INTERVIEW – Natasha St

With her enchanting voice and great generosity, Natasha St-Pier signs her big comeback with the album Joan, available since September 30. After having sung the poems of Sainte-Thérèse de Lisieux in her disc Thérèse, living with love (2013), the 41-year-old artist wanted to highlight and music the bond that existed between these two women. With the same freshness and the same grace that characterizes her so much, the sparkling Canadian looks back on the fights and the values ​​that this emblematic figure of the History of France carried. To tell the story of this heroine, Natasha St-Pier wrote and composed some of her new songs for the first time. A challenge that the mother of little Bixente knew how to take up with emotion and sincerity. And magic can’t be the same without a tour. In churches, located in the four corners of France, she will perform her fourteen titles in front of her faithful audience. For Gala.fr, Natasha St-Pier has agreed to deliver on this new album, on her commitments but also on her spirituality. Meet.

Gala.fr: After Sainte-Thérèse de Lisieux, you are dedicating an album to Joan of Arc, how did you come up with this idea?

Natasha St-Pier: I wanted to show his popular side. Jeanne is part of the history of France and has inspired a lot of people. I also wanted to sing something other than Thérèse’s poems. However, I was heartbroken to leave this figure that has marked my life in recent years. Looking at what she had written, I discovered two plays that talk about the life of Joan of Arc. So I wanted to put them end to end to make something out of them. It took me time because the idea had to mature and I had to find the right angle. I wanted each of the songs to include an excerpt from Thérèse’s words. That was really the difficulty of this album.

Gala.fr: How did you manage to meet this challenge?

Natasha St-Pier: I went to see authors who have already written songs for me, including Lionel Florence and Mary Bastide. I asked them to write texts but differently from usual. They had to summarize the scenes of the play while integrating pieces of Thérèse into the songs. It really wasn’t easy. Not everyone succeeded. That’s how I started writing and composing this album (she laughs).

Gala.fr: Besides, it was a big first for you. How did you experience this writing and composition process?

Natasha St-Pier: It was a challenge but also a fear. Since my beginnings, I have been surrounded by authors and composers who are enormously talented. I was afraid that the public would not find this album up to what I usually offered them. The challenge was huge. So at some point I had to let go and dare.

Gala.fr: You consider this album as a link between these two women. Why ?

Natasha St-Pier: These are women who dare! Thérèse loved to compare herself to Joan of Arc. She said she was a warrior too. These two women fought the same fight animated by their faith and their beliefs. They are two women who, very young, dared to speak in front of men. Jeanne did it by the force of the sword. Thérèse did it with the strength of prayer. You should know that Thérèse was born in a very Jansenist era of the Catholic religion. It was a punitive and harsh religion. A vision that Thérèse did not share. For her, God was only love. Except that at that time, she was just a kid and the Church was run by men. We couldn’t care less about his opinion. And despite everything, she managed to impose her little voice and her vision.

Gala.fr: With this album, do you have the impression of making a pilgrimage in songs?

Natasha St-Pier: Not really. Unlike these two women, I do not intend to convince and say that my opinion is the right one. I see it more as an opportunity to sing women who never cease to inspire. Today, I find that girls lack role models. For example, you don’t see many female musicians on television. This may be the reason why young girls want to become singers and not guitarists or pianists. There are plenty of areas where women have done great things. I think it’s good to show them to little girls today.

“We wonder about the world we are going to leave to our children”

Gala.fr: Are there other women who could inspire you for a new album?

Natasha St-Pier: Inspire me for a new album, I don’t know. But women who inspire me on a daily basis, there are so many. Whether it’s George Sand, Marie Curie, there are many women who have done a lot for the world and that we could sing (she laughs).

Gala.fr: By the way, how has the cause of women evolved in you over the years?

