[music]

Kousha Navidar: This is All Of It on WNYC. I'm Kousha Navidar, in for Alison Stewart. She's out on medical leave after having successful brain surgery, and we can't wait for her to come back. Here's what's coming up on the show this week. Tomorrow, as the Supreme Court hears a case about the FDA's approval of an abortion drug, we'll talk about what's at stake. Top Chef kicks off its 21st season this week.

I am a longtime watcher, and Judge Gail Simmons has been with the show since the beginning. She'll be my guest in studio on Wednesday. Thursday will mark baseball's opening day with author Kevin Baker, whose new book describes how the game originated in New York. That's in the future. Now let's get this hour started with Empress Of.

[music]

Kousha Navidar: Last Friday, the LA-based artist, Lorely Rodriguez, her artist name is Empress Of, released her new album. It's called For Your Consideration. Here's a little bit of the title track.

[MUSIC - Empress Of: For Your Consideration]

Lights, camera, action, close up

The moment's on you

Cut to your decision

For Your Consideration

For Your Consideration

You sent me photos from the hemisphere

You said, “I think the world of you, wish you were here"

Kousha Navidar: This is Empress Of's fourth album. It's inspired by a breakup, and it examines the bizarreness of Hollywood, the seduction of fame, but also full of hot songs with driving beats. It's going to make you want to move, going to make you feel good. For Your Consideration is out now. Heads up, Empress Of will be playing some live shows in New York on May 22nd, 24th, and 25th at Elsewhere in Brooklyn. With me now in studio for a listening party is Empress Of, Lorely Rodriguez. Hi.

Lorely Rodriguez: Hi. I'm so excited to be here. Thank you for having me.

Kousha Navidar: We're so excited to have you. For Your Consideration, that title feels like there's a lot of layers there. Unpack that title a little bit. Where does it come from? What does it mean in relation to the album?

Lorely Rodriguez: I'm from Los Angeles. I have seen FYC billboards all over LA my whole life. I just thought it was such a bold title for a record in the music industry, For Your Consideration and just taking that term and defining it in my own terms.

Kousha Navidar: What does that term actually mean? You see it on billboards [unintelligible 00:02:52] -

Lorely Rodriguez: Yes.

Kousha Navidar: -for the Oscars, are you saying?

Lorely Rodriguez: Oscars, Grammys, Tonys, Emmys, For Your Consideration. It's tied to award season. Everyone thinks of FYC like your FYC campaign for your short film, your feature film, your Grammy consideration. It brings to the mind accolades and achievements. I don't know, I feel like I'm poking fun at it and saying like, "I already have them."

[laughter]

Lorely Rodriguez: Like "I've given them to myself."

Kousha Navidar: Oh, given-- That's interesting is-

Lorely Rodriguez: Yes, yes, yes.

Kousha Navidar: -I was going to say. Given them to yourself, unpack that a little bit. You don't need it, you're going to define your own success?

Lorely Rodriguez: Yes, I love this album. I love this album. I am very proud of it. I just have been like, "Whatever happens with it, I already feel like I've achieved the success I have by making this album." I'm on a star, over the back line of LA, as an album cover. The backside is me completely painted in gold, like a statue. It's cheeky. It's fun. I'm having fun. I don't know. I love it. I love it.

Kousha Navidar: When you think about the bizarreness of Hollywood, what specifically about the culture of Hollywood, of being famous in LA, were you trying to poke fun or were you trying to examine?

Lorely Rodriguez: Well, one of the images from my album is me dancing on a billboard of my own album cover. [chuckles] That is absurd in itself, the zooming in of your career, the outlandishness of your career, the being a star. I'm on a star on the album cover, and I'm just like--

Kousha Navidar: On the nose. [chuckles]

Lorely Rodriguez: Yes, on the nose. There's even been press that's like, "Empress Of knows she's a star. Do you?" I just think it's fun. I think it's funny. This is my fourth album. I have been various stages of myself throughout these records. I think this is one where, I don't know, I'm vibrant. I feel vibrant.

Kousha Navidar: Would you say this is your star era that you're going through right now?

[laughter]

Lorely Rodriguez: I feel like a star. I don't know. I'm just like, "Whatever people interpret it, interpret it as you will, but I feel like a star."

Kousha Navidar: You sound like a star when you're on this album. You said that you grew up in LA, right?

Lorely Rodriguez: Yes, yes.

Kousha Navidar: You've been exposed to this culture for quite some time. Do you feel like you've gotten, or have been at risk of getting lost in that culture? Has it been hard to preserve your sense of self before you became self-proclaimed, but also everyone is proclaiming star? How's that been like for you?

