Canadian singer and songwriter Charlotte Cardin in Montreal on March 14, 2022. The Montreal singer led last year’s Juno Award nominees with six nominations.Illustration by Photo Illustration by The Globe
Off Duty is a series of lively conversations with influential people, from CEOs to celebrities, on life, work and the art of taking time off.
Charlotte Cardin is healing through her music.
The Montreal-born pop and jazz singer-songwriter has been making a name for herself in the Canadian music scene since 2013, when she was a Top 4 finalist on the first season of singing competition series La Voix. Following a few hit singles, Cardin released Phoenix, her first full-length album, in 2021 – earning her a whopping six Juno nominations. The album was moody and empowering, resonating with a wide array of listeners who appreciated her candour about heartbreak, desire and how it feels to be objectified as a woman.
Cardin’s sophomore album, newly released on Friday, is yet another collection of vibey, unfiltered tunes about relationships, transitions, nostalgia and hope. Called 99 Nights, the album is named for the approximate number of nights in the summer during which she wrote the album – a time when she was struggling personally and sought solace in her songwriting.
Speaking to me on the phone from Montreal, where she still has an apartment despite living mainly in Paris, Cardin opened up about how creating this album was “like writing in a diary,” the challenges of touring and what she really values in life.
How is your new album, 99 Nights, different from your first?
With Phoenix, I went digging into old wounds and it was an album that was certainly therapeutic, but not necessarily in the most healthy way. When I wrote this album, I was going through a lot of stuff in my personal life. I was with friends in the studio, and we tried to really grasp the present moment and encapsulate exactly how we were feeling and translate that into music.
This album was like therapy, too, but in a really healthy way – kind of like writing in a diary. It felt good to let the songwriting express certain things that I might not be able to observe myself if I was just talking about them. The DNA of the album is tinted by all the feelings that I was feeling and all the baggage I was carrying that summer, but it’s also tinted with a lot of fun, playful, super grounded moments in the studio.
One of your singles off the album is called Jim Carrey. Why did you decide to write a song about him?
I was always a fan of Jim Carrey’s acting, and I was going through a bit of hard time during the summer we were writing this album, so my producer suggested I listen to some of his talks about the ego. I went home that night and watched all his interviews and speeches about how our fears and desires to fit the mould are the main things holding us back from achieving our goals and growing into the person we should be.
I related to it so much that the next day I got into the studio and I was like, ‘Okay, let’s write a song about me marrying Jim Carrey so he can help me get rid of the ego and finally achieve that freedom that I’m looking for.’ I still find myself going back to those speeches sometimes when I’m feeling low. They just always make me feel better and give me a little more perspective.
How do you cope with the touring lifestyle?
It’s definitely something that I’ve had to get used to. I love my house, and I love being at home, I love cooking, I love my comfort. Touring is uncomfortable, and I’ve struggled with that. You’re waiting around, you’re on a bus, you’re in a van, you’re on a train, you’re in a tiny little green room, you’re eating really bad food. And you’re away from friends and family. When you tour for a long time, it does affect your mental health because you don’t have any kind of anchor.
But it’s also so fulfilling in so many ways. Playing every night is why I make music. Being on the stage, sharing my music in different cities, it energizes me. So for a few weeks or even for a month at a time, I do love it. More than that and it gets really hard.
As your career grows, how do you handle becoming more and more famous?
I don’t really see myself as a famous person. Maybe that’s because I have extremely respectful fans, but it’s never something where I feel like I can’t live my life. My music has also evolved in a very organic way in the last almost 10 years, and so I think my fan base also grew that way. It wasn’t an overnight boom, so I’ve gotten used to the lifestyle gradually and my fan base has also grown slowly.
What are you listening to right now?
I was recently talking to my dad – who is a huge rock and roll fan – about the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ different albums, and we were saying how all the albums that had John Frusciante on them were by far our favourites, so I went and listened to some of his solo stuff, which I absolutely love. There’s also this song that I love, called Stockholmsvy by Hannes and waterbaby. It’s such a vibe and it’s been on repeat.
How do you find joy and rest when you’re not working?
My favourite way to disconnect is to just spend time with my family, especially my baby nephew. I love making food for my family and for the people I love. Spending time with my friends and family, to me, is really all that matters. I value it even more so now that I live on a different continent. Whenever I’m in town, I just spend all my time with them. I feel like we’ve gotten even closer since I’ve moved away because we really cherish the moments we spend together.