I’ve had the pleasure of conducting a lot of interviews over the last five or six years, including with some of my favourite artists. Being able to chat for half an hour or so with musicians I admire is really why I do what I do, and it’s not lost on me how many cool conversations I’ve gotten to have. But one of the most memorable conversations I’ve ever had was with a previously unheard of (to me) artist called ALMA, almost exactly three years ago in October, 2021.
I was sent their song ‘Sips of Oxygen’ and I immediately fell in love with its sombre ambience. I referred to the trio’s stunning debut, Mosaic, as “a delicate record imbued with gorgeous soundscapes and three-part-harmonies that interlace so well, it’s as if the three ladies are connected at the vocal cords” in this initial interview, which was sort of like a casual conversation amongst old friends. I felt like I was being welcomed into this very kind circle of super talented people, and not only have we since become actual friends, that album remains one of my favourite musical discoveries from the last decade.
“I’m really proud of how willing we were to break rules,” multi-instrumentalist Lillie McDonough says, reflecting on Mosaic from her home in New York City. “We explored a lot to do with how much we could stretch and screw with a song structure and still have it be a song, you know? I think we did that in really cool ways, both with production and the actual compositions. I’m really proud of how we stuck to our guns even though it maybe hurt us in playlists and things like that. But we had an artistic statement, damn it, and I think it is really beautiful to listen to. We had something we were trying to say.”
Since our introductory conversation, the trio went through something of a minor identity crisis, looking to shed the name of their project for something more identifiable and searchable. Thus, Rosalind was born, but not without a proper send-off. In a nod to their roots, the three songwriters recently revisited a handful of songs from Mosaic and stripped them down for an acoustic EP they’ve aptly titled, ALMA: CODA.
“Our name had been so special to us,” Alba Torremocha recalls. “It was literally the first initials of our names. It was just so teenage and cute. So we wanted to honour where we came from, even as we went off in a new direction. It felt like a really beautiful bridge, and wrapped up a chapter for us.”
The idea for the EP came up last Spring, whilst the group was reflecting on a video series they had orchestrated during the pandemic. Dubbed Seaside Sessions, Lillie, Alba and their bandmate Melissa Carter would perform stripped down versions of their songs in the open air, by the Boston seaside. The arrangements were a hit, shining new light on songs whose studio versions were laced with a plethora of eclectic, expertly-placed production elements.
“We loved how those stripped down versions allowed us to really get to the core and structure of the songs which sometimes gets hidden with all the layers of production,” Alba tells me. “Having fewer instruments really allowed our voices to shine. So, we really got into the vocal arrangements, and when we started posting those, people really liked them. We realised it was part of a sound that was not represented on the album.”
Rosalind always intended to pick three songs from the record to re-imagine, and when it came time to choose, they tell me it was a surprisingly easy conversation. Coincidentally, each of the three that made the cut were written by a different songwriter. The aforementioned ‘Sips of Oxygen’ is just as hauntingly beautiful in this format as it is on the original recording, and ‘Fall’ cuts deep with even more wintry qualities that aptly highlight the seasonality of the lyrics. ‘Pin in the Map’, a Mosaic highlight and the first song that Melissa ever produced, rounds out the trifecta.
“It was really cool to take [‘Pin in the Map’] back to my instrument of origin,” she reflects. “Guitar is my first and main instrument. Also, I don’t think I registered this as we were choosing the songs, but these were the first three songs that we created as ALMA. Maybe for that reason also, those songs came more naturally to translate into the acoustic realm.”
The three re-imaginings are preceded by a brand new song called “Moon”, which was accompanied by a big marketing push around mental wellness practices. Leading up to the release last month, the trio have been highlighting their own individual meditation and journaling processes on social media for fans to follow along with, in hopes of sharing a unique connection with them as people, and not just as musicians.
“It feels so soul sucking to keep on asking people to play or pre-save your song – I know you know this firsthand,” Lillie begins, preaching to the choir. “It fucking sucks and one thing that we talked about pretty early on was wanting to flip that relationship into one of giving. What can we give our audience? We imagine these songs maybe being something that someone could have a relaxing meditation to, or do yoga to, or sit in the garden and breathe in some sunshine to. That really blossomed into a whole bunch of ideas.”
Flipping the script on the artist-fan relationship came surprisingly naturally to the group. It was their little way of reminding anyone scrolling to take a beat – this is a culture of urgency, after all, and any reminder to breathe and centre oneself is a welcome one. When it came to making ALMA: CODA, the ladies found they even had to heed their own advice.
“The process of making this [EP] was very different from making the first album,” Lillie recalls. “Part of it, of course, is that we made the first album during the pandemic, so it was a lot of stress, grinding to get something done in a world of uncertainty. This time, I think we all took a more intuitive approach, and we embraced that togetherness a bit more.”
“I’ve started sitting in meditation for five minutes before I write anything,” Melissa continues. “Tarot is also really nice as a form for me. I don’t use it as a predictive thing, but as a form of self-reflection. I pull a card, I journal about that card for seven minutes, and then I practise guitar with that theme in mind. It’s probably true that, from doing this EP and sharing our practices, I’m more open about what these practices are, both with myself and with others.”
To round out the EP, the band arranged a cover of Pink Floyd’s seminal track, ‘Wish You Were Here’. It’s a song that’s lived in the trio’s live set for many years, stunning any audience who has the pleasure to witness it. It was an obvious choice to record a studio version, with many sentimentalities attached.
“‘Wish You Were Here’ was actually the first song that I learned to play on guitar,” Alba recalls. “My Dad… coming from Spain, things were a little bit different; there was not a lot coming from the outside world. This was like the end of the dictatorship so things were still very slow. He would take a tape and, whenever they would play an American song or something, he would record it from the radio. When we go to my grandma’s house where all these things are still stored, he would pull out the tapes. So yeah, I was exposed to it very, very early on.”
Lillie’s soft spot for Pink Floyd also harkens back to childhood memories with her father.
“We had this Ford Taurus that he hollowed out the back seat of and he stuck two giant subwoofers in its place,” she laughs. “My mom can never know this, by the way. But he would just play Dark Side of the Moon at unheard of volumes. And then we would invite people that we really love to sit in the ‘killer seat’, which was the seat directly in front of the subwoofers. That was like our greatest compliment to someone, giving you a back massage via Pink Floyd.”
A lot has changed since the four of us first met via Zoom in 2021 – not just the band’s name. At the time, the trio was hours away from a triumphant album release show. Lillie was on the cusp of getting married. And everyone was still trying to figure out how to move forward amidst a global health crisis that was still looming in various ways.
I remember leaving work and driving down the road to find a spot with better service so I could conduct that interview with as little interruption as possible. From the driver’s seat of my parked car, I got a glimpse into three friends and bandmates who loved each other as much as they loved making music together. The energy was palpable. And that’s one thing that hasn’t changed. Because despite being in three different places for this interview, Lillie, Alba and Melissa are still clearly as close as they were when they first spoke to me from the couch of Lillie’s apartment. It shines through not just in conversation, but in their music as well. ALMA: CODA is both a delightful homage to the record that started it all, and a beautiful look forward at the bright future ahead of them.
ALMA: CODA is out now on all major streaming services, as well as the band’s Bandcamp page.
