Motomami can mean whatever anyone wants, and I like it that way. For me motomami is a feminine energy. I find it very interesting that one launches a concept and people start saying ‘a motomami is such’, ‘a motomami is such’. It’s like people are part of a creation, what that means. They are accomplices.
Is the Rosalía from ‘Motomami’ more enjoyable and less political than the one from ‘El mal Quiero’?
There is room for a sense of humor in this project, whereas in the previous ones there was no room. But I’m not particularly comfortable thinking of my music as a political place.
In other words: ‘El mal Quiero’ was an album with a feminist discourse and, in this sense, a political one.
I did ‘El mal Quiero’ out of a need, out of a drive. Then it is evident that when one shares his music, others rule, and I will not be the one to contradict them. It is interesting to see how each one makes the music his own.
More than as bravado I see it as self-affirmation
‘Motomami’ brims with bravado, in line with the code started by rap and that reaches urban music.
It’s true, although I see it more as a reaffirmation than as bragging: I know who I am, I know myself and I’m not afraid to share it. ‘Motomami’ is an attempt to take a photograph of these last three years. Of how I think, how I feel and the experiences I have lived. And in the end, that theme of reaffirmation is just as present as spirituality, transformation, sexuality, lack of love, misunderstanding, being exposed. The album is a ‘recull’ of experiences and reflections based on the vital turn that ‘El mal Quiero’ entailed.
She seems seduced not only by Latin music, but by the universe of Latin music.
Well, I was also very inspired by Japanese culture. This project has been done in Barcelona, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Los Angeles, Miami, New York… And I think all of that has affected the record. The fact that it has been recorded in different parts of the world makes it what it is and how it sounds. The fact that there is ‘Spanglish’ is a consequence of having been away from home for two years, from my family, from the place where I grew up. More English than Spanish was spoken in many places where I recorded, and in the end all that affects my pencil. I’ve been writing a lot for a long time, producing a lot and working a lot in the studio in a different context, and all of that in the end shows in my music.
Have you ever felt like an impostor for using ‘Spanglish’?
Above all, my work is honest. I mean: no. I’ve been speaking more English than Spanish for the last two years, so it’s inevitable that my pencil will get smeared with it.
Without my commitment and my sacrifice, ‘Motomami’ would not exist
In ‘El mal querer’ he had a collaborator in the production, while in ‘Motomami’ he has the strip. How have you achieved a certain sound homogeneity?
I committed to a palette at the sound level. I decided that there would be no vocal harmonies, whereas in ‘El mal Quiero’ there were many. I decided that I would not use guitars, only synths, that if there were drums they would be aggressive and in the foreground, and that the voice would always be in the foreground throughout the entire album, as a guide. There’s a lot of vocal production work, I’ve tried to push the boundaries of how to produce my voice. Asymmetric structures also abound.
And very serious bass.
As well. There is something in the sub-bass that comforts me. I am very grateful to the collaborators, but without the decision of three years ago that I am going to carry out this project, I am going to make this album; without the commitment, without the 16 hours that I spend each day in front of a computer producing, without having written alone at home and in the studio, without my sacrifice, ‘Motomami’ would not exist.
For almost everything he has published since ‘El mal Quiero’, there was the perception that he had gone completely to reggaeton and the surrounding area. But in ‘Motomami’ there is bolero, flamenco, copla and baladones in the tradition of the great romantic song.
‘Hentai’ came out on Wednesday and is already part of that universe of ballads. It has gone like this and some surprise will cause the content.
It is still uncomfortable for a woman to express herself freely in the sexual field
Was it your intention with ‘Hentai’ to subvert the ballad idea with sexually explicit lyrics?
Yes. Throughout the project I have considered what is subversive and what is not. In ‘Hentai’, without a doubt, the context of the musical arrangement makes the lyrics more radical. It has a lot to do with the context that something is considered subversive or not. And also with who says or does. I was surprised that 15 seconds of ‘Hentai’ did what it did. He shows that it is still uncomfortable for a woman to express herself freely in the sexual field.
In ‘Hentai’ nine music composers are credited. How do you make a song with 18 hands?
I credit all gods because that’s how confident I am as a musician. I don’t mind that someone has only commented on a single chord; if he has served me or has made me think, just for that reason that person already has to be credited in the song. The issue of credits is complicated. Just because there is a man in the credits list it will be assumed that the woman has done less. It is so. And no, I have captained all ‘Motomami’. There are women who, as a counterweight, do not shine light on their collaborators. In my case, I’m not going to stop doing the credits according to my ethics, even if that takes away my focus as a producer and composer.
Are you a believer? Because God appears quite a few times in ‘Motomami’.
Yes of course. My grandmother is a Christian and since I was little I went to mass with her. His is the voice memo at the end of ‘G3 N15’.
I haven’t heard ‘El madrileño’, by C. Tangana
Has your creativity been conditioned by being a global artist on which there are therefore enormous sales expectations?
I have always tried to concentrate on continuing to make music from the same place I was when I started making records. I have not attached any importance to that kind of thinking. I want to keep having fun, I want to keep growing as a musician, I want to keep pushing myself, and then whatever God wants will happen. The only thing I know for sure about my music is that I want it to be exciting.
What does the Julio Iglesias of the 1970s, quoted in ‘Chicken teriyaki’, mean to you?
It is an icon. That line occurred to me while I was eating in a hotel in New York when I remembered a photo my sister sent me in which Julio appears eating a potato omelet and Kentucky Fried Chicken on her jet! It fascinates me and I piss myself laughing in the best way with that image. That a legend, like the Naomi Campbell of the 90s.
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Do you think ‘El madrileño’, by C. Tangana, is a conservative album?
I haven’t heard it.