Q&A: A Conversation With Liana Flores
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY ASHLEE PALMER ☆
YOUR WORLD WILL KEEP TURNING, NO MATTER THE WEIGHT PLACED UPON IT—Liana Flores’ And so it goes… is gracefully harvested from this sentiment. Soundtracking her own journey from Norfolk gone with the wind to bustling London, Flores’ latest EP is a testament to putting gentle faith in the world. Narrating the rise and fall that coexist within a dream, Flores’ jazzy melodies are the perfect blend of elegance and pep, embracing an uprooting and sonically decorating her newfound metropolis.
Flores’ name will ring a bell from her song that social media shot into the stratosphere, “rises the moon,” sitting just shy of Spotify’s Billions Club. In murmurs of eldritch warmth, Flores illuminated comfort in the guaranteed reprieve of a sunset.
However, in the years elapsed, And so it goes… transcends Flores’s debut LP Flower of the soul with a refined elegance, trading folk for bossa nova. For quiet appreciators of city-jazz band Lamp or of Laufey’s earlier work, Flores draws influence from Brazilian heritage and rural British upbringing that bestows a third coat of paint when rehomed within an urban ecosystem.
The record’s title track is a twee polaroid of jazz influence, bundling Nina Simone and Norah Jones in the promise of a morning coffee. The eponymous “So it goes” reminds us of the sweetness of routine, and what too shall pass. Over lilted vocal valleys, even a robust routine is gentle, yet to be inevitably rendered temporary.
Single “silver shoes” divulges the conception of a dream. The track is a homespun fairytale, with nostalgia that could equally soundtrack either bookstore or ballroom. “So mysterious” is a groove fit for a lovers’ travel montage, and as the map unfolds, so do glimpses of a future. Flores' voice effortlessly skips and hops over percolating percussion.
On “Here to stay”, Flores picks herself up yet with taut hesitance, lapsing, inching toward conviction, transcending her whispers “turn to look back at you / I’m kind of nobody without you”. At last, like the end of a movie, “The way I say goodbye” details peace as affinity fashioned from the stochasticity of the aftermath. And so it goes… is a tender city pilgrimage, concluding with bittersweet simplicity that circumstance is a sagacious resource.
Read below to follow Flores through wherever benevolent revolving doors may guide her on And so it goes…
LUNA: The title And so it goes… reads as an acceptance of letting the wind lead you where it may, and a quiet bravery in learning to trust the unforeseeable. Aside from your move from country to city, what does the phrase “And so it goes” encompass for you?
FLORES: “And so it goes” is a state of mind, maybe the hope of moving through life and moments in time without expectation or judgement. It’s an acceptance, yeah.
LUNA: You’ve previously spoken of how songwriting initially began as a private, diaristic practice for you. How has the transition from passion project to career impacted your process as an artist?
FLORES: These past few years I’ve given more thought to the craft side of songwriting. Listening to my favourite songs again and again; attempting to get under the hood of them a bit; looking to music theory when it can provide an explanation. The essential process I think has stayed the same though, ultimately I’m still trying to capture feelings.
LUNA: This EP succeeds your previous, delicate incision of pastoral, 70s folk songwriting and embeds it within gentle, poppy bossa novas. What about these understated sensibilities entices you, and what influences became increasingly prominent for you entering this new era after Flower of the soul?
FLORES: I had fun writing very pastoral lyrics on the last album, but the aim this time around was a pretty straightforward bossa / pop mixture. I’m feeling less connected to the pastoral themes since I’ve been living in the city. Sometimes I’ll be singing the Flower of the soul songs onstage and I feel a bit embarrassed, like the lyrics are too sentimental or unreal or something. But then I have to remind myself that was really my life experience at the time of writing them.
Sorry, that didn’t really answer the question, did it? Influences this time: Tom Jobim, The Cardigans, Harry Nilsson (& Astrud Gilberto’s versions of his songs), Francoise Hardy, Asha Puthli and Blossom Dearie & Margo Guryan, as usual.
LUNA: Do you have a particular track you’re most excited for listeners to digest? If so, which and how so?
FLORES: “So mysterious” is a bit of a different sound to what I’ve done before, hopefully a nice surprise for people.
LUNA: So much of And so it goes… seems concerned with movement. Quite literally geographically, emotionally, even melodically, no moments feel static. Was this a throughline you initially intended, or did it reveal itself as the record came to fruition?
FLORES: That’s interesting! The only throughline I had in mind coming in was for the sound, the bossa nova / pop idea (even then, the project ended up having a folk ballad at the end). Once ‘The way I say goodbye’ joined the tracklist at the end, I guess the project ended up having a sort of throughline of letting go of a phase of life or situation, and moving on.
LUNA: Your work is no stranger to internet virality and its cacophonous clutches. How do you feel your approach to making music changed upon your return, with the knowledge of fresh and fresher eyes upon your work?
FLORES: I'm very grateful that TikTok led me to be able to do this as a job, but I couldn't let it change my approach, that would've made me feel too crazy. At the time that song went viral I didn't know if I'd make music again, so I suppose it was a motivation to return to it.
LUNA: You have a US and UK tour on the horizon! What are you most looking forward to about carrying And so it goes… beyond the record and into a live setting? Do you think performing these songs will alter or expand your relationship with them?
FLORES: Yes! Tickets can be bought at lianaflores.com/tour. I'm looking forward to singing the new songs with everyone, experimenting with arrangements for the Flower of the soul stuff, trying new covers, trying out unreleased songs, and playing with and learning from other wonderful players.
