Carmen 1940 It is a very different album from others you have made. Normally your music has a very theatrical tone, very passionate, but this time you went to a much more tender general sound, which I feel is due to the stage of your life in which you are at the moment.
Yes, it is a very different album. I’m going to tell you what’s up with this album: I came to Los Angeles to get pregnant –I had already been trying to get pregnant for a year–, then in. And that the Angels with that idea and then I was very excited but there was also a lot of uncertainty, fear, anxiety, you know? I stayed in an Airbnb –which actually the name of the album is its address–, and there I was, I started writing songs and I wanted to make a guitar and voice album. That is also why the sobriety of the album was also a bit, because I wanted to make an album that would help me spend that time there. I was crazy about hormones and I was also going through some work problems, I had a change of office … There was a lot of chaos at that time, so I started making songs that would slow me down a little, songs only with guitar. Also when I played the radio there was a lot of folk. I don’t know if I brought a folk station, but that music always played. I didn’t even plan. He would pick up the guitar and the song would come out. Then I would record it and put harmonicas on it. Then came the electric guitar. This theatrical thing has a lot to do with the instrumentation that I use. For example in Six There is mariachi, a band and I always have orchestral arrangements, I have brass on the albums, and on this album there is none of that. It is very, very, very simple. It was about making a record with what he had on hand. These songs got me down. Somehow, despite all the uncertainty, the fear, the anguish, the hormones, it was an illusion. The songs caught me between wanting to get pregnant and I got pregnant. Then it is, like in the middle. It’s something I wrote when I was already pregnant.
Right now you are with the single “Something is better.” Tell me a little about that song.
I wrote it when I got to Los Angeles we went to record a video clip of a song by Six which is called “My Beloved.” We went to Malibu that day, and it was like, more than recording a video clip, it was a walk. We took little things to be on the beach, we were listening to music. I listened to The Beatles a lot during all this time in Los Angeles, my all-time favorite band. When I was eighteen I listened to nothing but the Beatles. I felt so good with the beach, the wind and the happiness of being there, of being well, of feeling that, despite everything, this is my decision. I am an adult woman who is looking for motherhood. I have the music, I have a good partner… it is like a celebration of the life that I am having today. Everything can change, but today I feel good, I feel super happy.
This makes perfect sense with the video of the song, in which you are super happy in your car inviting other you and smiling despite the setbacks.
I feel so happy that I feel like fun. I am looking forward to doing teenage hairstyles and I am very willing to celebrate whatever it is. Also for that reason the animations that, by the way, are by Brisa Vega and they were incredible. It is also a bit of how to face life. Although my songs are really super theatrical, dramatic and everything, in real life I am a very positive person, I can be with thousands of problems and I am always with a mentality that everything is going to be fine. I wanted to share with people that it all depends a bit on how we see it. In the video there is a bump in the road; nobody likes potholes.
You wrote Something is better when you had the illusion of getting pregnant. As it became a reality, how did your creative process change? You are a singer-songwriter, but at the same time right now you are creating something huge within yourself.
My ultimate creation. I feel super full of life. I have a lot of song ideas. I have never felt so happy. I feel a happiness that I don’t understand. The first three months were super heavy and I was in absolute rest, and now I am out of that, so I feel very happy, very creative. Super nice things are happening to me with motherhood: getting it after a year, a new album, being on the road. After a year and a half, I love singing with people again. It’s what I’ve done since I was 13 years old. I feel very happy. Even a little ashamed because I think I have never been so happy.
At what point did you realize that you were ready to be a mom?
I don’t think I realized that I was ready. I really didn’t want to. In other words, my mom and I asked me: “Mom, I don’t know.” Motherhood was not in my plans. And suddenly they told me a crazy desire, but it’s not that I feel ready, I mean, I have no idea what I really got into. Suddenly I really wanted to and that’s fine. I believe that it comes to each woman in a different way, for some it may never come. Others may have always wanted it. For me it was quite a surprise. Suddenly I felt it.
Right now you are nominated for four Latin Grammys. What does this whole prize system mean to you?
It makes me very happy, to be honest. It is important if you are in the music industry. It generates more work for the whole crew, for all the people who worked on this. For example, on this album I have a special collaboration that excites me a lot, which is with the Oaxacan women’s band, Viento Florido, and I think: they are part of this album. If the album wins or is nominated, it is an award to all the people who did it, because it is not just my album. We are many people who work on it. In other words, I personally am very excited, but I think of the whole team and I am even more excited and I appreciate it.