
Tiny Desk Contest winning artist Alisa Amador performs live from her new album.
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Kusha Navadar
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Radio Host/Announcer
I' ma put you on, nephew.
Elisa Amador
All right, unc.
Narrator/Performer
Welcome to McDonald's.
Elisa Amador
Can I take your order, miss?
Radio Host/Announcer
I've been hitting up McDonald's for years. Now it's back. We need snack wraps. What's a snack wrap? It's the return of something great. Snack wrap is back.
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Radio Host/Announcer
Listener supported WNYC studios.
Kusha Navadar
This is all of it. I'm Kusha Navadar in for Alison Stewart. Hey, happy Thursday and thanks for hanging out with us. I'm so glad that you're here. On today's show, we'll hear about the new film Ghost Light, which is in theaters this weekend. We're going to talk about Thai food as a part of our weekly Food for Thought series. And we'll talk about grief with author and social worker Lisa Kefauver. That's the plan. So let's get this started with some music from Elisa Amador.
Narrator/Performer
Oh oh. Today the writer in my head took a break. In came a heartless author that I couldn't shake. How do I get you to go?
Kusha Navadar
That is Heartless Author from singer songwriter Elisa Amador's new album Multitudes Or Multitudes, which we'll get to in a second. But in a few moments, we're going to hear a special live performance from her. Amador is a singer songwriter from Cambridge, Massachusetts. But in 2022, she was pretty close to quitting music, an art form she loved since she was a kid. It was also around this time when Amador had a breakthrough moment in her career. She got the call that she had won the 2022 Tiny Desk Contest. Always a sought after prize for independent up and coming. Gonna hear her perform the song that won her contest soon. Elisa Amador's new album is called Multitudes. It's out now. Alisa is also playing a show tomorrow night opening for Lake Street Dive at the Stone Pony Summer stage in Asbury Park. Also, a heads up look out for Alisa to be announcing her national headlining tour next week. And, you know, most immediately, she is here, 12ft in front of me right now in studio to perform for us Revealed.
Narrator/Performer
Oh, no.
Kusha Navadar
Live radio. So I'm waving to you. Thank you so much for being here.
Elisa Amador
Thank you so much for having me. It's very surreal to just, like, witness someone talking about me and, like hiding behind the microphone on the other side.
Kusha Navadar
That's a lot of good stuff to hear. Maybe we can start off with some music. You're gonna perform the first song on the album Extrano.
Elisa Amador
Yes, Extrano. We're gonna kind of go on a little mini album journey. And the first song on the record is called extrano, which means strange. But we'll talk more about it after.
Narrator/Performer
Sa.
Kusha Navadar
Wow. That was Elisa Amador performing her new song Extrano from her new album multitude, which multitudes or multitudes, which is out now. That was beautiful. Thank you so much for playing that. You know, extrano is such a powerful word in Spanish because it's got this double meaning to it. I mean, on the one hand it means strange, literally, but then you use it as a conjugation of to miss.
Elisa Amador
Yes.
Kusha Navadar
Yeah. And I totally was thinking about that while you were singing and when I first learned this song. What are you going at with that sentiment with that title?
Elisa Amador
Yeah, well, I think that that double meaning of yo extrano is like, I miss, but it's also a poetic way of saying me the strange one, yo extrano, you know, And I think that double meaning is so. It's so appropriate and poignant for so many people, anyone who is a child of immigrant parents or who has emigrated themselves or who's transplanted from one part of the country to another to go to school or get a job, or who's a child of divorce and moves between these two different kind of family worlds, or who doesn't fit neatly into a gender box. You know, like, there's so many ways to be in between and to feel like you don't fit.
Kusha Navadar
You know, the first line of that song, the rough translation here. So I might be wrong, but to me, it's like, I miss the words I used to know. Is that right?
Elisa Amador
Yes.
Kusha Navadar
Can you talk about that?
Elisa Amador
I miss the words I used to know. So Spanish is my first language. My mom is Puerto Rican and my dad is Chicano from New Mexico, and they met and started a band and started a family in Boston, Massachusetts. So, you know, it's a beautiful cultural mix, but it's a pretty confusing identity sometimes because it does not fit neatly into any boxes. And I was studying songwriting for the first time in my life during the pandemic because there was this time when we weren't on the road. So I took a class over Zoom in Argentina, and I was really pushing myself to write in Spanish more than in English, because Spanish is my first language. But English obviously is the language I'm speaking in the day to day, so it comes more quickly, more easily to write in English. But that doesn't necessarily mean that I don't have something to say in Spanish.
Kusha Navadar
Sure.
