France de Griessen is an artist who doesn’t see her work as a calling in the classical sense, but rather as something that was there from the very beginning—hidden in the recesses of what we commonly call personality, waiting for the moment of breakthrough and unfolding. This breaking through and bursting forth is also reflected in the title of her new album, which prompted an extensive conversation. In the structures shaped by voice, guitar, and carefully selected additional sound sources, this is revealed in a wide variety of contexts. In our interview, she speaks less about career or strategies than about states of being, presence, attitudes, and inner necessities. Influenced early on by figures like Sarah Bernhardt and fascinated by the possibility of contemplating many lives simultaneously, she understands artistic practice as an openness to transformation and ambivalence. For her, music appears not primarily as a form of communication, but as a ritual, an incantation, a moment of intense presence. Themes of ambiguity, but also of tenderness and resistance, repeatedly emerge.
Since there isn’t much to read about you in German-speaking countries yet (we’re working on changing that), would you tell our readers a few things about yourself, your work and your beginnings as a multidisciplinary artist? Were there any early influences that sparked your artistic motivation?
Thanks !
I never chose or decided to be an artist, it was very clear to me very early on in my childhood that it was my nature and my path. When I was 5 or 6 I saw a book that changed my life: Sarah Bernhardt photographed by Nadar. The photographs captured her in elaborate stage costumes. She was either a woman or a man, young, old or anything in between – she did not care if the role was written for a maiden, a man, an elder or a femme fatale : if she wanted to play Hamlet, she thought it was an irrelevant question -, and to me it seemed that she had so many different lives in one. The wonderful Tilda Swinton reminds me very much of her. When it comes to creativity, I don’t ask myself “Can I do this?” but “How can I do this with who I am and what I am able to learn ?”.
You’ve just released your fourth album, Dawn Breakers. The title evokes a poetic image of change and transformation. When did you know that this title captured the inner core of the album?
When I saw it! “Dawn Breakers” was written on the label of a vintage shirt. It was the perfect title I had been looking for to express what this album is about. Attention to detail and being open to what they can reveal to us is part of being an artist. My motto is “leave a little room for magic”.
Many of the songs seem reduced in terms of their sonic breadth: guitar, vocals, a few other instruments used sparingly. What does this formal simplicity allow you to achieve that might have been lost in more opulent arrangements?
In some cases more is more, and in some cases less is more. I felt the need to express myself in that way. To bare my soul in an oneiric way. I have always been inspired by the lyrics and atmosphere of Depeche Mode’s “Stripped”, which to me, evokes the connection between bareness and eroticism, that goes beyond any musical genre.
I love playing guitar because, as Eric Clapton said “you can take it everywhere with you like a companion (…) it is both primitive and sophisticated”.
You recorded the album with a handful of other musicians. Can you briefly introduce them and tell us a few things about how you work together?
Not a handful. There are two 
First there is Cannonball Statman, who comes from the New-York Antifolk scene, and has been widely described as “The King of Modern Antifolk”, even though his music does not belong solely to this one specific genre. We had been touring together and he invited me to sing and play instruments on his album, and I did the same a few months later. It has been a very rewarding experience. Music is about artistic compatibility and human alchemy. Good laughs and good times, being stupid, especially when recording music that is very emotional and requires a lot of focus and concentration is essential. Then there is Nicolas Laureau (Prohibition, NLF3, R/A/D, Shane Aspegren / Nicolas Laureau / Jérôme Lorichon / Quentin Rollet Quartet, Don Nino…) who played drums on “High Strung Master”. Prohibited Records was founded in 1995 by Nicolas & his brother Fabrice Laureau. I feel very blessed and honored to have such great artists on board! We share a lot of ideas when it comes to music, beauty, and creating meaningful art. Cannonball Statman is also a filmmaker and a poet, Nicolas also paints, directs videos and does a lot of graphic design for Prohibited Records, so they both who fully grasp an interdisciplinary approach and way of life.
I also of course want to talk about Ben Scott Turner, who recorded and produced the album at Axe & Trap Studios. I met him through Cannonball when he invited me to sing and play instruments on his album. I knew very quickly that he was the right person to work with, in terms of mastery and talent, musical references and personality. I always say he is the English Rick Rubin, because there is something about him that allows access to the best of one’s creativity ! Also, I don’t thrive in tense or competitive atmospheres, and there was nothing like that. It allowed us to accomplish a lot, and to share great memories.
You describe your work as a form of ritual or incantation. Where does the transition from song to ‘magic formula’ begin for you?
I will quote Leonora Carrington “I have always refused to give up that wonderful strange power I have inside me that becomes manifested when I am in harmonious communication with some other inspired being”. Music is my connection to that strange power and to other inspired beings.
The recordings were made in Somerset, England, in a rural setting. Do you think this location had a concrete influence on the songs, or did it have a more subtle effect on your inner state while writing and recording?
I did not write the songs in Somerset. However, recording there had a very positive impact for sure. I felt emotionally and physically stable, which was wonderful because it is something I have struggled a lot with in my life. It’s a very beautiful, charming place. They also happen to have incredible crisp, juicy apples and tasty strawberries there, which I enjoyed a lot. And lots of vegan-friendly options to eat, small antiques shops, local businesses. And nature is outstanding of course !
Voices, spirits and inner dialogues often appear in your lyrics, for example in the song “July”. How do you distinguish between imagination, memory and something that feels more like a message from a transcendent world?
I am not always able to do that immediately. I have to let words and situations unfold to know. Sometimes the in-between can be very painful, like being stuck in a dark place forever. I take actions and decisions that are very instinctive, that very often do not belong to the realm of logic, and cannot be explained though this lens. In some cases, it can take a while for them to make sense, to become a new, tangible reality.
