Clara Luciani. “This album was written to tell my son who I am, where he’s from.”

Each time, it seems, he gives a part of himself. Her breast that was underneath Grenada, to him heart on his second album. And, back my blood this fire that irrigates the veins of him and the son born a year ago. Recorded during pregnancy, Clara Luciani’s third album resonates with the happiness and giddiness of motherhood with a sunny refrain. Everything for me to the title song, on which the musician invited his parents and sister Ehla. Everything is a matter of transmission in this recording, depicted as a treasure chest, where we find what has built Clara Luciani: the support and silence of her family, her own doubts and struggles, her melancholy as well as her joy.

The music too. My blood takes its cues from its author’s first rock loves, with its psychedelic synths, guitars and references to Paul McCartney and the Pixies. And to Françoise Hardy, of whom we think a break a beautiful title, which, however, Luciani wrote before the sixties icon disappeared, when, newly married, she said goodbye to the status of a young woman. Today, Clara Luciani enters a new era where she becomes more confident, stronger. Even his first steps in cinema quite beautiful a romantic and musical comedy with songs by Alex Beaupain. Daring to trust each other, finally.

Madame Figaro. – Your son has just turned one year old. The happiness of being a mother in which you sing my blood is he still this big? ?
Clara Luciani. – Yes, it even doubled, it’s the joy of this first year with my son, but also this album. Obviously it’s not the same intensity, but to see a new record being born is really exciting, especially this one. Because for the first time I have the impression that I can be both a singer and a mother, which was not a given.

For what?
Because I was overwhelmed by my emotions. I thought I would never be able to make enough room for my career, and I would be sad to give up this aspect of my life that was by far the most important. But I’m getting there. I went about it methodically, little by little leaving my son for three or four hours, then allowing myself to go to work full days… And I’m pretty proud of that.

The opposite question never arose ? How to make room for a child in such a stressful career ?
No, because it always had its place, even when it wasn’t there. This album was written to tell him who I am, where he’s from. When I turned around quite beautiful he was 4 months old and came to the set. Sometimes I do interviews at my house to have a snack with him. And he’s coming on tour with me. As a woman, it is often dangerous. we always find time for others, but we have a harder time making time for ourselves. I’ve made a lot of progress, I feel less guilty when I allow myself to have fun or finish projects that are important to me.

In everything for me you sing “Before you I hardly existed”… Yet your life seemed full ?
Of course. But I wanted to tell about what we feel when we find true love. or his own child. I didn’t have a child to let go, but the intensity of what I’m experiencing today makes me think that there used to be a kind of lukewarmness. With him, everything is multiplied tenfold. As soon as something positive happens, I want him to be there, to tell about it.

Motherhood does not come without worries, we are responsible for new life, we are also aware of our mortality…
Yes, but it comforted me. I had intense night terrors as a child, telling myself I was going to die, and that subsided. Obviously, as Woody Allen says, I’d rather not be there the day it happens… But I tell myself that I did my Olympia, my baby, I said a lot of things that I wanted to express , to all the people I love know that… It will happen when it has to happen. And it’s less serious than if it was ten years ago.

Songs like: A friend’s grief Or Pity also express the boundaries you set for others… For what?
I believe that as I became a mother and an adult, I learned to no longer burden myself with relationships that hurt me. I tend to be a nice, forgiving girl. I don’t have time for all that anymore. I want to be with people who treat me well, who support me, and that’s new to me.

As a woman, it is often dangerous. we always find time for others, but we have a harder time making time for ourselves.

Clara Luciani

The recording speaks volumes about your family. What new thing have you discovered in your “blood”?
I have conducted several investigations. We delved into photos at my parents’ house, returned to my mother’s Sicilian cousins; I found faces that looked like me, it was quite disturbing. It gave me a new perspective on parenting, I realized the level of commitment it requires. I think that before I was in a kind of gratitude, it seemed quite normal to me, like all children. While this represents a mountain of sacrifice. The song was called My mother it comes from there. I understood his love for me. And forgave a lot.

This song also evokes your mother’s “inexplicable sadness.” Did you understand him even better? ?
No. Maybe in my family we don’t pass on jewelry, but this sadness, which is also in me. However, I am not afraid to pass it on because my story is different. It’s a gentle melancholy, like a presence that keeps me company and that I no longer fear. I will never tell my son that you shouldn’t be sad, rather that you should know how to control your sadness, to keep it in check. Because it is also a land of creativity. I sublimate it through my songs, my mother did not have this instrument.

What was his reaction when he heard this song?
There are many things that my mother does not say, you have to know how to read between the lines with her. This bothers me because I’m surrounded by people who talk a lot, who even say things they don’t mean. He is reserved, like my grandfather. This is the Sicilian side of the family: they keep everything and at the same time they love the hardest. But I think he was very excited.

My Blood, by Clara Luciani (Romance/Universal). December 17th and 18th with a concert at the Olympia in Paris, followed by a tour.
Pretty niceBy Diastème, with William Lebghile, released on December 25th.