CAMILLE, SO CHIC
It’s early morning in Paris, and Camille Dalmais is musing about originality. An artist overflowing with soul and creativity, Dalmais says that not being original is something she would find difficult and, unsurprisingly, music weaves itself into her everyday existence. “Songs come like butterflies; they’re everywhere … I have one every moment of my life.”
It’s been a decade since the self-taught musician, famous in her native France, charmed Australian audiences with her energetic, experimental style of performance. She returns this summer to headline at the So Frenchy So Chic festival, and the timing is significant, since it marks a different phase in her life.
“It was 2009 that I was last in Australia, so it’s like an anniversary. I was 30 years old, now I’m 40 years old – the decade of maternity for me … so [returning] is really like a wink, like synchronicity,” she says in her hypnotic French accent.
Dalmais has carved out a distinctive niche in the music industry: beyond singing to her experimental pop compositions, she also creates soundscapes with her vocals, using non-verbal percussive sounds and effects. “I describe myself as an artist who sings …” she says carefully. “I really need to sing, like I need to breathe or love and be loved. And I need to sing because it makes me happy and feels good and because it brings people together … it’s like a communion. So I define myself as a singer, a chanter and an enchanter!” she adds with a laugh.
Dalmais’s live shows stir up something primal within all of us. “Being on stage is a way to reconnect with rituals and with the ground and the sky and with each other and create a whole and be awake again,” she says. “Night after night I get to free myself, and free the audience, I hope!”
Fans can expect to hear songs in both English and French during Dalmais’s tour, with the playlist showcasing songs from her latest release Oui, her fifth album, which is based around the drums. “I wrote the album in 2015 after the attacks in Paris and I really needed something grounding,” she explains. “To me, drums are a call to come together.”