0:07
I think the [music] best fiction is the fiction that has this blurry line between what's personal and what's universal.
Search this video
0:18
What's detailed and what's [music] abstract?
0:22
There has to be some sort of truth for me in it.
0:24
But at the same time, I think it's much more about the other.
0:33
If you are [music] writing from this place, then you can sing from this place.
0:40
I promised [music] myself I was going to make an album where I was going to finish the thought, finish the song, go all the way until the end. Motoami was minimalist. This is maximalism.
0:53
So much to talk to you about about this album.
0:55
Thank you for making this.
0:55
I don't even know if it's an album.
0:58
[laughter] >> That's the best >> in the sense that >> that's the best compliment that somebody can say.
1:04
I think >> it's almost like of a framework for this this music that you've made.
1:07
It's so much >> you could but we're in Madrid and um you're causing chaos and you've launched your album here [snorts] and you're running around getting fine, sitting [laughter] up politicians and doing what you should be doing. >> Oh my goodness.
1:20
But it looked like you had a lot of fun.
1:22
>> I just I just wanted to go um see the cartel, go see the lights, you can go outside and yeah, but it's a fun moment.
1:31
It's a it's a beautiful moment, you know, when Okay, now the the album is finished finally.
1:35
And now it's about sharing it.
1:38
>> It can be discouraging sometimes how long it takes, but I think it's teaching me patience.
1:43
>> Each project is teaching me more patience.
1:45
Well, you must have had so much patience to just get through this process of making this album because there's so much in it. >> Yes.
1:53
>> I I loved what you said about Leonard Cohen and the idea of finishing a record in the three stages.
1:58
>> That area where it can just you can just feel very lost in it. It's no longer yours.
2:01
It takes on a life of its own.
2:04
That must have been many moments during the making of this. It felt that way. >> Yes.
2:08
Because it's been 3 years.
2:08
So all the things that can happen in three years. So many.
2:12
But also I love that Leona is a big inspiration and I love that he used to say which I would repeat a lot while I was making the album.
2:23
He used to say uh forget your perfect offering.
2:25
There is a crack in everything.
2:28
That's how the light gets in. Mhm.
2:32
>> And I think that I I wanted the light to get in and I wanted it to be called looks.
2:40
How to make more space for the light to get in.
2:45
>> I love that you refer to light as seen through the cracks and not necessarily the light that's all around us at all times.
2:50
Sometimes we shield ourselves from the light or the light can be too bright.
2:54
>> But you're right that the light that cracks in is a is is different, isn't it?
2:57
It's um >> there's a glimmer of what of what's available to you there hasn't yet revealed itself. >> Yes. Yes.
3:02
The possibility the outside. >> Yeah. >> And beyond.
3:07
>> But when you're working on music, >> can you exist in a functional societal social way or do you need >> to sort of consciously remove yourself from the normal side of being a human and a friend?
3:21
Yeah, I kind of I think I kind of isolate, but at the same time, I listen myself and if I'm like, okay, it's been maybe a week >> that I don't see nobody except >> these uh friends that I'm working with in the studio, which I consider friends.
3:37
Dan, uh David, which I've been working with for like six years at this point.
3:42
He's an amazing engineer.
3:42
I became an a friend here through this project.
3:46
So yeah, I feel like I hang a lot in the studio.
3:51
It's a lot of hanging in the studio.
3:53
But at the same time, there's a lot of being alone at home, writing, reading, writing, reading. Just one year of that. >> Yeah.
4:00
>> It was an entire year.
4:00
I remember guys were like, "We need you.
4:02
You need to come back to the studio."
4:05
And I was like, "I can't. No, I won't. I have to make lyrics.
4:10
And these lyrics are not good enough.
4:12
I'm going to keep working on lyrics.
4:14
>> I'm going to stay here working on lyrics until this is great." And then more music.
4:20
>> When you were touring Motoami, you had been in this brilliant modern loop that we're all in, which is like album, tour, >> Lucy, like a song, maybe collaboration.
4:31
>> This doesn't feel like that.
4:31
It's like you stopped that hard.
4:33
And >> yes, this is what I needed.
4:35
I feel like I always do projects, find the excuse to study what I want to study and go through what I want to go through and feel like my my heart is is needing and it's craving and in this case it was reading more and it was studying more.
4:52
it was studying more. If I was not uh having a a musical career, I would probably just be listening in the in college the >> I just wanted to like be studying the that's what I kind of tried to like just study learn more about spirituality in a in a make ores of what spirituality is understanding how saintthood it's understood and and and conce ceive
5:24
differently depending on the the cultures and and religions different religions and how interesting is that for example in Christianismo there's a very specific way of understanding saint saintthood but then there's equivalence in other religions so in Hinduism there's the rishes which are these mstros savio there's I don't know the shan they are immortals in the tow in Judaism
5:57
amigos God's friends they call it in Islam like they there all around the world you can find different ways of understanding saintthood and that was so interesting to me I was like okay wait there's all these stories about saints I was trying to pull from like all these crazy amazing stories from all around the world I put uh mapundi >> in the room >> and I started uh reading halographas
6:24
just reading reading reading reading and I just tried to like understand where did they come from which was the language that would be um spoken there um what was the story behind so there was a lot of women like that were extremely interesting to me that they were nuns they were poets and I was like okay I'm going to read uh about them I'm going to read what they actually wrote. I'm going to uh try to explain these
6:51
I'm going to uh try to explain these stories.
6:55
I think it's important to while collecting stories about the other.
7:02
I feel like then making songs inspired in that like I'm celebrating and giving love to the other to the otherness trying to understand the otherness better.
7:11
It feels like nowadays is like everything is so divided >> and and and >> no I want the opposite. I I need the opposite.
7:22
>> At least that's how I feel.
7:23
>> This deep curiosity that informs this music, it is a huge part of what is is so um immersive >> for us about it.