Lorely Rodriguez: The word "star" is so funny as well. Yes, I don't know. Being in LA and, like I said, seeing these images everywhere and seeing this culture, I don't feel lost in it because I just feel like music is the driving force. I love making music. When I'm at a red carpet or event like that, I'm always just like, "Oh, this is part of the job, but it is not the job. The job is music." When I get on stage and I sing in front of people, I'm like, "That's my job."

Kousha Navidar: Did you always know that you wanted to be a musician?

Lorely Rodriguez: There was never another career. Yes, I just started making music when I was 21, 22, and I don't know, I haven't stopped making it. I haven't stopped making music as Empress Of.

Kousha Navidar: What's some part of life outside of the industry of Hollywood that you miss or that you can't get as much of as before you were a famous artist?

Lorely Rodriguez: Well, I've never considered myself a famous artist until you just said that. [laughs]

Kousha Navidar: Yes, on behalf of us.

Lorely Rodriguez: Keeping with the theme of the record.

Kousha Navidar: Yes, exactly. Leaning into it.

Lorely Rodriguez: Just acknowledging that the criticism, whether it's good or bad, will be out there. Before, when you're like an indie darling, and you have the pitchforks of the world that are giving you these accolades and stuff, it feels safe. When you get into the pop sphere, the wider sphere of the world, that's something that I've noticed is just like, "Okay, cool. Now this is just reaching a wider audience and the floodgates are open. [chuckles]

Kousha Navidar: Magnifying glass, too, right?

Lorely Rodriguez: Yes. It's like with the good and the bad. I'm learning to take that with a grain of salt.

Kousha Navidar: Absolutely, and what a wonderful connection to the title of the album, actually, For Your Consideration.

Lorely Rodriguez: For Your Consideration. Yes, it's hilarious.

Kousha Navidar: Yes, because the magnifying glass is the consideration, big time.

Lorely Rodriguez: Yes, for sure.

Kousha Navidar: Well, let's listen to a song from that album.

Lorely Rodriguez: I would love to.

Kousha Navidar: We're going to play the first minute or so of Lorelei. What's the story of how the song came together?

Lorely Rodriguez: My name is Lorely, and everyone calls me Lorelei, and I was just poking fun at it not being my name. There is another story behind the song, a love story, but I don't know if I should get into it right now.

Kousha Navidar: Well, your call. We can listen to the album right now.

Lorely Rodriguez: I'll try to tell it really quickly. Basically, some guy was cheating on his girlfriend with me. I didn't know this. I wrote the-- It's like my Jolene. I wrote the song as a perspective of the girlfriend and she's like, "Does she know how much she makes me cry? Lorelei," but I also use that as an opportunity to poke fun at my name.

Kousha Navidar: Let's listen to it.

Lorely Rodriguez: Yes, let's listen to it.

[MUSIC - Lorely Rodriguez: Lorelei]

I wanna be sweet

But there's too many scars

I wanna love you free

But I can't see the stars

All I taste is bitter

When you kiss my lips

I know you've been with her

'Cause your mouth's still red

What's her name, what's her name? (All the girls)

Does she know how much

She made me cry?

Lorelei, Lorelei

What's her name? (All the girls)

Does she know how much

She made me cry?

Lorelei, Lorelei

I wanna believe

That someonе wasn't here

I smell it on thе sheets

Found earrings I don't wear

Kousha Navidar: A lot of the songs on this album, this one included, they've got driving beats to them. They're club-esque rhythms you might call it. We just heard on that song. When you first get an idea for a song, do you usually start with a beat and go from there or do you begin with the idea and find the beat, both? Either?

Lorely Rodriguez: I am a producer. I have made a lot of my albums. I co-produced this with other collaborators. I really wanted to start this record beatboxing. Every session I did on this record, I was like, "Cool, can you just turn the mic on and I'll just try using my voice as a drum?" It's like, mMy voice is the snare, and the high hats, the kick. You can hear lots of breaths very [unintelligible 00:10:44] and that's great for radio.

Kousha Navidar: WNYC.

Lorely Rodriguez: Yes, WNYC. You can hear a lot of that in the driving force is actually my voice on this record. I think that's really special. I love it.

Kousha Navidar: Well, it sounds like you start with the beat then because you think about the percussion. You beatbox, I'm guessing.

Lorely Rodriguez: Yes, but it can also just be like the song For Your Consideration. It's just lots of uhs, It could be anything. There's another song on the record where I just started going, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, that we looped that over and over again. Making electronic music is so fun like that. The rules are no rules.