Elisa Amador
And so I was really pushing myself to write in Spanish, and I wrote this song that I'm still proud of now, but I brought it to the group, and everyone else in the class is from Argentina, and they were like, hey, you know, it's beautiful. It's very beautiful. But there's these grammatical issues or, like, temporal issues, and, you know, you use this verb and then this verb. And I broke down and I wrote that song after because I felt so mournful of how I just felt like the more time I live in the US Maybe the less I know in Spanish, like, the. The fewer words in Spanish that come to me quickly. And I sat down and I felt just like I don't fit anywhere. And I wrote this song. I miss the words that I used to know.
Kusha Navadar
You know, I feel so much of that resonates for me. Because you're from an immigrant family, grew up in Boston, right? I'm from an immigrant family, grew up in Albany, which is like, you just drive i90 for like, three hours so you can see each other.
Elisa Amador
It's the same.
Kusha Navadar
Do you feel like that experience is taking on a different shade to the way you incorporate it into your art now? Than maybe you used to or do you see an evolution there?
Elisa Amador
Yes. It's so interesting to me how the songs that I write from a place of almost like grief or mourning or feeling lost then end up becoming this way of celebrating the in betweenness. Because I'm acknowledging it first of all. I'm talking about it at my shows and I'm singing this song to a whole audience of people who feel like they don't fit in, you know, in some way or another. Everyone has that experience, especially children of immigrants. And it really is very healing. Like I don't feel or I don't know if I don't feel any shame at all about not fitting in, but I feel much less shame and I feel much less confused about it now. It's like, oh, we all move through the in between. And this is something actually to celebrate and to lift up as an American story and as a story of so many people.
Kusha Navadar
Yeah, and your story is super interesting because like you mentioned, you grew up playing in your parents band. Solee Canto, right, is the name of it. Yes.
Elisa Amador
My mom will be be so happy that you said their band name on the air. Sol y Canto, everyone. They're amazing.
Kusha Navadar
Tell me more of it. Tell me why they're amazing. What did you grow up playing? Like, tell me about that.
Elisa Amador
So they're a Latin folk band and my dad plays guitar and writes beautiful songs and my mom is an incredible vocal interpreter and also plays percussion. And they toured full time until my twin brother and I were in high school. And then now they're still touring to this day. They just also, you know, do a couple other things that are also cool, but they are. So their music is mostly in Spanish and also doesn't fit neatly into a genre either. It's, you know, Latin music. Pan Latin music, as they say, all these different rhythms, all these different folk styles from all these different parts of the Spanish speaking world. It tells a really huge story over the course of one show. And they. They have this habit that they formed, I don't know when they came up with this idea, but they translate the lyrics of the songs in Spanish while playing the chords of the song. So it's like an instrumental poetry reading of these beautiful lyrics in Spanish. And it's a way of trying to bring everyone into the song, whether or not they speak Spanish and help everyone to feel like, yeah, we're here together, we're experiencing this together. Regardless of whether or not you speak the language.
Kusha Navadar
Yeah. Do you feel like you took any major lessons? I'M sure you did. I guess the real question is absolutely what comes to mind right now when.
Elisa Amador
You think about lessons from that time. I think from a very young age I had a deep understanding of magic, of the magic of a concert and why it must be preserved. It's one of the last gathering places we have. You know, way back when we had like the market and all the different individual shops where you would go to interact with people for different services and town halls and all these things that are harder to access now or people don't necessarily realize they can access it, you know. And concerts are one of the last remaining gathering places that we have where people are present together and experiencing something together, whether or not they know each other, whether or not they agree. And I just think that that's. Even if it's just like for one song or for an hour, I think that that's a deep, an important part of everyone's like healing and self care in some way is like experiencing art live together. It's just so. It's really good for you.
Kusha Navadar
Magical.
Elisa Amador
Yeah, it is. It's like an honest magic. That's what I called my publishing company, Honest Magic, because it just feels like that, like you just the realness and the vulnerability brings everyone together.
Radio Host/Announcer
Wow.
Kusha Navadar
Folks, we're talking to Alisa Amador, the singer, songwriter and winner of NPR's 2022 Tiny Desk Contest. She's here right in front of me right now to talk about her new debut album called Multitud or Multitudes, and it's out now. She's also here to perform for us before she plays a show tomorrow night where she's opening for Lake Street Dive at the Stone Pony Summer Stage in Asbury Park. You've got another song for us?
Elisa Amador
I do, I do.
Kusha Navadar
What is it?