7:33
>> I'm always interested in how artists can move so deeply into quote unquote conceptual environments, but it has to be about you.
7:41
>> It can't just be an essay about me.
7:45
>> These songs you don't feel are about you.
7:47
I think though that it's an album that fortunately or unfortunately it will have pieces of me, little pieces of me.
7:57
But I think the best fiction is the the fiction that has this blurry line.
8:04
There's a blurry line like the sweet spot between what's personal and what's universal.
8:08
What's detailed and what's abstract?
8:14
maybe what's uh implicit and what it's explicit. >> It's both.
8:20
>> And so I think that yeah, obviously because I wrote it, there has to be some sort of like truth for me in it.
8:25
But at the same time, I think it's much more about the other than about myself.
8:32
Although there was going to be moments and and specific things, journey, for example, Reikia. >> Yeah.
8:37
>> That has journey that has about I've been here and I've been there.
8:39
but it's inspired in Santa Rosa de Lima >> and and how her selikas are spread around the world.
8:48
So there's there was so many like crazy coincidences while I was studying and learning about these stories.
8:55
Santa Rosalia um Hilaring Bimala there was crazy stories Santa so many women that yeah that were amazing and that I wanted to kind of in a way channel >> their stories.
9:13
But I love the character studies that that that you created on this record and but at the same time the way that you perform these songs >> the emotion that you instill in in these songs when you sing them. >> Yes.
9:29
>> It's hard for me as a listener and a fan >> to not feel that you are feeling something deep within yourself. >> Personal growth. >> I agree though. I agree.
9:37
>> I agree though. I agree. I think it's more internal >> like when you get to Magnolia's I can't believe at the end that you're not >> projecting forward into the end of what has been a wonderful adventure >> true >> to to put the perfect ribbon on it >> right >> kind of yes but it's inspired in an Mima
9:55
she had an amazing burial there was so many flowers like it crazy and apparently everybody felt so in peace >> apparently everybody was outside everybody felt so much peace and like joy and so for me I was like wait This is amazing to know that that happened and I'm like how how would my me and the how would my burial be? Maybe it's just
10:13
Maybe it's just about please don't be sad when I die.
10:18
Just please have a party.
10:19
>> Yeah, >> that was what uh for me what was I was asking.
10:23
And in the back of my um in my back I have a tattoo that it's um something that Manuel Molina wrote which is my favorite writer in Spain.
10:31
My favorite writer in Spain.
10:34
He said He's saying nobody better nobody cry the day that I die.
10:49
>> It's more beautiful to cry even if you cry with sadness.
10:53
>> So even if okay you're going to have maybe some sadness but still like just just have fun just enjoy.
10:58
>> There must have been a lot of times during the making of this record though when you felt a very powerful emotion.
11:04
And I can't imagine working with the London Symphony Orchestra. >> Yeah.
11:07
I mean, that's out of control. >> Crazy. That was crazy.
11:09
I definitely had chills so many times while making Definitely making uh vocals, recording vocals.
11:18
I don't think I ever cried so much making an album.
11:22
>> I don't think I've ever ever ever cried so much recording vocals.
11:24
And I think that I didn't I didn't maybe want to go through this before.
11:31
I was like, I'm not ready.
11:33
I know I had to do an album like this, but I wasn't ready yet. >> How did you know?
11:38
How did you know that after Motoami, which was a resounding success, one of the most amazing tours, >> beautiful high concept art, dynamics, just lot of movement, everything.
11:48
I mean, you got to be happy at the end of that.
11:53
>> Then how did you know that I have not gone deep enough?
11:55
I need to like not even close. >> It's so different.
11:59
Ah, there was something that my sister said that stuck with me when I played Moto Mommy for her. >> What' she say?
12:08
>> Okay, so we were in the car. I played for her.
12:11
She pointed out this kind of like musical Tourett or something.
12:18
This this sort of like kind of like why do you have to destroy the song always?
12:26
[laughter and gasps] >> Yeah, that's Billy, right? That's my nonchalan.
12:30
>> You love [laughter] the ones that love you back, right?
12:32
The only ones who get away with that. >> Yes.
12:34
That's my nonchalan sister [laughter] and my best friend, which I love so much.
12:40
And and she said that and when she said that, it hurt so bad cuz I was like, what are you talking about?
12:45
I started fighting her and I started being like, what are you talking about?
12:49
No, no, no, because you don't get it.
12:50
I'm trying to like, yes, this this makes sense.
12:53
This disruption here, da da da.
12:55
But at the end of the day, it stuck with me because I'm like, "Wait, why do I make music?
12:58
I make music for people to feel, right?
13:01
And maybe they're going to feel the most if I really go all the way. >> How can I?"
13:08
Cuz maybe I'm not allowing myself to go all the way.
13:10
Maybe I'm writing songs, but I'm not finishing the thought.
13:15
So, I was like, I'm going to make the next album.
13:17
I promised myself I was going to make an album where I was going to at least try at least try to finish the thought, finish the song, go all the way until the end.
13:27
And I think that in this album, it allowed me to grow as a as a writer and as an arranger and as a producer because of that, because of going all the way and not trying to just, you know, break the song here and there.
13:44
No, like this is the thought how far I can go with this thought.
13:51
>> In a way, you still retain some loyalty to that idea of being um free with arrangements and break things and there are movements in each song, but because you're moving in a space that has long been considered >> archaic or ancient or old-fashioned, >> Mhm.
14:08
You know, this >> idea of working in symphony, >> Baroque art and inspiration, things that you study, >> y >> like remember how it used to be hundreds of years ago. >> Yes.
14:20
>> But why can't it be as powerful today as it was >> back then?
14:24
>> And it definitely can.
14:24
And I think that at least I'm always my feeling is always I'm in service of the emotion.
