FEATURE: Spotlight: Empress Of — Music Musings & Such

FEATURE:

Spotlight

Empress Of

___________

I like to have a mix of artists on Spotlight…

between those who are just coming through and others that are more established. Empress Of (Lorely Rodriguez) definitely slots into the latter category. She has released three albums – 2015’s Me; Us of 2018 and last year’s I’m Your Empress Of -, in addition to E.P.s and a mixtape. I will finish by focusing on her most-recent album. I want to start a bit further back. Before introducing the first interview, here is some background information about the Los Angeles-born artist:

“Rodriguez initially gained attention in 2012 for anonymously releasing a series of one minute-long demos (via YouTube) prefaced only by a solid color entitled "Colorminutes".Her first 7" single, "Champagne" was released soon after on November 5, 2012 through a limited run via No Recordings. Lorely's stage name was inspired by a tarot card reading she did with a friend: "The first card he pulled out was an Empress card and I was like, 'It's me, I am Empress.' [...] the Empress card is connected to fertility and mothering and strength. It's kind of nice to have those feelings."

On April 2, 2013, her bilingual four-track EP Systems was released via Double Denim and Terrible Records in the UK and North America respectively.[5] Since the release of her EP, she's showcased at SXSW, Iceland Airwaves and Pitchfork's Summer Music Festival[6] and toured as a support act with the likes of Jamie Lidell, Jungle, Kimbra and Florence and the Machine.

"Water Water", the first single off her debut full-length Me was released on April 14, 2015. She has also released a Spanish-language version of the track, "Agua Agua" "so that [her] mother listens [to her] music." Rodriguez's debut album Me, which she self-produced and recorded in Mexico was released on September 11, 2015 via XL Recordings and Terrible”.

Before coming up to date, the first interview I want to bring in is from IMPOSE. In it, Empress Of discusses the route to her debut album. We get to learn more about a fascinating artist:

“When Rodriguez was growing up, her father, also a musician, attempted to teach her Beatles songs on the family piano. The uninterested teen resisted, preferring a more autonomous musical education online. When the family got internet, the first website Rodriguez visited was www.christinaaguilera.com. Later, upon discovering Limewire and Napster, thirteen-year-old Rodriguez set out to find the weirdest stuff she could find. She was quickly drawn to Björk, whose swan dress was being broadcast on MTV and VH1, channels Rodriguez and her brothers watched after school. In particular, Rodriguez became obsessed with the Icelandic singer’s big band experiments, like 1995’s “It’s Oh So Quiet.” She researched the original composers and fell down a jazz rabbit hole. After being a competitive jazz singer in high school, Rodriguez enrolled at Boston’s Berklee College of Music to study jazz. But having received her first laptop when she was seventeen, Rodriguez became more interested in making beats. She switched into the college’s sound engineering program. After graduating in 2011, Rodriguez moved to Brooklyn to perform with her pals in Boston psych-shredder outfit Celestial Shore.

Once in New York, Rodriguez began to perform under her new solo monniker, Empress Of. The name originated after a tarot reading by a friend, in which he immediately pulled the Empress card, one that is associated with nature, fertility, femininity, and abundance. Rodriguez later wrote a song inspired by the experience, “Hat Trick.” She decided against calling herself simply “Empress,” saying, “That sounded so cocky. I’m confident most of the time, but not cocky.”

In late 2012, Empress Of released her first recordings, Colorminutes, a song-a-day demo project wherein she releases short, 1-minute snippets of songs straight to YouTube, each assigned a specific color. The process was meant to refine her creative discipline and technical skills. When discussing Colorminutes and her overall practice, Rodriguez feels strongly that true passions lead to intellectualizing: “When you obsess over something there has to be a point where it becomes academic. Like, if you’re obsessed with DJing, then you’re going to be obsessed with all the techniques and the history and records or record collecting,” she explains. “When I first got into production, it got really nerdy for a second. Like how to make certain sounds and how to mix a little bit and then it crosses over into the creative side.” Colorminutes was an opportunity to flex, as she says, the intersections of her nerdy tendencies and her creative side. The project’s minimal information was meant to let the songs speak for themselves. Rodriguez notes that although she would like to return to these songs at some point, particularly her personal favorite, the turquoise-green #2, she cannot because her production and songwriting styles have evolved so intensely. “I would never write that experience like that now,” she says, of the time in her life channeled into that song. “It would be much more of a story. I think developing as a songwriter, you learn how to tell stories so people walk away with your experiences.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Miriam Marlene Waldner for Wonderland.

