Alma Muñeca – Deseo Un Brillo
Today, Austin, TX-based art-pop band Alma Muñeca announces their healing, otherworldly EP, Deseo un Brillo, due out October 24.
Alongside the full project is the Brat summer-inspired “Melancolía,” a dreamy, sweaty, nostalgic ode to coping with change and the grief of losing one’s blind trust and growing up.
Tomorrow, on October 25, the group will celebrate with an official EP release party at Elysium in Austin with Almost Heaven and I Wear Your Chain. The EP, written in Spanish, is an empowering search for self-confidence, peace, and healthy, fulfilling relationships.
The synth-filled, raw “Melancolía” came about during the height of Brat summer and came together naturally and quickly. Producer Ernesto Grey (Font, Farmer’s Wife, Loveme, The Opera) shares, “It’s two simple chords and a dance beat lead the verses but what makes the song really special to me was its chorus. Similarly to “Sympathy is a Knife” by Charli XCX, the song takes a left turn by constantly skipping the first beat and getting smacked in the face with a wall of arpeggiated synths.”
“As soon as we had a musical base, I started blurting out what is now “‘Melancolía,'” says lead singer Cocó Allegra. The upbeat, high energy production juxtaposes the downcast lyricism as the band explores coming to terms with the flaws of their loved ones.
“It’s about the melancholy and nostalgia you feel as you grow up and realize your parents and family are human too and make lots of mistakes. Realizing someone you idolized is actually very flawed and wishing you could go back to thinking of them like a superhero and idealized. That moment when you can’t ever go back to that naïve child-like love and wishing your view of them never got tainted. Grieving that blind trust you have when you’re a child. It’s the one song of the EP that is not about romantic relationships yet it could be interpreted as that too.”
Written during a bout of heartbreak, the project, produced by producer and band member Ernesto Grey (Font, Farmer’s Wife, Loveme, The Opera), dives into desire, love and heartbreak–the dynamics between being on and off with someone as well as familial heartbreak and disappointment. Over five tracks, it chronicles the intricate difficulties of navigating nuanced relationships. Lead singer Cocó Allegra explains, “How can I feel so passionate and loving about someone yet I also feel so much confusion, anger and sadness about them too? Keeping yourself hopeful in hopeless moments, freezing time with my lyrics and sharing it with the world, hoping someone out there can find comfort in them. I wrote this trying to find answers to questions, trying to heal and at the same time manifest self confidence.”
Grey has worked his whole life for this moment–from early life in Mexico to his formative teen years in Austin. “It feels like I’ve been trying to produce music like this my whole life. While growing up in Mexico, I was mostly exposed to 2000s Latin pop music, which was primarily led by rock instrumentation. It wasn’t until I moved to Austin in my teens that I started to endlessly dig for more left field kinds of music.” Grey began to discover his taste and his sound. “I gravitated a lot towards electronic producers such as Trent Reznor, Thom Yorke, Jon Hopkins, etc. With Alma Muñeca, I am able to explore an introspective and ethereal language that feels so familiar to me, but it also pushes me to try things that are more out of my comfort zone. At the end of the day, I just want to make pop music that you can chew on.”
On her inspirations, Allegra says, “I felt inspired by old salsa music that I would play on repeat during breakups, my favorite example is ‘Lloraras’ by Oscar D’León–there’s something comforting about nostalgic music I’ve been listening to forever. At the same time, I was motivated by songs like “oh my love” by FKA Twigs and “I Want You to Love Me” by Fiona Apple.”
The newest single, “Anhelo” out today, sinks into breakup tension and desire. Allegra shares, “There’s lots of tension in this song, it’s like a personal phone call to your ex. It’s the typical moment where you are going through a break up but you still strongly desire to be intimate with your ex, not caring about any consequences.”
On the band’s process on the lively new single, Grey shares, “Generally, our process begins because some modular synth blurts out some noise that catches my attention, ‘Anhelo’ was no different. The song’s wonky instrumental hook was the first thing that was written followed by the bouncy bassline. It lived in an ambiguous state for months.” After playing live, they discovered what made their sound theirs and the appropriate next steps. “We were forced to brush the dust off when we realized we were one song short in order to play a 30 minute live set. By that time, we realized that a lot of our sound hinged, and excelled, on a simple four on the floor dance beat. Once we added that kick drum pattern, all of the songs’ dissonant and experimental textures came to life.”
Alma Muñeca is a four-piece art pop group based in Austin, TX, led by Panamanian immigrant Cocó Allegra and produced by Ernesto Grey along with Matt Russell and Wade Stephens. With their debut project out later this month, the group pairs honest stories of love and heartbreak with experimental, synth-filled production and dreamy vocals featuring lyrics sung in her native Spanish language. Through their live performances, the band aims to uplift the Latin and queer communities.
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