Oh So Chic

There’s no voice better than that of Emilie Simon’s to sum up the popularity of French music in Australia.

Thanks to the intrepid success of the ‘So Frenchy So Chic’ compilations, fans are no longer restricted to audio recordings. With featured artists now being flown over for live performances, Brisbane will soon get the chance to bask in the deliciously pop-savvy melodies of Emilie Simon and Melanie Pain.

“The French language is beautiful,” Emilie says. “French music has got its own personality. I think that French singers and producers have their own voice inside and it’s a kind of thing that interests people.”

Thirty-four songs are featured on the 2010 ‘So Frenchy So Chic’ double album. Acting as the unofficial soundtrack to the Alliance Franciase French Film Festival, it showcases artists including Charlotte Gainsbourg, Babylon Circus and Roman Polanski’s actress wife Emmanuelle Seignier.

Also celebrating its fifth-year running, Emilie is no stranger to the ‘So Frenchy’ mix, and this time brings us her new track ‘Rocket To The Moon’.

“That’s a song I wrote with a friend of mine. We wrote it the first day we met. He’s a brilliant songwriter who was coming to New York for a few days. I was writing the music and I had this little ditty in my head; ‘baby baby what you gonna do-oo’. We started talking and I told him to have a look at the song, I asked him if he wanted to come back and help me finish writing it.”

Living in New York for the past two years and inspired by her new surroundings, Emilie has spent the time crafting her third album, ‘The Big Machine’.

A collection of rich and sensual tracks, the release has been described as her most accessible and personal to date, and features musicians Kelly Pratt and Jeremy Gara from Arcade Fire.

“It was very obvious that I needed to express a lot of things through my melody and voice. My voice took a lot of space. I decided to not write directly on the computer. I can say more through my music than what I can when I’m speaking to people.”

While the next year will be spent touring and promoting the album, Emilie admits she doesn’t mind the travel.

“I spend a lot of time on tour. Most of the time I’m really happy and enjoy my life.”

Emilie Simon performs along with Melanie Pain at the Brisbane Powerhouse on Friday October 1 for ‘So Frenchy So Chic’.