RECORDS LiVE

Tamara: Saraí is going to make me look stupid because I can’t pronounce things in Spanish.

Saraí: Oh yeah. Are you guys ready for some Spanish music?

Song Plays: Shakira – Pies Descalzos, Sueños Blancos

Tamara: This is honestly one of the best songs. I’m so excited for this one. It’s called “Pies Descalzos, Sueños Blancos.”

Saraí: “Pies Descalzos, Sueños Blancos” by Shakira.

Tamara: Take me through why you chose this one.

Saraí: This is one of the first songs where I was like, “Wow, I have gained sentience as a human being.” Because this song is so politically charged and so poetic in its lyrics. I don’t know about y’all, but if you’ve heard Shakira recently, the vibe is very pop, sales, international, consumable. This is not that. Shakira in the 90s was talking shit. She was like, “I do not give a fuck.” The title of the song translates to bare feet, white dreams. So, it’s just kind of like, “Oh, you got very soft feet, very soft souls. You don’t know shit. You’re so brand new.” That’s basically the vibe of the song. You’re brand new. You’re just engaging with society the way it’s been handed to you. You don’t question anything. You go to church. You eat it up. She’s just angry about it. The whole time I tried singing this song recently I was like, “Damn, this bitch does not take a single breath during this song.” She’s just like, “rawr.” The vibe is very “woof-woof,” you know? When I was a child, this song made me cry. Because obviously, I wasn’t as politically in the know as I am now, but I could feel something coming from Shakira. I’m like, “Shakira’s angry about something.” I feel like I’m angry about that too, but I don’t know what it is. In the last part of the song, she’s going extra rah-rah-rah with it. She’s like, “Oh, when you turn 15, you dance the waltz, and you drink champagne.” And I’m like, “Yeah, what the fuck is up with that? That’s crazy. Why do you do that when you turn 15? That’s stupid.” It’s women before 30, you gotta get married before you’re 30. As an eight-year-old, I was like, “Whoa, what?” I never questioned these things. Shakira was really, screaming about it, you know? I feel like it woke me up. It removed the veil from my eyes.

Tamara: Shakira radicalized you?

Saraí: She was the beginning of my radicalization. For sure.

Tamara: When you were eight years old, were you listening to music based on the lyrics and how angry they made you feel? Or was it just this one?

Saraí: Yeah, I feel like I was mostly listening to music based on if it had a nice melody, or my parents were just listening to this. This was part of my mom’s music collection. My dad’s music collection was much bigger, but I think my mom’s music collection was more Shakira.

Tamara: And how do you think Shakira shaped the music you’re making now?

Saraí: I recently had a music producer be like, “Oh, you do that thing like the ah-uh-ah…” He was like, “Two people do that— The singer of The Cranberries, and I’m not gonna say who else because people don’t like it.” I was like, “No, who? Who does it? You gotta tell me.” They were like, “Shakira.” And I was like, “Yes! Oh my God! Shakira does that.” It really shapes how I write melodies.

Tamara: Honestly, I was listening to the song and I was like, okay, this sounds like Porkboii. This is real Porkboii right now.

Saraí: That’s such a nice compliment.

Tamara:  I love Shakira. I’ll put that out there. I love that woman. I love her when she had dark hair.

Saraí: She’s such an Egyptian/Mexican culture.

Tamara: She’s Lebanese but love you. Lebanese, yeah.

Saraí: I’m culturally blind.

Tamara: That’s okay. I can’t pronounce Spanish words.

Song Plays: Claudia Bramnfsette – Yo Te Atrapo, Tu Me Atrapas

Tamara: Okay, this is honestly an interesting one because this is a cover from an anime but in Spanish. So, walk me through it. Why this choice?

Saraí: It is a localized version of an anime intro song in Spanish. I used to watch a lot of anime when I was a child. This is one of the first cartoons that I watched where I understood that there can be character development and real plotlines in children’s storytelling. As a child, I was so used to being coddled by media made for children. This was the first time that I was just like, “Oh, this is really great.” This is just such a fucking banger.

Tamara: It’s so good.

Saraí: Then immigrating to the United States, I realized that songs aren’t localized here. They either just do a different song, which is ass, or they just leave the Japanese opening, which is crazy. I feel like Mexican song covers and localizations were such a big part of my music upbringing, my cultural literacy growing up. This song is just so sincere and it’s so cheesy. I’m such a cheesy songwriter. I feel like this really resonates with me because it’s just so silly. It’s just such a silly song.

Tamara: I obviously don’t understand the translation of it, but I love pop music like this, so sweet it’s going to give you a toothache. I feel like this is definitely that. It’s so sweet.

