Adeline On Her Hew EP Intérimes And Using Her Voice As A Form Of Protest.

I am a walking protest. I am Black. I am a woman. I am an immigrant. I have an accent. I represent something.

Photo Courtesy: Adeline.

Paris-born singer-songwriter Adeline has been creating music since she was 5 years old. In 2004, she moved to New York City to pursue a music career. She started as the lead singer of nu-disco band Escort, and in 2016 she left the band to pursue a solo career. She released her first solo album in 2018 and has just put out her new EP, Intérimes.

A day before the release, I sat down with her to talk about her new music, her influences and the struggles of moving to a foreign country, what it means to be a Black woman in today’s world, and her activism work.

How are you feeling about the release?

Very excited, super excited!

What are you doing to celebrate?

Not doing anything to celebrate. I am working nonstop. It feels like I had been living in quarantine so long before the pandemic started, just being in the studio and working on new music. I haven’t had a break. People’s lives stopped, but it still felt like a good time to put music out, so I’ve been releasing music, mastering, producing and recording videos at home.

Was the EP planned last year?

We started planning on it at the beginning of this year. The first single came out in February, and the release date was set for June. But at the time, the Black Lives Matter movement was rising, and it didn’t feel right to self-promote.

On April 24, after releasing her single Twilight — part of her EP — she created a hashtag through Instagram to bring artists together: #twilightchallenge.

The initial idea was to just hear what people would come up with. The producer and I were excited to hear what they would do with the track, so we put out the instrumental version. We wanted to create a platform that would elevate and help Black artists share their voices with the world.

Photo Courtesy: Adeline.

Because of the timing, the challenge quickly turned into an initiative that would end up donating all the funds to the Black Lives Matter Movement.

It became a Black moment.

Our conversation quickly shifted from the release of her EP to her work in activism and all her efforts in recent months to raise awareness and funds for the movement.

Have you always been involved in activism?

It’s hard to call myself an activist because these people spend their whole life trying to make the world better. I don’t deserve that title. I think everybody should do something, be concerned and act. Do a minimum. I’m definitely more involved than the average person because I’ve been out protesting and I have a platform, so I’m using it to talk about it.

Adeline realized that what she could do was use her voice and music as a form of protest, and that she shouldn’t stop doing so.

“I am only starting to realize that through my music, I was creating some form of protest.” “Even my first solo album in 2018 was reflective of the times. It was kind of like a feminist anthem, and the whole undertone of the record reflected the message that I am a Black, immigrant woman at a time when Trump had been elected president and the #metoo movement was starting.”

Do you think you shifted your message from intersectional feminism to something else?

I think it just turned into all blackness overall.

The Black Lives Matter movement isn’t something new. It has been going on for the past 7 years, and black people in America have been fighting for equal rights for the past 400 years.

It feels like for the first time, it’s not only Black people doing it, and it was about time the rest of the world started paying attention to it.

The thing that struck me the most as we were talking about politics and privilege was the following: I think being privileged in so many areas probably sucks because where is the space for growth and learning and evolving? If you are stuck in your comfort zone, you are never going to change.

And yes, change is uncomfortable, but it’s necessary. It feels like for so long, we’ve been making ourselves small to avoid confrontation. There is nothing new to the movement; the only difference is that there is now a collective addressing injustice and stating that we will not be quiet.

I am sure as a Mexican woman you can relate because we go through so many traumas that we shove down because we don’t want to be the angry person in the room. But we don’t know where the trauma goes. We go through so many aggressions it must go somewhere… our bodies, our voices… somewhere!

Before moving into music, we started chatting about immigration and the struggles we experience when moving to a foreign country.

So, when did you move to New York?

As a French citizen, I have certain privilege in the fact that I can get into America, as opposed to people from other countries, but that’s a whole different story. I came for the first time in 2004 for two weeks initially and ended up saying for three months. I was going back and forth, and it took me about 10 years to get a green card after starting with an O1 visa, which is this alien visa thing for “special talent.”

How was the experience of it all? 

Coming back and forth… that stress of going through customs is not a healthy thing for a teenager. People don’t understand the struggles that we go through to pursue our dreams. I didn’t speak English, didn’t have any formal education and in my mind, I was going to make it by 22. The first years of my life here, it was more about figuring out how to be here. All my energy went into that. But I wouldn’t change any part of it because I am very happy and thankful for those moments of learning.

Photo Courtesy: Adeline.

But you made it and started your solo career two years ago. What has been different from leaving the band to putting an album out to where you are now?

Every single aspect of my career is different. The first thing is now being in control musically of the lyrics and my life. It was great to be in a band; we are all great friends, but it was time to speak my own voice. I was afraid of leaving the band, of leaving what I knew, but I had so much music in me, so I will never go back.

What was the message that you wanted to share that made you push past that fear?

I just wanted to be myself and find myself as an artist, a Black girl from France that plays bass and sings and produces her own music. My message was women can produce, have their own enterprise and be in control of their own music. I think with this new EP, the message has shifted towards Blackness, more than it was before. I also wanted to go back to my roots and go back to play soul music.

Your music is a mixture of genres though, as a whole new sound. Funk, disco, R&B, ….

All these genres are an umbrella from soul music, so it’s about the choices that you make. I was so used to making people dance, I was afraid of becoming a new person. But I found myself in it, and I’m very happy with it.

What’s the inspiration behind this new EP?

You know, with the first album, I just needed to get it out, and the second phase of my sound happened on stage communicating with the audience, so the sound was shaped up, and at some point, it became clear what the new music would sound like.

I was so focused on making the music that I forgot about how I needed to sound. I recently worked with Cee-Lo Green, and I learned so much from him. He told me that a song needed to feel like a piece of clothing. Anybody can wear it, but not everyone is going to look great, so right now I’m really making sure I prioritize the vocals.

What’s different from the music in this EP to your last release?

With this EP, I wasn’t in so much of a rush, so I took the time to try new things. I was also less angry because it wasn’t 2016 anymore, and it was time to be more vulnerable and sing about love. I was afraid of talking about it and had so much to express about what I was hoping for in the world and relationships. I needed to share my stories with the world, what was in my heart, and I think everyone can relate to it.

What’s your favorite song on it?

Probably Twilight and Middle.

I loved Si C’est Pour Jamais, which is the French version of Just Another Day, which is weird because I don’t speak any French.

Hahaha! You know, as a kid I used to sing Pony by Ginuwine. It was up until 10 years ago that I realized what the lyrics were about, so I can relate to that. I understand the power that music has in that way. If the feeling translates, that’s all that matters.

So, were your biggest musical influences American artists?

Yeah, for sure. I looooove Mariah Carey so much. She is the best songwriter, and she doesn’t get enough credit for her songs. She is a beast, and she doesn’t get enough credit on her writing because her voice is so great. She doesn’t get enough credit because she is Black, and we do not get as much recognition as we should. She and Aretha Franklin are probably the only divas in that way. Also Prince, Earth Wind and Fire… There are so many.

After talking about music influences, we started to say our goodbyes for now….

I loved that this was an actual conversation rather than an interview, so thank you Pilar. It was great talking to you. Maybe next time we can do the whole thing in Spanish. Cuídate mucho y ten un bonito día. Muchas gracias!

Adeline’s EP is out now. You can listen to it on Spotify.