“I love this record. I love playing this record. I own up to this record 100%. I put everything I could possibly put into it,” she explains. Me’s success, like its content, ultimately depends on the energy Rodriguez pours into it, and for the past two years, she has been relentlessly devoted.

At this mid-summer meet up, Rodriguez tells me more about writing her record. To start, when she arrived in Mexico, Rodriguez broke down. The opportunity to spend a full month alone in a foreign place with the sole purpose of writing her debut album was a surreal opportunity. However, it was difficult to write with the pressure of fulfilling a contract rather than just for herself. “I felt so obligated to come up with content every day. I felt like I was writing against the clock. You can’t force yourself to be creative. I worked on it every day. Some days it was garbage, some days it was amazing, but I mostly drove myself crazy.” While making the album’s biggest hurdle may have been isolation and personal high expectations, these same conditions were the most motivating. “Driving myself crazy is what made those songs happen,” she says. “I spent so much time by myself because I was far from anything. A lot of the songs are about me digging in my head.”

“The biggest message in this record is that it’s hard to be comfortable with yourself,” she continues. “It’s hard to love yourself. When you’re alone for so long you have to love yourself, otherwise you go crazy. I didn’t love myself. When you’re in New York there are so many distractions, there are so many people you can go to and forget that you have these insecurities”.

In this 2019 interview with Wonderland., there are observations regarding her two albums (to that point) and the difference between them. 2018’s Us is a fascinating album and a step on from her debut:

“This element of collaborating and bringing people together has been the main difference between Rodriguez’s two records, both within the songwriting sphere and in her general life. While Me was written entirely by herself in the secluded village of Valle de Bravo in Mexico, she wanted to surround herself with people for her second, moving from New York back to her hometown of LA to be closer to her family and recruiting outside producers and writers such as Dev Hynes and Jim-E Stack to help create her vision. “I wanted to be around other people. I didn’t want to be alone,” she explains. “After working on my first album all alone — and that being great — where I am in my life is wanting to share experiences. I want to know about your experiences. I don’t want to be so selfish, you know?” Covering life experiences that everyone goes through, at its core Us explores what brings people together. Throughout the record, Rodriguez weaves between stories that deal with depression, love, heartbreak, jealousy and friendship that she’s witnessed in her circle of family and friends. She’s done it in a way that has resonated with everyone who’s listened – a fact realised by the 99+ Instagram DM notifications on Rodriguez’s phone from fans bursting with stories of how the record has touched them.

“I’ve been fortunate enough to have people reach out to me and tell me how this album makes them feel,” she smiles. “I love when I listen to an album and it becomes a part of a time and a place in my life and it’s like something that was missing. If I can give you something that was missing, that makes you understand yourself better, then I would love that. Listen to the record, find something in it that makes you feel like you understand yourself. It doesn’t always have to be about me. There are autobiographical songs, but these are things that everyone experiences within their lives.” It seems that becoming a #relatable pop icon will only be a matter of time for Rodriguez, but what does she think? “Basically, I’m just a passive-aggressive Libra who wants everybody to get along,” she laughs. Already iconic”.

