NPR Music - Alt.Latino: A Tiny Desk chat with Silvana Estrada

Episode Date: October 15, 2025

There is no question that Mexican vocalist and composer Silvana Estrada is special to Alt.Latino. Ever since she launched her 2022 album "Marchita" with a series of revelatory singles, she seemingly spoke directly to Alt.Latino co-host Anamaria Sayre.Since those earliest days, the two have been able to spend quite a bit of time together in interviews and other public gatherings, which only brought them closer on a personal level. Now, as Estrada releases her new album, "Vendrán Suaves Lluvias," and celebrates the publication of her Tiny Desk Concert, it seemed like a good time to sit in on the ever-flowing conversations between the two of them.The result is a conversation that is probably a lot more personal than you’re used to. And that’s OK. Because Silvana is a performer of complex emotions, and while you can experience those emotions through songs, sometimes you have to hear things for yourself. Enjoy.This podcast episode was produced by Noah Caldwell. The executive producer of NPR Music is Suraya Mohamed.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

From NPR music, this is Alt Latino. I'm Felix Contreras. And I'm Anna Maria Sayer. Let the Chisemate begin. And the Chisemate today, Felix, at long last, this is, I don't, how do I, how do I describe the level of excitement? We brought in Silvana Estrada to do a real life in our office, tiny desk. Okay, Anna, yes, it is a very, very special day. Silvana's tiny dust concert just came out.

And it's the last one in our 2025 El Tiny Series. And that's the music you're hearing right now. It's a stunning performance. And even better is that we got a chance to talk to Silvana after the concert. So for today's episode, we're going to play that extended conversation. But first Anna, introduce people to Silvana Estrada, if by chance they don't know who we're talking about. Silvan Estrada, if by chance, they don't know who we're talking about because I have brought her many times on this show.

Is a singer-songwriter from Veracruz, Mexico. The way I would describe her voice is, it's one of those things where you hear it once and you truly never forget it. Her music is deeply emotional and also personal and also political. She's one of the few artists out of Mexico right now I know of who's talking about actual realized political issues, pains, things that most of the time people aren't super excited or ready to talk about in the music. And she does it. I'm a huge admirer of her. I'm also a dear friend of hers. And it means the world to me to have her come play a tiny guest for us.

I think that once people hear this interview, it'll be pretty clear that you guys are very good friends. You guys have almost this unspoken connection and finishing each other's thoughts. And we need to explain that that happens sometimes when we interview people. It's sometimes our interests and backgrounds align with the artists that we cover. And we establish this bond. I know I've done it with a few artists over the years. So it's very, very fun to be part of that with you and Silvana. Well, and the note I will say about her is that the first time I brought her on the show was five years ago.

She was one of the first artists I brought on the show, one of the first artists I really connected with while doing this work. And so in a way, like, we talk about this a lot. she was starting, you know, her music career right around when I was starting here and we kind of grew up together. And there is a thing about you find someone's art and you connect so deeply with it and there's a reason for it because they share a feeling or a way of thinking or a sense of spirit with you. And so I think that's a lot of what's happened with us over the years. We run into each other and go inside and all of these things. And I've gotten to interview her in a million different stages, which is always a joy. So it's been years like this.

And now we're catching her at a very pivotal point is the presentation of her second. album is called Vendran Suavez Juvias out October 17th. And this is after a very, very strong first album. You know, this is kind of a make or break moment because a lot of artists, they put out a very strong first album and they've had their whole lives to work on it. And then in a matter of a couple of years, they have to put out a second record. So the pressure's on. So if that artistry isn't there, there may not be success after that. That's not the case with Silvana Estrada. This record is very, very strong. It's a nice follow-up. And that's what we talked about. So Felix, let's jump into it.

We started by talking about the new album and what's been going on since her last album came out, which was five years ago. Check it out. So you have a new album coming out. Yes. That I think I'm maybe more excited for this album to come out than you are, actually. Maybe. Puehese. And it took you five years.

