Mining grief, angels, and Einsteins ghost with Frances elusive Christine and the Queens.
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Recently, Chris a.k.a.Christine and the Queens, or Redcar, or Red began talking to angels.
Chriss music has always been tinged with the avant-garde, defying easy categorization and pushing the boundaries of pop.
I think he has such great humor and shiny anger.
Theres something very dignifying in his fright and his emotions.
He has a deliciously human texture.
And hes introduced to the higher dimension I guess I was calling that fate on myself.
That dimension is whereParanoia, Angels, True Lovelives.
The 20-track LP is hyperpersonal but enigmatic, spiritually minded but extremely horny, extraterrestrial but grounded.
It was very Jean Genet, this French writer whom I love, and very Shakespearean.
I was struck by the dramaturgy.
What I think is brilliant, though, is thehappy end of the play.
I thought the great solace was to choose a happy ending.
Subconsciously I picked that play because I wanted to manifest that for myself.
How so?I was praying to angels, and thinking about the invisible, because of my grief.
I felt summoned to lucidity.
This record was very much me surrendering to that process.
I wanted to make it even more like friction in the fabric of space and time.
To quest deeper because I was very heartbroken.
Angels are all over the album, and you have a website called Time of the Angels.
Whats going on there?Time of the Angels is where I just post poetry and pictures.
We all know theres such an overload of everything we lead really agitated lives saturated with content.
I wanted to create a space of contemplation and open hearts, where someone can just meet the art.
This is me trying to find ways to be online, leaving little nudges here and there.
Ive been shifting my energy toward music as a way to question the deeper questions.
It changed my music as well.
I was taken to new places harmonically.
I was singing everything in one take.
When its written in 20 minutes, the overthinking is gone.
You wrote some of these songs in 20 minutes?Yeah.
I rarely write lyrics first; I work on the production.
I just turn the mic on and launch the horses.
And I put more faith into my practice.
I was not just trying to write songs.
I was trying tounderstandsomething, waiting for visions.
I was thinking a lot about non-artists who are struck by something invisible and moved to produce art.
As I wrote the songs, I was in a state of self-hypnosis almost all the time.
Id wake up really early and write.
When you say pray, is there a religious dimension?
Religion is so interesting and tragic because its a language of power, made to install rules.
For me, thats not what spirituality is about.
I became interested in the study of how music can create a cradle for everybodys emotions.
I started to think heavily about rock and roll, actually.
I started really listening deeply to Led Zeppelin, which I didnt know much about.
I was like,What a fantastic piece of catharsis for someone to receive.
The singer is a shaman, going wild, telling a story, telling the truth.
Im always trying to think about how artists are relevant.
Its hard to let yourself cry.
What was it like to return to that stage?I knew I had to come back.
At one point, earlier in my journey with losing my mom, I was really struck by grief.
I thought I couldnt be of service anymore on stage.
I got the fright of,My heart is dead.I was so numb.
But now Im ready to come back and share.
So I felt like it was the time to do it.
I actually prayed …[Laughs.
]People are going to be like,Is he praying all the time?Sometimes!
I delineated the space of the performance as one of celebration.
So it felt very special, intense, and mineral inside those big mountains.
They were receiving the music like plants.
[Chris begins playfully waving like a palm tree in the breeze.]
I had one gig where I felt very numb.
But in every painful thing, there is something to be grateful for.
We dont like to talk about that in our society things have to be so gleaming and accomplished.
But some things do hurt.
Grief can be ugly and terrible.
And I felt lonely.
What does that mean to you?Just to relax into what I always felt.
This is something I have been fighting with my entire life, before I was able to accept it.
And by the way, my music has always been very prescient.
The second song I ever wrote wasiT.Inside the music was everything I needed.
It was a huge moment in therapy, realizing that the stage was not just a stage.
It was very cute trying to understand myself.
My heart started to sing first because I got it broken when I started writing music.
I think it just poured out.
My heart sang the truth.
I feel like a man of value.
Im talking too much about it.
But its also so personal.
