Natalia Lafourcade and Leon Bridges on Songwriting, Death, and Time Travel

M
CO Studios is a quiet, woodsy space tucked away in the leafy neighborhood of Anzures in Mexico City. With its sky-high ceilings and the bursting trees on the patio, it’s a site that reflects the beauty of the Mexican capital, and singers Leon Bridges and Natalia Lafourcade are immediately at peace when they arrive here one bright afternoon in August.

It could be because both of them have been finding endless inspiration in Mexico City. Lafourcade was born here, and in the past several years, she’s made albums like the two-part Musas  projects and 2022’s De Todas las Flores, digging into folk sounds from her hometown and the rest of Latin America. Bridges is a more recent arrival; after releasing three acclaimed, soul– and R&B-inspired LPs, he found himself in need of a change of scenery. The Fort Worth, Texas, native decided to come to Mexico, where he recorded this year’s Leon.

Though they celebrate heritage in different ways, each of their journeys has taken them here, where they are meeting for the first time. Sitting in the studio, they start off talking about their shared love of mezcal. From there, they quickly realize how many similarities they share, from their passion for classic eras to their love of guitars. By the end, they’ve both shared some of their most intimate songs, singing to each other. Bridges shyly dives into “Blue Mesas,” Lafourcade’s favorite song of his, and Lafourcade ends their conversation with a stunning rendition of the Mexican classic “Cucurrucucú Paloma.”

When she’s finished, Bridges stares in awe. “How do you even do that with your voice?” he says. “That is definitely channeling some ancestors.”

Bridges: So, mezcal over tequila.

Lafourcade: Mezcal over tequila, yeah. For me, too.

Bridges: That’s my go-to. I love mezcal on the rocks, a little Tajín on the rim. I guess some people don’t like the smokiness of it.

Lafourcade: I love it. I am Mexican and very intense — intensa — but I don’t know why, with tequila, I just never got the same relationship as mezcal. Mezcal is a good companion. When did you drink it the first time? Was it in Mexico or was it outside?

Bridges: I mean, I’m from Texas. We like to drink mezcal out there.

Lafourcade: That’s good. Well, I am so happy to be here with you.

Bridges: This is an honor for me as well. Man, it’s kind of surreal that I’ve been doing this for 10 years.

Lafourcade: How old are you?

Bridges: [Laughs.] Thirty-five.

Lafourcade: Thirty-five? I thought you were older! You seem to be an old soul. How do you feel after these 10 years? Like, now you’re about to release another album. This is going to be your fourth.

Bridges: Yeah, my fourth one. My way into it was kind of fortuitous. I never expected for my music to connect. And there was a moment when I was working on this album called Coming Home, and we put it out on SoundCloud, and it resonated with a lot of people.

Lafourcade: Do you think your relationship with music has changed — from the very first one to this one, your fourth album?

Bridges: There’s moments where I feel like I’m not able to keep up with how fast things are going. Ultimately, I want to be somewhat of a recluse and chill. What inspired you to pick up a guitar?

Lafourcade: I was 14 years old. We had a robbery in the house, so my mother and I, we went to this other apartment that my aunt was lending to us. I was very curious to see what was inside this closet of hers. I opened it, and there was a nylon guitar with three strings. And I took it. I didn’t know how to play, of course; I just started trying things. I still have so much to learn. How about you?

Bridges: So, when I was in college, I initially pursued dance. I wanted to be a choreographer. I started out doing hip-hop choreography and then learned ballet and jazz and modern dance. In my downtime, I met these musicians who would get together and do these little jam sessions. And doing that sparked my love for playing guitar. One of my friends showed me, like, A minor and E minor, and I would just kind of strum and try to write songs. That blues sound … Is there a certain era you try to implement in your music? When I listen to your songs, it gives me this 1940s, Fifties kind of vibe.

Lafourcade: For me too. I think that’s something we both could probably have in common: the love for music from the past. I don’t know why, I just feel like I am not from this era. I like the sound, I like the spirit, I like the classic thing.

Bridges: I love it. It’s very transcendent.

Lafourcade: I always try to hit the soul and the spirit of whatever I do. But I had a moment in my career when I was trying to be more modern or maybe more trendy. You know what I mean? To be more like what everyone else was doing. And then I learned that I wasn’t really happy trying that way. The last two years for me has been more about “No, this is what I like.” And I will keep it like that — more loyal to those intuitions.