14:31
So yes, this album don't have loops and it's very intentional that it doesn't have loops. That was kind of a rule.
14:41
>> We were like, we were not going to do no loops.
14:43
We have this in the back of our heads.
14:45
>> Even at the end of divin when it gets super frantic and anxious. >> Yeah. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
14:51
>> There's no loop in it.
14:51
It's play played >> or the vocals.
14:53
Even if there's like a repetition in a melody, still it's sung.
14:59
There's there's like the conscious decision of not using loops humans. >> Yeah.
15:05
So it's like how do I go from point A to point B?
15:07
How do I how do I instead of from A to B? Boom. >> Next. >> Yes. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.
15:19
go through the experience as if the experience is the the the most important is the journey.
15:27
It's not about getting to from point A to B. It's go through it.
15:32
Let yourself go through it.
15:34
And I I wanted that it was acoustic instruments.
15:38
I everything it feels I think it feels like that human >> wood.
15:43
Um it feels like the space >> feels entirely immersive like the space. >> Yeah. materialist physicality.
15:51
Um, so at the end of the day, you have the sense, the feeling that there's a human in there. There's humans in there. It's made by a human.
16:04
It's about love and from love hopefully.
16:09
>> Well, love is in every single iteration.
16:14
I mean adoration, uninterrupted, unfettered pure obsession, >> then judgment, conditional forgiveness, >> um, hate, anger, violence, a lot of violence on this room.
16:28
>> Also, also enough of what I needed.
16:28
I felt like I needed to be in it.
16:32
I think beyond, but it's not a glorifying evil.
16:37
As a protagonist, it feels like to me as a as a as a writer of this experience, either others experience brought to life through your filter or your own experience, the mixture of the abstract and the literal. >> Yes.
16:47
>> That in the middle of all of that, there is confusion >> about what it all means.
16:53
>> You're asking if there is some >> I'm asking you if it was written out of pure instinct. >> Uhhuh. >> Or experience.
17:02
[snorts and sighs] >> Oo, that's a tough one.
17:03
>> Oo, that's a tough one. Um I think it starts with instinct >> and I think that later there's a there's this moment where you just analyze with cold head you are curic about it >> but it's pretty much I think everything usually for me it's pretty much intuitive
17:27
>> I don't rationalize it too much I try to nurture myself with um whatever I feel like I need to explain and later so I let it happen in if you nurture yourself the right way you're going to be able to explain it be the vessel and explain it and so later I
17:45
think that uh I start rationalizing it when I see what's what I'm doing >> I don't think I'm thinking what I'm doing when I'm doing it >> okay let me be specific about like me and Christie >> yeah yeah okay that one it took me a whole year >> I'm not surprised >> a whole year to do
18:00
>> yeah and thank you for seeing it through that [snorts] remarkable piece of music, but as as a a sentiment, a story, >> is it a generalized um appreciation or is it a specific appreciation about one person or something specific because it's so delicately written? Um I think that uh the whole project has
18:19
Um I think that uh the whole project has that balance and definitely I found very very beautiful very very inspiring when I found out about Santa Clara de San Francisco apparently they had this really really really strong friendship and this very strong bond and that was beautiful and I was like okay let me let me experience uh how to write about is about this friendship. How how would that be?
18:51
>> And you have friendship that is similar.
18:53
You could create you could refer back to your own experience in that way.
18:57
>> I mean the whole album has has that has a truth on on what I've experienced for sure cuz otherwise I couldn't write it and especially it's also in Italian.
19:05
I try to write first in Spanish >> h a lot a lot a lot of it and then I would send it to a translator and also would use Google translate.
19:15
So I would like kind of like uh go back and forth with that for an entire year of writing.
19:24
Uh it took me a lot of attempts in front of in front of the piano of trying to make the area and I would remember like I would talk with Noah and I would say I want I really want to make an area.
19:34
I want to write an area but I need time to study.
19:38
I need time to understand how an area is, how an area is written, how usually the structures are or and let's see.
19:45
And so it took me a year in Miami, writing in Miami in this house in Miami. I finally found it.
19:51
I found the just improvising.
19:54
I found the the hook in the piano, very very little uh notes with the left hand just to understand a little bit how the chords could be.
20:00
And then I brought it to LA. I kept working on it.
20:05
And then one day finally I got to the studio and I was like finally I have the area.
20:09
What an ara what I say what I call an area.
20:11
I don't even know if it's an ara okay but but it's inspired. >> Yes.
20:15
Yes it's it honors that >> the communication that comes through the record in multiple languages 14 I think languages.
20:22
But anytime that it switches from Catalan or Spanish into Japanese it's very natural to the point where >> I had to look at the lyrics and be reminded that you was even singing in Japanese.
20:34
>> That makes me happy man.
20:34
That makes me so happy >> because because you made them your own.
20:39
So why did you choose to have that moment of self-reflection? The queen of chaos.
20:44
Why did you choose to to express that in Japanese?
20:47
>> Because there's this um saint. She was called Roneno.
20:53
She was a Japanese saint.
20:53
And it was very interesting the story.
20:57
Apparently she she destroyed her face in order to be accepted and to be accepted to be so monaster.
21:10
She wanted to get in that monastery and be accepted in it.
21:12
And she destroyed her face in order to be admitted in it.
21:20
And that woman I felt like the story was insane. That was incredible.
21:26
like the the the the level of sacrifice in order for her to to achieve what she wanted and then also maybe how how a lot of times is considered craziness you know what's an extreme can be considered craziness or can be like catalog in that way >> do you think that that was extreme to do that >> who am I to judge what it's extreme or not >> I think that each person as a different path and I'm nobody to to judge if there's extreme or not.
22:02
But maybe for me as a Rosalia, it would be very hard to do something like that.
22:11
I consider it maybe extreme for who I am, but I don't consider it extreme that for her she did that.
