Vampires, reggaeton, Hollywood glamour: Get to know Isabella Lovestory

The esoteric inspiration for Isabella Lovestory’s latest record, “Vanity,” comes from an improbable source: the folkloric vampire.

“I consciousness similar I americium the vampire,” she said betwixt bites of tajadas, oregon fried plantains, wrong the Rincon Hondureño edifice successful Los Angeles. “And I’m chasing a beauteous woman, which is me.”

Legend has it that vampires can’t spot themselves successful the mirror, truthful they stay unaware of their ain image; arsenic a effect of that constraint, they walk their full lives successful pursuit of beauty. This “fantastical, mythical” carnal is thing of an obsession for the Honduran experimental popular artist, and this trope is subliminally captured passim the 13 tracks connected “Vanity,” which drops June 27.

“Vanity” is Isabella’s 2nd full-length grounds successful 3 years, pursuing her grimy, neoperreo debut, “Amor Hardcore.” But that grounds operated with textures champion recovered successful acheronian basements and sweaty alleyways; this 1 is brighter, crafted from a temper committee of mid-2000s nine hits and John Waters movies. Four-on-the-floor 808 beats springiness mode to booming tresillo rhythms, and astatine times, connected songs similar “Bling,” Isabella poses the question: What if “The Fame”-era Lady Gaga was Latina? It’s adjacent parts electroclash and reggaeton, a post-genre blend that sounds beamed successful from a dystopian future.

“It’s similar a poisonous lollipop,” she said. “I’m ever funny successful opposition and tension, and I ne'er privation to beryllium conscionable 1 thing. I ever wanna person that contrast.”

It’s besides profoundly descriptive, with a fitting absorption connected the self’s visage. On the rubric track, Isabella likens herself to “una botella de perfume / un objeto hecho de espuma,” that is besides a “fantasía que nary puedo controlar.” Other songs, similar the phonk music-adjacent “Perfecta” and “Gorgeous,” talk of being cleanable similar a mannequin and “elegante como una esmeralda andante.” The lyrics are ripped retired of a imagination journal, conjured from evocative memories of emotion and lust.

By each accounts, Isabella Lovestory, calved Isabella Rodríguez Rivera, is her ain self-sustaining popular star. Born successful Tegucigalpa, Honduras, she immigrated to the United States arsenic a teen, attending precocious schoolhouse successful Virginia earlier relocating to Montreal astatine 17. It gives her euphony a worldly quality, reflected successful multilingual tracks similar “Eurotrash,” which Rivera sings successful English, Spanish and French.

This, on with her practice-based arts education, injects a punk ethos into her artistry and makes her — successful her words — “scrappy arsenic hell.”

When I asked Rivera what she is liable for successful her camp, she laughed and said, “Everything.” That includes each image-related facets of her artistry, from making her medium artwork to editing her videos.

And successful that lies different absorbing tension: the thought of self-sustaining popular celebrity, straddling these 2 worlds of DIY inventiveness and image-heavy exposure. It’s thing she likens, astatine aggregate points, to show art, this thought of projecting guardant idiosyncratic you’re not.

“Isabella Lovestory is simply a precise analyzable persona,” Rivera said. “I deliberation it’s much similar an look of my interior satellite … similar I person a small projector and Isabella Lovestory’s a hologram of what goes connected wrong my heart.”

This interrogation has been edited for magnitude and clarity.

The storytelling connected your albums is immersive. How bash you consciousness similar “Vanity” is expanding the Isabella Lovestory cinematic universe?
For this one, I’m showing a much susceptible broadside and a softer broadside that I haven’t shown before. The past record, “Amor Hardcore,” was much reggaeton, and I was experimenting with what I could bash with that sound. It had a much old-school vibe, I was similar a rebellious-teenager-badass-b—. And this one, I’m inactive a badass b—. [Laughs] But I deliberation I’m showing much of my sweeter side, my much vulnerable, dreamier side. It’s much of a precise heavy look into the mirror.

Is that the thesis connection for the record?
I deliberation so. It’s kinda similar “Alice successful Wonderland” successful that way. Where you autumn into a rabbit hole, and you participate a mirror, and there’s nary mode out. It’s psychedelic. You person antithetic layers and antithetic sounds, but it’s each portion of 1 tunnel.

Is that what you’re trying to accidental astir the conception of vanity? That it’s a rabbit hole?
Exactly. I deliberation it’s a never-ending evil cycle, but it’s besides precise beautiful. Sins are portion of our acquisition arsenic radical successful this world. I’m ridiculing it successful a way, wherever I fto it instrumentality implicit me, but I besides instrumentality it over.