Skipping to her recent album, and a lot more people turned their heads the way of Empress Of. Not that her previous work flew under the radar. What I mean is that I’m Your Empress Of is, to me, her most confident and incredible album. I am keen to bring together a couple of positive reviews for that album. Before then, this interview from PAPER, we discover more about the time between 2018’s Us and how Empress Of has progressed as an artist:

“Empress Of came down to earth and embraced pop on her indelible sophomore effort Us — one of 2018's best albums. Since then, Rodriguez has thrived in the space opened up by the breakdown between mainstream and alternative music, shared by folks like FKA Twigs, Caroline Polachek, Dev Hynes, Clairo and Solange. Besides Rogers, Rodriguez has opened for Lizzo, Hynes' Blood Orange and Mura Masa, and featured on songs with Khalid and MØ. "On Me, I realized I could write pop music and I loved it," she says. "I loved going into rooms with artists that are so different from me and learning from them."

I'm Your Empress Of takes a different direction. While Me was warm, tender and serene, I'm Your Empress Of is a little bit fucked up. "I wanted this record to sound broken," says Rodriguez.

"[While writing Us] I was in a really settled place," she continues. She had just moved to Los Angeles and carved out a block of time to write her sophomore album. Meanwhile, I'm Your Empress Of came together on the road, in the midst of a tour and painful breakup. "I was physically and emotionally unsettled. I was traveling all around the world. A lot of those beats I made on airplanes or in greenrooms our tour buses. There was this driving chaotic energy to the production." Us took her longer than she'd hoped to write. Rodriguez finds "settledness" creatively challenging, so it will tell you something about her emotional state that the new record wrote itself: "I came home for a few months, and I was like 'woah, something's happening to me.' I felt so creative."

Rodriguez co-produced both of her last two albums with Jim-E Stack (Charli XCX, Perfume Genius, HAIM). Us favored frothy synths and percussion with naked vocals firmly in the foreground. I'm Your Empress Of meanwhile, is a maze of clashing symbols, jagged club beats and knotted melodies. She opts for blurry vocal effects on songs like "Not The One," "Awful" and "Love Is a Drug," which turn her lyrics into beat-keeping chants, in contrast to of Us's detail-heavy storytelling. There's a few moments of the blissed out euphoria that fans have come to expect from Empress Of — like the chorus of "U Give It Up" — but overall, I'm Your Empress Of is a darker, more challenging listen.

Empress Of has always been of the music-as-therapy school of songwriting. But on I'm Your Empress Of, writing was more of a life-line than ever. "I'm really bad at expressing myself in relationships and with family," says Rodriguez. "I was really heartbroken when I was on tour and I didn't process it until I went home and started writing." During one songwriting session, Rodriguez realized she needed to take her mental health more seriously. "I need some help, I need some help, I need myself, I need myself," she sings on "Awful," which also contains the excellent gut-punching rhyme, "I get off on being awful to myself." "I realized I needed to talk to someone after writing that song," she says.

The album charts the full life and death of a relationship, from the thrill of letting someone call you "baby," to screaming matches, to apologies like "an anthology of empty words," to self-medication with casual sex, to begging for another chance, to wishing desperately to move on. With this story arc in mind, what of the album's deceptively straightforward title? Whose Empress Of, exactly?

The album offers two different answers. On the opener and title track, Rodriguez sings the lyric "I'm your Empress Of," over and over again on a helium plinking keyboard. Her mother Reina, who returns as a character through spoken interludes across the album, speaks the line "I only have one girl/ But the only girl is like having thousands of girls/ Because look how she reproduces herself in each bunch of you." On her album cover, Rodriguez wears a multicolored bell skirt and bandeau woven from hundreds of shiny, plasticky purple and pink ribbons and bows like a human present. "When a song is done, it's not mine anymore, it's the listener's. I love that my songs, that came from a place of pain, that pain becomes”.

I am going to wrap up soon. Before I do, I think it is worth highlighting what critics made of I’m Your Empress Of. It was one of last year’s best albums. I think that Empress Of is going to go on and be a major star of the future! The Line of Best Fit were keen to lend their praise:

“Title track “I’m Your Empress Of” begins the record with Rodriguez repeating the title over a salsa piano riff she learned from her dad at the age of eight. The rhythm gives way to her mother’s voice, reminiscing about what it was like to come to America, learn a whole new language and find her way in this world. Then she turns to Lorely herself.