22:16
But in a way, the fact that you've gone ahead and made something so different to what you did before, you've done so much studying and learning in order to get there.
22:32
>> In a way, that is that is, isn't it?
22:34
Continued mutilation every time you reject something you've created before in order to grow and potentially lose people in the process and leave the things that could give you comfort behind.
22:44
Isn't that just a form of >> Yes, 100%.
22:46
In >> violent change in a we in a weird way. >> Yes.
22:49
And please, yes, every day.
22:49
I hope that happens every day.
22:51
I hope that every day um identity I hope that identity can always be something that it's um that it dies and borns every day >> and that every day you can choose who you are and every day you can understand who you are and you can change every day.
23:08
>> That's a discipline, isn't it?
23:08
>> That's a discipline, isn't it? cuz again in your Substack >> um and you in your birthday post you talked about the idea of wanting to stay in all the time but then wish but then missing people's birthday parties and events and being like man I'm just going to not get invited anymore like this you
23:25
know what I mean like people just going to stop inviting me like there's FOMO here like I'm missing out on so I guess I guess the question is like the idea of having the courage to move forward and leave all that behind but is there a part of you that always that's that's asking are you sure you've just achieved this and people want to see you and hear you like this. >> Yeah. Yeah. But having doubt it's uh >> Yeah. Yeah.
23:45
But having doubt it's uh it's a proof that uh you're alive that what you're doing is it's it's truly alive.
23:56
Having doubt faith they say that faith you know that it's alive because there's doubt in it.
24:04
>> And I think here is the same.
24:04
>> And I think here is the same. you you know that you are here that we're here if if but you have doubts about if you are here no probably you're feeling that doubt >> that doubt is reminding you that you're alive that you're here so yeah I think that uh maybe the sacrifice sacrificing I think that
24:24
>> um it's part of it's part of it I accept it >> I think I'm I'm kind of in peace the more the more I grow the more I'm in peace with the fact that I'm going to miss so many things I I I would like to uh spend the whole day just uh talking and vibing and being here and studying about this building and all of that. I
24:42
I would love to do, but I know that I won't be able that maybe we'll just have this this brief moment.
24:47
So, I hold into it and I'm like, "Yes, okay.
24:50
This is how much I'm going to see today."
24:53
And and I'm okay with it.
24:54
I'm not trying to [snorts] >> too much, just a little, just enough.
25:00
>> But it it brings to light the idea of what is the present moment.
25:02
Can you sit in the present moment?
25:05
>> I'm always moving around.
25:05
I I would always be like this.
25:08
>> So, you know, like I'm always I want to always be moving, doing things.
25:11
I have to remind myself it's okay. Chill, >> calm down.
25:16
So, yeah, I have a hard time being in the present. >> How do you do that? Do you do you meditate?
25:23
Like what >> how do you find in a peace?
25:24
How where do you >> desiring less >> desiring less?
25:30
I'm not meditating as much these days. I'm praying more. >> I'd give it all away.
25:35
You talk about this on the album. I'd give it all away.
25:38
And you even mentioned some of the trinkets and things that we >> I'm learning. I'm learning. I'm >> learning. I'm trying. I'm trying.
25:45
It's It's a hard because this word teaches you how to desire a lot. Yes.
25:50
>> But don't teach you enough how to not desire.
25:53
>> I want to learn more how to desire less.
25:56
>> And that's what you pray about amongst other things.
25:58
I pray to I pray to different things depending on what uh what I'm I'm lacking and what I'm missing more.
26:04
Um if I'm lacking peace, inner peace, then I will do one type of prayer.
26:10
But if I'm if I'm feeling in peace and I feel like there's so much that I have to celebrate, I then I pray and and give thank you.
26:18
I do more something that has to do with gratitude.
26:22
in in the idea of of of um searching for balance from something greater than yourself and asking for that from somewhere.
26:30
>> What what's at the top of your asking list?
26:33
>> I think that sometimes it's not about asking. >> It's about listening.
26:39
>> It's about stopping maybe and listening.
26:41
Is it maybe about projecting yourself towards something that is bigger than you and that reminds you that reminds you who you are.
26:50
that reminds you your path.
26:51
Um, so sometimes it's about asking for guidance when you don't see clear enough.
26:59
Um, sometimes it's about asking for blessings for the people that you love.
27:06
>> Um, sometimes it's asking about uh peace, more inner peace maybe.
27:12
>> So it each time it's different, but I find that I love this woman.
27:14
and she's she's called Alana Portterero and she says that we should all pray even even if you don't believe even if you don't have faith she says that even if your prayer is a is more like a pagan prayer she says that's still okay because you are projecting yourself toward towards what's beyond you >> and that there's um there's a way of like getting rid of Beneno of poison >> and I like that I think that we all do carry some sort of poison. We all have questions. We all carry questions.
27:49
We all carry stain, you know.
27:51
So I think that if you can in a way you can get closer to the source, you can get closer to what your center, you can get closer to where you're supposed to be.
28:06
Who who are you supposed to be surrounded or what are you supposed to be around surrounded with?
28:13
Like if you understand that, I think you find more peace and you're happier and your life is just better, you know. >> Yes. Yes.
28:23
>> I got to say something.
28:23
I wish that I could play with you here to the game that they used to play, >> right?
28:33
because I feel like I'm enjoying this conversation so much and you're so good at >> two things could be right and two things can be very wrong I think okay >> I'm sure with it >> I want to play also I would love to play more ball uh games I don't know enough
28:53
play tennis and play I squash you know played >> Did you ever play sports when you were a kid >> at all >> I used to dance >> okay that's that's athletic >> I used to dance and when I was Christina used to uh play soccer. >> Oh, you did? >> Oh, you did?
29:06
>> Did you like it, >> sister? >> Did she beat you?
29:10
>> She was she was amazing.
