French Singer Camille Talks Music, Motherhood, and Gender Politics in 2019

You’ll probably remember Camille Dalmais as the breathy, elfish French singer who in 2006 gave Australia a song called “Ta Douleur,” which came in at number 26 on that year's Hottest 100 and seemed like a caricature of Parisian cool. She's since released a total of five slowly gratifying but ultimately beautiful albums, and is now headed back to Australia with her latest offering, OUÏ.

While her previous albums anchored their melodies to beatboxing and electronic loops, OUÏ employs only percussion, lending it a particularly fine, neat atmosphere. But then her lyrics feel heavy, often dissecting the vestiges of motherhood and reproduction—or at least that’s what it sounds like they’re doing. There’s a song called “Seed” which seems to be about sperm, and that proceeds another song called “Fontaine de Lait” which ruminates on her body's alchemic ability to transform semen into milk. “And now I make a fountain of him,” she sings (in French), “And here I am/a fountain of milk.”

As Camille is now a married mother of two my interpretation feels possible, but then I'm aware that I'm a man reading reproductive innuendo in a woman’s lyrics. But as it turns out this fear is ironic. Because when I get Camille on the phone to ask about her lyrics, the conversation quickly turns to a discussion of gender politics in 2019—and for reasons that may seem surprising, she’s not amused.

Here’s our interview, ahead of Camille’s appearance at So Frenchy So Chic festival in Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney.

VICE: Hey, so my read on the album is that it’s all about motherhood. Am I… right?
Camille: Well not directly, but also yes because I’m a mother. There is one song called “Fountain of Milk,” which is directly linked to my motherhood [I was right!] Which says that I made a fountain out of him, and he turned me into a fountain of milk. It’s the yin and the yang—the breastfeeding and being a mother thanks to the father. What I am trying to say is you are not a mother without a father. It’s the meeting of the feminine and masculine—that to me this is the magic. This is god, and god is a couple.

That’s interesting. Tell me more.
Well we talk a lot about women and women’s rights and I think the key between men and women is communication—peaceful communication. Understanding how complementary the feminine and masculine sides are in every one of us. This is the key to peace, and I think the key to spirituality. If women want the same thing as men, it’s not helping if we keep telling men they're too violent or too loud.

Sure, but lots of men are too violent and too loud.
Yes but… okay let me give you an example. I was at a conference the other day, and the women started to say there weren’t enough women playing drums. My reaction was, well who first invented the drums? Because it was probably a man. The instinct of playing drums to me is more masculine. You can be a woman playing drums, of course, I love playing drums. But it’s my more masculine side that wants to play drums. So, it makes no sense to me saying there is not enough women playing drums. Women who want to play the drums will play the drums, you’re allowed. The things I wanted to do with my life, I’ve done them or I am doing them. I just think let's as women invent instruments. Let’s create instruments that come from women, and maybe less men would play our instruments, or we could play them our way. But I can’t think that there are not enough women playing the drums. On stage we have three girls and three men and I haven’t thought about the fact that I am accompanied by three women and three men. It’s not deliberate. It just happened this way.

You seem frustrated?
Yes. I just think you can’t be a feminist and always angry.

Why not?
I don’t like that energy. I think you can be angry, but then you need to look for something else.

Right. You need an aim? Like anger can’t be the only goal?
Yes, and the goal isn’t to get angrier. My initial reaction is to get angry about the boundaries that haven’t been respected, but what I’m heading for is not perpetual anger with men, but peace with men.

Sure, but I would argue that a lot of women—and a lot of men—don’t find peace to be a motivating ambition. Anger is far more motivating.
Its motivating sure, and conflict is magic—conflict between the feminine and masculine is magic. I think it’s very important to argue because it’s often a step towards peace. It’s more of a cycle: conflict leads to peace. But there are two ways to argue: one is just to be angry and destroy the other person. The other is to use conflict as a way to head for higher ground, a higher vibration, and a higher peace.

Would you describe the relationship between you and your husband as peaceful?
Yes, otherwise I wouldn’t have stayed together for 10 years. So yes, I mean there are lots of conflicts but it is definitely peaceful.

What do you think is the secret to a peaceful and loving relationship?
Talking. We really need a lot of talking. We need to express emotions when you feel them—and that is also what I like about my work. I find writing music allows me to be a bit clearer to the people around me about my emotions. If you feel an emotion, then it’s right to exist. Emotions can’t be wrong. What is wrong is not letting it out or not considering it.

You seem to be suggesting that the object of talking is peace. So does music have an object or a goal?
For sure I make peace when I do music. I make peace with the past and it allows me to be a little more in the present. Because I talk about what I feel in my life and then it’s said and done I can move on to somewhere else.

Do you feel like listening to a past album is a bit like reading old entries in a journal?
Yes, exactly.

Do you ever listen back to something you wrote when you were younger and go wow that was pretty good?
You know, sometimes I hear myself playing in a restaurant or some place, and I think I like that voice. Who is it? Sometimes I like the vibe, but I definitely like the voice. I mean it’s me so thank god I like my voice [laughing].

You finished your album OUÏ in 2017, and it's now 2019. How do you feel listening back to it now?
I'm proud because I think the album is really self-contained. It’s very neat but there’s peace in there, but also a lot of anger and rebellion and I think I express this more on stage. I’m happy to end my tour in Australia because Australia is to me the meeting of European culture and Australian indigenous culture. And I want to see at this concert how beautiful the meeting is for ancient drums to mix with a newer, foreign culture, and how the mixture can work. I am so happy to share it with the Australian people.

Camille performs at So Frenchy So Chic festival in Adelaide (Friday 11/01) and then in Melbourne (Sunday 13/01) and Sydney (Saturday 19/01).