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HONNE

Courtesy of Corona Capital 

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HONNE On Showing Their True Feelings, Being Covered By Chris Martin & More

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The longtime friends sit down with the Recording Academy in Mexico to talk influences, what's next and more
Jennifer Velez
GRAMMYs
May 16, 2019 - 3:35 pm

British R&B/electropop duo HONNE have earned a lot of attention since releasing their first EP in 2014, even from the likes of Coldplay's Chris Martin. 

Made up of James Hatcher and Andy Clutterbuck, Honne, which means "true feelings" in Japanese, have two full-length albums under their belt, their most recent being Love Me/Love Me Not. Projecting smooth, sensual vibes, Honne are Inspired by artists like Al Green, Radiohead and Quincy Jones, among others. They continue to take their interpretation of love on tour worldwide, most recently in Mexico.

The Recording Academy caught up with the longtime friends in Mexico at Corona Capital Guadalajara, where they talked about touring the world, how they connect with fans, collabs they'd like to do, new music and more. 

Is this your first time at Guadalajara?

Andy Clutterbuck: Yes, it is. We've never been here before. We've been to Mexico quite a few times. But it's great. We love it. We're having a great time.

James Hatcher: Wonderful.

Clutterbuck: The crowd were amazing. The weather is great. We couldn't ask for much more.

Tell me about the crowd vibes. The Mexican audience. What is their vibe? How do you feel in their presence?

Hatcher: They're amazing. Everyone is. They sing along a lot. They're very present in the moment. They get stuck in... get emotionally involved, yeah. It's a good time ... One of the best audiences in the world.

Clutterbuck: Yeah, they clap when you want them to clap. They sing when you want them to sing. It's very easy. It's a pleasure to play here in Mexico.

How does it feel to be able to play in front of an audience in a city you've never been to before?

Clutterbuck: It feels great. We love traveling. That was one of the big perks of this job, to be able to travel and see different places. So yeah, coming here and doing it all over again, completely fresh to a new audience is great. It's like everyone is losing their own virginity. Well, apparently everyone has seen us like four times already, the people who have come, so not like that at all.

What's the story behind your name?

Hatcher: So, Honne is a Japanese word that means "true feelings." Just after we started writing, I was living in London, and Andy was living in Japan for two or three months. We just felt we had like eight or nine songs and we stumbled across that word and it just all sort of fell into place. It just fits in with what kind of songs we're writing about.

Speaking of true feelings, how does it feel to be vulnerable in front of so many people?

Clutterbuck: Well, it can be really scary. If, you know, it depends on what size room you are playing and how up for it the crowd are. But I mean when you get out here to play to a big audience, it's fine because I guess you do feel vulnerable, but not really that vulnerable. Everyone's on your side and it's great. You know, you just do what you do. But in a small room, when everyone is a bit shy, and you're building up to it all, it's scary. You can feel a bit scared, and everyone's looking at you, but I don't know. You just... it's nice that people are obviously there to enjoy your music so you have just got to remember that.

So when you're performing in front of a crowd that doesn't speak your language, how do you connect to them?

Clutterbuck: We try to learn. Like we learn even those small amount of words. Just the very basics like "hello" and "thank you," and "we love you." Generally that gets everybody on our side, because it shows that you care.

Hatcher: We're very lucky that around the world, people sort of learn a lot of English, or at least learn the lyrics in English, so we're very, very fortunate that people sing along with our songs even though it's not necessarily in their language. Which is amazing in Mexico, that so many people would go and do that.

So Love Me/Love Me Not is your latest album. What inspired it?

Clutterbuck: It's a story of two sides, or two halves. We all go through ups and downs, so it's sort of about our ups and downs over the last couple of years. Being away on tour, and ... Yeah, it's just an account, again, of like our lives over the last couple of years ... Warm On A Cold Night  was much the same and this—you know, things change. But we're just talking about true, honest things that happened to us. So that's it. 

You also wrote a song that Chris Martin is now singing!

Hatcher: Yes ... It's our song "Someone That Loves You" that we wrote with Izzy Bizu that came about just by Twitter.

