Weyes Blood, singer: “Something that I find strange to understand about the Z is that they have no interest in sex”

The music of Weyes Blood (Santa Monica, 35 years old) could be described as romantic, because there are undoubtedly sounds in it that evoke the references of the romantic in the most philosophical and transcendental sense of the term: as soon as a mysterious and Parnassian lute collides with a synthesizer, as the wail of an electric guitar mixes with a decadent, plaintive organ. And yet, Californian Natalie Mering (her stage name is a tribute to Flannery O'Connor's novel, Wise Blood) is not a romantic in the conventional sense: “Of course I suffer for love and it is an issue that worries me. But I am not a modern writer who literally says: 'Oh, you didn't answer me on WhatsApp.' And at the same time, my last song, with much more abstract concepts, is actually about being left unnoticed,” explains the singer with the same hieratic, mysterious and beautiful gesture that is part of her personal identity.

In the Tetouan photographic studio where the photo session takes place, with her pose as a psychedelic priestess, she even seems capable of controlling how the light affects the waves of the dresses that she herself has chosen. At night, she at the concert that she will offer in a well-known Madrid venue to present her fifth album, And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglowyour control of the audience's mood will be equally impressive.

Natalie Mering is one of those singer-songwriters who enjoys experimenting with sound in the studio (her musical tastes are incredibly eclectic: she loves medieval music, Renaissance classical, Demis Roussos, Aphrodite's Child, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young and Enya), but at the same time it is a live animal. She is especially happy in Europe, where her old soul (as she defines it) comes into connection with legacies from the distant past: “For example, I have been happy in Portugal. Ok, maybe the trains have brutal delays and the bureaucracy is crazy, but people eat very high quality food and take everything with a different philosophy. I love coming to places where there have been great empires that collapsed because I think that the American empire is in that process of decomposition right now, so being in places like Greece, Italy or Spain, which were unquestionable hundreds of years ago and still exist “It's a certain relief,” she says, using a somewhat gloomy sense of humor that she also applies when explaining why a millennial like her has never felt part of her generation but rather of several at the same time: “There are ways in which that I feel close to the boomers. My parents were musicians and my mother was the typical Laurel Canyon girl, but at the same time they are very Christian and they made us grow up watching The Wizard of Oz. Then my brother was typical Gen X, which was incredibly formative for me because I'm able to listen to Nirvana and find refuge in that noise, I love the noise. At the same time, that kind of nostalgia for pop and its pastiches in which I can recognize myself was born from millennial culture. Finally, there are the Zs, who are totally disappointed by the world that offers them no future, with their feelings deeply hurt because they have to live with their parents. And that disappointment with the present and the future leads them to worship what perhaps for other generations was the mainstream: They like bands only for aesthetic reasons, for example Mazzy Star, and they find things as inane as SpongeBob SquarePants to be the best. And that, the truth is, I can also understand.”

Do you find it difficult to understand the language and jargon used by those who are 25 years younger than you? “Absolutely. Many of the words they use come from the scene queer, which does baffle me because something that I find strange to understand about the Z is that they have no interest in sex. It's great that the new generations don't want to fuck for the sake of fucking, but I'm surprised that they aren't more horny…” Even this statement is accompanied by a very discreet laugh. Natalie Mering is mysterious, a Rare avis even for the ideological. Although, as she herself has said, her parents were fervent Catholics, she considers herself a socialist and agnostic. And a feminist, of course: “The truth is that it is true that in my industry it is very easy that if there is a majority of men in a studio they end up explaining things to you and adopting a paternalistic attitude. That's why I very quickly put myself in my place. I actually don't think it's men's fault: patriarchy is a system with historical roots that the only ones it has served are white men. And right now not even to them.”

Weyes Blood already has several songs for his new album, although he is not in the rush with which he composed the previous one: “During the pandemic I thought that I would never really be able to make music again. And in the end you see, here we are again.”