The esoteric inspiration for Isabella Lovestory’s newest document, “Vanity,” comes from an unlikely supply: the folkloric vampire.
“I feel like I am the vampire,” she mentioned between bites of tajadas, or fried plantains, contained in the Rincon Hondureño restaurant in Los Angeles. “And I’m chasing a beautiful woman, which is me.”
Legend has it that vampires can’t see themselves within the mirror, so they continue to be unaware of their very own picture; on account of that constraint, they spend their total lives in pursuit of magnificence. This “fantastical, mythical” creature is one thing of an obsession for the Honduran experimental pop artist, and this trope is subliminally captured all through the 13 tracks on “Vanity,” which drops June 27.
“Vanity” is Isabella’s second full-length document in three years, following her dirty, neoperreo debut, “Amor Hardcore.” However that document operated with textures greatest present in darkish basements and sweaty alleyways; this one is brighter, crafted from a temper board of mid-2000s membership hits and John Waters motion pictures. 4-on-the-floor 808 beats give solution to booming tresillo rhythms, and at occasions, on songs like “Bling,” Isabella poses the query: What if “The Fame”-era Woman Gaga was Latina? It’s equal elements electroclash and reggaeton, a post-genre mix that sounds beamed in from a dystopian future.
“It’s like a poisonous lollipop,” she mentioned. “I’m always interested in contrast and tension, and I never want to be just one thing. I always wanna have that contrast.”
It’s additionally deeply descriptive, with a becoming deal with the self’s visage. On the title observe, Isabella likens herself to “una botella de perfume / un objeto hecho de espuma,” that can be a “fantasía que no puedo controlar.” Different songs, just like the phonk music-adjacent “Perfecta” and “Gorgeous,” communicate of being excellent like a model and “elegante como una esmeralda andante.” The lyrics are ripped out of a dream journal, conjured from evocative reminiscences of affection and lust.
By all accounts, Isabella Lovestory, born Isabella Rodríguez Rivera, is her personal self-sustaining pop star. Born in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, she immigrated to america as a teen, attending highschool in Virginia earlier than relocating to Montreal at 17. It provides her music a sophisticated high quality, mirrored in multilingual tracks like “Eurotrash,” which Rivera sings in English, Spanish and French.
This, alongside along with her practice-based arts schooling, injects a punk ethos into her artistry and makes her — in her phrases — “scrappy as hell.”
After I requested Rivera what she is chargeable for in her camp, she laughed and mentioned, “Everything.” That features all image-related sides of her artistry, from making her album art work to enhancing her movies.
And in that lies one other fascinating pressure: the concept of self-sustaining pop movie star, straddling these two worlds of DIY inventiveness and image-heavy publicity. It’s one thing she likens, at a number of factors, to efficiency artwork, this concept of projecting ahead somebody you’re not.
“Isabella Lovestory is a very complex persona,” Rivera mentioned. “I think it’s more like an expression of my inner world … like I have a little projector and Isabella Lovestory’s a hologram of what goes on inside my heart.”
This interview has been edited for size and readability.
The storytelling in your albums is immersive. How do you’re feeling like “Vanity” is increasing the Isabella Lovestory cinematic universe? For this one, I’m exhibiting a extra weak aspect and a softer aspect that I haven’t proven earlier than. The final document, “Amor Hardcore,” was extra reggaeton, and I used to be experimenting with what I may do with that sound. It had a extra old-school vibe, I used to be like a rebellious-teenager-badass-b—. And this one, I’m nonetheless a badass b—. [Laughs] However I feel I’m exhibiting extra of my sweeter aspect, my extra weak, dreamier aspect. It’s extra of a really deep look into the mirror.
Is that the thesis assertion for the document?I feel so. It’s kinda like “Alice in Wonderland” in that method. The place you fall right into a rabbit gap, and also you enter a mirror, and there’s no method out. It’s psychedelic. You could have totally different layers and totally different sounds, nevertheless it’s all a part of one tunnel.
Is that what you’re attempting to say in regards to the idea of vainness? That it’s a rabbit gap? Precisely. I feel it’s a unending evil cycle, nevertheless it’s additionally very lovely. Sins are a part of our expertise as individuals on this world. I’m ridiculing it in a method, the place I let it take over me, however I additionally take it over.