Bridges: I have a similar kind of experience. When I first started, I was immediately pigeonholed. I think that inspired me to redefine and, I guess, reinvent myself. I wanted to showcase some of my influences other than soul music — I grew up on Nineties and 2000s R&B. But I noticed some of that stuff didn’t really translate well live, which inspired me to take it back to that simplicity on my album Leon. This is all about getting back to my roots. It’s a reflection of my home.

Lafourcade: Were you having this feeling of going into your roots, your culture, from the very, very beginning?

Bridges: Yeah. I think it was inevitable. My father, he would play Stevie Wonder, and my mother, she was really into Sade. When I picked up a guitar, I saw there was a missing hole in music. I really love soul music, and I wanted to honor my heritage by making that kind of music, but telling my own stories.

Lafourcade: Your music feels, from the beginning to now, very coherent. I can see the influences and the way you’re grabbing new things. But everything seems to be in a line. How did you do that? How did you find that sound?

Bridges: My whole thing was, I wanted to push the envelope, but the only way that it would connect is just keeping the foundation soulful. So all my albums kind of have a different outfit.

Lafourcade: How do you feel about the next one coming?

Bridges: Man, I’m stoked. I am a little nervous, but I’m pretty confident that this one is going to connect. We were working out in L.A., in Nashville, and got kind of burnt out on those places. That’s what inspired us to come to Mexico City to finish it. And shout-out to the studio El Desierto for housing the music. I think it was a perfect place to really bring this home.

Lafourcade: I worked there! Two albums I was working on there, called Musas, and they had a lot to do with traditional music from Mexico and Latin America. That [project] was something that helped me define my own way, my own path in music. The first album I released, I was 18 years old, and I can see how I had, like, 10 years, probably even more, of doing a lot of things but not really carving my personal route. That’s hard to find. When you’re maybe more in your 25, 27, 30 years, for me, it was like, “This is it. This is what I feel more comfortable with.” And I was doing that album in El Desierto.

I had to listen to my intuition. The landscape is oversaturated with music that isn’t uplifting, and that’s what inspired me to stick with it. —Leon Bridges

Bridges: I’m honored to share the same space with you. We started working on some of these songs, like, five years ago, and I kind of put everything on the back burner because I felt that the songs were too vulnerable. I had to listen to my intuition. Like, “This is what the world needs.” I feel like the landscape is oversaturated with music that isn’t uplifting, and that’s what inspired me to stick with it. When we came out to Mexico, it was more so about reimagining the production, just getting into a zone that sonically felt good. I love it because it’s kind of a gumbo of sounds, but still embodies that Texas vibe, embodies Fort Worth.

Lafourcade: I have gone through similar things. Now, I am working on an album that has music from the past, like two or three songs that didn’t fit into music that I was recording two years ago on De Todas las Flores. I was like, “No, this is not the mood of this album.”

Bridges: That’s the crazy part about the process. You write so many songs and then having to condense everything down to a 10-song album. It’s kind of tough. I just saw this common thread of home in a lot of the songs.

Lafourcade: How do you write?

Bridges: Man, for me, it starts with me just strumming on guitar, and I’ll try to sing a melody, kind of incoherently. A lot of times, the concept can be an afterthought, or there’s moments where I go into it knowing exactly what I want to write about. A lot of these stories on this album are personal to me, but I love that it encompasses the human experience. It invokes a sense of nostalgia and a vibe that I think a lot of people are going to be able to relate to.

Lafourcade: How do you feel about that relationship with your audience and the way you give them music?

Bridges: I love the whole process, but being on a stage is my sanctuary. I love seeing this collective effervescence in the crowd. Everybody singing the songs word for word is such a powerful moment and such a blessing to experience. You said you’ve been doing this for 20 years?

Lafourcade: Almost 25 years. This year, I turn into my forties, so for me, it has been a period of counting a lot of things in my life — you know, going to the past, to my memories, to all the things that I feel grateful for because I can do what I love. We’re very fortunate to be able to have a song that comes from who knows where. And you have this connection, this complicity with people. I found it so special. For me, it’s like a ritual. Ceremonial. Maybe this happened to you, but for me, there have been so many times where I am just about to say “I’m not doing this anymore. I can’t keep going. This is just too much.” But then I realize that music is a gift that I have been given. Is that how you see it?