Yeah. Maybe, you know, five years, you know, dreaming with this album and three years of, you know, actually struggling with a bunch of, like, limitations in my head and trying to you know fighting this like blockio and like, like, yeah, like,

blockio creative and this album Bendran Suave's Juvias. I, at some point I decided to self-produce this album and that's one of the best decisions in my life, but also

that took me like a year to understand. like how I wanted to do it, you know, how I wanted to be, being this figure of, you know, the producer and how can I, like, allow myself to be me, to be, you know, in the Cisa, to be soft, to be sweet, in this kind of position that we all have in our minds, no, that the producer is this, probably in your head, if I say producer, it's going to be a man in charge.

Like, just that's just that decider this fast thinker, never hesitated. And I'm all the opposite. So, yeah, it took me a while to, like, allowed myself to be me. Yeah. And it's, it's, you face the common problem that I think every artist faces when they're making records.

You live your whole life and then it comes out in the first record. And the second record, you have a year or two. To live your life to get all. those experiences. Right. Like, was that for you? Same thing? Yeah, same thing.

I was putting a lot of pressure in myself because as yours, exactly what, exactly exactly what I released Marchita and it was my first album and nobody was expecting anything. I wasn't expecting anything. Like all the songs from Marchita are the songs I did, you know, at my parents' house, playing the Quattro, didn't even thought of like, oh, this is going to be an album. I was just doing it for fun and trying to understand my life and my feelings. And then the second album was a little bit more like, okay, I need to do this. I really need to do this.

And I have all these people who work with me and I want them to be proud and I want to be proud myself and I want to, you know, do something. And then all this really stupid things. You know that these rules that people puts, you know, in your head, like you cannot repeat yourself. You need to change, but also you need to be yourself, but also this has to be successful, whatever that means. And also you have to be happy and enjoy the process. So there was so much pressure in so many ways that, yeah, the second album definitely took me a while to clean my mind from all this. And my heart, especially my heart, to clean all of this, you know, ideas and rules and like rigidess.

But there is a balance even, you know, one of the things that I'm so proud of you. for this record is that you took ownership of your creativity you produced the thing yourself you stood by your intuition your gut which is very hard to do especially as a woman especially

Mexicana especially for only your second album because it is only your second album but also one of the things we were talking about the other night is you were like you know I produced and maybe I should learn how to engineer it too and I was like

I was amiga You know, because it is that balance of realizing you can own this. Yeah. And realizing it's your world and it's your art and it's your music. Yeah. But also being like, when do you accept the support? Yeah. And accept the help and accept that it won't be the most perfect thing you've ever done.

You'll never do anything perfect. Like where was that balance for you? You know what changed my life completely is that during this process, My best friend died. He and his little brother, they were murdered. So that changed my perception of, you know, life and everything. That changed me a lot. And, you know, that was very, very, very hard.

And it's a daily struggle to me to realize that they're not physically here anymore. And that was devastating. But I think from that devastation, I kind of get to, you know, reconstruct my idea of perfection, you know, or almost like that destroyed my idea of perfection. No? I get to understand like, wow, life and nature is wild. We are wild.

And even if that kind of, destroyed my heart, allowed it me also to make peace with the idea of we are here just for a second. Like, we don't know when are we going to live this world. And so you better enjoy it or you better do something or you better, you know, choose your fight. And I think it took me also a while to get better and recover from this heart broken, broken. But then when I started to feel better, I was like, okay, now that I know that this is going to be a minute, now that I know that this is not going to be perfect, now that I know that I'm nothing compared to the force of nature, I just want to be humble and try to do

what I can, which is, you know, it's what I can. It's unique. I don't know if it's good or bad, but it's what is in my heart, so I need to do it. After you went through that, did you ever think about, okay, I can't make any more music? Oh, yeah. And that was terrifying. That was, I don't wish this to anybody, but compared to death, music can be so small. Everything compared to death. It's so very small. and at the same time it's it's so powerful you know because you get to see your death people through art you get to feel them you get to understand them you get to know them better and better every time

even if they're gone so but yeah i i remember i was so i was really struggling with you know my sadness and i guess my depression and also with all this um pressure of making a new album and to be, you know, good and keep working and I never stopped touring and a bunch of stuff. And I, at some point, I was like, maybe this is not for me anymore. Maybe I can't. But then also, I never stopped because I love it. Because in my core, I think I do music because it's a, it's simple. It's a nice thing to do rather than, you know, don't do anything. So I guess I never stopped because something really deep in my heart was like,

keep going, keep singing. Like, it's going to be fine. And yeah, I think I connect music. Like in my mind, music and hope are so, like, together that I couldn't just leave music because I want to be hopeful for this world. When I listened to your first record, Marjita, the thing that struck me the most was how essentially Mexican it felt to me. I've talked about that a lot, how you are able to so effectively bring in death, withering, literally, and also the beauty and the joy of life. And to me, a lot of that has to do with your proximity to nature and to the earth and to all of you're such a grounded person.

