Russian Red
Lourdes Hernández

Lourdes Hernández
Lourdes Hernández is a Spanish singer and folk singer-songwriter who goes by the stage name Russian Red. She has released four albums: I Love Your Glasses (2008), Fuerteventura (2011), Agent Cooper (2014) and Karaoke (2017).

Sophie Caby
Born in Paris, Sophie Caby is a Los Angeles-based photographer. She went to the Art Faculty Paris 8 specializing in photography and then studied architecture at the Beaux-Arts de Paris Val-de-Seine. Her work focuses on people and landscape.

Lourdes Hernández is the Madrilenian singer-songwriter behind the band Russian Red. Russian Red first came to prominence in her native Spain with the release of her 2008 debut album, I Love Your Glasses. This was followed by Fuerteventura in 2011 and Agent Cooper in 2014, as well as an increasing international presence and extensive touring throughout Europe, Latin America, Asia, and the United States. Currently based in Los Angeles, Lourdes continues to create music along with acting and running a business in Highland Park. She released her latest album Karaoke in May 2017.

Can you introduce yourself?
My name is Lourdes and I am the singer in Russian Red.

Where are you from?
Spain, Madrid.

Who did you listen to when you were growing up?
I listened to The Beatles a lot. I listened to everything that my dad would listen to: The Kings, Buffalo Springfield, a lot of Cat Stevens and Simon and Garfunkel.

What is your favorite Simon and Garfunkel song?
I Am A Rock.

Are you a karaoke fan?
Yeah, but only since I moved to LA. Before moving to LA, I think I did karaoke twice in my life, but when I moved to LA, I just became addicted.

Is your new album related to karaoke?
Well, first of all, because I became a karaoke addict I just elaborated the whole album around that theme. Also, when I started making music, I wanted to sings songs of others because I barely knew how to play guitar and I couldn’t sing them. So this is kind of closing that circle where I can finally play other people’s songs and I make an homage to them and to my little self.

There used to be a time where singers were not composers, they were interpreters…
That’s true. You really had to be really good at interpreting the song, because you were not the author. You really had to find the emotion and work it, and it was a different delivery. Some authors really know how to work the emotion, but not necessarily everyone does.

What are your other passions besides music?
I love my dog, it’s a big passion of mine. It’s a big part of my life. I’m exploring acting and I like it a lot. Photography I like a lot as well.

Do you think that making music and photography are related?
I think it does have a completely different process but if you make music and take photos, it comes from the same filter so it is related in terms of your own vision and your own sense of aesthetics in the world. But it’s a different process: music is much more active, and photography is much more about listening and observing. It’s more quiet.

_{Lourdes is wearing Staud Jumpsuit}