Rigoberta Bandini (that is to say, Paula Ribó from Barcelona) stars in double news: her temporary withdrawal from the stage as of December 23 and the publication tomorrow of her first album, La emperatriz.
It is an album made up of eight already well-known songs, to which are added four original and unpublished compositions, and with a sound cut that does not seek an invitation to dance at first
Why now the album?
A year ago I was not at all clear, because I did not see much point in it. He was so happy putting out my singles, and he bragged about it too. But before this spring, in March, the project began to take on a dimension that I needed to organize in my head and I felt the need to frame all the songs that I had created, add some that people did not know to offer something new and give meaning to a first job to be able to advance. It has been like a need to understand my stages, to understand where a stage ends. It also helps me to put an end to it, to continue advancing and continue exploring new things, surprising myself. But until I have needed it, I have not done it.
By the way, he has self-released the album, but surely record offers will not have been lacking, right?
Right, the album is edited by us. We uploaded it through The Orchard platform, but the record label does not exist. We have had offers but none of them, although some are economically interesting, can be compared to the freedom of being able to dominate your own project. At the moment it compensates us, although never say never because that is something we do not know.
The album contains eight already known singles and four unreleased songs.
Yes, Too many drugs come out, Let Christ come down, In Spain we call it loneliness, Perra, Ay mama, To all my lovers, That's how I danced and Julio Iglesias. And the new ones are Que Vivir Se un Jardín, Tú y yo, Canciones de amor a tí and the one that names the album, La empress.
What criteria have you followed?
If I disappeared and someone listened to my album, how would I like to be seen as an artist? I have sought for each song to have an emotional ingredient, as is the case with Julio Iglesias, whose lyrics represent me a lot, they are melancholic, inveterate like me, who feed on images of the past.
Is there a sound thread in an album with a good part of it already published?
I didn't want any other cathartic song to enter, because the album already had so many, but I wanted songs that act as an emulsion between all this catharsis and that the smallest thing is returned to us.
But the musical roots of the album are recognizable, right?
Our references are always Franco Battiato, Mocedades, Abba... or more contemporary things like Stromae, The Blaze, Rosalía, Angèle, or electronic things that also inspire us. Mixes are always what I like the most.
Explain the new songs: Songs of love to you.
It speaks of love for my son but it is expansive, of celebration. A theme of my house, of my love for my baby, but that transcends. And I tell him things like I love him very much, but I don't know much about cooking. On the other hand, his father does know.
Let living be a garden.
Like the previous one, it is produced by Estefano Macarrone and Esteban Navarro, who is my partner and father of my son, and is also a musician, comedian, producer and many other things. It is an indispensable piece on this album, and is co-author in practice of many songs. That living is a garden is an interlude, a song I composed when I was already born but it's like a little diary where I explain a little about what it was like to get pregnant, understand that I had a life inside with all its bittersweet parts. I was interested that it be there because my son was born at the same time as this project.
You and I.
It's also a love song, it's more introspective because I wrote it when I was confined on the first Christmas. It was that moment when my son was 6 months old and I caught covid, and I had to separate from him for 10 days, it was very hard. It was a necessary song because it reminds me of the time of covid, which luckily or unfortunately has coexisted with this album, with this project. I know it's not a super danceable song, but in the end with this album I've already released many hits, many lololos and many lalalas, and now I want to show the truth and give away capsules of my little heart directly. I insist, I no longer needed more dancing, more catharsis, but something more intimate. Obviously, in all my songs I always start from my truth, which shows, but I didn't want and don't want to become addicted to lololo and lalala,
The Empress.
It is produced by Fluren
Surely not a few people associate that empress with you, don't you think?
Well, I want everyone to interpret what they want because, in reality, we are all empresses. The empress is in fact born from a tarot card that has been like my amulet in this project, my little virgin, and the empress symbolizes abundance and fertility and not only as a mother but also at the project level. An abundance that has accompanied me throughout this journey. And between both aspects, my grandmother and the tarot card, there is a lane in the middle that is like something abstract, that is, that each one interprets what he wants. When I titled the whole album The Empress, all the way I've come since 2018-19 when I started composing, this little virgin of the Empress helped me. Look, the cover of Ay mama was the empress... I could only title it that way because it is an album soaked with the empress on all sides
Is the faith that your grandmother transmitted to you very present in your life?
I have faith in myself, but above all because I have faith in everything that is not myself. For me, faith is trust, the commitment to understand that we belong to something nice, beautiful, that surrounds us. Then the world is not against us, we have no reason not to believe in ourselves, and therefore I have no reason not to believe in myself.
