Meeting with Keren Ann

A French singer, songwriter, guitarist and director, she is known for her songs in a laid-back rock style and her collaborations with renowned artists. The early part of the year was marked by the release of her album with the Quatuor Debussy, followed by a French tour.

What is your most emotional experience?
The birth of my daughter when I was awed and intoxicated by life, but also the death of my father when I was hit by the violence of saying goodbye.

Can you tell us about an epicurean enjoyment?
Oysters. With sourdough bread and salted butter.

What does elegance mean to you?
Having the right words, saying them with serenity.

What’s your most wonderful travel memory?
I liked traveling across the west of Iceland with my daughter, rediscovering through her eyes this country that I already knew. Setting off to rest on a Greek island or an Italian island, I like the deserted beaches as much as the earth and dust in the villages watching the bulls leave. Creeks in the volcanic cliff, cities emptied of their inhabitants, filled with visitors. I love Paris mid-August, hikes to Joshua Tree in the Californian desert. A morning road trip in Normandy, Brittany, the Camargue, the Alps… The north of the Netherlands, Amsterdam by bike, Malmö on foot, Route 66 by car, Venice, Florence… but above all: Rome!

What spurs you on?
Any moment can awaken in me the desire to write and compose. It can be the sound of a piano in a high-ceilinged room, the huge wrench that you feel when you come to the end of a book, the silence in front of an Italian fresco, a voice that tells a wise story, a nylon guitar thrifted in a second-hand store, a departure, a reunion, an article in the newspaper, night, my mother’s eyes.