"You'll Know When It's Time to Spread Your Wings." (an interview with Fleurie)

The Half Mystic team is thrilled to welcome singer-songwriter Fleurie onto the blog. With their compelling imagery, startling atmospheres, and beautifully expressed honesty, Fleurie's songs have stunned us in all their lovely, original complexity—and so has the artist behind them. We are so grateful for the chance to interview her and hope that her words give you something wonderful to carry, today and for a long, long time.

HM: We here at Half Mystic are in love with your vivid, haunting lyrics. How do you go about writing them?

Fleurie: Ooooh... thanks. You're making me feel like a wordsmith maestro with that compliment! I love words a lot, a lot, a lot. I think about words a lot. I like to feel them in my mind and in my mouth and am intrigued at which ones catch me off guard by meaning something deep and personal to me, so I use those ones to write poems and songs—to inspire me to begin writing something, I should say. Much of the time, lyrics find me and stay with me until I put them to music. Sometimes they come with melodies attached already. Sometimes I see or taste or smell or hear or feel something that inspires me to write about it or about the feeling it gives me. Most of the songs you've heard from me so far came from a very difficult few years of my life where I didn't feel very inspired but I had to express what I did feel - the pain, the confusion, the chaos, the uncertainty—and words and melodies and sounds were my artistic medium for expressing that.

Which musicians have most strongly influenced your work?

Chris Martin, David Gray, Imogen Heap, Isaac Slade (The Fray), Justin Vernon (Bon Iver), Mark Foster (Foster the People), Brooke Fraser, Dan Layus (Augustana), Chris Carrabba (Dashboard Confessional), Lana Del Rey, Brandon Flowers (The Killers), and a couple of great giants like Bob Dylan and Elton John.

How would you say your style has evolved between the release of your first EP (Fear and Fable, 2013) and your second (Arrows, 2015)?

It's become more sparkly and luminous, more intricate and involved, more layered and more beats-driven. I've loved the beginning of my evolution as an artist. I think I'm just trying to capture where I'm at in a given season when I'm making a record... not worrying about how it compares or contrasts with my last or past works. Arrows found me newly moved to Nashville, deep in exploration and wanting to paint with a new palette of shapes and sounds I hadn't had access to before. Looking back now, the songs themselves, lyrically and melodically, feel like a natural progression from Fear & Fable as a young writer is growing and making music with new collaborators in a new place both mentally/emotionally and physically/geographically.

What is the most valuable advice you've been given as a musician?

Follow your own path... don't let the pressures of others' expectations or advice, the hustle and bustle and fear-driven machine of the industry dictate what and how you create, or when and how you release it. Take your time. Learn and grow. You'll know when it's time to spread your wings.

Sum up your music in fifteen words or less.

Raw, deep, fun, magical, shimmery, luminescent, emotional, honest, cinematic indie-pop.

We've noticed that many of your songs mix seemingly disparate elements, both technically and thematically. Is this something you do consciously? If so, what role do contrasts have in your work?

Yes. I love that you've noticed that! Contrast is one of my favorite things to use in my art. Most of my favorite songwriters are writers who find a way to share heartache and questions/doubts/fears in a way that is palatable and memorable sonically/melodically. They deliver a message in a way that listeners can receive and enjoy the experience. I strive to do the same! My voice is generally soft and yet I want to convey emotions that feel beyond me, beyond the words and beyond my own singing, so I use instruments and sounds to help me paint a picture. I want the music to feel vulnerable and raw but still edgy and BIG sonically! So I've started using some cool electronic sounds and mini orchestras and big drums to help me produce what I hear in my head. Also, it's very fun to play the crazier/more complex stuff live!

What do you usually do if you're feeling uninspired?

Mope around for a while, redecorate my apartment, buy too many things online... until a friend or a book or a song or a movie speaks something that sparks remembrance in my heart that jolts me back to life... reminds me of who I am and what I have inside me to share with the world. I would be nothing without Jesus, without my friends and family and without the art of other human beings (and God! Sheesh... have you ever seen flowers? Like, He came up with the idea of flowers... and the idea of you and me... He is pretty much the best source of creativity imaginable).

Which of your songs do you think most accurately represents you as an individual?

Whoa, that's tough! I am ever-changing, like you, like all humans! Um... I guess if I have to choose, it's probably "Fire In My Bones" (from Arrows) or "Hymn" (from Fear & Fable). I'm pretty feisty and headstrong, and I'm pretty caught up in chasing down truth, which means my mind is always thinking and spinning ideas and wondering about things. But then (like I said earlier) there's also the Jesus factor... God stabilizes me in reminding me that life is bigger than all of those wonderings and answerless questions, and truly, He has never given up and will never give up on me, on pursuing me with His love. And that's pretty much the cornerstone of my identity as a person and a musician/artist/writer. I think you find a lot of truth in the valley seasons of life, and you learn who you are apart from what you do. Both "Hymn" and "Fire In My Bones" were written in a valley season, when I had zero strength left, and God did everything for me then. He actually lifted me out of the pit and helped me make Fear & Fable and move forward into this thing I had always dreamed of doing, and (I believe) was created and born to do! "Fire In My Bones" had to wait until the second EP, but I had that song actually before I wrote "Hymn."

When did you know you wanted to be a musician?

Hmm... I remember being at a concert when I was eleven, and I got chosen by one of the girls in this band to ask a question to the girl-band. I asked them if they knew they wanted to be singers from the time they were my age. They all said yes! Then the girl with the microphone asked me if I wanted to be a singer, and I said yes. But I had never consciously thought that before... Perhaps not ironically, I began writing songs that year and kind of never stopped. It wasn't until I was seventeen that I started sharing them with anyone, and it wasn't until I was twenty-one that I made the decision to move to Nashville, post-college, and try out being an artist & songwriter.

What can we look forward to from you in the years ahead?

Oh, lots! Lots of art—new songs, videos, behind-the-scenes peeks into my world (affectionately referred to as Fleurieland), photos and handwritten notes and all sorts of things! I started a regular email list that I include giveaways and special exclusive stuff in, as well as keep people up to date—you can sign up at my website (scroll all the way to the bottom and put your email in!). But I am making a full-length record this year, written with a bunch of different people, and probably produced by me and these writers I'm working with. Very excited!

Bio: "Fleurie." The name is French. The singer is American. And the music—a dreamy, cinematic pop sound that sweeps, swoons, and soars—creates its own geography. On her new EP, Arrows, Fleurie balances herself between two different worlds: one, an organic place where pianos twinkle and vocals flutter; the other, a digital place where electronic drums, synthesizers and computer programming meet. It's a sound that's simultaneously human and electronic, simple and orchestral, poppy and artsy. Tying everything is Fleurie's voice, the production of Matt Stanfield (session player for Kelly Clarkson, Plumb and Jars of Clay) and the mixing work of Dave Schiffman (Haim, Charli XCX, Brandon Flowers), who teamed up to frame Fleurie's voice in layers of digital beats and synth pads. A singer/songwriter who plays multiple instruments and co-produces her own material, Fleurie is an artist's artist. She creates lush, layered music with a skeleton crew, and her songs mix mainstream-worthy melodies with arrangements that push creative boundaries. In other words, this songwriter isn't chasing trends. She's creating them. —Andrew Leahey

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