I think it was that I didnt have to be a daughter anymore.
Thats really the change.
Its complicated, because I also loved my mother so much.
When you lose people, you sometimes become more yourself, which is terrible.
Because you have nothing to lose; youve lost them.
And as you become more you, you love them more and you understand them better.
The concept of performance is so embedded in your work.
My many names are just an expression of my multitude, which we all have.
My life outside my work is the performance.
I jump in a cab in France, and they call me by my birth name and its triggering.
I am trying to become more myself.
And myself is Redcar plus Chris plus Christine and the Queens.
Christine and the Queens is actually the mechanism of my imagination, saving me.
Finding a Shakespearean way to tell the truth, like inAngels in America.
Ive always been flourishing with many names.
My reality now is all of those names in one.
But I love that people call me Red.
And Im aware its kind of, like, exhausting.
But so many rappers can alternate with so many facets.
Why cant I have five or more cards in my game?[Laughs.
I dont think its exhausting.
It feels like my many names just deepen my character.
Your last album was almost entirely in French.
This one is almost entirely in English.
Youve swapped back and forth over the course of your work.
What does each language mean to you artistically?This record was made in America.
Sometimes you have to go where nobody knows you to have a different name.
I started to use my pronouns.
I feel like English is also a space for me to explore further away from my past.
The French language is loaded for me.
Its a maternal language.
Its beautiful but intricate.
English gives me new possibilities without losing my poetry.
I wrote the whole record in English probably because I felt more comfortable raging in English.
But it got misunderstood, of course.
I always joke that I did an experimental 80s French record in France.
They tend to chastise first, then embrace.[Laughs.
]I always say, Redcar2026.
As in Redcar wasnt understood in its time?Oh, yeah.
I was working with a very rough sound, like a dirty cathedral.
And Im talking about actually being a knight.
It was risque, for the dandyism of being risque.
I mean, I loved doingRedcar.I loved it as a piece of theater.
It was dashingly experimental, raw but energized by hallucinations.
Sparks from the beyond.
Like,What exactly did we take?
Also, my body broke at that time.
My leg folded in two during dress rehearsals.
It was like Terry Gilliamsmovie about donkey hunting.
Full of crazy imagination, and I felt like I had to prove myself.
Like, Okay, my leg is broken, Ill do Redcar limping!
My team was like, Can you stop?!
I was like, No!
Redcar is a limper!
[Laughs]They were like, Oh my God.
Theres an element of horror inRedcar,too.
The video forLe Chanson de Chevalieris freaky.I know.[Grins.
]But its a love song!
Its the horrific territory of some love stories.
I was thinking a lot about the meticulousness of insanity.
Like those character videos you posted, tied to the record, on Instagram and TikTok.
They read as a bit Lynchian to me, a little Andy Kaufmanish.Oh, yeah.
I love Andy Kaufman so much.
There is a sublimated-Greek-tragedy vibe in him, which is very cathartic to me.
Like Prior inAngels in America,he ended up agonizing alone.
My gentle soul is enamored by the whole trajectory of him.
Those videos were very misunderstood in France.
People were like, Hes insane.
I was like, The answer is probably yes, but does it really matter at this stage?
People got really worried for me, and I was like, Itstheater!
I cant even crack a joke!
I have lots of humor in my life, but its a deeply strong coping mechanism as well.
Sometimes I think I should joke less.
Its a way for me to be polite with lifes adversity.
I think you strike a good balance.
The insanity was the point and the joke.Thank you!
Some people get it.
Youre in 2026, thats why.Redcarwas Paranoia, actually.
I feel this record were talking about is Angels.
I suspect True Love has yet to be written.
It sounds possessed by angels.
I felt transported like Ive never been before by music.
It really changed me drastically.
It was the beginning of the conversation between me and the industry.
But I am quite proud of this record.Chris, I remember lots of power.
I was happy, in love, loved well.
The way this record changed me is a bit beyond me.
I wrote the record alone in a haunted house in Los Feliz.
And I surrendered to it.