Bridges: Mm-hmm.

Lafourcade: And the possibility to make this important connection to people, in people’s lives. And then you see the things that are happening in the world, and you feel like, “I wish I could give something to this crazy world we live in.”

Bridges: In your whole time of doing it, what is the thing you’re most proud of?

Lafourcade: I feel very proud about the relationship with music that I have because she’s a lot like my mother, like my teacher. It’s like a service and a passion. That’s my light. Every album is a different story for me. I can’t treat every project the same way. And music shows me that. It always pushes me to jump into another place, into the uncomfortableness of not knowing how it’s going to be. Also, the fact that I am Mexican, and I can go to many countries and sing the songs that I love from my roots, from my culture. And they always say things like, “Thank you for bringing a part of Mexico.” How about you?

Bridges: I’ve had so many milestones. I guess I’m just humbled by the impact my music has had on my community and even outside of that. Like, where I’m from in Fort Worth, hip-hop music is the thing. And from what I’ve heard from other people, of just how inspiring it was to them to see a young Black dude playing guitar, doing something different — it’s so gratifying. What’s your songwriting process?

Lafourcade: Different ways. Sometimes I feel very inspired. I can wake up and I have an idea, and it seems to be very clear, and it comes very fast. It’s magic. Then there’s moments I feel like “I want to write about this specific thing. But I don’t know how to sing about this.” Recently, I love just writing without rhyming.

Bridges: I love that. Sometimes sticking to a formula, trying to rhyme, can be limiting.

Lafourcade: There is this beautiful song you have at the end of your last album, “Blue Mesas.” How did that song come to you?

Bridges: That song is about how you can still feel isolated and lonely, being around people that you love. And it was really healing just getting it out to the world. During that process, we were throwing around this thing, “samurai cowboy.” It’s kind of hard to explain, but it has that, pulling from that well.

Lafourcade: That’s one of my favorites of yours. When I listen to it, I feel like it comes from a different place. 

Bridges: Yeah, it has that vibe that obviously was just written in the stars. It’s always just been there. [Sings] “I won’t ever get used …”

Lafourcade: Yeah, sing a little.

Bridges: [Sings “Blue Mesas.”]

Lafourcade: Beautiful. I love that song. Why did you put that song at the end and not in the middle or the beginning?

I wanted to say thanks to death, because I am alive. You learn so many things when death comes and knocks at your door.
—Natalia Lafourcade

Bridges: Historically, in my albums, the last song is the one that’s the most introspective and spiritual. Like, my first album, it was “River.” Gold-Diggers Sound, “Blue Mesas.” I’ve really been digging your song — how do you pronounce it? — “Muerte.”

Lafourcade: I wanted to write about this part of the healing process that we all have, whenever you’re ending a cycle. There may be something in your life that will make huge changes in your soul and your heart and will make you grow. So I wanted to say thanks to death, because I am alive. Thanks to struggling, thanks going to this dark side — I mean, you need to explore this part of yourself in order to be in the light. Instead of saying like, “I’m so scared of death.” You learn so many things when death comes and knocks at your door. Do you know David Byrne?

Bridges: From Talking Heads? Totally.

Lafourcade: The day I released the album, De Todas las Flores, I was able to play this live in Carnegie Hall. Imagine, I was so nervous because it was the very, very first show, new band. And David Byrne came onstage. He made a version in English of the lyrics, and he was coming to the stage and he was just praying, giving thanks to death. It was a very, very beautiful moment. Actually, we’re releasing this album live from this concert. Do you imagine yourself doing albums, like, a lot of times after now? 

Bridges: Music is the thing for now. But one of the coolest things is recently starting a foundation in my city. This is a full-circle moment of giving back to the city that shaped me.

Lafourcade: I think that’s beautiful, when you get to that point. Ah, bring me the guitar, I want to sing you something in Spanish.

Bridges: Are you going to play, too?

Lafourcade: I’m going to play for you! [Plays “Cucurrucucú Paloma.”]

Bridges: Wow. That was beautiful.