Embracing the Things We Like with Los Bitchos

Photo Credit: Victoria Baczynska

In advance of the upcoming release of Los Bitchos third full-length, '& Friends Vol. 1', Alt.Revue’s David Gurney was able to sit down with Serra Petale (Guitar, Programming, Synthesizer, Vocals) and Josefine Jonsson (Bass Guitar, Guitar) to dig into the work that went into this very collaborative venture. 

You've always been an instrumental band. What made this the moment to invite other voices in with & Friends, Vol. 1?

Serra: "It had been a little niggling thing at the back of our minds. For our third record, we were mindful of how we push ourselves as songwriters and musicians, and how we take this record somewhere we haven't been already. And all of us were just: collabs, let's go."

Josefine: "We were so aligned."

Serra: "As per usual. One song, "Forest," wasn't even a straight-out feature; it was a co-write. So, this is also the first time we've had outside people coming in and co-writing. Everything we do is about pushing our own envelope, so it was the most organic choice we had."

You've been playing together for nearly a decade. How has the chemistry grown since Let the Festivities Begin!?

Josefine: "It's always been very strong. The beauty of being in this band has always been how well we get on and how well we work together. It's always been a really exciting and supportive environment, and with every album and every tour, that chemistry gets better, because you know each other so well. On the first album, you're figuring it out. By album three, we could be so confident: bish bash bosh, this is how we work as a team."

Serra: "For me, it's that comfortable space to be yourself. As a resident oddball, you always look for your group, don't you? I found that in Los Bitchos, my other freaks to be on stage with, to be goofy with, to be in the studio with. It's so important to have that space to be you, and to know that no matter what happens, the girls have your back. That doesn't come easy in this life."

This is your first album as a trio. How has that shaped the music and the way you work?

Serra: "I'd say most of the album was written when we were a four-piece. What's mostly changed is how we do things live."

Josefine: "With this campaign, you have to get a bit more creative, because not all the collaborators are going to come on tour with us. Being a three-piece is part of that equation. How do we best present the live version of this album? That's something we're working on at the moment, and it's super exciting."

Serra: "But we'll also say that we love Agustina a lot, and she'll always be here."

Agustina wrote beautifully about her years in the band. What would you want people to know about what she brought to Los Bitchos?

Serra: "She brought a lot. Speaking personally, she's just so otherworldly. I think that's what has always drawn me to her. Sorry, I'm getting emotional about it." 

How did you choose your collaborators?

Josefine: "It's a bit of throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks, in terms of who actually wants to work with you in turn. We made a wish list of people we love, who we thought could work really well on the demos."

Serra: "And some of them, you wouldn't have thought they'd want to be on your record. Sometimes you write to someone thinking, "This is never going to work out, but I'm just going to try." And they come back and say yes."

Adrian Quesada sent back a completely reimagined version of "Hang Up (Pt 2)," one of the first songs you did for the record. How did that shape the album?

Josefine: "I love that collaboration. It was one of the first ones we got back. We sent a song we felt was structurally good and done, and it came back completely reimagined. We were like, "Oh my God." It took the song in a completely different direction, and we loved it. We would never have come up with that ourselves. That's the beauty of collaborating: this album would not sound like this without these collaborators. It creates a new way of working and a new way of thinking."

Serra: "We just thought he'd send back a shred guitar solo, or some extra production. Instead, it was a smorgasbord of incredible ideas. And Josie, your support on that track was paramount. We'd had to park it while we were in Mexico, and then you get back from sunny Mexico to doom and gloom in London, thinking, how are we going to do any of this? You had a really good reference and vision to propel it through."

"That's what I love about being in a band. You get that outside perspective. You get so married to what you've done, and creatively you feel devastated when someone changes it. It's something in your brain that's so hard to get out of."

Is there a "Hang Up (Pt 1)"?

Serra: "It will come later."

Josefine: "Stay tuned."

Serra: "Watch this space."

Nic has said collaboration means embracing what others bring. Was there a moment when that openness really paid off?

Serra: "When Ambrose [Kenny-Smith] sent back the vocal parts for "Holding Cell" - perfect, by the way - I cried. I remember looking at Josie, who is very stoic and together at the best of times, and going, "Oh my God!""

Josefine: "We were in rehearsal, all in different corners of the room, listening on our phones. We'd sent him an instrumental, and he came back with a fully formed, incredible top-line melody: vocal, lyrics, everything. That's what the King Gizz boys do, isn't it? An album in an afternoon. They're just so productive, and at the level they're doing it, it's insane."

