French chanteuse Marianne Dissard performs at the Black Rabbit Festival. Photo: Zhang Tiangang

If inspiration can be discovered on Trans-Siberian trains, donkeys in the French Pyrenees and homoerotic cowboy love in the southwestern US, indie chanteuse/director Marianne Dissard has already found it.

"This Chinese attendant was going around asking everyone for euros very persistently," explained French-born Dissard, while describing a "gift exchange" on her solo Trans-Siberian train voyage to Beijing last week, where she will perform at this Saturday's Black Rabbit Festival.

"So I just gave him one of my CDs and he went berserk," she laughed, explaining she was immediately inundated with attendants wanting a copy of her sophomore album, L'Abandon, which Dissard sold her house to finance. "They all kept asking me to take off my glasses, just to check it was really me on the album cover."

Honed by relentless touring that included rumbling at Texan mega-festival, South By Southwest, Dissard's DIY approach went into overdrive ahead of her China visit. She penned the lyrics for 20 songs on her marathon train trip, scheduled another five dates plus a recording session for a live record titled, Beijing Three Takes.

"I've been touring all year and thought I'd come to China for a vacation," she laughed. "But I couldn't help myself. I started poking around to find out what Chinese rock was about."

Eventually she hooked up with French singer/songwriter, Jean-Sébastien Héry, who goes by his onstage Chinese pseudonym, Zhang Si'an.

"The thing that always makes me laugh is that I perform with iconic images. Nowhere in the world does anyone object to the rape scene," she said, referring to her touring solo show that includes her singing while projecting clips from Andy Warhol's art film, Lonesome Cowboy.

The film holds significance to the singer, who moved to the US at the age of 16. Dissard also screens her spin-off titled, Lonesome Cowgirls, after each set.

The original Warhol film's setting in Tucson, Arizona, has particular relevance to Dissard, given it was the place she called home for over 20 years.

Similar to Warhol, who fled Pittsburgh to reinvent himself in New York City, Dissard made the migration from the French Pyrenees to Tucson, a southwest US city renowned for its desert rock. She admits it left the greatest imprint on her music.

Her upcoming album, Derail, stretches her influences even further. It promises collaborations with hip-hop producer, BK-One, as well as a possible pairing with Mongolian outfit, Hanggai.  

As for her French roots, Dissard explains once you leave it's difficult to return.

"I walk with a donkey," she laughs, explaining when she tackled the Santiago de Compostela trek, an ancient pilgrimage through Western Europe spanning over 200 kilometers. She also performed impromptu sets in tiny villages along the way.    

"It's the Pyrenees, so donkeys are part of the identity, similar to pandas in China," she said.

Who: Marianne Dissard
Where: Black Rabbit Festival
When: September 18
Contact: site.douban.com/mariannedissard