Apprivoiser literally means "to tame", but it carries a much deeper, more beautiful meaning in French: to build a unique bond or relationship with someone or something. It was made famous by the classic book The Little Prince, where the fox explains that to be tamed is to "create ties".
In this song, Pomme uses this poetic word not for an animal, but for abstract concepts. She sings of wanting to apprivoiser le silence (tame the silence) and the weaknesses in her voice, suggesting a journey of self-acceptance and finding peace within herself.
Imagine stepping into a majestic tunnel of ancient redwoods, taking the first truly deep breath of your life, and feeling every worry fall away. That is where Pomme begins "Les Séquoias." In this gentle folk-pop meditation, the French singer walks among towering sequoias and sends "two thousand prayers" into the wind, hoping to free herself and the world from past sorrows. The forest becomes a sacred refuge: its rustling leaves sing, its thick sap mingles symbolically with her own blood, and its silence helps her tame the tremble in her voice.
Yet the song is not only about personal healing. Pomme hints at ecological fragility—dry rivers, "assassinated" trees, the fear that everything could be swept away. Her wish to "return to the path" is both a longing for inner peace and a plea to protect the natural sanctuary that made that peace possible. "Les Séquoias" invites listeners to breathe, listen, and remember that saving nature can also mean saving ourselves.
Pomme is the stage name of Claire Pommet, a singer and songwriter born in 1996 near Lyon, France. She began solfège lessons at six and sang in a children's choir before turning to guitar, drawing early on chanson artists like Michel Polnareff that her father played around the house. She played her first Paris show at La Boule Noire in 2017, the same year she released her debut album, À peu près, which reached the French charts.
Her second album, Les failles, came out in 2019 and gave her a French top ten album. She has won two Victoires de la Musique, in 2020 and 2021, and followed with the albums Consolation, En cavale, and Saisons. In 2024 she recorded music with Stromae for Netflix's animated series Arcane. She married Quebecois singer Safia Nolin in 2022, after the two first met and dated back in 2016.