Natasha St-Pier: I do not know. I think I never felt like I had a fight to fight for the cause of women because I was born in a country (Canada, editor’s note) where their rights are very important. Today, I have the impression that there is the ability to see what is happening elsewhere and to act. It would be very selfish to do nothing and tell ourselves that everything is fine when we are fine.

Gala.fr: You consider Jeanne and Thérèse to be modern women. Do you have the feeling that their struggles continue to resonate in the news?

Natasha St-Pier: At the moment, we talk a lot about Iran where women don’t have the right to speak or the right to dress as they want. It reminds me of Joan of Arc. During her trial, she was told that she had to stop wearing men’s clothes. So she agreed to never wear that kind of clothes again. And when she was locked up, the guards only gave her men’s things. At that time, they charged him with perjury. So its history indeed resonates with that of Iran.

Gala.fr: What are the values ​​of these two women that you want to pass on, in particular to your son ?

Natasha St-Pier: Courage and faith in yourself. You have to believe in yourself, otherwise you won’t make it. Things do not start from others. They come from us. Even if we have a help as divine as it is. Justice is also one of the important things. These are human values ​​that might seem so basic but which, despite everything, are often forgotten.

Gala.fr: These values ​​being forgotten, aren’t you afraid for your son Bixente ?

Natasha St-Pier: We think about it every day. We wonder about the world we are going to leave to our children. As a mom, I always wonder what my son’s life will be like when he’s my age. What will his battles be? What will be the battles he will have to fight because of our generations who have not acted? Because there are plenty of things we don’t act on because of our comfort. However, our own comfort is also that which we will leave to our children. When you think about it, you have the energy to make the effort.

Gala.fr: Do you see yourself today as a feminist singer?

Natasha St-Pier: I don’t know if I’m a feminist or if I’m a spokesperson. In any case, I am for justice. Women and men should be seen as humans and no longer as sub-humans because of their gender or sexual orientation. Today, we are in a world that is increasingly divisive.

“Spirituality brings me lasting happiness”

Gala.fr: Your first concert of this tour took place at Orléans Cathedral. Why did you choose to favor places of worship and spirituality rather than “traditional” scenes?

Natasha St-Pier: If I perform songs like these in a theater, people will rather pay attention to the decor and the light than to the lyrics. Whereas in a church, as there is no decor, the texts really take on their full scope. It’s real life. There isn’t a black curtain behind me that hides the real world. I try to register in the truth. I wish that my passage remains in the concrete and not in the field of illusion.

Gala.fr: What atmosphere did you want to give to these new concerts?

Natasha St-Pier: Intimate. In a church, there is no scene. I am a few meters from the public. We’re really close. The lighting makes me see the spectators. There is a real interaction that cannot be the same in a theater.

Gala.fr: In parallel with this album and the preparation of your tour, you wrote the preface and the introduction to Joan, the original work of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux. Is it a complement to your album?

Natasha St-Pier: I said to myself that by buying the album, it could be frustrating to have this story summarized in fourteen songs when in the end the play is magnificent. This is where I met Michel Lafon’s teams. I asked them if they wanted to talk about it. And they said yes! Being able to comment on and explain this piece allowed me to offer all the little things that I have been able to learn over the years about Saint Thérèse of Lisieux.

Gala.fr: Exactly what does this spirituality bring you on a daily basis?

Natasha St-Pier: I find that spirituality brings me lasting happiness. It is something that soothes. It also allows you to step back even in uncool moments. It allows not to live only in a very physical and earthly incarnation. We live in a world where appearance is very important. We care a lot about the body but we forget the heart, the soul and the spirit. Today, spirituality has been completely set aside.

Gala.fr: What is the follow-up to this great adventure?

Natasha St-Pier: A tour at a very acceptable speed. That way, I have time to devote myself to my family. I will try to extend it over a long period. After, I do not know. The idea of ​​Joan of Arc appeared on my way by surprise. Maybe something else will happen to me that will be just as good. Well, I hope.

Photo credits: Die Frau