29:10
She basically was a defenser.
29:12
She was defense >> and I was constantly the one who scored the goal. How do you call it? >> Mhm. Striker. >> Yep. I was striker. She was defense.
29:21
>> Which I think that is very much um [laughter] >> it speaks to your relationship. >> Yeah. >> No, no. She strikes a lot too.
29:27
But I bet but but she defends me so much.
29:29
Yeah, >> I think I have a lot. >> Yeah. Yeah.
29:33
I mean, obviously that support that you have with with family is incredibly important.
29:37
I don't think you can make the decisions that you make, take the risks you take with the confidence that you obviously have without knowing that there are people who are going to keep it very honest with you and have your back.
29:48
>> Yeah, they got my back. My mother got my back.
29:51
She always supported me so much.
29:53
My dad also, like my sister, like I'm so lucky. >> Yeah.
29:57
I have a really supportive family.
29:59
>> You had a fun childhood. A good childhood.
30:00
I think I know how to just uh get in my in my world like basically I would always be in my head and be having fun and just didn't care a lot >> and music played a huge role in you disappearing into that space.
30:17
I think that in a way yes because I would I think I would dissociate a lot >> and I think I would be singing a lot in my head >> like I think there was a lot of spoken melodies would get stuck and I would stay in like repetition with that and I wouldn't even listen what is happening or nothing I would just be here and yeah I think that music music has been always there in a way >> yeah God is a stalker >> [laughter] >> No, but it's true.
30:49
>> That's an impossible exercise. Okay. >> Yeah.
30:51
>> The the first person trying the first person of God in a song, it's an impossible.
30:58
That's why it's already from a sense of humor point of view.
31:05
>> But in title, what the title suggests isn't necessarily what the song says. It it it's not literal.
31:10
It's not like I I don't feel like, you know, you're doing a character assassination on on God's obsessive obsession with humanity or with yourself.
31:19
It it feels far more like a like I'm not even sure who God is sometimes on this record.
31:23
Sometimes I feel like it's in human form.
31:27
>> It's in a relationship.
31:27
Sometimes I think you're referring to yourself like >> I think it's an imperfect uh it's in a imperfect way because it's made from a human and humans.
31:37
>> So whatever it's made human made, it will be imperfect.
31:42
just that it's and it's perfect.
31:42
So yes, there will always be different ways of approaching it because I'm trying it's an exercise, an impossible exercise which is trying to put words and sounds into something that it's much beyond that.
31:57
>> And you said in your post as well that you know like um I again to quote Lind Coleman, I hope I never find the one song that we all have in us, right?
32:03
the idea to um have the space and the runway to create for as long as God will allow you to create.
32:12
>> And yet when I listen to this album, it's almost like um it could be your life's work up to this point.
32:17
It feels so powerful and impactful like almost a desperation to get it all out onto one record.
32:24
Does that does that make sense? >> Go so much into it. >> That's interesting.
32:28
I don't know what I felt though when I was doing it is that I don't know if something like this could be repeated, >> right?
32:36
>> I really had the feeling that this just sometimes come maybe once.
32:44
>> I don't know if something like this could at at this like level of intensity.
32:48
I don't know if I could do it again.
32:51
>> Were you emotional when you finished it or just relieved?
32:53
>> I was about to have a mental breakdown.
32:56
I really was about to because meeting the deadlines there was a point where it was like okay if you really don't turn it in for the vinyl right now >> uh this in next the next week you have to uh release it next year and I was like something in me told me like I really cannot miss this window even if I it's so important the the tempos creativos and I always respect them so I knew this album had to come out in this year. >> Mhm. >> I knew it was now.
33:29
Something in me told me this you cannot uh extend forever like this has to come out a pushed myself so much and no say I I remember shaking all the time like because that's how how much the level of stress was.
33:50
>> What were you What was the last song you were working on when you knew it was time to stop?
33:52
M all of them at the same time. >> Oh wow.
33:56
>> It's always all of it at the same time.
33:58
It's always such a like um process of still simultane everything at the same time.
34:04
Everything happening at the same time.
34:06
And I'm trying to learn how to exist with the this uncertainty and all these things happening at the same time.
34:14
And it felt like I had to abandon it and I had to like just send it to to be pressed in the vinyl.
34:18
And then I changed more things [laughter] for the digital >> and some songs are a little bit different on the vinyl.
34:25
Yeah, cuz it's been process.
34:27
It's been a process through making this this project, different stages of it.
34:32
>> How long did you work with the London Symphony Orchestra for? >> Very little.
34:35
Like maybe 3 days or something. 3 4 days.
34:39
>> You did all of this in three or four days.
34:41
>> Everything was written. Everything was arranged. Everything was done.
34:44
uh with so much like precision >> for us to go there, get there with the lasuras, >> with the scores and be like this is exactly what it needs to happen.
34:56
This is what we how we wanted it to be.
34:59
We're just going to try a couple like in different intentions maybe, you know, more pianisimo or less or we're going to try this and that.
35:07
But we had to be very precise.
35:10
precise. We had to be very much like okay no actually this should be um metallo no actually this should be just a timony doing this or that but it all was written like I remember the hook of portalana it was inspired in a piano
35:24
type of bass and but with a timony and you know we had that very much written and it was just getting to the studio and being like this this is the line this is the melodic line we need boom we record it so super khiko There are songs
35:40
on this record which um if you wanted to take them away and individualize them and present them before the album came out or do videos to that would go okay that that is a pure extension of the rose that we know >> right um but you decided to introduce
35:55
the album with Burkhine which is like >> yes yes >> which I love and and it's it's it's I mean it's so beautiful but so front foot aggressive um it starts aggressive Eve Tuma ends it aggressive The statement is just so powerful. So,
36:10
So, can you speak to the thinking process behind saying, "Hey, I'm back. Eat this."