this second record, and I said this to you. The first time I heard it, I was like, but Silvana, this record is you. It's so essentially you, because it takes all of the things of that first record of the death and then the beauty and the intensity and the pain. And then there's joy and there's dancing because Silvana is,

she's out perreando, Silvana. We're real Silvana, let's all be real. But you're light and you're happy and we're always laughing. And that's what I think of when I think of, when I think of you as you, your essence is that. And now that you're saying all these things about the way you came back to music, it feels like you could only come back to music not as a concept, but as a vehicle for really, like you embraced death, you worked through it,

and then you found joy. Yeah. Yeah, I am, you know, there's this moment of grieving where, you know, know, joy feels like it's super far away and it's never going to be back. But the moment that is back again, you're like, oh my God, I've been missing you so much. I don't know. I have this now, this relationship with joyfulness and like just laugh. And now I'm grateful.

I don't take it for granted anymore. And I think that it's super healing. And also I think death has this thing, which is very Mexican, no? But death is always like this teacher of, hey, remember, this is you. Like, you see this Mujer Blanca that it's coming for you. This is you, no? So I think, you know, I miss myself very much when my friend was alive. I miss how my heart was super light and I'm grateful because I actually had the opportunity to be a child for many, many, many years.

But at the same time, I'm now I can say I'm grateful because, you know, I'm able to laugh. I'm able to talk with you and it's super healing just to be, just to be awake, just to love. better and more. I think it's, you know, and also I think that's going to save the world, you know, to actually fall in love with life again and defend the lives that are in danger right now. And, yeah, to defend this beautiful house that we have, this planet Earth. And I think death, to be close to death, teaches you gratitude and also to defend what you love and to love better. I think people who are not Mexicano are not familiar with that closeness to death, they don't understand. I think it gets misinterpreted.

And the one thing I remember, I learned years ago from this guy, like it was a Mexican, a violator. He was a chama. It's a curandero. And what happens is, like, he said, okay, and the pre-Columbian idea, the philosophy is, I am alive, I am dead. I'm dead, but in both cases I am. And I think that that gets the essence of everything that we're talking about. And so many people talk about it when it comes to Mexican music or Mexican culture. And then that's, we're really like, we're deep in it right now about that whole thing.

But that's what we are. Yeah. And, no, and dead is so real this time of, you know, this period of the world and so, much injustice is happening and I think I think we need to I mean of course we need to talk about you know specific things but the fact that we are kind of disconnecting ourselves with the reality of death is also disconnecting us from the reality of life so to me we really need to to bring that mexicano that we have all of us and to realize that you know Life is sacred and we, you know, we're here for a second.

And yeah, we need to connect with that. It's okay if we fear that, but we need to see her through the eyes because if not, we're asleep. We're going through this world and we're asleep and we're asleep and we're not conscious. And we will, and if we're asleep, we will never know if we are alive or death. So we're basically failing to the only, like the first mannamento of our life, that is to be able to know that we're living.

Okay, Anna, that was the first half of our conversation with Sidvan Estrada. We want to hear a little bit more of her tiny dance because she played a bunch of songs from her new album that we've been talking about. What track is on your mind? Okay, Felix, so you know how I am. I get a little emotional sometimes.