Elisa Amador
This one's called I Need to Believe. And I should say that when I won NPR Tiny desk contest in 2022, I was very deeply in a period of writer's block. And it's actually really wonderful that you have someone coming in to talk about grief. The writer's block that I experienced was connected to grief, to losing a close friend very suddenly. And I just read last night that grief is like, is love with nowhere to go. And what a beautiful way to say it. It's like you just feel so lost. Anyway, I didn't know how to write and I basically relearned how to write songs. And this is one of the first songs I was able to finish. It's called I Need to Believe. A good old what Is it called Existential Crisis? Song about whether or not you belong. Theme of the day. So this one, I had to learn to write again, even if it was bad, even if I felt like it wasn't good. And this is a very literal portrait of a day on tour that was hard. And having to tell myself that I need to believe that. That this is the right path. So here we go. It's gonna get loud.
Narrator/Performer
Last night in Atlanta, I was just so tired. I felt empty I felt full of lead. I sang to the red glow of the exit sign as if it were the light at the end how much longer can I go singing to them if they don't come back again and again when it's so hard not to feel that the beauty isn't real that it's never good enough I need to believe I need to believe that there's nothing wrong with the songs I'm singing I need to believe I need to believe that I do belong in this world I live in all of the cruel lies I hear myself say Throw them away I need to believe I need to believe that there's nothing wrong with the songs I'm singing oh, when I flew back to Boston I was just so wired I felt angry I felt full of dread I sat by a window and I looked outside and through the tears I saw the sunset how much longer can I go? What if I lose myself and don't come back again and again when it's so hard not to feel that the clouds are all that's real that the sun is never coming back Never coming back Never coming back I need to believe I need to believe that there's nothing wrong with the songs I'm singing I need to believe I need to believe that I do belong in this world I live in all of the cruel lies I hear myself say Throw them away I need to believe I need to believe that there's nothing wrong with the songs I'm singing oh, no I'm still singing oh, no I need to believe I need to believe that there's nothing wrong with the songs I'm singing I need to believe I need to believe that I do belong in this world I live in all of the cruel lies I hear myself say Throw them away oh, I need to believe I need to believe that there's nothing wrong with the songs I'm singing I'm singing still singing oh.
Kusha Navadar
Wow. That was Elisa Amador performing I Need To Believe from her new album, Multitudes, which is out now. And if you like what you Hear right now, she's playing tomorrow night, she's opening for Lake Street Dive at the Stone Ponies Summer stage in Asbury Park. Alisa, you know, you start that song talking about the state that you were in while you were trying to write it. And you said, I'm relearning how to write. You use the term insecurity. A musician being an artist takes so much courage and strength, and I'm sure insecurity is always at the door. How have you learned to deal with it?
Elisa Amador
I mean, I would love to ask you the same question as a journalist and as a radio storyteller and question asker. I mean, I know it is definitely still a process for me. And I think. I think I've just tried to let go of thinking about whether or not it's good and pay closer attention to whether or not I'm honoring the story or whether or not my heart is present with it. Especially with technique. As an artist performer. I would rather a performance that's a little. A little like just a tiny bit off or off key or has a moment with a flub or something where your heart is totally in it than a performance where it's completely technically perfect but has no feeling.
Kusha Navadar
Yeah.
Elisa Amador
Yeah. How about you?
Kusha Navadar
I think that applies to a lot of it. There's this idea of where your heart is, where the fun is in a conversation, and sometimes live stuff makes it so that you kind of have to go off the beaten path. Maybe it's unpolished, but I think that's where a lot of the joy is as well. How do you find the joy in the music that you're writing?
Elisa Amador
I think it's always in other people for me, in my friends, in my family and my loved ones, and then in the audiences I've gotten to meet while I've been touring in the last couple of years, there have been such incredible audiences. I have gotten to open for Lake Street Dive once before, and it was an utter joy because it just felt like they have an audience that wants to dance and scream and yell, but they also want to listen and cry because that's what Lake Street Dive creates in their albums and in their songwriting. And they just. They want to be honest. They also want to dance, and I love that combination. I feel the very same way, you.
Kusha Navadar
Know, and that connection that you're talking about, first of all, I'm just so grateful that you asked me what I thought about it. That's such a nice, like, exchange that I rarely get. And that connection is absolutely. I Think at the core. If you think about musicians coming up right now, trying to navigate everything, I'm sure that connection is important, but probably tough to find, I'd assume, especially after Covid. What advice do you have for them about how to forge it? What's worked for you?
Elisa Amador
I mean, take care of yourself. Take care of yourself and hold on to what really feeds you. Like notice when you feel really nourished by something that you're doing and make sure that that's prioritized.
Kusha Navadar
Yeah.