36:18
[laughter] >> Why not though? Why not?
36:19
I think that maybe it's a piece.
36:21
It's represented representative >> of the the orchestral intention throughout the the album.
36:28
And also, I think that uh I really love when an artist does that to me.
36:33
I really like when an artist slaps me.
36:40
>> It's like it's doing something that I didn't uh maybe doesn't move >> musically that I didn't see coming.
36:49
>> Maybe just just >> provocation to some degree. A conscious provocation. >> Yeah. Just a little. Just a little. Not too much.
36:54
But I feel like the album starts gentle.
36:56
I had the intention of starting in a soft way.
36:58
So I think that when people experience the project and the album, >> they will have that the gentle feeling that I think it's so present throughout the album.
37:09
But then >> a way of saying we are not going to do Moto Mommy again.
37:14
>> That's releasing Bine, >> releasing Burgine first.
37:16
It's releasing that and saying this is what we >> and also it's one of the most that are interven the orchestra.
37:31
So I think that it's interesting that how how much the song is pushed in that one.
37:37
The orchestra song is pushed in that one and it has all the elements.
37:39
I feel like it has it all.
37:41
It has the full orchestra. It has the full choir. It has it all.
37:44
And I think maybe it's the way of saying mommy was minimalist >> few elements. This is maximalism. >> Yes.
37:53
>> Yes. like >> yes yes >> a lot uh you know big and so I think that bine shows that and there's all the elements in it >> named after the club >> in a way it's I think that I've always had a desire to go to that club but I
38:12
never dare to >> say >> but it's always been there and then means ara de la means a group of uh trees in the forest and I feel like we all kind of have these labyrinths in our heads, these forest of thoughts that you can get lost in, >> you know. So, it's it's like Burkai
38:30
So, it's it's like Burkai cannot be that can be your mind. By it's your mind. It's everybody's mind.
38:37
>> The meaning of the meaning of minds now that you've been able to establish with Bork.
38:41
I feel like um you are a child of Bok in some respects.
38:46
>> Mother mother for sure.
38:49
So, now that you know you two have collaborated again and fell in this space to be able to work together again and figure it and and build on this >> um let's talk about >> I love her. It's just the best. It's so inspiring.
39:03
Most the most inspiring human maybe her is me.
39:05
They're my two favorite my mothers and both are so free and I think both are so irreverent.
39:11
both are so like I think it's it's what's most inspiring to me is how a woman can be a human being can be so so free and so amazing and so exciting and so so many layers so contradictory is it's amazing the way they create the way they've been creating and they keep creating and they still have that passion and I saw Patty the other day here in Madrid I saw her performing she was performing horsesh That was insane.
39:42
That was that was a master class.
39:45
Seeing her speed on stage with so much grace and so much like not giving a >> not giving a >> type of energy that I was like, wow. >> Yeah. >> Wow.
40:00
That's how we want to that's how we want to that's how it should always be.
40:06
Just that you don't care.
40:09
reminding yourself to not care.
40:12
I think that's important.
40:12
I think there's a few mantras that I've had through this project.
40:16
Not giving a It's obviously not import. But that's important.
40:21
And then also I had this tea cup of tea. Sorry.
40:24
This m this Mac that I draw with my friend Alexa. And uh I wrote in it.
40:38
It's like right, stretch the the bow >> and uh say the truth.
40:42
And that's what I all was all the time trying to do with this album.
40:47
And I would wake up in the morning, do my tea in it, and I would always read it and I'll be like, okay, that's what we are aiming for today.
40:56
>> If pressure makes diamonds, why aren't we all shiny?
41:00
>> Yes, >> that is a very powerful statement.
41:00
At least what I took from it, especially at the end of that.
41:05
Um, I haven't heard the song because I've only got the digital, but I read the lyrics. Yes. Yes. Yes.
41:12
I'd love to know >> um what it means to you that statement.
41:19
>> I feel like we are all we can all maybe relate in a way in in feeling some sort of pressure.
41:25
At least that's or maybe maybe this that I'm saying it's wrong because maybe not everybody feels like this.
41:31
But a lot of people that I have around, I can tell that in a way we we carry some weight, right?
41:36
And um damn, how contradictory contradictorial >> it could be.
41:43
You know that like that if pressure can make diamonds.
41:49
>> Does this happen to us as humans? Maybe it does.
41:51
Maybe maybe there's some pressure applied from above that maybe brings the best of us out.
42:01
>> Isn't that the story of this album of Lux to some degree?
42:03
You know, the pressure you felt at the end in order the deadlines missed.
42:07
What you set out in front of you to try to achieve with this record, the expanse of it.
42:12
At least to me, I let pressure come to me as if I let that a hand can pressure me until the point where I allow pressure to happen in my life because I know that I'm in this mission of making music and I know that I wanted it.
42:34
I know that this is not as soon as gradu I begged for it 10, 15 years ago. I begged for it. I I wanted it so bad. >> What did you want? >> I wanted this.
42:48
I wanted to be able to be a musician and do it hopefully at the biggest scale possible and make the biggest uh uh projects and Thors, all of it. I wanted it all.
43:02
And I knew that maybe that would be being always in this kind of like Al the of breaking >> and and so that's where I I'm always I'm always in this [gasps] in this about to break about to break uh and I I cannot complain. I can complain. That's not true. I can't complain.
43:27
I can't complain but but I can complain but I can but at the same time I I try to not complain too much because that was my desire.
43:33
I asked [snorts] God to push me and and so that's that's how I feel because that's always maybe brings the best.
43:43
>> How important was the arrival at the end of Mottom?
43:46
Like it worked like >> I'm on the world stage.
43:51
>> People are interested and excited by what I create.
43:53
They seem to like me as a person and who I am.
43:55
How important was getting to that place for you to be able to make this record?
44:00
M >> I guess what I'm asking is to your point you couldn't have done this two albums ago. >> I don't think so. No.
