Empress Of Is Making ‘Sad Songs You Can Shake Ass To’
“I feel like it’s been my gift as an artist.”
A few things to love about Los Angeles: low-rider cars, roadside taco stands, and, come awards season, the omnipresent “For Your Consideration” billboards that pitch a show, album, or movie to win their respective trophies. Nobody knows this better than lifelong L.A. resident Lorely Rodriguez, also known as Empress Of. The indie-pop darling’s latest record, For Your Consideration, is her take on what it means to have your full self considered in all of its guises. Songs like “What Type of Girl Am I?” and “Lorelei” ask self-reflexive questions begging for answers; others, like “Fácil” and “Cura,” look to the dance floor, relying on Latin pop beats courtesy of some of the most creative producers in underground electronic music right now. The almost genreless record is so wildly catchy and remarkable in scope — all of the percussion on the record is actually Rodriguez’s voice — that Switched On Pop host Nate Sloan and producer Reanna Cruz had to consider For Your Consideration with Empress Of herself in the City of Angels. As she told us about the new album, “I’m just trying to make music that sounds like me.”
Nate Sloan: Let’s start with “Lorelei,” one of the album’s most personal tracks. What does this song mean to you?
I have been trying to write this song for years. My name is Lorely, and I always get called Lorelei. And the story of this song is kind of like my “Jolene.” I had a thing with someone, and he had a girlfriend. And I, like, woke up in his house one day and found a woman’s shoe.
N.S.: Damn.
Yeah, and I was like, “Okay, whose shoe is this?” And I always thought about how she must have felt. It’s not great knowing that someone else is going through that. So I just wanted to write that song.
N.S.: When you listen to “Lorelei,” it’s bright, it’s poppy, it’s catchy. How did you choose to match that bright sound with those heavier lyrics?
I feel like it’s been my gift as an artist to make sad songs that you can shake ass to. You know? I’m Your Empress Of also has lots of dance songs that you can move to. One of my icons, Robyn, also makes sad songs. Sad songs on the dance floor!
Reanna Cruz: You worked with a lot of underground producers on this record: Umru on “Fácil” and “Sucio,” Nick León on “Cura.” How did those abrasive electronic sounds find their way into the recording process?
Thank you, DMs — I A&R’d by DMs. I’m a fan, and I always look up who works on records. I followed Umru and Nick León for years and wanted to work with them. I think that they’re both doing interesting things in the dance space. They DJ so much, and I think both of them approach it in different ways. Nick makes future dance reggaeton. And I just was like, I can’t do that. But I would love to be influenced by that, because a lot of that music is rhythmically driven but has amazing top lines and little melodies happening everywhere. He’s a G.
R.C.: You said you feel like you can’t make future dance reggaeton. Why?
I feel like I’m really good at other things, you know? But I also feel like my career can go in so many ways because I’m sort of genreless. So why not be influenced by an artist like that? Or Umru, who has made so much music in the PC Music school. But I don’t make PC-sounding music. I get in with Umru, and I’m like, “Let’s write an Empress Of song.” That’s the beauty of collaboration.
N.S.: On one of the tracks that Reanna just mentioned, “Cura,” you sing in both English and Spanish. There are other tracks on the album, like “Feminine,” when you sing completely in Spanish. On previous albums, you’ve had some Spanish-language tracks, but this album feels like a real mix. What inspired you to make a pivot toward a more multilingual sound?
Making four albums. And I have been making Spanglish music since the beginning of my career, but I have never made so much music in Spanish. I just found it to be the story of this record in a way. And also Miami! I was in Miami with Nick León and I was very inspired. I still say things the way I would say them as Empress Of in English or Spanish, but part of the inspiration is just being in a city where — like in L.A., everyone speaks Spanish, but Miami, it’s even in the clubs. I was, like, breathing it.
Another thing: This record is so vocally influenced. So a lot of the drums on the record and on “Cura” are actually my voice. I started this record with just beatboxing and microphones. “Fácil” is so much my voice — even the bass is my voice.
R.C.: You can’t even tell.
Yeah, you can’t, but maybe it’s subliminal.
N.S.: It makes me think of the opening track, “For Your Consideration.” The first thing you hear there is breathing in this percussive drum pattern.
I was like, “Just turn the mic on and I’m just gonna go, [Making mouth noises]!” And then chopping it up and pitching it until it sounds like a beat. I was very inspired by Björk’s Medulla and Caroline Shaw, who’s a composer. I just love the voice.
N.S.: You talked about Miami being an influence on this record. What about the influence of Los Angeles? The cover of this album features you straddling a shooting star with L.A. laid out behind you.
L.A. is always an inspiration, and I wanted to show it in a different way on this record. The record is called For Your Consideration, and I saw those billboards my whole life. That phrase has such a meaning in the entertainment industry. I have also been called underrated so much — you know, it’s like ten years of doing this, four records. And I was just like, you know what? I don’t care. I’m going to choose myself. I just wanted to be tongue in cheek and have a little fun.
My initial idea was to be painted gold because I was like, For your consideration, I’ll be a statue. But when I talked to the photographer, she was like, “I think we need to go more camp with it.” She sent me amazing references of campaigns from the early 2000s and late ’90s, and she was like, “You have to be laughing and you have to be throwing your head back. Because you’re on a shooting star over the backdrop of L.A. and your album’s called For Your Consideration!”
N.S.: I feel like when I’m driving around L.A. when awards season comes around, and I see all those billboards, I’m just gonna hear that song in my head now.
I love claiming that term. And it’s like, even if I didn’t get any notoriety or awards, I just feel like I’m already myself. My dream during that season is to have a “For Your Consideration” For Your Consideration billboard.
N.S. Is there a track on this album that you had to really shape to get it to the place you wanted it to be?
“For Your Consideration.” I don’t know what you would call that. Just pop? There’s so many things. The rhythm, the breaths. I was listening to Britney Spears’s “How I Roll.” You would never be like, “Oh, Caroline Shaw and Britney Spears’s ‘How I Roll’ are the recipes for a song.” But yes!
R.C.: Your 2020 album, I’m Your Empress Of, and its title track feel like a thesis statement for you and your artistry. So what is Empress Of to you now, Lorely?
It is demanding whatever I am in the moment. The joke of my career has been “Empress of what?” Everywhere I go. And I’m like, I really stick to my name and what an empress is and what that tarot card stands for. That divine feminine energy and the space to create and to mother a project.
Related