Nopality September Artist Spotlight | Francene Rouelle
Written by Steven Hughes | September 30, 2025
francene at her “off the carousel” release show in Austin
Nopality Magazine was able to ask Francene a few questions regarding her recent album release and performances.
Nopality: What were some challenges you faced when producing ‘off the carousel’?
Rouelle: “I was very emotional during the writing process a lot of the time. People find it easy when they’re in their emotions, and it can come out vulnerably. For me, I think, because I was in such a high emotional state, it was the hardest thing that I ever wrote. It’s hard to think straight and try to make the best art that you can. It was raw. Even saying that, a lot of the songs, because they were so raw, we cut a bunch of them, and I’ve never cut songs before, but I think it was too heavy for me to release some of those songs. Some of those songs made it on the album, and they turned out beautifully, and some of them didn’t.”
Nopality: How are you sharpening your musicianship every day?
Rouelle: “Writing every day! I think that’s what I enjoy the most. It’s like my therapy. I tend to write whenever I feel like writing, and that’s often. Also, singing, keeping that muscle up. It’s something that I always trained in musical theater. Even if you’re tired, at least [do] a little humming. Keeping singing stamina up and also training in dance every day as much as we can. Right now, I’m in front of Dance Austin Studio, about to practice for the [Sept. 28th] show. We’ve got rehearsals still scheduled, even past our shows. So, there’s a lot of training that goes into it, and I enjoy it. We have to keep our techniques strong, right?”
Nopality: Where do you see your musical career in the next five years?
Rouelle: “As an artist, I think we all have hopes and dreams that we’ll get to the stadium tour, we’ll get to Coachella, we’ll get to the music festivals. I think that’s my big dream. Number one to it all is that I hope to do music full-time, because I don’t right now, and make it into a career. With that, I would love to perform a stadium tour. That's big for me.”
Nopality: What’s something you’d tell your younger self about what you’ll achieve?
Rouelle: “There’s a lot of things I would tell her. I would say stay true to yourself, which is such a heavy thing to tell someone because, what does that mean? I think there’s a lot of people that are going to tell you what to do and be, and as long as you know exactly what you want, and you follow your heart, those people don’t matter. I’m still learning that to this day, like with the switch from musical theater to making pop music, I think that was the biggest shift. I remember it being hard for me as a younger version of me because it felt like I was throwing everything away, but it was a learning lesson, and a lot came out of it. Even now, I would tell myself to just keep following your heart because it matters. [If] you do that, you’ll be fully aligned, and your life will feel true, and you won’t feel like you’re wearing a mask.”
Nopality: What’s your next project?
Rouelle: “We are still cooking that up. I’m excited about it. I’ve been thinking a lot about what the next step is, what the next project looks like, but I haven’t even told my manager or my producer yet. I told [them] something was brewing, but I haven’t told him what it was. We do have a single coming out next year sometime, called ‘diamonds and pearls.’ We’ve been performing it in every set, so I’m excited to finally get to release that song. Then, we have a couple of covers that we’ll be releasing towards the end of the year, fun ones that did well during the Truit’s Austin concert, and then just during our sets. That’ll be fun to release, but so far, that’s what we have. Then we do have a third project brewing for sure.”