With both Izzy and Honne, we were mutual fans of each other, and we said let's get together and just write a song. We ended up releasing it together. But then she went on tour with Coldplay in the U.S., and Chris Martin always said that he loved that song and they performed it together there at this little event. He said, "I'll record all of Andy's parts," so they bloody took Andy off, didn't they? They took Andy off and put Chris on, and it's still lovely, but it's a little bit different. It's made to be more like how Izzy played it live, so it's a slightly different groove.

Clutterbuck: Basically, if you would have told me 10 years ago that Chris Martin would sing a song that you wrote, I would be like "hell yes, that sounds great."

What's next for you after Corona Capital? Where are you off to?

Clutterbuck: Back home.

Hatcher: Yeah. So just did the two week U.S. tour. Finish here in Mexico. We go home and we're going to write a load of new music and over the summer and toward the end of the year, we're still doing a few festivals and a bit of touring, but the focus is shifting more towards writing new music.

Anything you could tell us about that new music?

Hatcher: It's going to be lovely.

Clutterbuck: It will be lovely, glorious, sensational... [Laughs.] There's also a collaboration on the way as well with SG Lewis, that's going to be coming out at some point. Just various bits and bumps that we've kind of got in our back pocket that are coming.

Any collaborations that you haven't had but you want to do in the future?

Hatcher: There's lots of like, pipe-dream ones that will probably not ever happen, like Chance the Rapper, that would be nice. Kehlani, that would be nice. We just did a remix of one of her tracks actually. Came out yesterday. Who else have we got?

Clutterbuck: Anybody, I mean I don't mean anybody, but anybody we like

Hatcher: There's loads of artists that we really, really like. It will be interesting to see how things unravel and opportunities come up.

Holy Ghost! On What "Do This" Is Really About & Why They Feel So Good About 'Work'

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The Joy Formidable 

Courtesy of Corona Capital

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Exclusive: The Joy Formidable To Celebrate 10th Anniversary Of Debut EP With Welsh Version

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The Welsh trio sit down with the Recording Academy in Mexico to talk 10th anniversary of 'A Balloon Called Moaning' and more
Jennifer Velez
GRAMMYs
May 16, 2019 - 4:46 pm

It's been 10 years since Welsh alt-rock band The Joy Formidable released their first EP A Balloon Called Moaning. No small feat, the band is celebrating with a project unlike any other they've done before.

"Instead of re-releasing [the album,] we recorded it in Welsh," Vocalist/guitarist Ritzy Bryan told the Recording Academy.  "We're excited, it sounds beautiful and it brings back a lot of memories."

The band, whose latest album is Aaarth, says their love of music and frienship is what has kept them strong this long.

"It's actual friendship, and caring about each other and also the music, absolutely the music," bassist/vocalist Rhydian Davies said. "I think when we get on stage and we're playing what we're playing, we forget about everything and enjoy the moment and it's not because of business."

The Recording Academy talked with the charming trio after their set at Corona Capital Guadalajara in Mexico about more details of their Welsh release, how important personal songwriting is to them, what's next for them and more. 

Tell me, how does it feel to be in Mexico?

Rhydian: Hot.

Ritzy: It's been a little while. I think we were here in 2012. It's been seven years and we had a really lovely time last time that we visited. So I think we've been just excited to come back and hoping and kind of, I feel a little bit torn, I wish we'd been back more but, no point in having regrets. Hopefully we can come back more regularly from now on.

Rhydian: There are so many things that get in the way unfortunately, you know? We'd like to go everywhere on every album cycle but, certain things come in the way; logistics or whatever it is, personal circumstances, but, It's just nice to be here we've not been to Guadalajara before.

You're celebrating 10 years together this year. What is the glue that keeps you together?

Ritzy: I think a lot of respect for each other, good communication and, I think, all of us have got quite different personalities, and just over time you learn how to I suppose just build, inspire each other, how to still have a sense of humor, how to still be really good friends but, we're all quite different people. Over time we've just created this dynamic that feels very intuitive and very, I don't want to say easy, 'cause we fight as well you know.

Rhydian: It's friendship and love isn't it?

