Claire Pommet, who goes by Pomme, is a queer French singer and songwriter bringing her ethereal and beautiful sound to her American tour. With a nomination for ‘Tour of the Year’ at Les Victoires de la Musiques (the French GRAMMYs), this was one tour we didn’t want to miss.
In addition to being an award-winning artist, Pomme is also an actress. Known for her intimate and emotional music, Pomme blends her fairy-like daintiness with macabre imagery in her latest film Saisons, named after her fourth studio album. I had the pleasure of meeting her in New York while she was showchasing her short films saisons, le film: hiver, saisons, le film: printemps, saisons, le film: été, and saisons, le film: automne, which she revealed will be released in July as a full Saisons film.
Pomme’s new album Saisons, which has birthed the short film, is a stunning orchestral journey through the year. With 12 tracks, three for each season, it captures the essence of every month. This orchestral project showcases her unique artistic vision and invites listeners on a spring-to-winter journey. The album flows seamlessly, inviting listeners to relax and envision their dream cartoon. This musical experience is paired with a 36-minute film, co-directed by Pomme, Hugo Pillard, and Nina Richard.
Pomme drew inspiration for the film from American advertisements from the 50s and 60s, focusing on the idealized beauty of women and iconic Coca-Cola ads. Her friends brought additional global references, contributing to the project’s experimental nature. The lack of traditional transitions added to the film’s unique and unpredictable feel.
Saisons is an ephemeral film, released in intervals on YouTube and screened only twice in New York. Pomme, the artist behind this dreamlike project, revealed that a full tour is unlikely due to the high costs of touring with a twenty-two-person orchestra and a lack of support from her label. Nevertheless, Pomme remains dedicated, pushing her beloved project with passion and determination.
Pomme hosted an intimate screening of the film for an exclusive audience of 25. Following its showing, attendees were treated to a Q&A session, offering a deeper dive into her creative process and vision for Saisons.
With her album and film themed around the seasons of the year, naturally we discuss what Pomme’s favourite seasons are, with the French artist sharing her love for both fall and summer, revealing the magic of fall in life and the intensity of summer in her film.
“In life I think I love the fall, because it’s really magical, but in the movie, I really love the summer and the second (saisons, le film: été), and it’s not out yet“, she offers, before taking us behind the scenes of its making. “This one is, it was really intense because I was underwater, and I didn’t have a big budget for this film, so we did everything pretty much in fucked up ways. I was just like, underwater, and I had nothing to breathe, I was just trying to stay more than three seconds, and we did that for like five hours.”
Sharing further anecdotes as to what draws her to the summer part of her film, she adds, “So yeah, probably the summer part of the film, and also I love the little Sylvanian, like, the little animals, they’re like really cute, they’re Japanese […] and they are so cute and creepy also, and I love having that a lot in the summer part, they’re just like chilling, and doing nothing, and it’s really creepy, and yeah, I think the summer, but in life, I love the fall too.”
As to whether she had ideas for the movie when she was writing the songs on the Saisons album, Pomme explained how her songwriting process is intertwined with visual imagery, “I think when I write songs, I always have ideas, and weird images, and everything, and I always like to write stuff down […] It’s really weird because when I write songs, I have images of really precise stuff. I guess it’s also because I’ve watched a lot of anime movies and movies in general. It was a dream because it allowed me to do all the video clips that I wanted to do in the movie, so I guess I’m not doing any video clips for ten years..”
Speaking further about how the songs and short films work together, she adds how “it’s really intense, but yeah, it’s a mix of my ideas when I write songs and also some ideas from my friends who co-directed the movie, especially for the full film. It’s just really experimental, this is just like something that I never thought I would be doing and then I’m really glad I did it. I knew that I wanted images for the whole album from the beginning.”
Pomme also reveals how the film project is a collaborative effort with her friends Hugo Pillard, and Nina Richard, “I also directed a movie with two of my friends and together, the three of us, we added a lot of ideas and some of these ideas were from the beginning of the writing of the songs and then some of them were my friends. The fall part is entirely my friend Hugo. I was just like, do the teen horror movie of your dreams. For the summer, I knew that I wanted Sylvanians, and for the winter, I wanted to have that cup monster.”
Our conversation soon flows into the symbolism littered across the Saisons short film, which sees Pomme exploring themes around gender identity and self-discovery in a fun and straightforward manner. Speaking candidly about the significance of the moustache in the summer part of the film, she explains that “the moustache in the summer scene – I think I was a bit crazy writing the summer part of the movie, but I wanted to have a subtle conversation about being a boy or being a girl, being fluid, not knowing what you want to be.”
Describing how the film allowed her to freely experiment and explore these themes without constraint, Pomme adds, “those questions that we all ask ourselves, and I just wanted it to be fun, and straightforward. The symbols are not too heavy, it’s a soft way to talk about subjects that are important to me, it’s a free space to experiment. I never got to do this before. In France, when you do a video clip, your label wants it to go on TV. This movie, none of it is going on TV. I just wanted to try something new. I wanted this to be about identity.”
Sonically, Saisons is a blend of opera, French chanson, and instrumental orchestral parts, creating a unique musical experience. Ensuring that the album defies genre classification, Pomme reveals, “I think the whole album musically doesn’t fit any genre musically. It’s something else, it’s an opera, it’s french chanson, it’s instrumental, a lot of orchestral parts where I don’t sing at all, which my label hated. I would love for it to be on TV in France but I don’t think it’s possible. But this time I was hoping to do something different and not be in any kind of box.”
Finally, Pomme speaks to the idea of translating the music on Saisons to a live stage on tour, to which the French musician remains as candid as ever, declaring that “we’re not touring this album because it’s too expensive, there’s twenty-two people in the orchestra. But we did this concert cinema in Montreuil, which is like a suburb of Paris, in April. It was just once, and I don’t think we will do it again. I also like that this project is also kind of ephemeral.”
Listen to Pomme’s Saisons album below. You can also keep tabs with Pomme on Instagram and her website.
Words by Shirley Reynozo