Serra, you've cited Elizabeth Fraser's idea that how something is sung matters more than what's sung. Did you share that with your collaborators?

Serra: "No, that's more something I hold for myself. On some of these songs, I use my voice more as a texture, or I'm saying words I think are phonetically fitting. Sometimes I just needed to say something into the microphone so I wouldn't forget it, and that's what ended up on the finished recording. It's okay if I can't write lyrics I feel are fitting; I still sometimes want to use my voice."

"There's a song called "Sunsets" where I'm just singing "reachin' and teachin'." What the hell does that mean? I have no idea, but I love the way it sounds. That's what the Cocteau Twins taught me. They're one of my favorite bands of all time. In shoegaze, the vocal sits back against a wall of reverb and guitars. I don't really know what she's saying a lot of the time, but I don't care."

Has working with voices changed how you hear your instrumental parts?

Josefine: "We definitely had to make space for the vocal when we created these songs. That probably had the biggest impact on Serra's lead guitar, because that's usually what takes up that space in a song. So in the back of our minds, the instrumentals did change a little."

Serra: "But it's still very Bitchos. It was more in the arrangement; we just had to refocus. I haven't felt we needed to change much of how we sound or what we do, and that was really important to us. We didn't want to remove ourselves from our core and who we are."

Josefine: "We're still very much an instrumental band. We did the instrumentation, and the collaborators came in to do the vocals. Our identity is very much the same."

"El Pençe" connects to Serra's Turkish heritage. What did Merve Erdem and Kit Sebastian bring to it?

Serra: "They're the cherries on top. Merve's vocal delivery is so buttery and romantic. That song actually gives me chills; I love it so much. And Kit is so fantastic at production. They made it more dancey. With that little arpeggiator, it went from nice disco to a bit of a dance-floor banger."

Josefine: "There was one section that wasn't clicking, and we couldn't quite figure it out. Then I remember you, Serra, texted us in all caps: "I've corrected it!" You'd reworked that whole section and spread out her vocals in a really atmospheric way. We were just, "Perfect, no notes.""

Serra: "It's a bit like that with some songs. You think you have the idea, and then you have to find that last missing piece of the puzzle. Sometimes that takes months, and at the last second, you swap something in and it works."

Chicha Libre bring their own take on Peruvian cumbia from New York. What was it like meeting them musically on "Conexiones"?

Serra: "We had no notes on that one either."

Josefine: "They did a wonderful transformation of that song."

Serra: "That demo is so old. It was one of the first Bitchos things I ever wrote, close to eight years ago."

Josefine: "It had been lingering. We knew it had something, with some really lovely melodies, but we hadn't cracked it ourselves. It was probably one of the most undeveloped demos we sent to collaborators."

Serra, this is your first time co-producing. What did you discover in that role?

Serra: "How much you actually have to back yourself and be sure of your ideas. We worked with Alex Kapranos on our first album and Oli Barton-Wood on our second. This time, you have moments where you just have to go for it. You have to be there for yourself, keep learning, and think about what might need changing. That was the biggest thing I learnt: to really back my own ideas."

"It was also amazing to continue working with Javier Weyler and his partner in the studio, Alejandro [Lovera]. We know we're in good hands with them. They're two steps ahead of you, making sure they've got the right snare drum and the toms they want, and they allow us to elevate what we already do."

What was it like trading ideas with collaborators remotely instead of being in a room together?

Serra: "I reckon it worked out for the best, because you let people do what they need to do."

Josefine: "It's so exciting to get it back. You're like, "What have they done?" Or, "Wow, I would never have thought about that." It's a cool process."

Your music draws on so many traditions. Do you feel a need to honor them, or is music more of a playground where you bring different things into conversation?

Serra: "I don't feel I need to. It just happens, because we all love music so much. That's why we're doing the band thing. We love performing it; we love everything about it. For me, it's my favorite art form. That love and respect for different types of music, and being willing to embrace them, naturally manifests itself."

Josefine: "When you start overthinking it, that's when you get stuck. Embrace the things you like about everything, don't overthink it, and see what comes out."

Any dream collaborators for the future?

Serra: "I'm going to keep saying it until it happens: Miss Kylie Minogue. Call us. I'll come to your place in Melbourne; I'll be there in December. I'll be the tea girl. Whatever. I love Kylie Minogue so much."

Josefine: "I was going to say, you need to be in that studio producing that shit. I can be the tea lady."

How will these songs come to life on stage?

Josefine: "We're hoping all of them will. What we're working on now is how to incorporate all of this live. For our Europe and UK run, we have Sinkane coming along with us."

Serra: "And we love touring in the US, and North America in general. It's so much fun."