When Alexandra Stréliski released her second album, Inscape, in 2018, it was a bit like a bottle overboard. -She. But I thought if we sold 2000 of them, that would be great. »
With 140,000 albums sold in Canada alone and some 300 million online streams worldwide, let’s say four and a half years later, his status has completely changed.
The musician dropped into the offices of La Presse on Monday morning for a radiant and warm interview. She is at the heart of a huge promotional campaign that takes her from appearing on a popular morning show in Germany – a kind of Hi Hello! German, where we did not fail to notice that she was wearing running shoes! – at a promotional presentation (showcase) in New York.
It is that Alexandra Stréliski is now part of the Sony team, which represents her everywhere internationally, except in Canada. And that the release of Neo-Romance is one of her “flagship projects”, explains the musician, with a disarming simplicity compared to the imposing device that surrounds her.
“It takes a lot of adaptation. We went from a team of 10 to a team of 80. Last week we were in Europe, Saturday I was in Val-d’Or at my grandmother’s funeral, Sunday at Tout le monde en parle, this afternoon we leave for New York. It’s my life, but at the same time, it’s the same as before. It’s just bigger. »
The same, really?
” Yes ! I played in Los Angeles the other day in front of people from Paramount, Spotify, HBO… It was super stressful, nine hours jet lag… But when I get down to the piano, it’s just the simplicity and the sincerity. An exchange of an artist with the ears and hearts of other humans. »
What has changed is that with the amount of traveling she has to do, the pianist pays more attention to her lifestyle, “almost like an athlete”. “I can’t drink, I need to move more, drink less coffee. I’m not the most disciplined person, but I force myself! »
This is the trick she found to keep calm around her and not get distracted. Because all this feverishness is still exceptional, she herself agrees.
But it relativizes, reminds us that we are all “mini-dust of dust in space-time”. And thanks his naivety for allowing him to stay in the present moment, “sincere and authentic”, outside of stories of commercial success or ego.
“Ultimately, I’m just a curly little girl playing the piano. I’ve been doing this since I was 6, and it’s the only path in my life. »
Alexandra Stréliski was in Saskatoon for the Juno Awards presentation when it all came to a halt due to the pandemic on March 12, 2020. She remembers telling us about her “brown hotel room in Saskatchewan” that day, and especially to have quickly decided to leave the country to join his lover in Rotterdam.
It was there that her new album was composed, explains the one who now lives between Quebec and the Netherlands. And if Inscape surveyed its interior landscapes, Neo-Romance is more turned towards the outside, in a true spirit of deconfinement.
“What interested me was the excitement of falling in love again after a heartbreak… I apply it as a concept to a little bit of everything. How we keep our hearts open as we age, as we experience grief, hardships, as life is not always easy. That’s what I wanted to capture, the excitement of deconfining. »
In fact, Alexandra Stréliski wants to capture the whole of life, to bring together the beautiful and the hard, the pain and the light. Élégie is probably one of the saddest pieces she has ever composed, but its aim is to go “into all the emotional areas of our human condition”.
The composition of the album was influenced by the European air, mainly because the musician used her long stay there to “tap on the vein” of her ancestors on her French father’s side. To her surprise, she discovered a line of Jewish musicians, conductors, violinists, piano teachers, but also actresses and theater managers, Stréliskis like her who lived in Amsterdam 200 years ago.
“I found it symbolic to find myself in the same place 200 years later. Besides, I always thought I was weird, when in the end, I’m just one of the gang! »
This discovery also brought her back to the romantic era that influenced the album. Sure, Alexandra Stréliski was nurtured “since mini” by Chopin, Liszt and Brahms, and you hear them in her music. But she explains that what most inspired her about the Romantics was their “axis”, their bias towards “the expression of their individual voice and the imagination”.
“And just the idea of being romantic at all. What is it to be a dreamer today? For me, it is a nuclear weapon in the face of the ambient disillusionment and lack of respect. It is an almost militant thing of bomb by the imaginary and the beautiful. »
It’s her “revolution,” then, and she’s convinced it’s not too late. “Humans will always end up fighting for their humanity. »
After the release of the album, Alexandra Stréliski will leave on a major tour that will take her until June 2024 from Montreal (for two almost full Wilfrid-Pelletier halls) to Paris and London via a host of cities in Quebec, and she will be accompanied for the first time by a string trio. “There’s power in solo piano, but selfishly, it’s fun being a band!” says the musician who, in real life, is more bubbly than melancholic.
She also included moments of orchestration on her album, arrangements she created in a “little French salon-style formula” as a tribute to her musical ancestors, and which she applied with delicate brushstrokes. “As an artist, you always have to keep innovating. Otherwise we stagnate. »
When asked to project herself, Alexandra Stréliski does not hesitate for a second and declares that she hopes to compose film music. “I’ve always wanted to do it,” says the one who made a name for herself, among other things, by working on Jean-Marc Vallée’s series.
She has also met in Los Angeles an important agent specializing in film music who wants to work with her, she slips towards the end of the interview. “I know, it’s crazy. My life has no meaning. »
And after the success of Inscape, what does she wish for this one?
“I want him to live on in people’s hearts. I throw it out into the universe and we’ll see where it lands. We wish him a nice long trip. »