Kousha Navidar: Well, as a producer, we have producers in the studio with us right now as well. There is this sense of possibility, this expansiveness. It's whatever you can think of, you can find a way to create it. I think it's so interesting that your voice often stands as the piece of that. Not necessarily just the melody, but all of the other elements too. It's whatever you can think of bringing it into reality.

Lorely Rodriguez: Absolutely. I have always said that no one has my voice. That's what makes being a singer and a songwriter special is, "cool, no one is going to sound like me." I wanted to use that to the extreme.

Kousha Navidar: How did you find your own voice? What was that like in your musical journey?

Lorely Rodriguez: Well for records in, it's a constant exploration. I think this record is even pushing more explorative than the other ones with that theme of my voice, the breath, the beats, and everything. I feel like an empress of record is going to sound like an empress of record. It's going to feel a little dreamy, mystical, make you dance. I don't know.

Kousha Navidar: It follows those themes, dreamy, mystical, makes you dance. For Your Consideration, what makes it different? What's maybe the creative risk that you wanted to try on this record?

Lorely Rodriguez: The creative risk. Really leaning into collaborators and instead of a producer, being executive producer and just steering the ship. I feel songwriting, there's a lot of cool lyrics on this record that I don't know, lean, very pop in a way that it's like my take on a pop song.

Kousha Navidar: The lyrics is a great point to bring up because with the lyrics as well, it's bilingual. You go back and forth between Spanish and English. You are first-generation Honduran American. Is that right? Is it a conscious choice when you want a lyric to be delivered in Spanish versus English, or does the difference really mean nothing to you? It's whatever comes up organically. How does that work?

Lorely Rodriguez: The music leads whatever fits into the beat, the melody, the song, the music leads. I don't know, I've been making music, bilingual music since the beginning of my career, and it feels very natural to me.

Kousha Navidar: Well, let's listen to an example of that on the album. Let's listen to Feminine.

[MUSIC - Lorely Rodriguez: Feminine]

Quiero un hombre femenine

Un latine

Que baile pa' mi

Y solo pa' mí

Me cocine

Me desfile

Me lleve al cine

Lo quiero pa' mi

Y solo pa' miNo te necesito a tí

Ni tú a mí

Tú y yo somos iguales

Perra de pedigree

Gimme a treat

Me haces perder los modalesFree

Me

Estoy loca en este party

Dream

Scream

Sabes que yo soy tu daddyQuiero un hombre femenine

Un latine

Que baile pa' mi

Y solo pa' mí

Me cocine

Me desfile

Kousha Navidar: If you're just joining us, we're talking to Lorely who performs as Empress Of, on the new album For Your Consideration. We just heard a clip from the song Feminine and Spanish is a gendered language. Please correct me about this if I'm missing the mark, but I noticed that in the song you use words like Latin instead of Latino or Latina. As a natural Spanish speaker, can you speak more about how you think about trying to use more inclusive language?

Lorely Rodriguez: That was something I did with this song. Femenine is the gender-neutral of feminine in Spanish. Feminina or feminino. I wanted to do feminine. Latine is gender neutral. [Spanish Language] That's like me saying, "I want Latinx." I want ungendered. I notice that your Spanish is great. You were singing along to the song.

Kousha Navidar: Oh, thank you. Well, coming from you, that's really nice.

Lorely Rodriguez: Thanks. I'm just trying to use the language that I use every day with my friends in the song.

Kousha Navidar: Well, we got to take a quick break, but we want to come right back after this. We're talking to Lorely who performs as Empress Of, her new album For Your Consideration more after this.

[music]

Kousha Navidar: This is All Of It on WNYC. I'm Kousha Navidar. Here in the studio with us is Lorely Rodriguez, aka Empress Of. Her new album just released last Friday. It's called For Your Consideration. We're doing a listening party. Let's talk about your song with Muna because you talked about how this album is slightly different from your previous ones because of a lot of collabs. They're obviously a huge band right now. They're signed to Phoebe Bridgers label. How did you first connect with them and what do you like about their sound?

Lorely Rodriguez: I'm going to preface by saying Muna, greatest man in the world. We've been mutual admirers of each other online for years. It starts with a follow, then it's a DM. It's, "Oh my God, I love this. I love this, I love this." Then I was working on this album and I sent them the record, and What's Love stood out to them, and they recorded on it. I received the email back and screamed in my car.

Kousha Navidar: What do you like about their sound? You say that they're the best band in the world. Where did that come from?

