Christine and the Queens' new album is an operatic exploration of grief and angels

Transcript

A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:

French pop artist Christine and the Queens released his fourth album today. It's called "Paranoia, Angels, True Love," and it touches on grief and the spirits that both frighten and guide us. The creative force behind Christine and the Queens is just one guy, Chris, who described himself as a very tiny French man. So then who are the Queens?

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

CHRIS: It's the mechanism of my imagination. It's a playground. So often there is something so true about yourself that is expressing through your imagination. You know what I mean? So Christine and the Queens is choose your truth. Pick your masks, big sir, 'cause you're going to tell them the crazy story of a soul searching for truth inside the intricacies of music.

MARTÍNEZ: That search for truth is all over his sprawling new concept album. I asked Chris to tell me how he would describe it.

CHRIS: Oh, come on, it's too vast. The music was this very vast container this time. I mean, I could describe it as an opera, actually. It's kind of the best fitting word in the sense that I wrote this record very fast, like a series of visions. And the whole day was resonating weirdly, like life became the opera and the music was just a distillation of that crazy journey.

MARTÍNEZ: Well, I want to play a bit of "True Love." I mean, there are angels found in the lyrics of this song. So let's hear a little bit of "True Love."

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TRUE LOVE")

CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS: (Singing) Angel of light, take me higher, and make me forget my mother with your dark brown eyes staring at me, with your dark eyes...

MARTÍNEZ: I know you lost your mother in 2019. It happened kind of suddenly. I mean, what do angels represent to you, considering what you went through with your mom?

CHRIS: You know, the shift of energy, losing someone in this physical plane and losing your mom, depending on the relationship you have - but I actually happen to adore my mom. So that experience of love was - through grief was very impressive 'cause something was gone. For sure she was gone, but the crazy thing is, I never felt she was truly absolutely gone. Like, my soul always felt still linked to her, and there was, like, a dignity in the grief I was having. I think also grief is just another expression of the love you have for someone. You know what I mean? So then it can become a celebration of everything by you staying brave inside of this world for the ones who left it as well. But I think angels are also this - she probably found - she turned into one angel for me...

MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.

CHRIS: ...'Cause she's immaterial, but I feel her.

MARTÍNEZ: I think we have to talk here about Madonna. Let's hear "I Met An Angel."

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I MET AN ANGEL")

MADONNA: Do you suffer from loneliness? This is the voice of the big simulation. Just let go of any pressure in your body. The terrestrial food is of no importance now.

MARTÍNEZ: OK. So how did Madonna wind up on this record? I mean, she's kind of, like, this angel-like voice on this.

CHRIS: Very ambivalent voice. Her character is called Big Eye. So it's this - it could be this dystopian, almost computer-y (ph) voice of the simulation 'cause that's what she says.

MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.

CHRIS: But it might be a trap 'cause she also might be the angel. She might be my mom. She basically might be everyone. That's what I said to her 'cause I had to explain the pitch of the whole shenanigan very fast on the FaceTime.

(LAUGHTER)

CHRIS: And as soon as I got the idea, I was like - 'cause the character was existing already.

MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.

CHRIS: And I was like, who could do that? And I pitched this idea very, very softly and fast. And she said, quote, "you're insane. I'll do it," end-quote.

MARTÍNEZ: Madonna is calling you insane.

CHRIS: (Laughter) Yes. I felt anointed on that day.

MARTÍNEZ: What does reinvention mean to you in your art and life?

CHRIS: Yeah. Interestingly, you know, the intricacy with me is actually my layers on stage as I go further in time actually feel more like me precise-ing (ph) myself, sharpening my blade, arriving. It's a slow, Shakespearian arrival, you know? It's a very tiny French man with lots of crazy ideas moving forward to you with his masks falling off slowly. And actually my many names, I often say - it's almost like a poet's way to figure the intricacy of yourself out. And when I was young, I was always saying, oh, the stage is a performance. I was lying 'cause I was a bit of a coward. I was younger. The stage has always been my truth, and the rest of my life was the lie, the performance, the hiding out, the oh, no, nothing happened. It was just on stage.

MARTÍNEZ: I wanted to ask you about your song, "Flowery Days." I mean, it's just you, a piano, a bass and drums. Let's hear a little of "Flowery Days."

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "FLOWERY DAYS")

CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS: (Singing) When I die of love, I want to be sailed down into a fiery crown amongst the flowery days.

MARTÍNEZ: Chris, what do the first four words of this lyric mean, when I die of love? - because whenever I think of people dying and they're surrounded by love, when they're surrounded by family and friends and the people that they love, I think of just, you know, dying with love around you. But what does it mean to die of love?

CHRIS: I suspected always that my heart is so passionate, and then I fall in love so hard that sometimes I could die to myself. I would probably die of that feeling of heartbreak, of loving someone so hard that it's impossible to just move on, the romantic idea of maybe just dying, loving someone. I wrote that song in a very precise moment. I was just sitting at my desk, and I was feeling the pain of heartbreak as well, which is also one of the loss on this record. There was some dignity there in just imagining myself into the flowers in the forest like a knight, you know, just who decided to die for his love. (Laughter) It's a very literal song. It's a very exposing one.

MARTÍNEZ: Have you ever come close to dying of love or feeling like you wanted to die of love?

CHRIS: Yes. Yes, but because I'm - yeah. I'm very romantic, I guess. But I'm still alive, so onwards (laughter).

MARTÍNEZ: The new album from Christine and the Queens is called "Paranoia, Angels, True Love." Chris, thank you.

CHRIS: Thank you so much.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TO BE HONEST")

CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS: (Singing) Now I'm sitting alone. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.