And when Silvana first showed me this album, it was March of this year. So this is also very exciting to me because I've been like, just wait until everyone gets to hear this masterpiece. And I showed up to a label session where she was showing a few people there. No one in the room spoke Spanish, Felix, pretty much, except me and obviously Silvana and her manager. And so at a certain point, they called on me to start translating the songs as we went. through this album. I was like, well, she's saying that she laments that she ever knew you and that you like have torn her into pieces, whatever. We get to the last song called Alma Mia, which thank God,

she played at the tiny desk. I said if you're going to come, you have to play this song. It is the slowest, saddest, most heartbreaking song in the world. It's just painstakingly laid bare, these really simple lyrics, but really, really hit you in the heart. And I was in the corner literally sobbing and no one else in the room understands the words of this song and I'm losing it. So I have to play it now. Here's Alma Mia at the tiny desk. That was a bit of Alma Mia from Silvana Estrada's Tiny Desk concert. We're going to take a quick break to compose ourselves, and we'll be right back.

And we're back, and we're going to jump back into our conversation with Sylvana Straada after her tiny desk performance. But we've got to play a little bit of a song on her new album that we talk a lot about in the next section. It's called Good Luck, Good Night. So here's a little bit of Silvana and her band performing that at the tiny desk. That was my carcels. That was Silvana Strata performing good luck, good night at the tiny desk. Let's jump back into our conversation with her, where Felix asked her about how she came up with the sound of this song

and how she was inspired by the Canadian-American singer Lassa de Sela. One of the songs you play today, and it's on the record, we were discussing if we couldn't tell if it was a New Orleans second line groove or like a corrido-borracho, like a drunken corido, you know. Tell us about that song and like where did you find that groove? I was actually listening to Lassa de Sela, and I was, you know, trying to learn her songs from the Lhasa album, the one that has her face. And I don't remember which exact song, but I don't know, there was something super dark and like super like, I don't know, something very dark and strong energetically.

And I get super inspired by that. And actually, at that time, I was struggling with this. I had a, a, a, uh, uh, a encrororoosso, actually with a friend of mine. He, he kind of, yeah, ghosted me for years. And I was so, I was pieced. Like, no, I was, I was, like, how do you know, like, how do you do that? Seems a rewenza. And yeah, I was, I started this song and I remember I did the first verses and then,

And yeah, I did the whole song. And then I went actually with Natalia, Natalia Farcadia, and I showed this song to her. And she was like, this is great. But you should, you know, do it a little bit longer at the entrance, no? So that's why I started like, Pinseca to cantar, era flores, era fiesta, melodies of an orchestra, that's a year. And then the song, and she was like, that's so Juan Gabriel.

Like, I love it. Do it. So I did and, yeah, she saw some. She always helped me. And then the groove and the, yeah, the production and the energy. I was very inspired by Lhasa, very inspired by Tom Waits. I wanted this song to be kind of, you know, like musgroza, like, messy, like full of like lodo.

How do you say lodo in English? Like mud. Mud. Like mud. But more like mud. See, and Greece. Engraza, in Greece. You answered, I just said in English and you answered in Spanish.

That's always, that's always with Anna Maria. She's been translating for me into English all day. I'm like, wait, this is backwards. So yeah, I tried to do this. And I actually, this is the song that kind of brought me to Montreal and to, because this song and many others of the album, I record them in Montreal. It's a crazy story

because I was listening to Laza, and then I started this song. I choose that my inspiration. It was going to be Lassa, Tom Waits, even, you know, but also Chavela, you know. Chabella Vargas and also Juan Gabriel, you know, it was a bunch of heroes. Very quickly, for people who don't know,

Explain who Lassa de Sela was. Just very quickly. The question more difficult. So, it's a singer, some writer, performer, magician who did a career

in Montreal, but I think she lived in Mexico. Her parents were Mexican dad, American mother, and then they, at some point, they moved to Montreal.

And so basically, Lhasa is like this amazing voice who like kind of transformed. Like it's like to listen to Lhasa, it's like wearing these glasses where you can see darkness as as it is. Like because when it's dark you cannot see, no? But listening to Lhasa, it's like you actually get to see darkness, see through darkness. It's like a dark light. It's like a black light.

So then you get to understand. like a bunch of what is going on in the dark places of your heart. Lassa is like this, you know, kind of window to a really dark, but beautiful place. And I think that's, yeah, Lassa, it's like a, yeah, a big inspiration. I love her. I never met her, but I, yeah, I love her. I hope we can meet in the afterlife. She unfortunately passed away way too soon.