44:06
And also I don't think that I could have sung how I'm singing in this album.
44:13
>> What changed >> the way I'm writing for example it's allowing me to sing in another way also. You cannot rush things.
44:23
And in order for me I in Moto Mommy I remember I wanted already to be singing um pushing the boundaries of my voice how I did in this album but I I couldn't do that yet. Why?
44:34
Because I because I've been thinking about it for these last years and I'm like why I couldn't?
44:38
And it's because the writing I wasn't able to write um in a way that I could allow myself to sing like this.
44:48
You need there has to be an openness >> and a surrender >> that just comes you know that just comes uh like this.
44:58
If you are living like this, if you are allowing it to happen, if you are writing from this place, then you can sing from this place, then you can explain things from this place cuz it's your truth. Cuz it's your truth.
45:15
And maybe my truth in that moment, even if I had the desire that my truth was another one and I was in another point of my life and I was going, it was another journey, another type of journey.
45:27
And I I feel like spirituality has always been around for me in one way or another.
45:31
It's always been around and my connection with God it's always been there.
45:36
>> It feels like when that rash of speed of two three albums and mommy was so stylistic and more materialistic openly materialistic >> more more grounded less searching the verticality.
45:46
It was more about oh the world is >> I'll take that. I'll take this. I'll take this. I'll take this. >> Yes.
45:52
Like the world is my uh I like what Addison says. The world is my oyster. >> [gasps] >> Yes.
45:58
Like, let me let me just, you know, open this. Let me open this. Let me play with this.
46:01
Let me make a jewelry out of this. >> Behind this door. And you'll give me this. I like this. This is >> Yes. Yes. Like kind of like this.
46:06
Kind of like I'm not going to try to talk too much about the contradictions that I might feel about being placed in this this I'm just going to have fun with it and explore it. >> But it is artificial.
46:24
And I don't mean that as a criticism.
46:25
There's a lot of artificiality >> that goes into this world.
46:28
Um, even the idea of going on stage and creating a connection for 2 hours is meaningful for those two hours, but it's the love is different. It's not like love.
46:35
It's like a different love.
46:39
>> I get what you're saying, but also I think that anything that is extreme might be performative.
46:43
So being two hours exposed uh in a stage in front of a thousand people there there's an extreme in it, right?
46:53
So yeah, I feel like I feel like anything these days I've been thinking about extreme femininity, it's performative as much as extreme masculinity.
47:05
And maybe it's just anything that it's pushed to the extreme will always have some sort of like performative.
47:12
>> I think everything's performative, isn't it? To some degree.
47:13
I mean, you know, construction always in in what you how you present yourself to the world, in how you communicate to the others, there's always some sort of construction.
47:26
And maybe an artist does that maybe even to the more extreme, which is, you know, >> and then artists like David Bowie just accepted that.
47:39
They were just like 100% like I don't need to pretend that this is anything but >> shape shifting. >> Yes.
47:47
Or the same with uh Nick Cave which I've been obsessed during making this album.
47:52
I've been listening a lot and I I've been like listening a lot of back a lot of Mozer but also a lot of like u strokes >> Nick the Smiths but I really like Nick Cave because of that acceptance of I can be something that I'm not all the time.
48:15
>> I can sing a murder ballad right in front of you skull.
48:19
>> I can tell the story in all of its layers. Yes, it's theatrical.
48:21
There's so much theatrical and accepting that accepting that you are you're creating a fiction and I love I love that.
48:31
>> I heard you playing a bit of the strokes actually uh in your live stream.
48:36
>> And something about the way Julian sings and you can't quite make out what he's saying, so you have to leave it. >> I think he's so good.
48:41
I I already told him I love his writing.
48:43
He thought that I was messing with him and I was not.
48:49
And I meant it that I really like his writing and I I think he's so unique and I would love one day to write with him cuz I feel like you know when you write with other people they can push you to do things in in different ways and uh and to understand and understanding writing from another point of view and I I'm really interested in always learning.
49:11
>> But that must be open to you now that you spent so much time writing just from your perspective.
49:14
I mean this is this Lux has been an exercise in in pushing yourself as a writer to get to your >> 100%. Yes.
49:21
And I didn't try to write 50 songs. No.
49:24
You know that sometimes I've heard that people they I've never did this in an album of writing 60 songs, 50 songs and then you decide which ones you want to finish.
49:33
It's like >> that's not how I do. That's not what I did.
49:38
I chose to do the pieces that I really wanted to do.
49:43
like let's say an area and then um more a song more inspired in raya which is the sufi woman >> uh so with benerada in Islam >> which song is that >> um >> and there's [laughter] and there's Arabic in it.
50:01
So, you know, like I was like, "Okay, I'm going to do a song like this and a song like this."
50:07
And I focus on this is the idea that I want to do and I execute it.
50:09
And I don't try to make 50 songs. I try to do >> 18.
50:16
>> And you just finish them. >> Yeah. But you finish them. >> Yeah. And finish them. >> You honor them.
50:18
You don't sit down and go, "Okay, I'm uninspired by that."
50:20
It's like, "No, I must push through and see this through." >> Yes. Yes. Exactly.
50:25
Not opening a lot of paths.
50:28
opening this as I was saying before and try to finish.
50:33
>> Can you talk about the jugular for a second because that song is so powerful and so beautiful and the ending is just incredible and it sits so perfectly in the album sequence as well.
50:40
Can you tell us a little bit about the story behind that song? >> Yes.
50:45
Um so this woman Ravia she used to say uh she used to speak and people would write what she was what she was saying and apparently she would talk a lot about the idea of loving God not because trying to get a reward not because trying to do something out of fear.
