When Alexandra Stréliski launched her second album, Inscapein 2018, it was a bit like a bottle in the sea. “There were fans of my first album, pianoscope, enough for a spark to spark, she says. 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 plays worldwide, let’s say that four and a half years later, his status has completely changed.
The musician dropped off Monday morning at the offices of The Press, the time of 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) At New York.
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, THE PRESS
Alexandra Stréliski
It is that Alexandra Stréliski is now part of the Sony team, which represents her everywhere internationally, except in Canada. And that the output 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 in Everybody talks about it, 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 on the piano, it’s just the simplicity and the sincerity. An exchange of an artist with the ears and the heart 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 have to move more, drink less coffee. I’m not the most disciplined person, but I force myself! »
It’s the trick she found to keep calm around her and not get distracted. Because all this feverishness is still exceptional, she herself agrees.
There is a lot of magic around me. Always.
Alexandra Stréliski
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 little curly girl who plays the piano. I’ve been doing this since I was 6 years old, and it’s the only path in my life. »
Deconfinement
Alexandra Stréliski was in Saskatoon for the presentation of the Juno Awards when everything stopped due to the pandemic on March 12, 2020. She remembers telling us that day about her “brown hotel room in Saskatchewan”, and especially to have quickly decided to leave the country to join his lover in Rotterdam.
It is there that his new album was composed, explains the one who lives today between Quebec and the Netherlands. And if Inscape surveyed its interior landscapes, Neo-Romance is more outward-looking, 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 almost everything. How we keep our hearts open as we age, as we go through mourning, 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. Elegy is probably one of the saddest pieces she has ever composed, but its aim is to go “into all the emotional zones of our human condition”.
The composition of the album was influenced by the European air, especially because the musician took advantage of her long stay there to “draw on the vein” of her ancestors on the side of her French father. To her great 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 had always found myself weird, whereas in the end, I’m just one of the gang! »
This discovery also brought her back to the romantic era which influences the album. Of course, Alexandra Stréliski was nourished “since mini” by Chopin, Liszt and Brahms, and we hear them in her music. But she explains that what inspired her above all from 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’s a nuclear weapon in the face of the ambient disillusionment and lack of respect. It’s an almost militant bomb trick through the imaginary and the beautiful. »
It is her “revolution”, therefore, and she is convinced that it is not too late. “Humans will always end up fighting for their humanity. »
Tour
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 the solo piano, but from a selfish point of view, it’s fun, being a band! “says the musician who, in life, is more of the “bubbly” type than melancholic.
She also included moments of orchestration on her album, arrangements that she created in a “little French salon-style formula” in homage to her musical ancestors, and that 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 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 ofInscapewhat 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. »
instrumental music
Neo-Romance
Alexandra Stréliski
Secret City Records