(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LIFE IS BIG")
ELIZABETH BOUGEROL: (Singing) Life is big. Life is bigger than it seems. You're in the right place with the right dreams.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Elizabeth Bougerol sounds like she's in the right place with the right dreams. A singer who ordinarily fronts The Hot Sardines has a new, solo, self-titled album out. Well, and any occasion to hear that wonderful voice. Elizabeth Bougerol is in, where else...
BOUGEROL: Bonjour, Scott.
SIMON: (Laughter) Bonjour. Is in Brooklyn.
BOUGEROL: (Laughter).
SIMON: Thanks so much, and great to have you back.
BOUGEROL: Oh, great to be here.
SIMON: The track we just heard, "Life Is Big," a song you wrote, and I'm taken by these lines in the song.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LIFE IS BIG")
BOUGEROL: (Singing) And when you're through, you should have nothing left to give. Don't save it up. That's just no way to live.
SIMON: So what prompts those lines?
BOUGEROL: You know, my mom died suddenly in 2023, and that sort of started a slow burn of a reckoning. She was someone who kind of waited for her life to start her whole life. She did lots of things, but she always had this perspective that later was when things would get really good.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LIFE IS BIG")
BOUGEROL: (Singing) Looking back, all the signs were there to see. It wasn't a straight road leading up to me. But every time I got lost and turned around, a piece of me was waiting to be found.
And that is a song I wrote - I actually - before I became a professional musician, I had a cubicle job. I created content for the web. I was a travel editor and a travel content creator. And that song is about making the decision to roll the dice on ditching my cubicle life for trying my hand at being a professional musician. And when I pulled out all the songs I'd been keeping for a someday solo thing, I realized they were all about this stuff that makes us feel alive.
SIMON: As you mentioned, you've been with The Sardines for 15 years, and you're not quitting, but what are some of the reasons you want to go solo?
BOUGEROL: Well, the solo lane is kind of a lane on the same highway as the Sardine lane. We're not going anywhere. But I'd been wondering - in the back of my mind, I'd been kicking around the idea of doing something of my own. I think of myself as sort of a storyteller who sings. And when I pulled out those songs, and I realized they were kind of all about the urgent need to live now, I thought, I want to tell these stories.
(SOUNDBITE OF ELIZABETH BOUGEROL SONG, "A HUNDRED YEARS FROM TODAY")
SIMON: Is there's a track you want to bring to our attention that helps carry this theme along?
BOUGEROL: Absolutely. There's a song called "A Hundred Years From Today."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "A HUNDRED YEARS FROM TODAY")
BOUGEROL: (Singing) Don't save your kisses, just pass them around. You'll find my reason is Iogically sound. Who's gonna know that you passed them around a hundred years from today?
And the idea is right there in the title - who's going to care if you pass them around a hundred years from today? We're alive now. There's a lot of numbing that I see going on in the world, and who can blame any of us. But the idea is that now is for the living.
SIMON: A lot of numbing you see.
BOUGEROL: Yeah. Well, I mean, I think it's easy to want to switch off, and I think it's easy to sometimes, you know, numb out, to scroll your way into a happier place. So these songs - there are 10 songs on this record - and they're mostly about things that really remind us to feel.
(SOUNDBITE OF ELIZABETH BOUGEROL SONG, "A HUNDRED YEARS FROM TODAY")
SIMON: You put some original lyrics into Duke Ellington's "Creole Love Call."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CREOLE LOVE CALL")
BOUGEROL: (Singing) I hear a solidary horn that starts so low and grows so strong. The crickets softly crickle on as the stars clung high into the navy sky.
SIMON: So why did you feel, you know what, I'm going to freshen this great piece up?
BOUGEROL: I liked the challenge of writing new lyrics. And also, I like the challenge of saying, what does this piece of instrumental music - what story does this tell? And so the story it told to me was about two people alone under the moon, and the rest of the world fades away.
SIMON: You also reinterpret a couple of Cole Porter songs here, don't you?
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SO IN LOVE")
BOUGEROL: (Singing) Strange, dear, but true, dear. When I'm close to you, dear, the stars fill the sky. So in love with you am I.
I love Cole Porter.
SIMON: Yeah.
BOUGEROL: I like to say that Cole Porter is the only man who's ever understood me.
SIMON: (Laughter).
BOUGEROL: Oh, he's so great. And, I mean, who knew (laughter) - who could write better about the things that make us feel alive than Cole Porter - you know? - about love and love when it hurts and, you know, all the things that are delicious about life, even when they're not good for us, kind of especially when they're not good for us.
SIMON: We had you on - I had to blink twice when I saw this - in 2016.
BOUGEROL: Ten years ago.
SIMON: Ten years ago, but yes. You've become a mother.
BOUGEROL: I have two times over.
SIMON: What's that done for your life? What's that done for your music?
BOUGEROL: It certainly reminds you to stay present, which can sometimes be tricky because you're tired when you're working with parenting. And also, they say it cracks your heart open to be a parent, and there's no question.
SIMON: Yeah.
BOUGEROL: It's given me a lot more feelings to put into what I write and what I interpret. It's a whole different dimension of love.
SIMON: This include "The Moon Is Made Of Gold"?
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE MOON IS MADE OF GOLD")
BOUGEROL: (Singing) Don't feel bad that the sun went down. The night has wealth untold. Just keep watching, and you soon will see the moon is made of gold.
SIMON: I understand that's been a lullaby in your family.
BOUGEROL: It has. "The Moon Is Made Of Gold" is a lullaby that Rickie Lee Jones' dad wrote for her in the 1950s. And my little 4-year-old, Lewis (ph), has been obsessed with the moon since he was 2. So I found - you know, I went and dug out all the moon songs I could find for him and sang them to him and played them for him. And "The Moon Is Made Of Gold" was a favorite. So when it came time to put the album together, I thought, how do we reinterpret this as a jazz lullaby?
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE MOON IS MADE OF GOLD")
BOUGEROL: (Singing) Soon you will be asleep, and into your dreams may creep visions of fairies flying through the sky.
And it's got such a beautiful message - the moon is made of gold. The idea being that the day can be difficult, but don't fear the end of the day because the night, the darkness, brings its own richness. It's a nuanced idea, but I love it.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE MOON IS MADE OF GOLD")
BOUGEROL: (Singing) The moon is made of gold.
SIMON: Elizabeth Bougerol, her solo self-titled album is out now. Thank you so much for being with us.
BOUGEROL: Thank you, Scott.
(SOUNDBITE OF ELIZABETH BOUGEROL SONG, "THE MOON IS MADE OF GOLD") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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