Saraí: Yeah. When I was a child, I loved pop music unironically. Then as I got older, I was just like, “Oh, pop music, whatever. It’s so commercial.” Now I think pop music is that friend that you need because it’s just fun. You want to have fun time? You want to get drunk on a Tuesday night? You’re like, “Yes, I want to get drunk on a Tuesday night. Even though I work tomorrow.” And this is that, you know, it’s just so cute and so fun. I think pop can be such a sneaky little vehicle for radical ideas. It’s just wrapped up in this little fun like, “Oh, we’re having a fun time.” But it’s just like, “No, no, we’re not. We’re critically thinking and we’re going to set the government on fire. The whole thing.” I feel like a lot of pop musicians are doing that right now. They talk about recession music. I think this is definitely not recession. This is like economically very well music, but I think you need this to have recession music, and I just love pop. I just switched my mind up about pop growing up. I think because it was embedded in my heart, really emotionally. I was able to embrace it again and recognize how important it is.

Tamara: You’ve been cited before listing your music as Friendship Pop. Do you still stand by that, or do you think you’ve evolved from that?

Saraí: I think friendship is so important. I will never stray away from Friendship Pop because I think certain relationships are hierarchically organized in people’s lives, and I think friendship is so important. I will never walk away or turn my back on friendship. I think that is one of the foundational relationships that people can have. That is the first relationship that you have outside of your parenting relationship. If you’ve got friends, tell them you love them. Fuck telling your mom you love her. I mean, still, you know, tell her you love her, whatever. I hope she knows that if you do. If you don’t, good for you.

Tamara: Yeah, turn to the person next to you and say that you love them.

Audience to each other:  I love you.

Saraí: Nice. You guys are so good at following directions.

Tamara: I know. They’re so good. Everybody clap.

Audience claps.

Song Plays: Julieta Venegas – Algo Está Cambiando

Tamara: Okay, so this is another artist that I don’t recognize. Julieta Venegas.

Saraí: Julieta Venegas was me becoming a teenager before I went through puberty for sure. Because “Algo Está Cambiando” is like “something’s changing within me.” You know, something’s clicking. I’m thinking about things I didn’t think about before, but I was like, nine or ten. I’m not going through anything that should make me feel that way.

Tamara: But you’re like, “You’re so right, Queen. You’re so right with this.”

Saraí: Yes. I’m thinking about things. What’s going on, you know? It’s like, “Wow, that’s new. I’ve never been thinking before.”

Tamara: I’ve never thought a day in my life and today I’ve decided to think.

Saraí: I’m thinking now. This whole album too, it feels like such a coming of age. Usually, people think of coming of age as like, “I’m a teenager. I’m coming of age.” But I think oftentimes it’s more common for adults to be coming of age into their adulthood and to really understand their independence and who they are in the world and finding your place in the world. Going through heartbreak for the first time, going through separation, going through relationships and really building that life for your own. Also, dropping the ball and stumbling through it the whole way. Give it up for your 20s.

Tamara: We’re almost out of it. Are you out of it?

Saraí: I’m 29. I’m a substitute teacher. I was telling my seventh graders, because they were asking, “Oh, you’re 29?” I was like, “Yeah, 29.” They’re like, “Oh, you’re pushing 40.” I’m quite literally not. I’m pushing 30, if that’s what you mean. But yeah, I get it. They’re like, “Oh, you’re not young.” I guess. I personally think I am.

Tamara: You have green hair. You’re young.

Saraí: I’m living it up. I’m drinking on a Tuesday night. Turn Up Tuesday. Yeah, that’s the whole vibe of this whole album. Who’s listened to “Sí” by Julieta Venegas? Okay, one person. Okay, a couple people. I was debating on which song to pick from this album. I think this is the one that shaped my songwriting the most. Also, I really just love Julieta’s melodies. They’re just so conversational. One of the ways that I write music is I think about it as like, what is the natural melody of the phrases that I’m thinking about or the theme? So, the theme is always, to me, what is the point of the song? And it’s a melody or it’s a phrase and then I write the song around that. For this song it’s like, ba da baaa… It’s a really easy melody and I think that’s also why I appreciate pop. It’s very straightforward. It is very easy. It’s friendly, you know, and I love that about pop. I think music should be friendly, and also push boundaries, obviously, that’s what art is for. I also think it’s very important for it to be accessible. You don’t need to be a music expert to enjoy music. You can just understand that two notes go together really well. I don’t know if you all heard of the Millennial Whoop. Big fan of the Millennial Whoop. It’s just like, “ooh-woo-ooh.” That hits so hard when you’re at the club. You can just be grinding on someone and it’s just like, “ooh-woo-ooh,” you know?

Tamara: For the transcription, spell “whoop.”

Saraí: Whoop, W-H-O-O-P.

Tamara: Okay, hell yeah.