And I suspected my mom was somehow blessing me because the conversation was incessant with her.
Did you have any ghostly experiences?I saw Einstein![Laughs.
]He explained everything to me.
Time is not real, and real is fake!
No, it just felt … not empty.
Shadows at the corner of my eye.
I was like Hello …?
I was very respectful because Id just started my journey.
I was like, Id love not to die yet.
I have just started this piece.
Thanks for your help and dont murder me at the end of it.
Im touring this record!
Lets talk about Madonna.
I feel like she tested me a bit.
Shes a dominatrix, really.
Hopefully youll see me again, and maybe this time you wont call me Christina.[Laughs.
AndChriswas so infused with her wit she has a strong wit and a strong whip!
I was like, Thats uncanny, but it sounds like Madonna.
I wonder if the voice was shaped around such an iconic one for comfort.
So I started to think about an ambivalent character who is an all-encompassing eye.
Is it just a computer in the end?
And I was like,Madonna could actually play a Broadway character on this record.Shes such a fantastic actress.
So Mike took the phone and called her.
I was like, Ahh, Im not quite there yet!
Did you ever see her in person again?We had dinner.
Shes such an amazing entity.
I see her as a reincarnation of a British dandy, a very sophisticated mind.
Shes so in control.
It must be exhausting.
But shes so strong as well.
What did you talk about?Life.
I was like, Damn!
Sometimes I am asking for protection from her.
And she always sends back something kind.
You text that request to her?Uhhh, yeah.
Maybe she will hate it if I say that.
Did you resolve that, and how?Through dialogue.
Boring![Laughs.
]It was also aroundRedcarthat I felt really itchy.
I was eager to be more spontaneous with making my music exist.
Sometimes you have gut feelings as an artist, though.
Ideally, you dont fight and you collaborate.
But it was resolved after the threeRedcarshows.
Ive been signed tothe same record labelsince the beginning, and Im kind of a faithful dude.
Weve had ups and downs, but overall I make the music that I want.
Its ongoing, but its always a conversation you have to take the heavy load of protecting the intention.
God knows its a tough moment in the industry, and sometimes I just panic.
Go into an office and put the tie on, like, Listen!
I personally feel we must drop it … tomorrow!
]I am thinking about releasing more and more music.
I want fewer gaps in between, if I am allowed.
Because people at the label can vote for me to reduce the amount.
I feel like its okay now.
I think the grand gesture, my agitation they respect it in the end.
Theyre a French indie label, and they still get caught on the feelings around a work.
But the market is a bit tougher.
When I arrived withRedcar, I knew it would be hard and not radio-friendly.
But Im obsessed with browsing through an artists work over time, with legacy.
Im keeping the bigger puzzle in mind.
Does this one feel more radio-friendly to you?
Do you even think about that?I started to stop thinking about that.
I feel like whenever I did, it just fucked me over.
I guess well see!
Thats also the exciting part.
You cant master that.
So you should just do your best, rawest work.
This one is very raw.
Were these things you were thinking about when making this record?Not really.
This time I didnt want to think about the metatext of queerness and gender at all.
I think I am quite pessimistic on the state of that.
Gleaming in a way that felt unhealthy not with curiosity, but with fetishism.
I felt so trapped early on.
But writing this record, it was just an absolute experience of music.
Were still classified as queer artists, which doesnt mean anything.
Because art is deeply queer.
Its a human choice, a free will that warps reality.
Queer is the act of warping what is constraining.
It should be more celebrated as a force than as a state.
I dont know if I am queer, but some of my gestures are deeply queer.
Actual life and society are not changing enough.
There is regression in the United States.
In France, its not even a question yet, transgender rights.
That state of transcendence we can all reach it, really.
Just because youre born in a specific body, doesnt mean your soul cant shine with different lights.
Everybody has his own poem.
We are so different.
Why would we kill the poem inside the throat?
Its refreshing to hear you talk about it in this way.Thank you.
I feel like more and more I should live in America.
Go back to your haunted house!Yes!
Its been calling me.
This interview has been edited and condensed