It often feels like a gimmick, getting a non-musical family member involved, but here it sets out the stall for what I’m Your Empress Of will become. There’s a pride in her mother’s voice as she declares “Look how many times she’s represented herself in each one of you”. What follows is an Empress Of that feels rejuvenated and connected; spurred on by a need to process a breakup but also to celebrate everything she stands for.

Taking back control by writing and producing most of the album, she sounds fully in tune with every facet of her identity. The Chicago house inspired wonky pop is back. The Latin vibes are back. Most importantly, her way with words is back (“Void”’s opening line “Every apology got worse / An anthology of empty words” is a particularly delightful one).

Us, while full of great tunes, seemed to lose what made Me so special. The cavalcade of producers and writers stripped it of the first album’s magic, as though each song was written for anyone to take on. It’s something all the more apparent when it’s sandwiched between two albums so full of personality since I’m Your Empress Of has that magic back too. By trusting in her ideas and taking on this quest by herself, Empress Of has imbued this record with life.

From the sharp synth stabs of “Bit Of Rain” to the distorted reflections of album closer “Awful”, all led by Rodriguez’s fantastic vocals, I’m Your Empress Of is a funky, generous and vibrant record”.

To finish off, this review from Pitchfork is an interesting read. Never ones to provide too much positivity, they do highlight the merits of I’m Your Empress Of:

“While poring over I’m Your Empress Of’s lyrics suggests an author with fresh wounds, the album is also a showcase for Rodriguez’s production abilities at this new peak. The lead single, “Give Me Another Chance,” is a rush of Eurodance, and in the balearic-inspired mid-tempo “Void,” Rodriguez Auto-Tunes her vocals to suggest weightlessness, her ennui dusted with clouds of powdered sugar. “What’s The Point,” is shot through with pitter-patters of drum’n’bass percussion, and you can imagine the song’s thick, creeping bass whipping crowds into a frenzy at a festival (failing that in the foreseeable future, your living room speakers will do the trick). In the hands of a less sure-handed artist the whiplash between emotional extremes could be jarring, but Rodriguez makes it feel delightfully dizzying. What is life in the digital age if not a constant pinball between joy and despair?

One of Rodriguez’s earliest ambitions as Empress Of was to be “weird.” The first music she shared was a homemade series of wonky electronic oddities titled Color Minutes, but by the time of her second album, she was drawing from the high gloss hip-pop of Ariana Grande. Yet the creative furrow she finds on I’m Your Empress Of is enriched by Rodriguez looking closer to home, an impulse literalized with the inclusion of spoken-word passages delivered by her mom, Reina, a first-generation immigrant from Honduras. Reina’s unguided reflections move from proud messages of survival to love and femininity, providing a guiding light while foregrounding the album as in conversation with shared Latinx immigrant histories. “It was not easy speaking English,” Reina says on the album intro, after Rodriguez plays a bright salsa piano line that she learned from her father. “It was not easy having to learn it,” continues Reina. “But I got it.”

I’m Your Empress Of vibrates with the contradictions that one person can contain: how mourning the loss of a partner is bound up with anger, the fatigue of resilience, and the pleasures to be found in escaping it all, if only for one lusty night. With unexpected production and left-field samples, Rodriguez’s album is powered by a heady rawness that bucks the trend for theatrical concepts in today’s electronic pop nonconformists, producing epiphanies like hot stones spat from a fire. You could say it is as addictive as modern love”.

If you have not followed Empress Of, then go and check her out and listen to her music. She released a new song recently (see below). I hope we get more music from her very soon. On 30th April, Rodriguez/Empress Of announced that she was partnering with an Ad Council-backed national campaign called Sound It Out Together. The campaign is designed to highlight youth mental-health and create an outlet for adolescent school children of colour; to express their emotions and experiences through music. She is an inspiring human and a remarkable artist!. When it comes to to the amazing Empress Of, I think that there is…