Ritzy: Yeah.

Rhydian: Friendship, love and respect comes from that because you spend 24/7 with someone, you're bound to have some arguments and how'd you get over that? It's love isn't it? It's actual friendship, and caring about each other and also the music, absolutely the music. I think when we get on stage and we're playing what we're playing, we forget about everything and enjoy the moment and it's not because of business. We are not doing it just because we want to be famous or it's like I'm getting paid at the end of this so those are pretty major things I think. Don't do music if you doing it for those reasons, that's my opinion. 

Matt: Rhydian Davies with his opinions (all laugh)

Where do you get your inspiration from? I mean you have made music for so long, where does it come from constantly?

Ritzy: It comes from the smallest little thing that happens, maybe. Just you see something that triggers or it makes you feel something and it can go from there, something as simple as nature or just a moment in time watching something through the window, walking down the street to something much more expansive, where you just feel like you need to get something out, you have a story to tell, or you feel like you need to share something that has happened to you good or bad. I think it could be—

Matt: Could be anything—

Rhydian: It could be very personal.

Ritzy: Yeah very.

Rhydian: Because it's been something cathartic for us as well, trying to get over things. You know, there's been things, traumas and fear and into sometimes, what would you call it, mental problems, mental issues, which is obviously something that affects so many people, and we don't like to talk about it but, I think whatever you talk about, you can't help but put your personal element on it because it is obviously how you see the world, isn't it? The personal is always, I think, a really big part of this band. It's not like trying to fit in lyrics to go "DA DA DA" so it sounds nice at the end. "In the air, we're gonna fly, I feel so high," and that's fine. There's a place for everything isn't it? But, I do feel like it's also been a benefit for us to also talk about something that actually means something personal you know?

Matt: We've also got a song about a cactus.

Corona Capital's mission is to bring more international music to Mexico, what does it feel, for you, to play in a new city? To get your music in a new place?

Ritzy: I don't think we ever get in a place all weary. It's not like we wake up in the morning and we're like, "Uh, Where are we? It's fucking ground hog day". That isn't what drives our band or us as individuals, we still are hungry to play music, we are still excited to wake up in a new city but—

Rhydian: You know, we love to play anywhere. New city, old city, we are always excited to go back.

Matt: The key thing is your message is in there, you ask about lyrics and I don't think it's just the lyrics as well as what your message [is], I think.

White Lies Talk Touring Mexico, 'FIVE' & Why Friendship Is The Key Ingredient To Band Longevity

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Christine And The Queens 

Courtesy of Corona Capital Guadalajara

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Christine And The Queens On 'Chris': "This Is A Record That Talks About Being Too Much"

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"I want an album that talks about excess and carnal desires like men can talk about," the French singer tells the Recording Academy
Jennifer Velez
GRAMMYs
May 14, 2019 - 4:47 pm

Chris, or, as she's known onstage, Christine And The Queens, is a disrupter. "Blasting Peaches in cis men's cars," she recently tweeted. 

Energetic, expressive and stimulating, Christine's electro-pop paired with her visuals can be equally destabilizing. "Some of us just had to fight/For even being looked at right," she sings in the video for "5 dollars," which portrays her walking around topless, then strapping on BDSM gear and a men's suit. Toying with both masculine and feminine expression, her latest album Chris embodies a growth in Christine's female identity. 

"I wanted to tell the complexity of where I was. I was stronger than I used to be, more powerful also with what happened to me as a woman," Chris told the Recording Academy. "I was lustful, frustrated, but full of that eagerness to live things fully. I was also joking when I was making the record, I was like, 'This is a record that talks about being too much.' It's easy to be too much when you're a woman and you're easily told to shut up or maybe be less loud or maybe keep your composure."

The Recording Academy spoke with Chris after her set at Corona Capital in Guadalajara, Mexico, where she share more about Chris, how dancing helps connect with international audiences, how female artists are forming a sisterhood and more. 

This is your first time in Mexico. How has it been?

