Gaëlle BUSWEL: a fulfilled artist and mum!

Hello Gaëlle, thank you for taking the time to answer our questions! We don't need to introduce you anymore at Distrolution Merch, you've already had the opportunity to do so through a previous interview.

This time, we wanted to talk to you about all the stage, tour and upcoming projects, since, as you so well said in concluding our previous exchange: "See you soon on stage! This is where everything happens ;)".

Photo by Christophe Losberger

Some artists prefer to release records, have only a digital presence... while others live for the stage. Can we say that this is clearly your case?

Yes, the stage is paramount for me and this is where everything happens! You can't cheat with live performance, this is where the music sweats, where it's lived and where it's truly shared.

You became a Mum a few months ago. Congratulations! How do you manage to balance your role as an artist and your role as a Mum, while being on tour?

And yes :) And to my greatest happiness, we have a wonderful baby with my partner, and my baby inspires me every day and more and more. I admit, I thought it was going to be a bit complicated at first, but in the end no, everything is going well and everything is really compatible. It's an organisation for sure, but she has golden grandparents who take care of her wonderfully when we're on tour. I love these 2 lives. She's immersed in music with us.

When you go somewhere with a baby, it's like going on tour, you're loaded haha! But here, you swap your guitar and amp for a pushchair and a nappy bag, so it doesn't change much from usual lol.

Tell us about your first comeback concert after your daughter's arrival. I imagine there was a special emotion.

Oh yes, because first of all, you learn to rediscover your voice and your body, you have to re-muscle yourself completely, control your postpartum fatigue with hormones coming down, you can quickly become super emotional, cry quickly, laugh quickly.... it's crazy lol. But emotionally, this comeback was fabulous and I was eager to get back on stage.

I feel much more at ease when I sing now, a little less stress. Always the same adrenaline rush, but I think this little happiness that was missing from my life brings me something extremely positive in my profession, in music and in my life.... It's certain that on the first date when you go far away, you ask yourself 1000 questions about how your baby is doing, the missing is there and develops a different emotion again.

You opened again for Billy F Gibbons a few weeks ago at L'Olympia. How did your paths cross?

And yes, another happiness this summer lol. We met thanks to our common tour promoter Gérard Drouot Productions in 2019 and as Billy's team really liked our lives with them, we went back with them for this Olympia.

Playing in front of so many people and alongside renowned artists... I imagine there's a particular pressure. Do you have a little ritual before going on stage?

Oh yes, the pressure is always double, even triple because it's an audience that doesn't know us and we want to honour the bands we're playing for. It's always a lot of concentration and I need to do a lot of relaxation breathing before, and then we throw ourselves into the arena and off we go :)

You're back since May with "Live At Abbey Road Studios", an album, as its name suggests, recorded live at Abbey Road Studios. Tell us about this experience!

It was grandiose!!!!! I wish all indie artists could experience this once in their lifetime. It's legendary, there's an incredible energy emanating from these studios. Every corner of the room makes you think of a documentary or a song by these pop pioneers who have passed through here. It was an honour.

For the first song, nobody spoke. We were super focused, I felt like I was recording for the first time. Plus, we had Chris Booster at the controls, who has recorded the Foo Fighters, Paul McCartney... It was crazy! It's always hard to find the words, even a few years after this recording.

I imagine that in terms of composition, there must have been a shake-up there too. Has the arrival of your daughter given you a new source of inspiration, and if so, can we expect a new album soon?

Yes, loads of inspiration, and it's strange. Where I thought I'd have less time, it's given me more than before. I'm rewriting much more easily, a new source of inspiration has arrived but I assure you, not everything revolves around the baby lol. But yes, new compositions are in the pipeline.

Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions, we'll leave you with the final word for our readers!

Thaaank you and see you soon on stage!!