Song Plays: Maná – En El Muelle de San Blás

Tamara: So, this is a pretty big artist. People have probably heard of them as well. Make some noise if you’ve heard of them now.

Audience cheers.

Saraí: I love that we got Mexicans in the crowd. ¡Viva! This is from my dad’s music collection.

Tamara: This is such a dad band.

Saraí: It is a dad band. I’m usually a dad music hater. Except for Maná. I really, really love Maná. I picked this song because it was the first time that I was like, “Wow, you can tell stories with music.” I’m a big fan of urban legends and local stories. I think local legends, and song storytelling, is a huge aspect of culture building. This is an urban legend of a town where one of the… I’m forgetting how to say muelle. How do you say muelle, y’all? It’s like a port.

Tamara: Like where ships come out of?

Saraí: Yeah. There’s an urban legend of this lady who was saying goodbye— I’m just translating the song for you guys— Saying goodbye to her lover. He was shipping out for whatever. The song doesn’t specify why. She stays at the port wearing the same white dress, so when he came back, he would recognize her. And he just never comes back. She goes insane from grief. Then it talks about how she turns crazy, and people try to remove her, but she’s grown roots into the port. They cannot take her away and she’s just stuck there loving the ocean and loving the sun. It’s just… The song is so descriptive of what unrequited love feels like, but this is not unrequited love. This is just a love lost song, you know? I think it’s just very relatable. I think people can talk about different lost loves, lost in all kinds of ways. Because love is such a universal experience, you can relate to it no matter what happened. Also, having a place and having a time for a story or a legend makes it resonate so much more because it gives you that imagery and that vision of what’s going on. It makes you feel like you were there, you know? This is a storytelling song, and I love storytelling through music and different mediums.

Tamara: That’s so beautiful. Such a sad urban legend, honestly.

Saraí: It really is sad, but it’s sad in such a satisfying way. Like, yes, tell me about your loss. Tell me about your sadness. I love that. I love being able to hear someone wailing into a mic or wailing into the void or into a crowd and then going, “Oh my god, yeah me too.” Even though I’ve never gone through that as a child. I’ve never been looking into the ocean and been like, “He’s never gonna come back, is he?” But I felt like that listening to the song or I was like, “Oh, I’m the sailor. I’m the sailor going away into the sea even though I hate the ocean.” I don’t hate it. I’m scared of it. It’s really big.

Tamara: Can Porkboii swim?

Saraí: Porkboii can swim, but not for long. So, don’t ever put me in that situation please.

Tamara: How do you implement storytelling in your own music?

Saraí: I try to do it as much as possible. I feel like storytelling is so intimate. A lot of people will write music and be like, “No, I want to make it so as many people can relate to it as possible. I want to make it general. I don’t want to alienate anybody.” I say fuck that. I say write to your experience and write as specific as possible because people will relate if you’re like, “I was at a bar on a Tuesday night at RECORDS LiVE and then you said you didn’t love me anymore.” There will be at least three bitches in the whole world that would be like, “That exact thing happened to me too!” So do it. There is someone out there that needs to hear specifically, exactly your story. I try to not water it down. My song “WJ” is one of them. I thought it was so specific and no one’s gonna relate to being obsessed with some white dude that looks like Jesus Christ that wishes he was an LA “7.” But you’ll be surprised with how many people have come up to me and been like, “Yes, I’ve been in that situation before.” I’m like, “Oh they’re everywhere. I hate that for both of us.”

Tamara: Yeah, honestly “White Jesus” is an amazing song though.

Tamara: You just released “June Bug” too.

Saraí: I released “June Bug,” embarrassingly also about a white guy that I was obsessed with for no reason. It’s a queer anthem now guys. It’s fine.

Tamara: It’s a Pride song. It’s June.

Song Plays: Frankie Cosmos – Fool

Saraí: It’s a Pride song. My mom turned it into a Pride song by being homophobic. I was like, “All right bet, bitch.”

Tamara: Give context.

Saraí: I love Frankie Cosmos.  I’m gonna give context to “June Bug” real quick. In the music video for “June Bug,” my best friend is my love interest and we’re smooching, and my mom saw it and she was like, “I saw it.” And I was like, “What do you see?” I was just like, “Say it. Say it out loud.” She just wouldn’t, and she was like, “What is your family gonna think?” I was like, “They might think I’m gay.” And she was like, “No! What are they gonna do?” I was like, “They can cry about it mom.” She was like, “No, you need to take the video down.” I was like, “Make me.” This was after I moved out so I was like, “You can’t fire me. I quit.” Thanks, mom. Fuck you, mom. I love my mom. We have a complicated relationship. Who has a complicated relationship with their mom? Not as many people as I’d hope but it’s okay.

Tamara: We’re a little quiet right now. It makes me feel insecure. Okay, so you chose a Frankie Cosmos song after all of this. A Frankie Cosmos song, why?

