Spanish Singer Travis Birds on Her New Album ‘Perro Deseo,’ Taking Inspiration From Quentin Tarantino

Singer Travis Birds is likely one of the most recognizable and promising voices on the Spanish music scene. Self-taught, Birds started enjoying and composing on the age 19 when she was struck by a deep existential disaster, what she now calls “my tunnel with out mild.”

Her first album took place by way of a mixture of crowdfunding, word-of-mouth buzz and a collection of blissful, likelihood encounters, laying the groundwork for her breakthrough worldwide success together with her second album Coyotes, whose title music was picked for the soundtrack of hit Spanish collection El embarcadero (The Purple Pier) from Cash Heist creator Alex Pina.

Her single 19 dias y 500 noches [19 days and 500 nights] a canopy of the well-known ballad by legendary Twentieth-century Spanish singer-songwriter Joaquim Sabina, a part of an album of Sabina covers, topped the Spanish charts, exceeding Birds’ wildest expectations.

Her stage title, Travis, is a tip of the hat to Robert De Niro’s character, Travis Bickle in Matin Scorcese’s Taxi Driver. She picked the surname Birds, she says, as a result of as a toddler she was at all times instructed she had “birds in her head.”

Birds’ new album, Perro Deseo, dropped on Oct. 6. She spoke to THR Roma as she was getting ready for her upcoming tour to market it, discussing her inspirations, collaborations and why her new album comprises 11 songs.

Travis, let’s begin by speaking concerning the album. When did you understand what course you’d take with Perro Deseo?

It was in the course of the Mosquito Coast tour for my earlier file that I spotted I wished to discover one thing totally different. We began brainstorming by contemplating totally different genres of music: Bob Marley, Amy Winehouse, and Nancy Sinatra; but in addition films and books that had been a giant affect for me. As for texts, we selected Federico Garcia Lorca and different older-generation poets. Central and South American literature from the Siglo del Oro, magic realism. After we centered on what we wished to do, I began writing lyrics and bass music, and from there we moved on to harmonies and vocals. This course of begins from scratch, all of us can contribute to the music till it’s completed.

You stated we, all of us. There’s a sense of neighborhood on this album. Individuals like Diego Herrera collaborated, even on the movies. You possibly can really feel that there’s a group, concepts circulation from one thoughts to a different. While you work with Tato Latorre and Paco Salazar in music productions, what’s your methodology?

Properly, I at all times attempt to develop the thought with everybody, I by no means need my thought to be simply that. I actually admire the worth and knowledge of the folks I work with. Tato Latorre and Paco Salazar are a part of my little household. The chemistry between us could be very pure and that’s what makes our productions so particular. They’re good on the subject of discovering the proper sounds and musical textures that complement my lyrics. They’re at all times prepared to experiment and convey new concepts to the desk. Their consideration to element actually elevates our songs. We work as a group. We talk about concepts and typically even problem our inventive limits to give you one thing new and thrilling.

This occurred, for instance, with “Peligro,” a music with a really Italian look and sound and really related to Italian-American cinema, just like the soundtracks of Quentin Tarantino’s movies, which had already impressed the video clip of my music “Coyotes” up to now. Hazard was essential in setting the tempo for this album, as a result of it’s very totally different, you already know? It was a collaborative course of the place we relied loads on our particular person expertise and the magic that occurs when all of the inventive minds come collectively. I’m grateful to have had the chance to collaborate with them.

Your creative evolution from 10 years in the past is clear within the music movies. The clip for “Cada Minuto” is the one a type of you made for this album that claims within the description, “Authentic thought by Travis Birds.” How did the thought come about?

The reality is that with “Cada Minuto” the very first thing I considered was this “movie” impressed just a little bit by [Call Me By Your Name director Luca] Guadagnino and different films, let’s say, after which writing the music with this story in thoughts. Though clearly then the video will not be in a position to symbolize what was imagined as a result of the creativeness can comprise something. [Director] Joaquín Luna did a spectacular job and we had been in a position to inform the story of this relationship that begins together with her hitchhiking and really quickly turns into an obsession.
Obsession was essential to convey as a result of every music on the album has a predominant emotion fueled by need: Fame = “A Veces Sueño”; Possession = “Cada Minuto”; Freedom = “Mis Aires”; Ecstasy = “Peligro”; Inspiration = “Perro Deseo”; Lust = “Cuando Satán vino a verme”; Magic = “Grillos”; Motion = “Una romántica”; Love = “Urgente”; Loneliness = “Oruga”; and Magnificence = “Canción del Valle.”

Why 11 songs?

I do know I’m going to sound loopy or one thing, however because you’re the primary particular person to ask, I’ll inform you that the quantity 11 has haunted me all my life. This album was alleged to be 10 songs as a result of I feel all albums ought to have at the least 10 songs. However once we noticed that [Spanish singer-songwriter] Leiva was going to collaborate on “Grillos,” which was a really brief music and I didn’t know whether or not to place it on the album or not, we determined it will have 11, we added “Grillos.” Reinforcing the truth that the quantity 11 haunts me.

You may have carried out quite a lot of collaborations in your profession, particularly in albums by numerous artists, such because the tribute to Joaquín Sabina. On “Mosquito Coast,” there was a vocal collaboration and an instrumental one. On this album, there are two singers (Depedro and Leiva). How did the collaborations with these two essential musical figures come about?

I at all times wished to work with Depedro and as quickly as we wrote “Urgente,” the collaboration developed naturally, it was very straightforward for us to attach musically and I feel you’ll be able to see within the music itself that we had been in a position to talk our concepts by placing the music first. With Leiva, we didn’t know if it will occur as a result of there have been logistical issues and in addition Grillos is a really totally different music from those he does on his personal.

His songs are very broad and “Grillos” was initially only a guitar observe. However once I recorded with him he requested me if I wished to go away it like that and that touched my soul, it confirmed me that greater than anything he understood the music and would defend it. Asking him to sing on this music was a query that price me a while, I feel I even requested him 24 hours earlier than I recorded it, and when he stated sure it was unbelievable. The music can be one among my favorites as a result of it doesn’t observe the method of many of the others, it merely describes a magical second.

Take a look at the video for Travis Birds’ “A veces sueño” from Perro Deseo under.