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Bianca Lugo's Debut EP |
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Singer, Bianca Lugo, recently relocated to Pennsylvania from Austin,
Texas and the native Texan, released her first three solo singles, “I
Want 2B Free,” “Her Secret is Patience,” and “Take It Like a Man.” Her
Opera trained vocals are ethereal and dreamy for “Her Secret is
Patience,” on what can be best described as Cinematic Dream Pop, think
Chromatics the 2015 – 2018 era and their songs like “Utopia,” and
“Shadow.” Bianco Lugo’s dreamy, ethereal vocals are juxtaposed to the
more up-tempo music, which is reminiscent of Munich Machine.
We first noticed Bianca Lugo when she provided vocals on Ben Brown’s
King Of Air album.
As for Brown invited her to sing on the album he says, "Choosing to work
with Bianca was easy; she has talent, style, and range. As a classically
trained singer, I knew she had control of her instrument, but I wasn't
sure initially how her training and experience would jive with the dingy
world of rock n' roll. I first asked her to sing one of my songs, "I
Can't Afford My Baby Anymore," as a guest vocalist at a live concert in
Austin, Texas, which led to an invitation to sing harmonies on my album,
King of Air. From there, she became a more frequent collaborator,
which sparked the idea to record songs with her vocal at the forefront.
Her voice has a timbre that can make a subversive lyric instantly
palatable."
“At first, it was difficult. I was used to having a specific structure
in my Classical training.
There were set times every week. I was reading lots of different
languages and notes. I would say that kind of structure can make it
difficult to transition to other styles of music. You need to relax and
make things your own. It actually made things a little harder, but it
was fun to explore a little bit more and to see how I could make it my
own,” she says.
Bianca Lugo’s
three singles now form an EP that is now available for purchase. All
three songs were engineered, mixed and mastered by
Kevin Shoaff.
She talks about what it was like to work with Shoaff in the studio, “It
was great. Kevin is super easygoing. He makes you feel relaxed and he is
a good friend of mine as well as of Ben. It just felt like creating
something with friends. He is also really good at what he does and he
made me feel really comfortable. He made sure everything was mixed well
and we complimented each other, the vocals and instrument. Of course it
was Ben’s influence as well.
We asked Kevin Shoaff a similar question and
he had this to say about working with Bianca Lugo, “It
was a fun, laid back recording sessions with a quick flow capturing the
songs in the moment.”
Ben Brown wrote the lyrics and composed the music for all three songs.
At first blush we mistook the lyrics to mean that the woman in the song
had an axe to grind with men, but Bianca Lugo, clarifies for us that is
not the case.
“Funny you should say that, because when you talk about men in the song,
it is really about mankind,” she explains.
Continuing she says, “Making it (the song) my own took a couple of
tries. I tried singing it more in a loud, powerful, vibrato style. It
didn’t really feel right. Then we thought about making it a little bit
cooler, less vibrato, smoother in tone, straighter, kind of like New
Order style. It is a bit airy, like you don’t really care, but you do.
In the show Twin Peaks, there is the song “Falling” sung by Julee Cruise
(composer -Angleo Badalamenti, lyrics by David Lynch) If you
listen to it, you hear the same style in her voice. The show is kind of
dark, there is a murder that happens in the first show and they are
trying to solve and figure things out. It is ominous (the song) but it
is also very light at the
same time. I thought that
style was kind of cool.
People have enjoyed it. I have got some good feedback. I have shared it
with my friends and I have put it out on my social (media) platforms. It
is certainly nice to hear, because it is all new for me.”
As for the second
song, “I
Want 2B Free,”
“You hear a lot of love songs and (the person in the song) wanting to
settle in a way. This song somewhat flips the script on that. It is
about wanting more than that. This is about going for what you deserve.
I think anybody can find value in that and I had fun singing that song,”
she says.
The third song,
which was released after we did the interview, is titled “Take
It Like a Man,”
leans more into a Synth Pop vibe, and packs more of a punch that the
previous two songs we mentioned. It seems to be delivering a missive
about even in times when things do not go smoothly, instead of feeling
sorry for oneself, the person in the song, is standing up, taking it on
the chin and then moving through it, knowing they will be okay on the
other side.
Bianca Lugo’s journey began in McCallen Texas where she grew up.
“It is where I grew up most of my life. There are other people who are
artistically inclined in my family. I have an aunt who also grew up
singing Opera and dancing ballet. She went to college and got a
scholarship in dance. I seem to have others who I haven’t met who also
sing.
When I was living in McCallen, it was a smaller town border town. Aside
from it being hot it is also tropical. You have the beach nearby and
there is a lot of good food. My family is there. People are pretty
friendly and welcoming. If you are going to go there and visit, everyone
that I have encountered is a very warm host.
Singing started kind of naturally and I have always done it, (even) as a
little kid. My friends did it too. For our elective we picked choir and
we really enjoyed it and just kept going from there. We wanted to see
how far we could take singing and to see what our voices could do. When
I started getting into Opera and I was in middle school about the eighth
grade, I started trying pieces in my high range. Ballet took up most of
my time, but I enjoyed putting in the time and the effort to see what my
voice could do,” she says.
Her teacher (for Opera) asked how she felt about All-State auditions,
which were held among various schools.
Continuing, she explains, “You can sing whether you are an alto or
soprano. You go in and you learn different pieces. You are reading
music. Not only did you have to sight- read a random score, but you also
practised five or ten pieces. If you can technically get those down you
moved on to the next round and then eventually to All-State. It is a bit
of a competition and you can get first chair, second chair or third. It
was a fun competition to me. I maybe made it past the first round once,
but I was happy to be there. It was really cool and everyone was really
good. That is probably when I (decided) to explore (music) a little
more.”
A scholarship to St Mary’s University in San Antonio Texas refined her
Classical training, “That is when I started practicing in a more
professional way. If you
were in that particular choir the director was training you to work as a
professional. It was never something I sought out and I looked into
joining the Austin Opera, but I never made that leap. I started
practicing singing Rock and Roll before that happened,” she says.
As for turning her attention to pursuing music professionally, Bianca
Lugo says, “I would say Ben really turned me on to that.
I have always had confidence in performing, but I never sought
that out myself. Ben was used to doing it for a while and he was on the
(music) scene in Austin.
We met and we started
singing a couple of things together. I would say 2021 was my first time
performing on stage again, but with an actual Rock and Roll band and
that was something I had never done before. That was the first time I
went into that world and that (led) into going to albums.”
“Ben was aware that I had been singing my whole life. We had listened to
music together. I started going to his shows when I first moved to
Austin. I started getting more involved with seeking out live music. I
had never done that before either. Despite my musical upbringing that
was something new to me.
After getting to know him he started to say to me, hey sing this or try
this with me. He would play
something with his guitar or on the piano. He would sing something and I
would sing something. It started pretty small and then it started to
build. Then we found a
harmony together. At least that is how I work and it is how he works,”
she says.
You can listen to
“Her Secret is Patience,”
here
and of the three songs is the one where that Cinematic Dream Pop feel is
most evident. The main YouTube page for Bianca Lugo
is here.
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So,
we wondered about that transition from her Opera training to a new
sound.