R&B artist Cybèle has worked with industry juggernauts, but she’s only just beginning. Having released her new single, “Lovergirl,” we catch up with the virtuoso.
Having woven her way between genres to create world-building canvases, French-American artist Cybèle is a master of her craft. She is recognised across the board for associations with brands such as the Super Bowl and Prada Beauty, alongside recognition from the RFK Foundation and the Grammy Museum. Her unique sound spans multiple genres, including pop and R&B.
Driven by an innate passion to explore the thresholds of what music can do, her powerful voice and sharp penmanship take on new layers of meaning and thought. With a proven track record of producing some of the most compelling sounds right now, her talent is an invaluable asset. Her latest single, “Lovergirl,” is another piece of a continually evolving blueprint for how music can be made. We caught up with the artist to find out more about the track and beyond.
You’re currently studying a master’s at Berklee, so it’s safe to say that you love music. What parts of the art do you enjoy and dislike most?
“Honestly, I love all of it. Every part challenges me to become a better artist. Even the marketing, the branding, the networking, making the sheet music, learning the technical side. My goal is to embrace the discomfort of every part of the process, because that’s what it’s going to take to get where I want to go. I’ve adopted this motto lately: it’s in the discomfort. If I’m feeling discomfort, that’s a good thing. It’s not something I should shy away from.”
Musicians are notorious for building and not knowing when to stop. How did you know when the song was finished?
“I know a song is finished when it affects me emotionally in a way that overrides my analytical brain, when there’s nothing left to nitpick. It stops feeling like I’m listening to a song and starts feeling like a wave of emotion, a message, a story. If the drum is too loud, or the snare’s off, or something’s sitting wrong in the mix, then it’s not done, those things get in the way of the emotional work of the song. But when nothing’s irking me and it’s just moving me, that’s when I know it’s right.”
You’ve been compared to ABBA, Michael Jackson, and Tchaikovsky. How did you react to this, and how do you view your sound?
“Any time I’m compared to someone great, I take it as a compliment; those are some of my biggest influences, and I think you naturally hear the artists who shaped you in your own work. I recognize I’m still a young artist, still honing my voice. Eventually, as I get older, my goal is to feel more singular, to a point where people can’t pinpoint exactly what I’m inspired by. But for now, comparisons like that just mean I’m a student of the craft, and I’ll always take them as a huge compliment.”
Your new track “Lovergirl” is out. How long has this classic been in the making?
“It’s very kind to call it a classic. I’ll let the audience decide that one! Honestly, I wrote it in a single day with Tristan Rice, back in August of last year. It was a really quick session, right before I left for New York to start my master’s. It came out of a conversation about how I felt I’d been giving my heart away to the wrong people. Realizing that as a hopeless romantic, you have to understand the law of discernment before you disperse your energy to people who don’t deserve it.”
Was there a personal lesson that inspired it?
“The main lesson was this: your desire to be loved can’t be greater than your desire to be sovereign to yourself. You have to want to love yourself more than you want to be loved by someone else. That was the heart of it.”
You co-wrote it with Grammy Winner Tristan Rice; how did the conversation between you begin?
“We actually connected through Instagram. He saw a story I’d posted from the studio, working on a song called “Proclamation”, which had just won a Grammy Museum songwriting contest. He told me right away that he wanted to work together, and we got in the studio and immediately clicked.”
The tempo is unique. What inspired what first? The vocals or the production?
“The production came first. The beat was made by the UK R&B producer Benners, and we were going through a few of his beats when this one just spoke to me. It felt cinematic and romantic, something hit in my gut, and it just clicked.”
You’ve spent time across Paris, Beijing, Los Angeles, and New York. How has it informed your sound?
“Honestly, more than anything, living in all those places showed me how global music really is. Growing up in China, I was listening to ABBA and Michael Jackson, artists who were big in America, but also a lot of classical music and the French chanson greats, because that’s what my dad would play. If anything, it pushed me toward making theatrical, cinematic, over-the-top music: very maximalist production, lots of strings, leaping melodies that feel classical and grandiose. It taught me to be a romantic, at least musically. And that’s something that resonates across all those cultures — the big emotions, the melancholy, the love, the heartbreak. All of it got fused into the music I grew up on in those different places, and that’s what shaped my sound.”
Some elements that feel like a continuation from “Love Me Now”, do you agree with this?
“Thematically, yes. Definitely a continuation. “Love Me Now” is what you sing to someone at 11 PM in the club. “Lovergirl” is the 5 AM confession: the realization that you wanted someone who wasn’t right for you, and that when you choose from a place of desperation, it’s never going to align. When you choose from a place of hurt, with your walls up, you have to learn to love beyond your wound, because if you don’t heal it, you can’t find the right love.”
What do you hope listeners will take away from “Lovergirl”?
“That you have to be your own lover girl. You have to learn to be your own lover first, because if you pour all your love into someone else and expect it back, that’s not the healthy path. I also hope it gives people a place to feel validated in their emotions. There’s the way we want to and should live our lives, and then there’s the reality, that we get vulnerable, and we fall into these traps. I want listeners to feel seen in that.”
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