Rosalía Says ADHD Makes Her More Creative

Do you have any advice on how to make friends? If you don't live so much to the inside and you don't put yourself in the center all the time, inevitably you will uh I think you will experience friendship.

I like, I like that.

I have no idea. Okay. [laughter] [music]

So, what's your take? My take is that listening to music low it gives you bad luck.

100% agree. I don't know if it gives you bad luck. [laughter]

Is this a Spanish thing?

I might say that um I have no proof.

It's not scientific.

Not at all.

It's more spiritual.

Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. It's a Rosalia spiritual vibe. In order to enjoy music and listen to music, you have to listen it loud.

I agree. I love listening to loud music, but sometimes I'm on my device and it gives me a warning and it says, "Turn it down." No, no, no, no, no. We don't want warnings. We don't. [laughter] We want to hear it loud.

So, when you're at home or in the car? Blasting it.

Blasting. Yes.

Why do you do that? Because it gives me energy and I can hear all the details.

The details. You know what I'm saying? And when you've made an idea in the studio, you want to hear it loud and you're going to enjoy it more. I also think that there are no perfect mirrors in nature, right?

There are no perfect mirrors in nature. There are no perfect mirrors in nature. So, I think that we were not made to uh see ourselves this much and this easily.

Wow, that's pretty profound. And we have this phone where we can see ourselves all the time. This [bleep] mirror all the time.

And it's too high depth. Like it makes everyone feel it looks weird. Like I, I look more natural if I look into a lake and I see myself. You'll be more yourself. Maybe.

Yeah. It feels natural and organic. But then if I look in a mirror, if I look in my phone, especially. It's so, it, it I always go, I look ugly.

Stop it. No, I feel like it's designed to be that way. They want you to hate yourself.

But [laughter] I think though that yeah, the less we look at ourselves, probably the better. The more we see the other, the better.

And why do you think that is? If you really see the other, then maybe you can understand yourself better because the other becomes the reflection of yourself.

Probably that's the best reflection. Oh my god. So profound. [music]

You said something on podcast that I've never met anyone else in my life that has said the same thing, cuz I agree. Yes.

People need to be horizontal more. They need to be laying down. No one lays down. [laughter] Seriously, everyone's sitting or standing. Dude, I lay, I lay about 60% of the day.

You're writing, but I was reading before bed.

Yeah. You were saying that you write laying down. Yes.

And I don't think that's lazy. I think it's the best way to to do any work. You think?

Yes. I have, I bought a couch in my office so I could lay. And I made sure.

I made sure that my whole body could fit on it. Yes.

No. The legs are not off. No. No. No. No. No. No.

I want to be fully flat. Yes. [laughter] Amazing. When did you tap in to horizontal life?

It happened because I didn't have a table and a chair. [laughter] That's why I started the show because we couldn't afford a set.

You see, sometimes, you know, when situations take you uh Yeah. Is a context that takes you to think in another way. So, yeah, I would just be in the bed when I was a teenager writing in songs and.

Because you didn't have a table and a chair. That's so funny. No, there was none. So, it was okay like that. [laughter] Also of my mother, she would always be like this lazy, you know, this lazy ass [bleep]. She's like always laying, not doing anything. And I'm like, "No, I'm writing songs." It's just my way of doing it.

Like I'll take a meeting. I'll be on a meeting and I'll be laying down. Somebody's like, "Oh, why are you laying down?" I'm like, "Cuz it's awesome." Why not? Exactly.

Are you inspired by nature? Nature definitely.

Did you grow up in nature? Always. I would always be running around in the forest. That's how I grew up.

Were you like a tomboy or a girly girl? I would love to play Barbies, but I would always running around with boys. And.

So I think kind of both. There was always these two energies. The push and the pull.

Yes. The juxtaposition.

I guess. Of life.

Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

But on the new album? Mhm.

To me it's it's like so operatic.

And it feels to me like opera is more of a feminine quality. At least when I think, when I think of opera, I think of the woman singing. I rarely think of the man singing even though I know both of them do it. Maybe it's la primadonna. That's why you think of it as, you know, like feminine presence because la primadonna, it, you know, it's so important in opera and maybe you at the end of the day it's the.

On the new album. Yeah.

I know. I know. Everyone's already asked you about the 13 languages. There's 13 languages we know.

What are the languages? Spanish, English, Catalan, a little of Latin, a little of Ukrainian, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese.

I. [laughter] Think we're at nine.

I forgot. Italian, Portuguese.

Thank you. [laughter]

Thank you. Yes. Sicilian. Wow. Italian and Portuguese, Sicilian. That's incredible.

So many.

And have you visited every country that a language is spoken? No.

No. Which ones have you not visited?

I've been in Marrakesh. You've been to Marrakesh.

I've been in Japan, in Tokyo. I've been, I haven't been to China. You haven't been to China?

No, I haven't been to China. [laughter] I want to go.

I, I went one time, but I, it's really cool. It's like a complete, yeah, it's like a different world. Is there any Spanish like jokes or you know like anecdotes? Like, like if, have you ever heard like if you give a man a fish.

He'll eat for a day but if you teach a man to fish he'll eat for the rest of his life. Is there any like Spanish like one of those things? I don't know if those things are what are those things called? What the heck does that mean?

Coffee and cigarette and you go straight to the toilet. Oh, yeah. That's.

But it rhymes in Spanish. That's why it's funny. Okay. Look at us. We're in Brooklyn.

Yes. This is Brooklyn now. If you've never been.

I've been though. Oh, okay. I remember uh I remember biking here one time and at some point I heard gospel in the street.

And I was like, "Wait, this is amazing. This sounds so good. What is it? I want to I want to go." And I just stopped and uh and I end up in a church in.

And they said, "Come on in." Yes.

You have like so much religious imagery and it feels like it, it feels almost like church music in a way. Are you a religious person? I think I'm very spiritual but I find very inspiring religions in general like for different forms of understanding what God is. Um from many places of the world I, I connect, I connect with Buddhism, I connect with Islam, I connect upon Christianity, I connect with Ela, connect with different ones, Hinduism also it's like it's amazing.

And do you believe in God? Yes.

And what does that look like to you? I had this question in mind while I was making this album and I think that I still don't have the answer and I'm grateful that I don't have the answer and that's why this album exists.

Was part of the quest in making this album to get closer to God? Absolutely.

Yeah, it sounds. I can feel you trying. I really can.

Yes, I think so. Was there a plan? Like were you like, I'm gonna make this kind of operatic classical music influenced thing, or were you, did you just start doing it one day?

I was sure that I wanted to read hagiographas. What's that?

Hagiographies like the stories of saints and so I started doing that for a year.