Lorely Rodriguez: Katie has such a beautiful voice, and I say it over and over again and I won't stop saying it. They're just pro. They are so pro. They recorded their own vocals. They did their own production on their vocals, those harmonizer layers. They sent me back a finished product. I was like, "Oh, they mean business." I admire that so much in another artist. I aspire to be that when someone asks me to work on a song. I love their music.

Kousha Navidar: It's the producer in you, right?

Lorely Rodriguez: Yes. Those are the things that I'm like, "Ooh. Oh, this is next level." I love Rina, Rina Sawayama, who I also worked with on the record the same, the same level. It's such a high level of professionality that I'm just singing aside. These are incredible singers.

Kousha Navidar: Well, let's listen to a little bit of it. You mentioned the name of the song that you did. It's What's Love. It's the final track of the album. Let's listen to a clip of it. Here's What's Love.

[MUSIC - Lorely Rodriguez: What's Love]

Take my breath away

Made me feel safe

Made me escape

Made me wanna caveI wasn't trying

I wasn't trying to love from the startIf a love can't make you

Break you

Shape you

Then what's love? Oh

If a love can't make you

Break you

Shape you

Then what's love? Oh

Kousha Navidar: Lorely, you've said that this song is a breakup song. How did writing this song in the album as a whole help you process post-breakup?

Lorely Rodriguez: I feel like people really love my breakup songs. I have another song called When I'm With Him, and people are always like, "Your song got me through my breakup. Your song got me through this." It's such an amazing thing to hear about your music. This song is different because it's the first song I've written where I'm not crying. I've told people that it's my Thank U, Next. I'm like, "Oh, thanks."

Kousha Navidar: The Ariana Grande.

Lorely Rodriguez: The Ariana Grande song. I'm like, "Thanks for the heartbreak. I wouldn't have had it any other way." I don't know if that is me as a more therapized person. I'm like, "Oh, I needed to go through that." That comes out in a song. I say it's a breakup song, but it's not broken, it's thank you.

Kousha Navidar: Next.

Lorely Rodriguez: Why not thank you next?

Kousha Navidar: You've also collaborated with Rina Sawayama, which you had mentioned, for a song in this album, it's called Kiss Me. Before we listen to it, why did you want Rina on the song?

Lorely Rodriguez: This song is such a sweet, nostalgic pop song, hence, I had so many references when I wrote it of Britney and Dream, which is an older band. I was just like, "Who could meet me there? Who had the delivery?" I was on tour with Rina. I opened for her in Europe and in the US, and we became friends. She just supports me. I sent her that, I was like, "Can you, please, think about singing on this?" She's like, "Of course. Send me vocals," and I, again, screamed at my car because I listen to my demos in my car.

Kousha Navidar: Let's listen to a quick clip of it. This is Kiss Me.

[MUSIC- Empress Of - Kiss Me ft. Rina Sawayama]

If you send a flare, then I'll be there

I'll follow you right up the stairs

Just touch my lips and pull my hair

To come with you, I'd go anywhere, oh

Kiss me, kiss me slowly, slowly

Whisper, whisper, show me

Show me

That I'm your one and only

Kiss me, kiss me slowly, slowly

Whisper, whisper, show me

Show me

That I'm your one and only

Kiss me, kiss me slowly, slowly

Whisper, whisper, show me

Show me

That I'm your one and only

Kousha Navidar: You have a few live shows already scheduled this spring. You'll be back to play three shows in New York on May 22nd, 24th, and 25th and elsewhere in Brooklyn. What are you looking forward to most about playing this album live for an audience?

Lorely Rodriguez: Oh, my God, I'm so excited to play. I think that all the shows are sold out, but maybe, wink, wink, I'll announce another show for this album in New York. That playing records live is a joy because I spent two years making this album. You spend that time in a studio, and there's no real life. It doesn't come to life until you get on stage. You see the fans singing the lyrics back to you, and you see the sweat, you see the dance, you see the moves. It's so fun.

Kousha Navidar: It'll be super exciting to get to see that. I'm sure you're really looking forward to it.

Lorely Rodriguez: Yes, I'm so excited.

Kousha Navidar: Let's go out on one more song. I've been speaking to Lorely Rodriguez, who performs as Empress Of. Her new album is called For Your Consideration. Lorely, thank you so much for joining us.

Lorely Rodriguez: Thank you so much for having me.

Interviewer: Absolutely. Here it is, Baby Boy.

[MUSIC- Empress Of: Baby Boy]

You're not my love for life

Love for now, baby boy (Hmm)

Want you to fly me high

Love me down, baby boy

I know you're not the one

You're just a little fun

You're not my everything

But that doesn't mean

That you can't fly me high

Love me down, baby boy. 

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