And when you mention her name to people, it's like a secret handshake. It's like not everybody knows, right? But if you know her music, you know her music. And you're very, very touched by it. Yeah. And then after doing this song, Lhasa's brother, Misha, Misha Khanam, he sent an email to my manager. He was like, hey, we're going to do this tribute to Laza. and we wanted to invite Silvana because we saw on TikTok that she's always singing Laszella songs

and I was really down I was in a really really dark moment of my process and Edwin, my manager, he was kind of desperate so he asked immediately he asked Misha like Silvana can go there maybe and record with the musicians I think that will make her super, you know, super happy. Because some of these musicians are actually, were actually in this album that I told you of Lhasa. They were the same kind of. So I went to Montreal, like a month after that,

I went to Montreal with all this group of people that I didn't know before, just to rehearse, like, in a house in the middle of the woods, like next to a lake. And I think that time I kind of, started to be happy again. I guess that's a moment where I, thanks to this song, actually, I started to feel like a kid again, you know. And it kind of, because I started to laugh at my drama.

Like this song kind of allowed me to laugh at my infinite, endless drama. So, yeah, it's a, it's a, this. This song also, sometimes I feel like it's also like an invocation, invocation, so you say, invocation of all these, like, ghosts of mine, no, including, you know, Lhasa and, like, all this Huanga, all these kind of ancestors or, like, people that really made me build, like, my own heart and my own way of looking, no, to the world, so. The records coming out, so what, are you going to tour? happen let's just talk let's talk regular stuff for a second just regular stuff I'm like she's on tour for so

long so stupid I'm like when can't hang out yeah I'm I'm touring I'm starting to tour now I'm after you know I have this week of promo here in the los estuosunitas and then I'm going to Madrid and I'm doing this show in La Plaza Major and then I'm coming back to the US and I start in November like this US tour and then US and Canada and then I'm doing Mexico and Latin America and for the next year and I'm just I'm so excited because I'm going to be playing the new album I'm going to be playing the new songs and yeah I'm just I'm thrilled to think that you know people going to be singing back all these songs. And, like, yeah, I think it's going to be super fun.

And I've been planning this for so many years that I'm just, yeah, really grateful and excited. So I have a quick question because we just saw you perform you on the tiny dust. And I've seen you a bunch of times already. When you perform me, it reminds you of like something. I think I may have even mentioned this to you once. It's like when I would see, like you interpret the songs. your songs are other people's songs. And it becomes that song interpretation

reminds me of people like Ella Fitzgerald when I saw her perform like all of these great vocalists who like they lose themselves in the music and you did it. You do it constantly. You did it here today. Like how do you do that every night, man?

It's so deep. It's so emotional. I like singing about going on tour. No, I mean, just like how do you like find that every performance? I mean, you know what I mean? Yeah. Again, I think it's, I do it because it's fun to say something, but it's also, you know, deep and kind of magical and it's just addictive to go down and feel this like witch going up and like, you know, all the magic that a song can like have inside, just try to find it. And I think, yeah, it's just fun.

And I feel like if I don't do it, I would be pretty aburried. You know, I'll be like, oh, a tour again or a show again. So it's kind of, and I understand the question. Sometimes I'm really tired. I'm extremely tired. In the past, I've had troubles with that. But, yeah, I think if I don't do it, I don't know. I get bored.

And I need to kind of, you know, call the witch somehow. A la Brouca. Well, ask you again, after the la hira. Like, you say that now. We've been doing a Latino for 15 years, and some artists, we have these ongoing conversations.

Like, we start years ago, and then we keep going, and we changed, the artist's change. This is one of those conversations. So we're just going to keep talking. Maybe somewhere down the road, We'll stand in front of microphones and we'll do it again.

So thank you for coming. Thank you. Thank you, Felix, Anna, for this. It's my pleasure. Always. I love it. Anna, I can't encourage our listeners enough to go check out this tiny desk concert. It really is something, and it was a lot of fun and very insightful talking to her after her tiny dust.

Felix, I'm so glad you loved it almost as much as I did. I don't think I could ever come close. You have been listening to All Latino from NPR Music. Our audio editor is Noah Caldwell. The executive producer of NPR Music is Soraya Mohamed. Sonali META is executive director of NPR Music, and we welcome her to our team. Yay. I'm Felix Contreras.

And I'm Anna Maria Sayer. Thank you for listening.