Since his official debut in 2018, Indiana native Christian French has found a way to explore the world through story telling.

From writing about his own battles with anxiety to channeling the lifestyles of some of his favorite fellow artists, French has found a calling by making music that grabs your attention as well as it pulls on your heart strings.

With catchy rhythms, enchanting melodies and and relatable lyrics, French’s music has since reached over 3 million monthly Spotify listeners- in addition to hundreds of thousands of other fans across other social media accounts.

And now, fresh off the heels of his latest EP good things take time, we had the chance to chat with the singer about his new release, how his 2020 is going, and how he thinks he’s grown as a musician since his last release.

You can check out our full interview below, and be sure to stream good things take time, out now.

Second Society Report: First off, how are you doing this year? I know that the world has essentially fallen apart as the pandemic has taken over and shut down a good portion of the music industry so I think it’s important to take a beat to check in and see how things are going.

Christian French: Yeah it’s been a weird one for everyone. It’s been a sort of rollercoaster of emotions. It’s been great to slow down for a little bit and switch up the pace of life – it’s allowed me to write more, play more guitar, and produce more which has lead to a lot of growth. But on the other side of things, it’s tough to stay inspired when you’re stuck doing the same things every day. I miss touring so much, and it’s really difficult as an artist to adjust to being completely on social media to keep up with my fans. So a lot of good has come out of it, but there’s definitely a lot I feel like I’m missing out on, just like everyone else.

SSR: How have you been spending the summer of quarantine? I know you were busy preparing for your EP release, but beyond music have you picked up any new hobbies?

CF: Quarantine has been a great down-time for me to spend more time alone and really dive into different things without distractions. One of my 2020 goals was to learn how to play guitar, so I’ve spent a lot of time learning songs and new chords to get more acclimated with the guitar, and with that, I wrote a grip of guitar-based songs. While I was at home in Indiana, I had the bare-minimum setup for a music studio, and have been producing out my own ideas as well. 

SSR: Okay now for the music questions- How are you feeling about the EP finally being available to the public? 

CF: It feels so great to finally have ‘good things take time’ out in the world! I want my fans to dig into it and feel all the emotions that I felt while making this EP, which is mostly about trial and error in all aspects of your life.

I like putting optimistic twists in my music because I feel like it’s something that’s sometimes missing in music. Having positive thoughts and conversations with yourself is so important, and no one really teaches you how to do that.

SSR:  What was the most difficult part of creating this record? What was the easiest?

CF: I would say the most difficult part was finishing these songs – it’s one thing to start a good song, but the hardest part is always the last 10% of putting the icing on the cake and making sure it’s perfect. Some songs took over a year to finish.

The easiest part was deciding the EP name – I’ve had this name set since I released my last EP, and it’s been such an important theme in my life that it had to be the title. 

SSR:  While I know each track holds a special place in your heart, which track do you feel the deepest connection with? Why?

CF: “good things take time” is my favorite track – it was the theme behind this whole EP and will continue to be a theme in my life forever. I keep going through these transitional phases of my life where my beliefs and desires change, and with that comes a lot of growing pain. “good things take time” always reminds me to just put my head down and do the work the best I can and things will work out. 

SSR: One of the things this EP touches on are feelings of isolation and anxiety- specifically in “I think too much” and “crowded room.” Why did you choose to include these topics in your album? Do you feel (or wish) that more artists should be open about their struggles with mental health?

CF: It’s just something I was really feeling this year stronger than I ever have. It’s really easy to get trapped inside this anxious, pessimistic way of thinking where you overthink everything and start to make up scenarios and stories in your head of people not liking you or things not working out, and this can be REALLY restricting. It helped me so much to write down these thoughts and feelings and move past them, rather than stay swallowed up in them. 

I feel that artists write about their struggles in their own ways – I’ve taken a very direct approach to it because I’ve been so interested in this field of self-awareness and self-love lately, but I think there are endless ways to write about your struggles, and it’s important that each artist has their own way of approaching it. 

SSR:  Something I’m always interested to know because I know it’s different for everyone- do you find it’s easier to write songs based on your own life experiences or do you prefer to base them on fiction or the lives of others?

CF: That’s something that I’m still figuring out. I’ve enjoyed writing music from my own life experience – when you get into a good idea based on a real experience, the lyrics come so easily because you’ve already lived that experience and those emotions. I feel like it’s kept my music very genuine. 

But I’ve also been starting to write from other people’s experiences lately, fiction or nonfiction. I’ve been reading books and watching movies and have been really inspired by them, writing from one of the character’s points of view and painting a picture of what I think this character felt like. I just wrote a song called “freddie mercury” after watching Bohemian Rhapsody and really feeling for what he went through.

SSR:  Your last release “Bright Side of the Moon” came out just last year. Do you think your music or writing process has changed since then? If yes, how so?

CF: Yeah for sure – I just feel more experienced and more mature now. I’ve written enough songs now that I really have to experiment and find new avenues in order for the music to still feel new and unique, and it’s been a HUGE challenge that I’ve gone through this past year. For this project, I really found who I enjoy working with, and we were able to go really deep on this music together, rather than having a lot of different collaborators, like I felt the BSOTM EP had. 

SSR:  What do you think is the best way to connect with fans? I know you are present across social media platforms, but is there one you think best helps you reach out and connect with your listeners?

CF: I really don’t know where my artist project would be without social media and other music-spreading platforms. Instagram and Twitter have allowed for a much more personal fan-artist relationship. I respond to my DM’s every day and it’s awesome to talk to the people who are listening to your music.

SSR:  What do you wish your fans knew about you that they likely don’t know or misunderstand?

CF: This is more for every artist and not just for me – sometimes I wish that fans knew how much time and effort goes into music that is made and released. It’s really easy with digital streaming to just click ‘next’ and go to the next song, and that song or project that they discounted because it wasn’t “good enough” in their eyes or they didn’t connect with it personally, could have been such a struggle for the artist just to put out. A lot of my fans do realize this and make me feel really loved and proud of my work, but I’ve also been on the other side, where I’m questioning why I worked so hard on something that barely got noticed. 

SSR: Is there anything else you would like to share that I didn’t ask about?

CF: I’m really excited about this next cycle of music that I’m currently making, and I can’t wait for everyone to hear some of these songs later this year. Other than that, I’m using this year to get better at production, piano, guitar and songwriting. I’ve already come a long way, and I can’t wait to see where it goes. And I CANNOT wait to get back on the road and tour!

You can connect with Christian French now, via the links below, and be sure to stream good things take time, out now.

Twitter / Facebook / Instagram / YouTube / TikTok