Song Exploder - Natalia Lafourcade - Hasta la Raíz

Episode Date: November 23, 2015

Natalia Lafourcade has won eight Latin Grammys, including three for the song Hasta la Raíz, which won the 2015 Song of the Year and Record of the Year, as well as Best Alternative Song. In this episode, Natalia breaks down the writing and recording process for the track, which borrows from a traditional Mexican folk music called huapango, but also still includes a Juno synthesizer and a pop sensibility. This episode is sponsored by Lagunitas Brewing Company, Larsen & Lund, and MeUndies.

You're listening to Song Exploder, where musicians take apart their songs, and piece by piece, tell the story of how they were made. I'm Rishi Kesh Hirwe. My name is Natalia Lafourcade. I am a singer-songwriter from Mexico. A few days ago, Natalia Lafourcaire won four Latin Grammys, including the 2015 Song of the Year and Record of the Year for this track, Astela Raiz, which translates to, to the root, maybe, or to the core. Deep down to the core. Yeah, that is a good way of saying it. In this episode, Natalia breaks down the writing and recording process behind the song,

which borrows from a traditional Mexican folk music called Opango, but still also includes a Juno synthesizer and pop sensibility. I went to my friend's house. His name is Leonel Garcia, and he's a great composer from Mexico as well. I really wanted to share the songwriting process with all that. And I know him since long ago, we get to see how the other was growing up. That was one of the persons I really wanted to try to see if we could make something together, and especially because the love we have to each other.

We were talking about the importance of keeping your roots and keeping all the things. that build you as a person, the things that you are, even though you might go very far away from home, the importance of keeping all the things that build you, your home, your friends, your family, your experiences. I wanted to sing about something that would remind me of Mexico and home. So I was telling him like, why don't we try to look like a very traditional reef from Mexico? This wapango thing on the guitar and he picked it up. So he started playing that wapango. There is wapangos in many areas in Mexico,

but I never tried to put any music like that into my music and mix it with this pop sensation of a song. It was like a very, how do you say, like a very inspiring moment because, because the song was coming, like, fast, super fast. I started, like, trying to put the words together and to make the phrases of the song. So he went into the studio, he started recording the guitar,

and then he asked me to go into the studio and sing the song. So I went into the studio, so I had the paper, and I started singing the song. And when he was recording, and I was discussing, the words by singing them. So I was getting these goops, bombs, and all that magic feelings that comes to you whenever you're singing a song

that you're just discovering. The voice that is in the album is the same voice that I did that day. day. We do cross in the lords, and down the sun. We didn't change it

I wanted to keep that the profound of the time to the suninging to clean with

the homo sacred every we didn't change it because I wanted to keep that feeling in the album when the producer

came and listened to our demo. Almost all the things that are in the track are the things that we put that afternoon. So I called my friend Marianne Ruiz, and she's super talented, so she came to my house,

and we sat down for a couple of days, and we worked on the arrangements. I think that the strings give you the feeling of an epic feeling, and that's how you feel, when you're flying away from something, and you're, yeah, going through so many things, that make you stronger. I wanted to have that emotion

and that sensation in the arrangement. There is many, many electrical sound hidden in the other tracks. That is a Juno. We did record a bass, but we took it out because we wanted the song to have this sensation of a tribal thing.

If we keep the bass line, it will take you away from that feeling. So we prefer to keep that line so it gives you the ground, but it isn't a real bass. Those electric guitars were recorded by Gustavo Guerrero, which is my guitar player. We were first doing that melody. With a silophone and with a xylophone and with a... the silk drum. Then he put that melody into the guitar. It has the wahmy. Did you know that pedal? He will put the octave on top and under. So it has three on the same note and also the pedal. There is this line,

Asi Te protejo, Aki Sigueh, Aki Sige Gets Dentro. You're still inside of me as I am keeping you. I am not forgetting. I keep you inside of me. I mean many different things. It is love, but it is also all the things that built me and that helped me to be who I am now. So I keep all that. I keep my home. I keep the place I come from.

I keep my mother, my father. I keep my lovers. I keep my experiences. the good and the bad moments. I keep all that. It is important not to forget your roots. Keep that and you can grow up and you can fly far away

and you can be a big artist or whatever you want to be. But it is important, I think, to keep all that. Now, here's Asta La Raiz by Natalia Lafourcaire in its entirety. Visit the night's in a cunez

Visit SongExploder. to learn more about Natalia Lafourcares. You can also watch the music video for the song, which is how I first fell in love with it. of my own coming out on April 24th. It's been about 15 years since I last put out a full length, and this is the first one that'll be out under my own name, Rishi Kesh Her Way. I started making Song Exploder when I was feeling lost in my own music career. And then for over a decade, I've gotten to have these incredible conversations about the process of making music, talking to other

artists, and it made me completely rethink my relationship to music and my way of writing songs. And this album is the product of all of that. It features contributions for from some of my favorite artists, including some folks that you may have heard on this podcast, like Iron and Wine, Kevin Morby, Vagabon, Fenlily, and the producer Phil Wine Rope. I'm gonna be on tour playing in cities

across the US starting in April, and I'm trying to bring the spirit of the podcast with me. So every show that I'm playing will begin with a conversation about the album with a different amazing guest moderator in each city, like Adam Scott, Samin Nasrat, Jason Manzukas, Josh Malina, Minjin Lee, Ken Jennings, John Roderick, Austin Cleon, and more.

They're all going to be my conversation partners on stage, and then I'll play with my band. The album is called In the Last Hour of Light, and the first couple songs are out now. You can listen to the music and get tickets for the shows on my website, rishikash.co, or just go to songexploder.net slash live. That's songexploder.net slash live. Thanks.

You can find all the past and future episodes of Song Exploder at SongExploder.net or on iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever you download podcasts. Find the show on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at Song Exploder. Song Exploder is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX, a curated network of extraordinary, story-driven shows. Learn more at Radiotopia.fm. Next time on Song Exploder, Wilco. My name is Rishi Kesh Hereway. Thanks for listening. You know.