquet and Romain Delorme, and it’s not a bedroom record, we went into the studio with Fred Belenger. It’s more a folk, indie-pop record, quite different from music I recorded over the last years. I stopped recording instrumental music.
OSR: Which do you find more challenging: creating the melody or writing lyrics?
Rabeyrolles: Melody is really interesting research, an obsession for me. Lyrics are becoming more and more important too. It‘s difficult to write interesting things in English for me as I’m a French person but I put more and more energy into it.
OSR: What inspires you to create music?
Rabeyrolles: Most of my inspiration is found in my personal story and childhood, there’s a lot of nostalgia and introspection in my music. I’m also into sociology and philosophy but I don’t think it’s a big inspiration. 🙂
OSR: If you could change one thing about Boat Songs, what would it be?
Rabeyrolles: You can always improve things but there’s a moment of blindness and you can’t see for real what could be better. It’s more than a few months after the release that you realise things could have been better, you can always improve the songwriting.
OSR: If you could spend the day with any celebrity, who would it be and why that person?
Rabeyrolles: It would be a filmmaker, maybe Terrence Malick.
OSR: What do you do in your spare time?
Rabeyrolles: Family time is important, travels also, you have to feed yourself to get a new breath in what you do.
OSR: What are your future plans as a musician?
Rabeyrolles: We have a new single taken from the album session but totally exclusive called ‘Beauty’ and a few shows and I’m coming back to work and doing new songs.
Many thanks to Frank Rabeyrolles for speaking with us. For more from Frank Rabeyrolles, check out his official website, Facebook, Instagram and Spotify.
This artist was discovered via Musosoup #sustainablecurator
