Venezuelan alternative rock band La Vida Bohème promoted the March 24th release of their latest album, La Lucha (The Struggle), with a U.S. tour that included several dates in Austin for SXSW. Spearheaded by Music Designer Erick Bohorquez, L.A.-based Nacional Records and Mood’s Marketing and Music Design teams collaborated to stage a session for the group on Friday, March 17th at the Baylor Street Art Wall in the historic Clarksville neighborhood.
La Lucha is the final offering in a trilogy of albums tracing La Vida Bohème’s evolution since starting out in Caracas in 2007. Its themes and musical influences reflect the band’s travels away from Venezuela since the election of authoritarian president Nicolás Maduro in 2013. The album builds upon the band’s rock-electronica foundation with a sunnier, more organic sound that was, in fact, hard-won: La Lucha plumbs the depths of displacement to assert an ideal of shared humanity, drawing heavily from naturalistic soundscapes, images, and worldviews within their new home of Mexico.
The session consisted of a photo shoot by Marketing Creative Director Brad Bond, an interview conducted by Music Designer Amy Frishkey, and a live performance of their new song “Eliseo” from La Lucha.
The band is no stranger to music licensing, enjoying revenues from song placement in television shows (Sons of Anarchy, Grimm), commercials (McDonalds, Dodge Ram trucks), and video games (FIFA 2012, Grand Theft Auto V). In fact, tracks from La Vida Bohème’s 2013 album Será (Will Be), which won the Latin Grammy Award for “Best Rock Album” that year, are playing in music programs for Mood clients, with selections from La Lucha soon to follow. In my interview with the group, lead singer and rhythm guitarist Henry D’Arthenay stressed the advantages of the process: “I believe that sometimes it’s done a far better job getting our songs across to different people…than even traditional music outlets. […] I would like to think that our songs fit in different contexts. […] You don’t want your song to be enslaved by only one situation.”
Watch highlights from the interview below…
It was truly a pleasure to meet with this eloquent and energetic band during their time in Austin. We look forward to hearing where their future sonic travels take them!
Members: Henry D’Arthenay (lead vocals/guitar), Daniel de Sousa (guitar/vocals), Daniel Briceño (bass/vocals), Sebastián Ayala (drums/vocals)
– Submitted by Amy Frishkey, Music Design