It's too short. I will come back because I just arrived yesterday, performed today for like 15 minutes, which was lovely. Great crowd, really embracing and warm, but it's already done, so I want to do more. I wish I could come back. I was really eager to come here, actually. I was intrigued by Mexico. I wish I had more time to just properly explore. Some of my dancers actually stayed longer than me to explore a bit before the gig.

What intrigues you about it?

I've been here only like a day, but I think it's really vibe-y and spiritual. I don't know if I'm fantasizing it or not, but I feel like some things are connected and people have this relationship to spirituality that feels uplifting and celebratory and I think it's a really great feeling. Also when you're on stage, you can feel there is, I don't know, people project something that was quite different than other countries to me.

Your latest album is called Chris. What was the inspiration behind it?

Second album, second chapter. I'm saying "chapter" on purpose because hopefully there'll be a whole novel. [Laughs.]

That record came out like four years after the debut album, which was kind of life-changing to me. [The first album] was unexpectedly successful, and in Chris I wanted to tell the complexity of where I was. I was stronger than I used to be, more powerful also with what happened to me as a woman. I was lustful, frustrated, but full of that eagerness to live things fully. I was also joking when I was making the record, I was like, "This is a record that talks about being too much." It's easy to be too much when you're a woman and you're easily told to shut up or maybe be less loud or maybe keep your composure. I was like, "I want an album that talks about excess and carnal desires like men can talk about." It would be like a rock star album. 

In the U.S. there's a study out that women are very underrepresented musically at festivals and on charts. Do you have any thoughts on that?

Yeah, it's fascinating also because there are lots of great female musicians out like ... Grimes, Rihanna, there are tons of fantastic female performers, but we are weirdly underrepresented in the statistics and I was actually really surprised to learn that. Also, in a way it doesn't surprise me, unfortunately though. It's not even just in music, it's everywhere. Even in the technical jobs, women are not there. I never worked with a female sound engineer. Never. Ever.

When you're a female artist, it's twice as hard. You're sexualized immediately. You are questioned five times more, and if you try to navigate the complicated waters of the mainstream, you have to find a way to be a woman that is appealing and not threatening. It's complicated, but I think with everything that happens now, hopefully it's going to stretch a bit what it means to be a woman in this industry. There are lots of fantastic female performers that should be topping the charts. Rosalia, lots of inspiring females around.

I also think what changes in a good way is solidarity and that becomes a real thing, like a sisterhood. I noticed, even myself as a performer, that women are exchanging way more, talking way more to each other, building strong friendships that can help them along the way. I think solidarity comes to be a real thing, which is a good thing.

The festival's mission is to bring international artists that have not been here before. What is it like for you to be able to bring your music to a new place?

It's always reallly interesting because you get to discover if there is a relationship or not with your music and people over there and what is the relationship. So it's really a great moment when you can discover exactly how you exist as an artist for them. It was quite soothing [here] because I saw people mouthing the words of an English record made by a French woman.

How is it for you to play a French song in front of an audience that doesn't speak French?

This is where music is also great. [It's] this weird universal language. I think even though people don't really get it, they kind of get it, which is good. As French people, we listen to lots of English pop music when we're young and you get the emotion anyway. You don't even have to understand and sometimes when you do understand you go, "Ohhh, ohhh." I think with music you can also connect the physicality of my performances every time with the dancing. The body also speaks hopefully. So there is also a way to convey the emotion with the body, so people get if I'm sad or happy. 

You dance, you sing. Do you have a favorite form of expression?

Sometimes it shifts. Sometimes I feel more like dancing and sometimes the singing's the only thing I can do, which is why I do love this weird job of mine. I can do everything at once. It's shifting constantly. It's also cool because I have cycles. Like, I need to come back to the studio. Oh no wait, I need to be on stage. Oh no wait, I need to shut up. Oh wait. Yeah, all over the place.

What's next for you after Corona Capital? What are you doing?

 I'm touring a bit with Florence and the Machine, actually. She's inviting me on her tour, which is a great, great thing to be in because she's touring the U.S. in huge venues. She's huge as a performer there. So I'm like, "Thank you for inviting me."

