With three young children, a star role in Lars Von Trier’s acclaimed new film Melancholia and a new album, it’s not hard to understand her anxiety.

Considering the independent success that Gainsbourg has achieved throughout her music and acting career, it seems almost crass to discuss the benefits of her parent’s legacy. But, the plain fact is that her heritage is as illustrious as they come. The daughter of Gallic legend Serge Gainsbourg and Swinging Sixties icon Jane Birkin, Gainsbourg openly concedes to the artistic burden of such a familial unit. “It does put enormous weight on my shoulders because I have to either forget about their work in order to be able to go forward or be inspired by their work.”

When Gainsbourg was nineteen, her father died, his funeral procession bringing the streets of Paris to an elegiac standstill. His daughter’s grief was exceptionally profound. “That was, for me, the end of music. It just stopped. There was no reason to do anything without him.” She would not release a follow up to 1986 debut Charlotte For Ever for another twenty years. Sophomore effort 5:55, released in 2006, finally saw her find her voice.

Gainsbourg’s latest album, Stage Whisper, carries an appropriate epithet considering the artist’s barely-there murmur. To hear her sing is akin to hearing a lover’s late night sweet nothings in your ear— clear, close and intimate, without the over studied nuances of the Idol set. The new release sees previously unreleased studio tracks intermingled with live recordings from 5:55 and the Beck produced IRM. For Gainsbourg, live recording marked a refreshing alternative to more conventional methods. “It was very spontaneous in a way. It was great not to think about it too much and to just let it happen. It was just easy. Quite light.”

Light may have been the process, but Gainsbourg’s list of collaborators on Stage Whisper is anything but. Having teamed up with the likes of Charlie Fink of Noah and the Whale, and psychedelic pop musician Connan Mockasin, the record sees Beck return to the post of producer. Gainsbourg sees her latest effort as a more intimate affair, thanks in part to her evolving relationship with Beck. “There’s a complicity because we know each other better and I think that he has a way of understanding what I want and putting words into my mouth that could be mine. He has a way of entering my head.”

Considering her mother was the impetus behind what has arguably become the most legendary accessory of all time (Hermès’ highly sought Birkin bag), Gainsbourg’s style pedigree is not debatable. As the muse and face of Nicolas Ghesquière’s Balenciaga, her unstudied elegance has made her somewhat of a contemporary style icon. Such definitive titles, however, trouble her. “I’m very flattered, but I don’t know what it means. I love being able to forget what I look like and how I dress. I just don’t care that much.” Perhaps, I suggest, in a world where over-preened pageantry is the norm, Gainsbourg’s admirers like her for just that reason. She agrees. “I’m always in my same pair of jeans with the same boots. It’s the way I find myself after doing interviews, talking about myself, making films.” She pauses. “It’s nice to come back to who you are.”

Despite the challenges of spreading her name over such a wide canvas, Gainsbourg has learned to relish the opportunities that her multifarious talents allow. “Sometimes people ask me if I’m an actress or a singer. But I don’t need to separate them. I’m happy being a little of both.” The girl who lost her voice for twenty years, then, has really grown up. “I think I’ve changed a lot. Just becoming an adult, and so becoming myself. And I imagine I’m still not myself. I’m still looking for who I am.”