Christian French Charms Toronto Crowd [Interview & Show Review]
Christian French may not be a household name in Toronto yet, but rest assured, he will be.
I caught up with the 21-year-old Fishers, Indiana singer on Tuesday before he hit the stage at Toronto’s The Drake Underground. I talked to Christian about his music, touring, some of his favourite things, and more.
Let’s start from the beginning, and for Christian French, that goes back to school. He was initially planning for a career in hockey when medicine caught his eye. He’d dabbled in music since high school, and the self-taught musician started uploading his music to SoundCloud. He caught the attention of some pretty big names including Triegy and when Christian was a pre-med undergrad with 13 credits left to go, he was approached to go on tour with Chelsea Cutler. It was just as the school year was ending and the singer-songwriter weighed the pros and cons and decided to give his everything to music.
“I can finish school, whenever I can’t go on tour with a person that I really want to go on tour with, ever again. And so that was the decision for me. I told my parents, and they were very supportive of it. My parents had the same mentality; they knew that I could go back and finish it. They knew that this was what I wanted to do with my life.” – Christian French
Christian toured with Chelsea for a year before heading out on his first headlining tour. When we asked about the differences he said the biggest difference for him was moving from doing 30-40 minute sets to having the chance to dive into songs that might not connect in a 30-minute set. It offers the opportunity to play some unreleased material as well as kicking back and doing some very stripped-down material. He also mentioned that the tour is the first time he’s had a drummer, and what a difference that makes to the overall sound. Being in control of the show, customizing the set, and instead of trying to convince the audience that they should pay attention to you, they’re there to see you.
This seemed like the right spot to ask about his opener, ASTN. Christian and Austin have been friends for a while, they play under the same management team, and Austin seemed like a smart choice for this tour.
“I have a lot of faith in him. It made sense to bring him on the tour. It’s been really easy, keeping everything in-house. It’s awesome. We’re all just best friends back in LA, and we get to go on the road together.” – CF
Taking the conversation back to Christian’s music, I had to ask the writing and recording process for Bright Side of the Moon. He mentioned that the EP was the first time for such a collaborative process. He worked with a bunch of producers, when in the past he worked with Drew Decaro. But Drew was still on board overseeing the project. The writing process breaks down into two sides for Christian. On the one direction, where he sits down alone at the piano and figures it out himself. In the other direction, he loves when he can take an idea into a session with other songwriters.
I asked Christian if he had a favourite track on the album. He took a minute and came back with the title track, Bright Side of the Moon. That song came together over about eight hours. Everything was clicking and working. But he also threw Heavy Snow into the ring. He went on to tell a story about singing a song at a show and not being fully present.
“I wrote that song when the anxiety was so bad to where I couldn’t really be present in any conversation that I was in. I had this constant fog in my head constant, like, constant. Just a whisper in my head and couldn’t focus on anything. I have this very vivid memory of being at a show. And a whole song went by, and I had just kind of came back. I was like, “Whoa, I missed that whole song.” I gotta fix this. And so, I wrote that song and really got those feelings out.”
I love how the stigma surrounding these conversations is starting to disappear. Artists are feeling free to share, that a) they’re human and just like you and b) it’s not easy, and we can all use an ear, and c) talking about it the only way out.
As we were winding down, and to help you find out more about Christian, I threw out some, what are your favourites questions.
Favourite things to do when not working: reading books, listening to podcasts, being outside. CF loves the outdoors. And when he’s really, really trying to relax, he’ll play some Zelda on his Nintendo.
Favourite things to cook: Breakfast. Eggs with a whole bunch of veggies scrambled in with it. Veggies, with shrimp or chicken, maybe turn that into a curry. Note – he’s not a recipe follower!
Favourite thing about being on the road: Getting to interact with fans in person that he’s been talking to online. He loves hearing how his music affects fans, it’s the main reason he does what he does.
Thanks to Christian for taking time out of his busy day to help us, help you, get to know more about him and his music. We also got Christian to a round of 5 Quick Questions with us. Stay tuned, I’ll be adding the video as soon as it’s finished!
I arrived back to the Drake Underground just as ASTN was finishing up his set. The audience was fully engaged as he started his final song, Flowers. Flowers has almost 9 million streams on Spotify, and there was little doubt why. The song is super catchy and relatable. At just 20 years old, ASTN looked right at home on the stage, older than his years would have us expect. A sweet mix of R&B, rhymes, and pop music, this sound works for me.
We didn’t have to wait too long for Christian to take the stage.
The crowd was quick to move closer to the stage. They were rewarded with smiles, eye contact and appreciation.
On stage, Christian was charming and sounded amazing. He has incredible tone, great technical control, power, and knows how to work the stage and the audience.
He was true to his word, and the set was very much like a roller coaster, happy, cheerful tunes peppered with sad, heartbreak tunes. We got his biggest hits and some new material. It was perfect.
Christian French is smart, funny, charming, talented, and pretty easy on the eyes. There have been multiple sold-out dates on the tour, and more to come. If you’re on the fence get your tickets while you still can. If you’re a pop fan, this is a not to be missed show. Check out the remaining tour dates here.
I got my hands on a setlist and if you want it, let me know!
5 Quick Questions with Christian French
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