Then I'm doing all the summer festivals. Then I think I'm going to stop to write some more because I started to write already and I want to release music sooner than four years in between records.
 

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Holy Ghost!

Courtesy of Corona Capital 

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Holy Ghost! On What "Do This" Is Really About & Why They Feel So Good About 'Work'

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Before the synthpop duo's latest record comes out in June, they sit down with the Recording Academy to talk about everything leading up to the album
Jennifer Velez
GRAMMYs
May 15, 2019 - 2:21 pm

Synthpop duo Holy Ghost!, comprising Nick Millhiser and Alex Frankel, are on the heels of releasing their first album in roughly six years, Work, and this time they're determined to stick to their guns.

"I feel more simultaneously less worried about what other people think about it," Millhiser told the Recording Academy. "But of course, you're in a band, you want people to like it."

The New Yorkers, whose last album was 2013's Dynamics and have remixed the likes of Phoenix, Cut Copy and Moby, have released a series of scintillating singles from Work (out on June 21), "Do This," "Escape To Los Angeles" and "Anxious."

The Recording Academy sat down with the duo at Corona Capital in Guadalajara, Mexico to talk about what their single "Do This" is really about, how they've grown since their last album, audience reception, what artist they'd like to remix and more. 

Hey guys, how does it feel to be in Mexico? 

Alex Frankel: Fantastic. We love being here, we don't get to come here often enough.

Tell me about the vibe you get from the Mexican audience on stage.

Frankel: Amazing, we've always had great shows in Mexico, we haven't played here in a while.

Nick Millhiser: When was the last time we played here?

Frankel: I'm not sure, but it's been a long time.

Millhiser: Four years ago?

Frankel: We've always thought about like, New York, Los Angeles, and Mexico as kind of the places that we feel most at home at, that make up the core of the audience for us. It's great to be back here.

What about Mexico makes you feel at home?

Millhiser: It's a hard question to answer.

Frankel: Everyone's always been really nice, I know that sounds like a simple answer, but everyone's always been really interested in what we do because we do something kind of unusual as an electronic band ... It's been a great experience.

Millhiser: Just as people, like Alex and I both come here for vacation, I have friends here.

Frankel: On our own free will.

Millhiser: I come here with my family once a year, but as a band—I know every band says that any city that they're in is their favorite city to play. But we've only played Mexico City and Guadalajara, and it's almost surprising how good the reception is, it's not like anywhere else. I think we mostly play in America, I don't know if American audiences are a little cynical or something but in America it always feels like shows are a bit of—you spend the first 10 or 15 minutes trying to like get them on your team or something. Whereas like, every time we've played in Mexico it's like, the second we make noise they're like "aah." It just feels like everybody's rooting for you and they're happy to have people. 

I don't know, maybe in New York or L.A. they're spoiled because every band plays there all the time. For us, we've played in New York probably five times in the time that's lapsed since we were last here. So maybe there's something to the fact that people are receptive to bands just because it's harder for them to come here, so they don't come here as often.

You're the second band I've spoken to who made that observation about American audiences.

Frankel: To me, "you just have to win them over" is the default setting for American audiences. And honestly, for most of the world. It's despite the fact that they spent their money to go there, they wanted to see you play, everybody kinda starts like, "prove to me that this is good." And maybe it takes like one song, two songs to get there, but even today as a festival is an unusual experience as a band. You know, it always takes you a second, a minute to find your bearings as a band. Just like the second when we just started making noise when we were sound-checking, like people were making song requests and stuff. It's great, it's really nice.

So you're releasing your first album in six years, is that right?

Millhiser: It's coming out in June.

Frankel: Has it been six years?

Millhiser: It's five and a half, but who's counting?

Frankel: Six years! 2013 to '19.

What can you tell us about it? 

Millhiser: It's done, which is nice. It's the first music in six years. No, I think we're really proud of it, it's not like we spent six years making it. We toured a lot off the last record and we put out an EP in between, but I don't know. I think we both feel probably better about this record than any of the other ones. Very excited to start playing it live.

What about this new record do you feel better about?