Elisa Amador
Don't let go of it. Even if it's something that other people might say is not as important. You know, like what other people say is not actually what, what works for you and what. And what will. Like as an artist, if you're thinking about cultivating an audience, I mean, I just feel like being yourself is, is this the secret to, to life and also to a sustainable career? Because if you're, if you' trying to fit yourself into someone else's mold or really it's like a systems mold, it's not just one person telling you it to be. It's a whole toxic system. Let's be real. But when you're trying to fit yourself to that, I don't think anybody wins because I learned the hard way pre tiny desk. And the reason that I was really feeling so broken and like I had to let go of music was that I was playing for audiences and that did not want to receive my music. And so I just kept trying to change myself and change myself and change myself and it broke me and it never worked. Let me tell you, when you try to be someone else, it can't go for that long.
Kusha Navadar
And when you come from a family of immigrants, a lot of your life is spent like, well, what box can I fit into and how can I conform myself to fit into that box?
Narrator/Performer
Exactly.
Elisa Amador
How can I code switch right now? Yeah, exactly. So it's just. Yeah. Especially like artists who are more beginning or investigating a full time career. I just want to remind you all to be good to yourself because the industry, the industry I feel like for artists, for journalists, for anyone working in any sort of service and communication world is not designed to honor your humanity and you have to be the one like noticing how you feel and taking care of you. Because I certainly want to keep hearing your, I certainly want to keep hearing your journalism and yeah, so let's all take care of ourselves. Please listen to yourself and be good to yourself.
Kusha Navadar
I would also like to say thank you for that and also I would love to listen to you. Now let me tell you what's gonna happen because this is live.
Elisa Amador
Tell me, tell me.
Kusha Navadar
I'm gonna give you your due. I'm gonna say goodbye to you and let you close out with your song. So for folks listening, and by the way, we just got a text that says, when is this amazing singer songwriter going to perform in New York City, not New Jersey? Well, we've been talking to Amador, the singer, songwriter and winner of NPR's 2022 Tiny Desk Contest. Her album Multitudes is out. Now. She's also performing tomorrow night at Lake street well at the Stone Pony at Summer Stage, Nicebury park for Lake Street Dive. And you're about to announce your headlining tour next week, right?
Elisa Amador
Yes.
Kusha Navadar
So stay tuned for that.
Elisa Amador
Alisa. That's a L I s a Amador, a M a D O R. It's just like Lisa with an a in front. Alisamador.com will give you all the answers you need. Following me on Spotify, all that stuff. La la la.
Kusha Navadar
And you're here to play Milonga accidenta.
Elisa Amador
I am so one more existential lullaby to lead us out. I just wanna say thank you so much, Kusha, for having me. I'm honored. Thank you wnyc. This is very cool for me. I'm Elisa Amador and this song is all about embracing your contradictions, your seeming contradictions. And I will be in Manhattan on July 11th for a free Carnegie hall at Madison Square Park. But it'll be outdoors so you can bring your doggies.
Kusha Navadar
Love it.
Elisa Amador
Okay, okay, back to being sad. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so honored to be here. I'm Alisa Amador.
Narrator/Performer
Me. Oh God.
Radio Host/Announcer
I'mma put you on, nephew.
Kusha Navadar
All right.
Elisa Amador
Un.
Narrator/Performer
Welcome to McDonald's.
Elisa Amador
Can I take your order, miss?
Radio Host/Announcer
I've been hitting up McDonald's for years. Now it's back. We need snack wraps. What's a snack wrap? It's the return of something great. Snackwrap is back.
Marshalls Advertiser
Oh my gosh. Have you been to Marshalls lately? They have all the brand name and designer pieces you love, but without the jaw dropping price tags. Alright, so here's the you should never have to compromise between quality and price. And at Marshall's, you don't have to. Marshall's believes everyone deserves access to the good stuff and that's why their buyers hustle around the clock to make it happen. In for you, visit a Marshall store near you or shop online at marshalls. Com.
Date: June 13, 2024
Host: Kusha Navadar, in for Alison Stewart
Guest: Alisa Amador
This episode spotlights singer-songwriter Alisa Amador, celebrating the release of her new album Multitudes. Through live performances and candid conversation, Amador shares her artistic journey, the complexities of cultural identity, and the healing power of music. The episode emphasizes the challenges and triumphs of creating honest art, especially as a bicultural artist, and the universal longing to belong.
The episode is intimate, reflective, and inspiring, balancing honest discussions about the pains and rewards of making music with personal anecdotes and live performance. Amador’s warmth and vulnerability, paired with the host’s empathetic interviewing, make for a deeply engaging listen.
If you missed the episode, this summary captures Amador’s music and message: the beauty in being “in between,” the power of honest connection, and music’s essential role as communal therapy and celebration. For more on her music and tour dates, visit alisamador.com.