Bassist, double bassist and singer-songwriter, Laure Sanchez came to music by a roundabout route. Classical guitar and music theory in childhood, then several years away from the instrument, the time of a preparatory engineering school course and a degree. Around 19, she realized that wasn’t the life she wanted and started the double bass. The first instrument was an old borrowed model, brought back to her parents’ house without a case, wedged on the back seat of the car with the headstock sticking out the window.
Years of jazz followed, a stint at the conservatory and the Didier Lockwood Music Center, then Paris and the cabaret, where the musician plays in service of a show. The electric bass took over on projects closer to pop: she now accompanies Voyou, with a tour spent almost entirely on bass and vocals, and plays in a trio with François and The Atlas Mountains. At the same time, she’s building her own project, live in three languages: French, English and Spanish.
In this episode of Tales, Laure talks about her older brother’s rock and the flamenco of summers in Andalusia, about the teacher who showed her you could make a living from music, about Esperanza Spalding and Ahmad Jamal’s trio, about the fragile balance between touring and personal projects, and about her fan perspective on Rosalía.
Laure Sanchez - Bassist, double bassist and singer-songwriter
The Tales interview
What are your very first memories of music, as a child?
They mostly come from my older brother. My parents weren’t musicians, but he listened to a lot of music: rock, bands like The Vines, The Offspring, Tété… And then there was also flamenco, because I come from an Andalusian family. Those were really the two poles: the rock I heard at home and the flamenco I listened to when we went to see family in Spain, especially in the summer. It was very different from what you hear in France, and it intrigued me a lot.
So music was part of your environment or did you "go and find it"?
My parents come from southern Spain, my father is from Cordoba and my mother from Almería. But music was not at all considered a profession. They had very traditional backgrounds, linked to immigration, with a desire for integration and stability. Art was not central, at least not as a professional prospect. So I really feel like I went and found music myself.
If you had to break your journey down into major stages, what would the chapters be?
As a child, I started with classical guitar. Not out of any particular desire for that instrument, but because it was the most accessible: easy to carry, not too loud. I did music theory, solfège, but quite quickly I felt that repertoire didn’t fully suit me.
I dropped out for a while. Music stayed there, in the background: I wrote songs, played again from time to time, but without a clear project.
Then around 18-19, during my studies (I had done a preparatory course then a degree), I realized I wasn’t happy. That’s when I started the double bass. It was a total love at first sight. From that moment on, everything reorganized around that.
When did you feel that music could become your profession?
Quite late, around 20. I’d loved music all my life, but I didn’t give myself the space to seriously consider it. When I started the double bass, I met my teacher, who made a living from music. It was the first time I saw someone close to me doing it as a real job. Not an unreachable figure, not someone seen on TV. That made it possible, concrete.
You chose the double bass, a rare, massive, not obvious instrument. Why?
It’s quite mystical, even for me. As a child, I was already wondering how it worked. This huge instrument with no visible markers fascinated me. But I didn’t dare. At 19, I looked for a teacher online and tried it. I’d always wanted to play bass, and the double bass had this acoustic, physical side: the vibrations, the direct connection to sound. I couldn’t rationally explain why this instrument rather than another, but it was obvious.
How did your parents take this radical choice?
It was quite brutal. I had finished my degree, so I wasn’t starting from nothing, but coming home with a borrowed double bass, huge, without a case, squeezed as best as possible into the car… it really threw everyone off.
My father was very worried. And so was I, actually. I had a very strong desire, but no certainty about what would come next. I had to pretend I had things under control.
What were your first major influences?
Very clearly Esperanza Spalding. I was obsessed with her for years. The fact that she’s a woman, singer and instrumentalist, very independent, mattered a lot. I listened to everything, watched everything.
There is also Avishai Cohen, who really struck me at the start: a very accessible gateway into jazz. And then a live album by Ahmad Jamal in a trio, my first jazz record. It was simple, stripped down, beautiful. I picked up every bass line.
The trio comes up a lot in your journey. What does this formation bring you?
The trio offers a lot of space. It’s a very essential formation: rhythm section, harmony, voice. Everything is there.
Today, for example, I play in a trio with François and The Atlas Mountains, it’s not jazz, but I find that very organic, very alive feeling again, which I had missed. In a time saturated with sequences and ears, it feels really good.
You accompany a lot of artists. What does this role bring you?
A lot. I like discovering very different universes. After jazz, I did cabaret: there, you are entirely at the service of a show. You don’t show what you can do, you serve a purpose. It completely shifts the musician’s ego, and that feels good.
The tours also helped me progress technically a lot. And playing other people’s music inevitably feeds you, even unconsciously.
Is it difficult to balance accompaniment and personal project?
It’s a very delicate balance. Touring takes a lot of energy, and when you come back to your project, you see everything that’s still missing: network, team, resources. It can be discouraging.
At the same time, accompanying artists gives keys, a very concrete understanding of the industry. The risk is never daring to fully devote yourself to your project. But depending only on that can also be very harsh. I’m not sure I want my entire artistic survival to rest on that.
What is your relationship with social networks?
It’s very ambivalent. There are times when I really enjoy myself, when I like creating content, thinking about an identity. And others when I find it extremely anxiety-inducing.
Everything is mixed: violent news, entertainment, self-promotion. You go from a shocking video to a friend announcing their single. It’s very hard to keep meaning, especially when you’re in a network of musicians all doing the same thing at the same time.
Rosalía put flamenco back at the center of global pop culture. What do you think of her music?
I’m a big fan. I discovered her over ten years ago, when I was going back to see my family in Spain: my cousins were listening to her before she was known. On her first album in a duo with a guitarist, what struck me was her voice. Flamenco, traditionally, has very powerful, very rough voices. She had a much softer, very clear approach, while keeping the melodic intonations of flamenco. I found that beautiful.
What I find incredible is her freedom: mixing that heritage with very current things, releasing a reggaeton track, collaborating with James Blake… She doesn’t forbid herself anything. I think that opened a path for other artists, this way of reclaiming their culture and reinjecting it into contemporary music.
And you, have you gone back to flamenco or your Andalusian roots?
It has always fascinated me. I never studied it academically, I wasn’t immersed, and I couldn’t sing like a flamenco singer. But it’s music I’ve listened to all my life. I’ve always written a bit in Spanish, without necessarily highlighting it.
It’s not impossible that I’ll release music in Spanish one day.
You write and sing in several languages. Why?
In my live show, there are already three languages: French, English, and Spanish.
English comes a lot from my jazz and Afro-American heritage. French came later, and today I mostly write in that language. Spanish, I’d like to dive into it more. I think all that will refine over time.
Do you claim a precise musical aesthetic?
Not really. I have so many different influences that I find it hard to define what I do. I released a very neo-soul track because that’s what I was listening to at the time.
But depending on the formations, the live show, the musicians I play with, the music can become more rock, rougher, or on the contrary very produced. I like that plasticity. I like that music changes.
Carte blanche: who would you dream of touring with?
Solange. That’s the first name that comes to mind. A very free, hybrid artist, with a lunar universe. I identify with her a lot.
And to accompany you on your own album?
Rosalia, without hesitation. For her overall vision: production, voice, artistic direction. And recently, I was also very struck by Mk.gee, for the uniqueness of his universe.