Millhiser: I think on the first two records I was always like, especially on the first record where we'd never done anything, Alex and I essentially gave up on being professional musicians when we were 22 and then when we released "Hold On." People really liked it, so it was like I was always kind of like surprised that as many people liked it with "Hold On," or remixes we were doing. I think the way I thought about it was like, "Well, if I like this and I'm proud of it there's probably another group of people that will as well. My taste isn't so weird."

I think my taste is kind of in line with other people but how many people that is, I have no idea. I think that was the way we thought about the first two records, was like, I think we think some people will like this, but how many? I don't know. Whereas like, this one feels more like I don't know, it's hard to explain. I feel more simultaneously less worried about what other people think about it. But of course, you're in a band, you want people to like it, that's the idea. Just more confident that like, it's just gonna be what it's gonna be, and hopefully it reaches more people than you did the last time, but you never know.

Tell me about "Do This." What was the influence behind it?

Millhiser: Alex started that, that was actually one of the quicker songs on the record to finish. Honestly on every album, like every album has been ... almost every song is really difficult and then maybe one or two songs at the end are really fast, and "Do This" was one of the songs. 

Frankel: There's like the 10-minute songs and then the 10-month songs. That's a ten-minute song.

We do this: sit at the piano, write the song and then you just work backward, which sometimes can be hard, but in this case, it was a pretty easy one for us. I don't know. I think people think that song is a date, about like a girl or a relationship but I think it's more about just like, a lot of times you know, people are like "Why are you taking so long?" for us. "Why do you take so long, why do you care so much about the sound, why do you tour the way you do, why do you insist on playing with a live band? Why don't you just DJ, you could make more money, blah blah blah." We kind of stick to our guns to some extent. Like we really like and enjoy the process of making music in a very personal, unique way that's not in a computer. 

Is there an artist that you'd like to remix that you haven't yet?

Millhiser: A lot, I think. It's always hard I think because you don't want to touch ... you want to say "oh, Depeche Mode, or f**kin' The Talking Heads, or whatever, Pharrell," but you don't wanna touch anything that's already perfect so it's kind of a tricky one.

Frankel: That's always the hardest. I think honestly the remixes that we've been most proud of doing were not necessarily songs that we heard and we were like, "Oh my god, this song is amazing."

Millhiser: And sometimes that makes it harder. When a song is really perfect already you're kind of like, "Why would I touch this? Why would I change anything?" Whereas, I feel like there have been things here and there that I've heard, I can't think of them off the top of my head, where I was like, "I would really like to do a remix of that." Maybe this sounds arrogant, but there are seldom things that you ... to me, I'll remix s**t in some way like, improve or like embellish on like the original? So like remixing something that you already love is really tough. Whereas like the easiest things to remix are the things that you hear and you're like, "I think they could've done this differently, I wish it went like this." Where it's like, you can already hear things that you would just do differently.

But I would love to remix this Stevie Nicks song, that's always the first thing I think of, but I wouldn't. All of my favorite Stevie Nicks songs are perfect.

Christine And The Queens On 'Chris': "This Is A Record That Talks About Being Too Much"

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boy pablo

Photo: Benjamin Hovlandsdal

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Boy Pablo On Growing Up Bicultural & Why Writing About Love Comes Easily To Him

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The Recording Academy caught up with Nicolas Pablo Rivera Muñoz after his set at Corona Capital fest in Guadalajara, where he shared more about his first time in Mexico, growing up bicultural, new music and more
Jennifer Velez
GRAMMYs
May 14, 2019 - 1:15 pm

"How would you feel if I walked up to you one day and ripped your heart out?" sings Nicolas Pablo Rivera Muñoz, a.k.a. boy pablo, the singer/songwriter and musician from Norway whose catchy indie rock is on the rise. "Losing You" is just a taste of his signature blend of upbeat sounds and lyrics expressing the rollercoaster that love is, from heartache to infatuation.

"It's weird 'cause I like to keep my things private, actually. I don't really have the need to share an experience about love," he told the Recording Academy. "But I didn't find anyone with a cool voice ... so, I had to sing my own songs."

