Lisbon Girls Show the Roots of Their "Te Love You" Before Jazz Fest

Lisbon Girls

Lisbon Girls is a great name for a band. It sounds continental and evocative to those who don’t know the reference, and for those who know The Virgin Suicides, it evokes a sense of doomed romance.

Lisbon Girls will make their Jazz Fest debut on Sunday at 4:45 p.m. in the Rhythmpourium Tent, and for the occasion, they’ve shared their “Milky Way,” the songs that chart their musical galaxy.

The band is a trio of siblings, Lucho, Pilar and Nikolai, and their indie rock lives up the their name in both senses. The songs would sound at home in an international night club as they’re sung in Spanish but clearly influenced by Japanese city pop from the 1980s. And even if you don’t speak Spanish, the ambient melancholy tells you the songs are about affairs of the heart, many of which aren’t going as hoped.

Lucho took the “Milky Way” concept a new direction and linked the song choices to songs they inspired on the Lisbon Girls’ most recent EP, Te Love You.

Lucho will take it from here.

For as far back as I can remember, music has been present in my life. Some of my earliest childhood memories have revolved around the music that has shaped me personally and as an artist. There is also a deeper connection that ties me back to my cultural roots and the history of my people. Music is a powerful conduit that links us wholly to our past while discovering ourselves in the present.

“Te Miro Y Tiemblo” - Jarabe De Palo

 A friend of mine was visiting from Puerto Rico and it was her first time in New Orleans. She had rented a car and wanted to explore the city a bit because she was considering moving here. She had Jarabe De Palo’s excellent second album Depende playing, and that album hit me hard. It was the soundtrack of our little exploratory adventure and I have been obsessing over it ever since.

“Agua” is by far one of the greatest songs in the band’s discography, but “Te Miro Y Tiemblo” makes an argument for being their second. I remember listening to this song on repeat and being haunted by this one line, “Y ese veneno, de efecto lento” [“and that poison, slow acting”], which later became a direct inspiration for our song, “El Antídoto” an homage to lead singer Pau Donés who sadly passed away in 2020.

I love good narrative songwriting. It’s something I myself strive for when writing/composing for Lisbon Girls, and I always want to focus heavily on making substantive pop music, with plenty of nuance and depth.

“Out of  Time” - The Weeknd

This is a fantastic, genre-blending pop song. You can hear elements of Cameo, Mariya Takeuchi, and the Isley Brothers throughout. That’s definitely one thing I can appreciate about The Weeknd, his willingness to expand his sound and explore new genres while staying true to his vision as an artist. That is exactly what we strive for as a band, what I strive for as a songwriter, and what we set out to accomplish with our latest EP, Te Love You.  We wanted to continue exploring our sound while incorporating new elements of R&B and city pop, and I think we successfully integrated those sounds in “Me Robas La Calma”.

 “Me Voy A Regalar” - Marc Anthony

Sometimes there’s a song that perfectly incapsulates the very sentiment you’re trying to convey, and “Me Voy A Regalar” does exactly that. There’s a snakiness to the song that displays the type of vulnerability you feel when you’re hurt, and Marc Anthony delivers those lines with the right amount of acerbic edge and melancholy. Narratively you empathize with him, but you also know he’s making the right decision and at the end of the day everything will be alright.

I believe that’s where you find the beauty in music, when an artist can make you feel exactly what it is they’re wanting to express through their lyrics and take you on a three to four minute journey. I wanted to write a song that was similarly snarky but also just as self aware and with a hint of sadness, and I that’s what inspired the lyrics of “Infeliz”.

“Bullet Proof Soul” - Sade

There can be an aloofness to Sade Adu’s lyrics. It’s this confident sense of cool that keeps you at a distance and is to be admired but not touched. There’s also a playfulness there and a softness that’s just below the surface. if you’re allowed access, you’ll be exposed to a world of love, loss, sensuality, hurt, and desire.

However, on “Bullet Proof Soul” she is as forthcoming with what she is feeling as any lover could be. The message is direct and simple: “Wasn’t my love enough?” I admire such naked honesty and the courage it takes to write something so open. Sade Adu’s willingness to be that open is what inspired “Te Love You.” Although the song is lyrically a stark contrast to “Bullet Proof Soul,” I wanted to capture that naked truth within the lyrics of playful desire.  

“Señales de Humo” - Juan Luis Guerra 4.40

 There’s a moment in “Señales de Humo” where the song breaks down from a romantic bolero and transitions into a salsa guajiro. The lovesick lyrics of longing and want becomes an anthemic chant of desire and passion. You can feel the tension building throughout the song as it approaches its inevitable shift in energy while introducing all of these new elements and culminating in a celebratory declaration of love.

I wanted to bring that same energy into “No Te Apresures” while incorporating that small shift into a different genre in the second verse. It’s really important to me that our music always retraces our Latin Roots. Even though we are making indie pop music, there are always hints of Latin/folkloric percussion ingrained deep in our music, and that’s something we never want to shy away from.

“Ya Lo Se Que Te Vas” - Juan Gabriel

When I was kid, my dad had this amazing vinyl collection. They were albums that he and my mom had collected throughout the years, and it ranged from Leo Don, David Bowie, Marvin Gaye, Leonardo Favio, Donna Summer, Fleetwood Mac, The Beatles, and on and on. I have this very distinct memory of when he first introduced me to Juan Gabriel. It sticks out to me because I was initially a bit indifferent towards his music. I was just a kid and hadn’t quite gotten to the point where I could appreciate or fully understand how important of a songwriter he was.

When it finally clicked, it was completely eye-opening for me, and when I started writing my own songs, I would humorously think “ What would Juanga do?” He was on my mind while writing and translating “Como Sera?”

I originally wrote the song in English and we performed it several times prior to officially forming the band, and I wanted to re-write and release the song in Spanish. There are aspects of the song that are a direct translation from the original, but a majority of the Spanish lyrics draw inspiration from “Ya Lo Se Qu Te Vas.”