How Grunge, Techno, and ‘100 Years Of Solitude’ Inspired Elsa Y Elmar’s Album ‘Palacio’

The Colombian-born, Mexico-based singer-songwriter Elsa Y Elmar spent the last two years writing and recording new music. When she finally had a collection of songs ready go, she sat back and tried to determine exactly what she’d created. “I called up my friend, who is a philosopher and visual artist, and I was like, ‘Can you help me figure out I just made?” she tells Rolling Stone.

The two of them started dissecting every song, every lyric, every instrumental. Toward the end of that process, her friend came to her and said, “I just re-listened to your song ‘Palacio’ (‘Palace’) and I think that’s the heart of the album. All of this is a story of your life, but told from your little palace.”

That became the name of the LP, which dropped earlier this month, and it’s full of bright, introspective pop songs about love, heartbreak, life, and death. It’s easily one of the most carefree, lighthearted projects she’s put out since she started making songs after graduating the Berklee College of Music. Five Latin Grammy nominations and several EPs and LPs later, Elsa Y Elmar seems more confident in her voice than ever.

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For Elsa, the lengthy process has been worth it: “This album is one I had to fight for. I wanted to create it under my rules, with my vision, and that meant a lot of patience and a lot of trust in my intuition and in myself,” she says. “Sometime the creative process is hard because everything makes you feel like you’re crazy. But to finish the album and release it means that my impulses were right. And I want people to know that sometimes things take time, and that’s okay.”

Below, Elsa shares how she came up with five of the standout songs on Palacio.

“Ké MaL”

This was one of my babies on the album. Something that was important to me was to have this album feel easy. I didn’t want it to be labored or to be something like, “This was such a difficult creative process.” I wanted it to feel impulsive and fun. Obviously, some things take more than others, but in this case, this song started when my best friend, who produces a lot of my music, came over to my house. I said, “You know what? Today let’s make a song about you. Put your head on my head and transfer anything you want to express to the world.”

We grabbed some guitars and we started to just let anything come out. I grabbed a microphone and it was this complete torrent; the song just flowed out. The lyrics were almost like a freestyle and boom, we recorded right after. I can say it all happened in about two hours. That whole process really does capture the essence of Palacio . It has that grunge element. In the video, we brought the message to life by playing out this romance between me and my bass player, but the song is kind of saying, “This isn’t going to happen, but oh well.” It’s about accepting a situation and not lamenting it.

“Lento Violento”

This was a techno song honoring Gigi de Agostino and his genre, and it was a totally new zone for me. When I’m exploring new sounds, I try to be very respectful. I don’t want things to feel forced or badly executed, but this one took a lot. It took a year to get the production right. The lyrics and concept took me back to traveling to Europe with friends, and the video is going to be footage from that trip. I also did something really fun when I was writing: I grabbed a copy of [Gabriel García Márquez’s] 100 Years Of Solitude and I’d open it randomly and go, “Bloop!” And whatever word I’d land on, I’d try to write lyrics from there. I wanted new words and new ideas, and that’s how I built the message.

But the sound, wow. It was so complicated because I didn’t want it to sound like a copy of the genre. I wanted to sound like an Elsa Y Elmar version, so I was like, “What can we take out? What can we add?” On the radio here in Mexico, they play all this Nineties music and they played this house song that totally gave me a vibe, so that’s where the plan to make this started.

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“Visto”

My albums don’t really have a lot of collaborations. I don’t know why. It’s rare for me. But Álvaro de Luna’s people wrote to me because he was coming to Mexico to do a songwriting session. I’m really possessive with my songwriting but for whatever reason, I was like, “Okay. I’m feeling this.” And it’s funny, with Álvaro, he totally has this rock star image. He’s like this handsome Spaniard, he’s a total rock star. And I’m totally not. But there’s a line in the song: “You left me on read.” I remember thinking it was just so funny to have this alpha male on a song about how humiliating it is to get left on read. He loved the song and added his part, which I thought was so fresh and smart. If I’m being honest, I was nervous about whether or not we’d be compatible as artists. But the song fit him so well that now when I listen to it, I feel like I could only have done this with him.

We left the session with the whole song almost finished. But it’s still funny to me that that’s what come out of a session with a rock star. When I’m in the studio, I’m always like, “Let’s just play and see what we’re feeling.” My producer Julian was just messing around with a synth and I was like, “Keep going!”

“Querer Asi”

Lately, I’ve been saying that Palacio is about life and death and everything in between. I went to a writing session, wondering what I was going to write about. I get there and I receive this text from my mother, saying, “Your grandfather is incredibly sick and he’s in the intensive care unit. I’ll keep you posted.” I was totally shocked. I had all these Post-its and markers, and the other guys in the session were working on stuff while I was writing. And all of a sudden, I started writing about what had just happened: the shock of when a loved one is near the end, and you’re seeing their death play out in your mind. When it’s a grandparent, it’s different because they’ve lived their life already. So this song just came out. The message is, “If you have to go, then go, because I’m already carrying you inside of me.”

“Drogada De Emocionas”

What’s important to me about this album is that even though it’s about these serious topics — life, death, heartbreak, cheating — there are moments when you just want to have fun. Palacio is about understanding that life is super complicated, but we’re here to have fun, to fall in love, to cry, to enjoy, and then to do it all over again. And this is the song that reflects the joyful side of Palacio .

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