Muñoz, who is of Chilean descent, began making music in 2015 and found internet fame roughly two years later via a viral video for one of his earlier singles, "Everytime." Since then, the world has come to know his music through 2018's Soy Pablo EP and 2017's Roy Pablo EP. 

The Recording Academy caught up with Muñoz after his set at Corona Capital fest in Guadalajara, where he shared more about his first time in Mexico, growing up bicultural, new music and more. 

It's your first time in Mexico, how do you feel being here? Is it everything you thought it would be? 

Yes. It feels like home cause it's a Latin American country. So I feel good and the weather's good, and yeah it's fun ... I don't know what I expected, actually. [Laughs.]  'Cause I've heard a lot of weird stuff about Mexico, but it's really a beautiful country.

I heard you speaking Spanish on stage.

Yeah. [Laughs.] My parents are from Chile so I learned Spanish when I was a little kid.

How was your set? 

They gave us a short time, but it was really fun. It was another kind of show 'cause we normally do longer shows, but really fun. We used all our energy in those 30 minutes that they gave us, and it was really fun. And the Mexican crowd was amazing.

How did the name "boy pablo" come about?

[Laughs.] I wanted an artist name with the name "Pablo" in it. And I asked my manager Fabio what could go with "Pablo." I came up with a lot of ideas and nothing was really cool. When I chose the name boy pablo, I really didn't think it was cool. I don't know. But Fabio suggested it.

How does it feel bringing your music to the world now? 

It's kind of a natural thing. When I made music, I thought like, people could like this maybe and then I showed it to my friends and my family and they were like really supportive. They were like, "Yeah, you've got to put it out." And in a strange way, we got famous by a YouTube video. So it's really like social media that made the project this big.

What was your reaction when the video blew up?

Suddenly, one day in October 2017 I was getting a lot of followers on Instagram. I called my manager Fabio and I was like, did you buy followers [for] my account? He was like, what are you talking about? And then I checked a couple of videos, we had a video for "Your Phone" and "Flowers." It was neither of them. Then I checked "Everytime" and suddenly it had like 20,000 views more than the last time I checked, then the next day 100,000 and then 250,000. It was crazy. I didn't know what to think cause it happened so fast. But we're so thankful for that now. 

GRAMMYs
 
Photo: William Glandberger
 
You mentioned your Chilean parents, but you grew up in Norway. How was that experience for you, and how do your cultures influence your music? 

Well, I'm a chill guy and people in Norway, they don't express feelings at all. That expressing feelings I got from my family, being chill I got from being Norwegian. But yeah, it's really cold [in Norway]. So there's nothing to do, normally. You just hang out at people's houses and it can be boring sometimes. So it was natural for me to make music and yeah, my parents showed me a lot of Latin music when I grew up.

Like what?

Américo. Ráfaga. A lot of like nuevo ola from the '70s. 

I'm Mexican-American. We sometimes refer to our language as "Spanglish." For you is there something you call when you speak Spanish and Norwegian?

Yeah, we mix languages. When I don't remember a word in Spanish cause I don't practice my Spanish so much as I like to, but yeah, we speak NorSpanish? [Laughs.] I don't know.

You write a lot of love songs. What's it like putting your experiences with love out in the world?

It's weird 'cause I like to keep my things private, actually. I don't really have the need to share an experience about love, but I've done that with some songs. But other songs, I actually write it like as a love song, but it can be about anything else. It's just easy for me to write about love, 'cause it's such a common thing to feel.

What came first for you, writing lyrics or playing instruments?

Definitely playing instruments. Actually, before I started boy pablo, I tried to find somebody, anyone that could sing my songs. But I didn't find anyone with a cool voice or that was a good friend or something. So yeah, I had to sing my own songs. The lyrics don't come easy to me. So I use a lot of time to work on those, although they're really simple, [as English is] not my first language.

What's next for you after Corona Capital?

We have a lot of festivals coming up this summer. We have like 25, like all over the world. Like France, Spain, Hungary. We're going to The States as well. And I'm working on new music.

Any more details you can give us?

I'm planning a couple of collaborations. I can't tell with who, but I hope one of those songs will be released soon, before the summer. 

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