Saraí: I love Frankie Cosmos. The production on the album Next Thing is very naked. I feel like in all the songs we’ve heard up until now, the production has been really clean. Really big, you know? And Frankie Cosmos is the first time that I was exposed to the anti-folk genre. I don’t know why it’s called anti-folk. Maybe because it’s pushing back on really clean production and really big concepts. It’s just very small, very sincere, and I love being sincere in music. I think that’s what it’s for. It’s for being naked and vulnerable.

Tamara: It is for being vulnerable. I feel like a lot of people want to look cool with the music that they make and then they’re missing the aspect of needing to be naked in front of people. You need to expose yourself completely to have people relate and care about it.

Saraí: My goal is to be embarrassed. When I’m workshopping songs if I’m not embarrassed, I’m doing something wrong. I’m skipping steps, you know? If y’all are trying to explore with your artistic side, aim to be embarrassed. Aim to feel naked. Aim to feel vulnerable. Aim to cry in front of people. If you’re not fucking crying, if you’re not listening to your own music and being like, “What?! She said that?” Rework it. That’s just my philosophy with making art.

Tamara: It’s so beautiful because I think one of the first times I saw you perform your song “Criminals,” the unreleased track by a Porkboii, you did cry on stage. From that moment that’s been my favorite Porkboii song, and it’s stuck with me for life. When are you releasing it? You need that vulnerability.

Saraí:  Thank you. Soon. I’ve been crying a lot during “Criminals” recently because of…

Tamara: Everything that’s happening.

Saraí: A lot of things. Yeah. “Criminals” is coming out for you all and hopefully it will inspire you to act, and I’m not gonna say specifically in which ways, but in some way.

Tamara: Yeah, lawful good. It’s lawful in a way that we’re making the laws, and we’re righting the wrongs if we were making the laws.

Saraí: Yeah, reparations for sure.

Song Plays: The Strokes – I’ll Try Anything Once

Tamara: So, you guys heard of The Strokes?

Saraí: This is a demo song by The Strokes. The released track is called “You Only Live Once.” YOLO. It came out during the YOLO time. I think this version of the song is so much fucking better. Every time I listen to “You Only Live Once,” I expect the lyrics to be “I’ll try anything once,” and I’m severely upset when it’s not.  Have you guys ever heard of demoitis? If you’re an artist, you know about demoitis. I got demoitis with this song.

Editor’s aside: Demoitis is the idea that artists fall in love with the first version of something they create even though subsequent versions may be considered “better.” That is debatable because there are often characteristics of a demo that are lost in other iterations.

Saraí: This was the first version of the song I ever heard, and I cannot hear any other version of the song. This version of the song is again, just like the Frankie Cosmos song, it’s just so sincere. It’s so raw. The production is so vulnerable, and it’s so naked. The way he’s talking and speaking into the mic is whispery, it’s soft. It’s like he’s in his bedroom reflecting on ideas. “You Only Live Once” is like a loud yelling song and he’s performing like he’s at the club, you know?  I think this is so important to have, and I’m so glad that Julian Casablancas decided to release this demo. I’m a huge fan of journaling songs, and this feels like a journaling song. It feels like a very raw train of thought situation where he was just letting his thoughts swim around and hang out on the page. You don’t really need to reflect much when you’re journaling, you know? I think it’s so important to expose things like this because I feel like the artistic process is oftentimes so obscured. When artists release oftentimes you don’t see any of the process. So having a demo to listen to for the masses, especially with such a big band as The Strokes, it’s incredible, it’s so valuable, and I wish more bands did that. I understand the desire not to do that because it takes away some of the magic, but I think this is magical. It’s incredible to see different versions of the song. I’m looking at Judcody right now. Judcody has sent me so many versions of his songs and I’m always like, “No, release this one,” and then he’ll keep sending me new ones and they’re all better than the last one. I’m like, “I’m sorry I told you to release the last one. This one’s better.” But I feel like I’m engaging in that magic and living in that magic because I’m in the scene and I can hear my friends’ songs.

Tamara: Are there any demos that you have released already that you’re like, “I don’t want to touch this. It’s perfect as it is.”

Saraí:  Well, no. The thing is, I’m always going to want to improve upon my work and one of my biggest fears is… I have a full released album of demos and “June Bug” was actually one of those, and I was really scared like, “Oh, people have heard the previous version of “June Bug,” they might just hate the new one.” But I feel like it’s been received so well. So, I’m relieved. Even though I’m really attached to the demo and there are some things about the demo that I like more than the released version, I do think the released version fits my vision more. The demo was just a steppingstone, but I will always keep the demos that I have released online because I’m all about the process.

Tamara: That’s amazing. Well, thank you for joining us here today. And thank you guys for sticking with us so long.