Nopality September Artist Spotlight | mHART Artist Francene Rouelle Breaks Down Door for Her Career with Latest Shows
Written by Steven Hughes | September 30, 2025
“Vulnerability, diary-entery, and honest.”
francene at her “off the carousel” release show in Austin
That’s how Austin Artist Francene Rouelle described her latest album, “off the carousel,” after completing a handful of small and auditorium-sized concerts featuring a variety of her works and, of course, her newest album, which was released on August 1, according to Spotify.
Her growth and transformation as a live mass-audience musician thrilled Rouelle because she’s telling her stories, something she felt her musical theater life couldn’t provide. Luckily for Rouelle, music is her life, and she said she always knew music would be her career in some shape or form.
Peeking into Rouelle’s mind through her music
As Nopality Magazine noted, Rouelle’s “off the carousel” album addresses the complexities within relationships.
“I think the album was a vulnerable thing for me to do,” Rouelle said days before her September 28 Houston show. “All of the lyrics, all of the songs aligned with my life and what I was going through at the time. This album not only empowered me to be vulnerable with myself, but I think it exudes vulnerability itself because of that.”
Through the power of vulnerability, Rouelle produced an 8-song album, contrasting her previous “finally a fairytale” album that featured 7 songs. Rouelle produced the “off the carousel” album because she wanted to write something she liked, giving her the confidence that “if I liked it, then someone else would, too.”
Rouelle and her recent stage life
francene at her “off the carousel” release show in Austin
In the theater environment, auditions to produce someone’s story are the foundations of the industry, whereas Rouelle desired to share her stories instead. With her natural knack for storytelling, she ensures anyone streaming or in the audience will enjoy themselves.
As Nopality reported, Rouelle celebrated the new album with a release party on September 7 at the 29th Street Ballroom in Austin. She and fellow artists Allie Arnaez and Xyzsa Love captivated listeners in the intimate space. Although Rouelle noted in her interview that the 29th Street Ballroom was a fitting environment.
“There are different kinds of venues in Austin,” she said. “This particular venue is down-to-earth, small, and tight-knit. It felt fitting for an intimate and vulnerable album.”
Of course, Rouelle’s skills and growing popularity deserved to be seen by larger audiences, and that’s what her team did.
She collaborated with Truist’s Local Artist Concert Series, a pre-show concert series hosted at the Moody Center, where Tate McRae and Zara Larsson followed up her performance on September 16. Rouelle said the Moody Center’s team exuded professionalism, ensuring a smooth and enjoyable experience. She explained that a representative from the Moody Center reached out to her, making her feel honored to be picked to be part of their series.
The concert went well for Rouelle. It was a different experience from the intimate set she did previously, but a testament to the traction her work saw after the concert.
“I felt the love during that night,” Rouelle said. “That was the perfect venue and performance opportunity. It was the longest set that I’ve done.”
Rouelle’s most recent performance brought her to the Bronze Peacock at House of Blues Houston on September 28, her first show in the city.
Unfortunately, Rouelle said her Houston show will be her final show for the year, but said she’ll start performing again in 2026.
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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.”