Some of the songs seem gentle and contemplative at first glance, and I would say that this is definitely an essential aspect of your music, but you quickly realise that there is also something urgent, combative, sometimes perhaps dramatic about it. This is particularly evident in the opener ‘Punch Me’, and I’m also thinking of the combative defiance in ‘You Can Keep’ or the very unique, evocative and hypnotic mood in ‘Where Have You Been, My Friend?’, despite its content. Are such ambiguities intentional, and if so, what is the special appeal of them for you?
I am very inspired by ambiguity indeed. By states, feelings and emotions that words alone cannot describe nor explain, or that seem contradictory when they are in fact intertwined. By tenderness and violence, by the complexity of bonds between living beings. Donovan says his music embodies the concept of “hopeful melancholy”. He is one of my favorite artists and this resonates very deeply with me.
Do you also see creative activity as an act of self-assertion (in a non-egocentric sense), and if so, are the legacies of punk, which are mentioned in the context of the album as one of the sources of inspiration, also a kind of outlet for implementing this?
I never thought of it that way ! What I can say is that punk culture brought great notions of self-acceptance and self-love to people who resonate with it: do things you way, with what you have, and as you peel off any layers that are not truly yours, you will create something that only you could create.
The liner notes to the new album mention a kind of hyper-presence as a source of light and expression. How would you describe this state and how do you achieve it in the best case scenario, e.g. in writing, in the studio or on stage?
It is to be fully present in the current moment, connected to oneself and to one’s surroundings as well as to others. It is much more than “flow”. It’s a state you have to want to be in, actively, assertively. However, it does not depend solely on you. Surroundings, circumstances, life…everything plays a part. I do believe that our world change as our perspectives change, nobody is omnipotent though !
You don’t seem to be one of those artists who release a new album every year and a few smaller releases in between; instead, you tend to leave a few years between releases. Do you enjoy a certain distance from your past work, a kind of tabula rasa situation that allows your work to blossom anew?
It is not intentional. If I could, I would release more music and more often. I want to add that to me art is a way to transcend emotions, so it is based both on life and imagination. It’s not about deadlines, but about what one has to say.
The cover artwork of your album ‘Saint Sebastien’ is not available on Discogs, at least not in our country. What can you tell us about the story behind this?
The cover artwork of Saint Sebastien is a very beautiful, meaningful photography by French photographer Richard Dumas. Saint Sebastien is a collection of song inspired by my passion for Giallo – which is an Italian genre of thriller films that emerged in the mid-1960s, blending suspense, horror, and eroticism – and by sensuality as a way to transcend pain. Hence the title of the album: Saint-Sebastien, half-naked, is wounded in multiple places. There is also an erotic power and a magnetic aura about him. He is wounded, but not powerless. When Richard was taking photos of me, I remember I was breathing when I felt the right image just “happened”. There was a tiny part of my nipple showing in that photo. It was exactly the expression of that. Richard is an artist, and I saw this image as a powerful art statement. It did not occur to me for one second that it would be censored online. But this is what happened. In this incredibly sexist online world, it’s ok to show cruelty, violence, hate, male nipples…but no female nipples in fine-art photography. The world really needs more love and art is a form of love.
Your references range from Johnny Thunders to Nico and, as I said, punk, from romantic poetry to classic Italian auteur cinema. How do these inspirations become part of your own language?
We are a patchwork of everything we love aren’t we ? If I look at everything I feel connected to, they always have one or several of these characteristics: mystery, tenderness, eroticism, romanticism, magical realism – art that presents a realistic view of the world while incorporating magical elements and blurring the lines -
, spirituality, violence, beauty and love. Anything that awakens the imagination can be poetic. I also find a timeless quality in everything I love, that is not about trends of any kind. I have no interest in them. Doing what everybody is doing is boring.
Not long ago, you recorded a touching cover version of John Prine’s ‘All the Best’ together with Pacôme Genty. Have you ever thought about further joint adventures of this kind?
Thank you for your appreciation of our cover !
I love to sing, play and record with other artists. There are plenty of people I’d love to collaborate with in the future. It has also to be a good artistic match. Sometimes both artists like what the other does but it does not work to collaborate. And sometimes it’s natural and it works immediately.
We were very impressed by the short film for the song ‘Blue Snow’. What can film do for your music that music alone cannot?
Film is a language, like music is. They are two different languages that can create a meaningful conversation. And this conversation is different than music alone or film alone.
You see yourself as an interdisciplinary artist and move naturally between music, image, text and performance. Is there one art form that forms the starting point for you, or do these components usually emerge simultaneously?
No matter the starting point, the components always end up merging in one way or another. It’s my nature. It’s sometimes difficult to be that way, it’s my cross and my crown at the same time.
Your songs seem intimate and evocative, personal and universal at the same time. Who do you write for primarily: yourself, someone else, or something beyond any specific audience?
I never asked myself that question! I think music and art is meant to be shared, so I would say it’s for all of the above. One thing I am sure of is that the more personal we are, the more universal it gets. Because if we let go of the need to appeal to others and to fit in, here is our human essence. The genre of our expression won’t appeal to everyone – to please everyone is to be truly loved by none -, but for those who connect with it, it will be universal.
This may be a standard question, but are there any ideas in the pipeline that we can look forward to?
Yes : I will be touring with my album !
Thank you for the opportunity to answer such great questions about my work, I am grateful for this beautiful conversation.
Interview: U.S., Fotos: Catherine James
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