51:12
It should be just >> and there's also I think um something so beautiful when I've been reading more about Islam Islamica and it's so interesting how this conception of everything connected everything is connected with everything right and I was trying to write uh and express that the best I could in the outro of it when I say grande >> right >> and then and then goes microact macro and the joosition of it, right?
51:47
And the stretch of it and uh that force that tension between both.
51:52
It felt exciting to me how they between lines I could be pushing that stretching that and I think it might be maybe my favorite part.
52:04
Sometimes that feeling of the the grandeo I I list it's something I experienced and I wanted to put in a in a song.
52:14
>> It's clear you have very high observation >> abilities.
52:17
Um even just what you said about Los Angeles and how the trees grow against the pavement.
52:22
I love that because it's so cool.
52:24
It's like you think you won but you didn't.
52:26
We will win >> in the end.
52:31
>> At the end >> we will win. >> Yes.
52:33
And all the the roots you call it >> all the roots. >> Yeah. Yeah.
52:38
It's a it's a very powerful lesson.
52:40
It's such a simple thing.
52:40
Most people step over them or walk their dogs over them.
52:43
But it actually says everything you need to know which is we are temporary. >> Beautiful. Yes.
52:46
And I like to not fight them.
52:49
them. when I walk in LA uh which I I would try to do here and there uh during the week just at least one hour I would just be like at night or in the morning just walking and listening to albums I would listen a lot of albums >> man the total I was trying to study
53:06
classical music right so I would listen a lot of the classics some chopen some bach some mal a lot of maler alenith granados fire lots of back a lot of um the sweets uh played by Paul Pocazal Pocazal really liked and so a lot of
53:28
cello a lot of strings lots of strings and a lot of mariaalas >> amazing >> a lot of mariaalas yeah which is my favorite of all time and so I would remember I would just be walking in the in the street and maybe you could have a little bit of like the eye the roots no
53:44
that like it's annoying but no later I would I be friends with it of the fact that They make me go up and then they make me go down and and that I would see them and I would appreciate how strong they are big and and how amazing is that they just break the pimento. I really
53:57
I really like when things break they break something that it's not supposed to be broken and that's what they do.
54:07
>> I want to talk to you about Memorialia. >> Memorialia. Yes. Yes.
54:09
Carmino wrote though that uh those lyrics.
54:11
though that uh those lyrics. Carmen is a great writer and I love that she used this fo traditional and she shared it with me and she sent that and I was like wait this this is so crazy cuz this is so perfect this is the thing that I'm talking about in this
54:32
album you know and how much you can forget who you were >> and and of who you are >> also remember me in my imperfections how often people say when they're about to pass you know remember me fondly or think fondly of me, remember the good sides of me. It's like I just remember
54:45
It's like I just remember it all like and I like how you sing and there's a moment in that where your voice changes and it becomes a deeper resonant experience.
54:53
>> Yeah, >> it's really like in that moment it's it's just a very powerful change in the way that you perform.
54:58
What inspired you to do that?
55:02
>> These lyrics now after singing so with the chest so open and everything now there's a confessional moment.
55:08
A lot of times memories we there are memories that are real and there are others that are a little bit fabricated >> and there's a vulnerability in it. >> Yeah. I mean, right? Like there's both.
55:22
And maybe I was just like, okay, this is kind of a confession to say that there might be memories of my life that I might be more true than others.
55:31
And maybe sometimes I explain it in a way and sometimes I explain it in another.
55:36
But every time I explain it in that moment, if I'm explaining it, that's that's going to be my truth.
55:41
This is my truth and there's truth in it.
55:43
And um I like how imperfect memory is.
55:47
And yeah, I think that it was just trying to have some dynamics in the scope where it would be a little bit more soft, lower.
55:57
>> I wanted to end with this with this list relic. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> True stories.
56:02
Some >> some >> some >> Okay. >> A lot. >> Okay. >> Maybe a lot. Not. Who knows?
56:07
You >> lost a lot of time in LA. >> Who knows? That's that's fact.
56:12
>> Did you lose your heels in Milan?
56:14
>> Um I think some I've missed because I I Yeah.
56:17
I lose so many things every time I'm traveling in with suitcases.
56:18
I've learned how to travel with just one or two.
56:24
>> I'm trying to be better at it. Yeah. Keep it simple. >> Keep it simple. >> Yeah.
56:27
And then but then I'm if I lose the hill.
56:30
>> Lost my smile in the UK.
56:33
>> [laughter] >> I've I've laughed a lot in UK also the way okay I did it's just that you know here and there it will be rainy >> and I lost my faith in DC >> yeah the sky was born in Buenos Aries >> yes it's the most beautiful sky I've ever seen in my life the the sky is so close the sky is like you can reach it you could like almost like >> feelings like that >> you could eat it you could you could take the clouds and save it with you.
57:03
You could, you know, like the sky is crazy there.
57:05
The colors and the the proximity. >> I cried in Japan. I love Japan. >> Yeah.
57:11
And Japan, Japan put me in my feelings.
57:14
>> Japan is like this justosition between playfulness and like wo park attraction like an amusement park.
57:21
Uh w this that colors so much um stimulation.
57:29
>> But I find it calming for my senses.
57:32
But also that >> coming also to a point where it's >> you're going to you're going to be in touch with that sadness that you didn't want to face or that whatever that nostalgia that whatever it's going to come out.
57:44
You're not going to be able to fight it.
57:46
That's how powerful Japan is.
57:49
>> We are finishing this conversation in Madrid. >> Yeah.
57:52
>> There's a lousy love out there somewhere in Madrid. [laughter] me.
58:01
[gasps] >> We're leaving it. >> I I had Yeah. I had a story. Mhm. A tough one. A tough tough love. >> Yeah.
58:13
>> You are no saint, >> but >> I'm just I'm just a human. I'm just Rosalia. >> But you're blessed.
58:20
But I have so much blessings in my life >> that I that I always that I'm so grateful for. Yeah.