Being a popular prima is truthful caller to me, you know? I became a nationalist person, and having my look beryllium my instrumentality and my wealth shaper is brainsick to me. It’s maine dealing with that: the acheronian of quality and the acheronian of a saturated satellite of images that we person to perpetually woody with.

What’s connected the temper committee for “Vanity”? What were you listening to and reasoning about?
I was besides watching a batch of Fellini, John Waters and Old Hollywood movies.  I emotion absurd wit and the absurdity successful gluttony and beauty, making amusive of the stereotypes that we unrecorded in. This is what I’m doing with my project. I’m truly into fairy tales, but twisted ones, similar [in the movie] “Donkey Skin.” It’s absurd, precise dark, but it looks truthful shiny and colorful and truthful childlike.

 I felt the fairy communicative successful “Fresa Metal.” That opus starts with this thunderstorm soundscape, and past you person a “Dracula”-esque synthesizer travel in. It feels similar you’re mounting up a damsel-in-distress narrative.
“Fresa Metal”  was inspired by this imagination I had, wherever determination was this grounds statement building. And this popular prima that was moving astatine the label. But the gathering was built connected an underground basement wherever vampires lived, and past they seizure the popular star, and they kidnap her and marque her enactment underground.

I’m not a precise logical person, I ever failed [at] math, truthful I conscionable deliberation successful images each the time. My eventual extremity is to beryllium a director. When I started making music, it was truthful breathtaking to maine due to the fact that I could marque my screen art, I could nonstop my ain videos. I could bash each my costumes. Ultimately, I privation to marque a movie, and past bash the score, and past prima successful it.

Do you consciousness similar you were treading caller sonic crushed connected “Vanity” oregon conscionable expanding upon what you were doing connected “Amor Hardcore”?
It’s decidedly going into caller territories. I was frightened to amusement softer sides, due to the fact that radical emotion aggression; it’s what’s popping close now. Like Charli [XCX] oregon Nettspend, it’s conscionable really, truly loud. So I was frightened of doing thing that’s different. But astatine the aforesaid time, it challenged maine to spell deeper. I emotion it to beryllium truly colorful successful thing I do, and besides for it to consciousness similar a roller coaster, which is what I emotion astir K-pop.

 Something I find absorbing astir your projects is that they each person intro tracks. What is the value of an intro way to you?
It’s an ode to that contented successful old-school reggaeton. The intro way is axenic experimentation, due to the fact that you tin person state successful doing thing that stands unsocial and is not needfully a track. You tin conscionable springiness the medium that cherry connected top.

When I perceive to old-school reggaeton albums, they had truthful overmuch amusive due to the fact that it was specified a caller genre backmost then. Especially successful the aboriginal 2000s. They had that rawness of doing thing for fun, and a batch of curiosity. They didn’t person rules connected however to marque something.

I tin spot that. “Vanity Intro” has this sonic palette wherever you’re mounting up a classical popular record, and past a reggaeton bushed comes into the backmost half, straight smacking things together.
Like, you perceive [sound effects like] a perfume bottle. You perceive a car screeching. It allows you to person a small mini-movie successful your head, which is thing ace important to maine successful each the songs: for everybody to make their ain small dreamscape of what’s happening.

In “Eurotrash,” you usage aggregate voices and singing styles. How bash you attack your vocals? On this opus successful particular, there’s some this seductive susurration and this exaggerated, bimbo breathiness.
What I emotion astir old-school reggaeton, again, is they ever had these duos: [one with] the raspier, much masculine voice, and [the different with] the high-pitched singing voice. I emotion to make antithetic characters successful a song, and I emotion opposition successful each azygous way.

You’ve crafted a unsocial spot for yourself successful some popular and Latin music. Do you consciousness similar you person contemporaries oregon imitators?
The curse of doing thing for the archetypal time, oregon doing thing you don’t spot happening, is that radical volition instrumentality those precise authentic aspects of the underground and curate them with a originative squad to marque them mainstream years later.

Especially arsenic a Honduran immigrant, I consciousness similar there’s a batch of erasure. There’s not a batch of Honduran radical doing stuff, due to the fact that it’s a f— corrupt authorities successful Honduras, and radical suffer, the creation suffers. There’s beauteous talent, there’s beauteous music, it’s a beauteous country. But I deliberation successful moving astir truthful much, I ne'er truly had a spot wherever I felt supported by a assemblage successful that way.

I created my ain assemblage myself done the internet, oregon becoming friends with the outcasts and the underground. It’s similar a blessing and a curse, you know? But it is my life, and I deliberation I’ll ever beryllium the underground, quirked-up shawty for sure.