Being a pop star is so new to me, ? I turned a public particular person, and having my face be my device and my cash maker is loopy to me. It’s me coping with that: the darkness of magnificence and the darkness of a saturated world of photographs that now we have to consistently take care of.
What’s on the temper board for “Vanity”? What had been you listening to and fascinated by? I used to be additionally watching a number of Fellini, John Waters and Outdated Hollywood motion pictures. I really like absurd humor and the absurdity in gluttony and wonder, making enjoyable of the stereotypes that we stay in. That is what I’m doing with my venture. I’m actually into fairy tales, however twisted ones, like [in the movie] “Donkey Skin.” It’s absurd, very darkish, nevertheless it appears so shiny and colourful and so childlike.
I felt the fairy story in “Fresa Metal.” That tune begins with this thunderstorm soundscape, after which you’ve a “Dracula”-esque synthesizer are available. It feels such as you’re organising a damsel-in-distress narrative. “Fresa Metal” was impressed by this dream I had, the place there was this document label constructing. And this pop star that was working on the label. However the constructing was constructed on an underground basement the place vampires lived, after which they seize the pop star, and so they kidnap her and make her work underground.
I’m not a really logical particular person, I at all times failed [at] math, so I simply suppose in photographs on a regular basis. My final purpose is to be a director. After I began making music, it was so thrilling to me as a result of I may make my cowl artwork, I may direct my very own movies. I may do all my costumes. Finally, I wish to make a film, after which do the rating, after which star in it.
Do you’re feeling such as you had been treading new sonic floor on “Vanity” or simply increasing upon what you had been doing on “Amor Hardcore”?It’s undoubtedly going into new territories. I used to be scared to indicate softer sides, as a result of individuals love aggression; it’s what’s popping proper now. Like Charli [XCX] or Nettspend, it’s simply actually, actually loud. So I used to be frightened of doing one thing that’s totally different. However on the identical time, it challenged me to go deeper. I like it to be actually colourful in something I do, and likewise for it to really feel like a curler coaster, which is what I really like about Ok-pop.
One thing I discover fascinating about your initiatives is that all of them have intro tracks. What’s the significance of an intro observe to you? It’s an ode to that custom in old-school reggaeton. The intro observe is pure experimentation, as a result of you possibly can have freedom in doing one thing that stands alone and isn’t essentially a observe. You’ll be able to simply give the album that cherry on high.
After I hearken to old-school reggaeton albums, that they had a lot enjoyable as a result of it was such a brand new style again then. Particularly within the early 2000s. That they had that rawness of doing one thing for enjoyable, and a number of curiosity. They didn’t have guidelines on methods to make one thing.
I can see that. “Vanity Intro” has this sonic palette the place you’re organising a basic pop document, after which a reggaeton beat comes into the again half, straight smacking issues collectively.Like, you hear [sound effects like] a fragrance bottle. You hear a automobile screeching. It means that you can have somewhat mini-movie in your head, which is one thing tremendous necessary to me in all of the songs: for everyone to create their very own little dreamscape of what’s taking place.
In “Eurotrash,” you utilize a number of voices and singing types. How do you strategy your vocals? On this tune particularly, there’s each this seductive whisper and this exaggerated, bimbo breathiness. What I really like about old-school reggaeton, once more, is that they at all times had these duos: [one with] the raspier, extra masculine voice, and [the other with] the high-pitched singing voice. I like to create totally different characters in a tune, and I really like distinction in each single method.
You’ve crafted a novel place for your self in each pop and Latin music. Do you’re feeling like you’ve contemporaries or imitators?The curse of doing one thing for the primary time, or doing one thing you don’t see taking place, is that individuals will take these very genuine features of the underground and curate them with a artistic group to make them mainstream years later.
Particularly as a Honduran immigrant, I really feel like there’s a number of erasure. There’s not a number of Honduran individuals doing stuff, as a result of it’s a f— corrupt authorities in Honduras, and folks endure, the artwork suffers. There’s lovely expertise, there’s lovely music, it’s a lovely nation. However I feel in shifting round a lot, I by no means actually had a spot the place I felt supported by a neighborhood in that method.
I created my very own neighborhood myself via the web, or turning into pals with the outcasts and the underground. It’s like a blessing and a curse, ? However it’s my life, and I feel I’ll at all times be the underground, quirked-up shawty for positive.
