ISABELLA LOVESTORY IS COMING CLEAN
The perreo-pop auteur has spent years building worlds.
Now she’s burning one down to make room for the next.
- Written by: Amanda Breeze
- Photography by: Félicie Alessia Diaz
For Isabella Lovestory, every ending seems to arrive with the promise of another beginning. She grew up in the mountains surrounding Tegucigalpa, built a life in Montreal, and is now packing it all up for Los Angeles. Along the way, she’s become one of pop music’s most irreverent voices, turning reggaeton into something louder, stranger, and almost impossible to pin down.
Movement has shaped Isabella’s life for so long that it no longer carries much ceremony. En route to Dracula’s Castle via Bucharest, she admits that places flash past her “like shooting stars” and cities begin to resemble Narnia, existing somewhere between memory and fantasy. She jokes about wishing she could teleport to avoid “low vibrational” spaces like airports, but admits loving long train rides for the rare feeling that nothing really exists for a moment.It’s a logic that extends into her work. Every project arrives with its own set of rules before making way for another, and her next album, Vanity, is out July 31st. Familiarity, she says, is “what kills creativity.” The pressure to become a product has never interested her much. She’d rather keep changing than become easy to recognize. That philosophy feels especially resonant now.
At 32, Isabella speaks about time with a surprising lack of sentimentality. She’s letting go of past collaborators that no longer fit, making peace with the uncertainty of another move, and thinking less about preserving the past than whatever version of herself comes next. “If you want to become someone new, you have to let it all burn and rise like a phoenix.”
Amanda Breeze
Isabella Lovestory
Do you think constantly moving places changes the way you attach meaning to them?
I’m currently on a train from Bucharest to Transylvania to visit Dracula’s castle. [laughs] I think being a free spirit is simply my destiny. My grandpa was a fisherman in Honduras, so I have an addiction to adventure, it’s in my veins. He got lost at sea for a week once. I do think moving constantly changes the way I perceive places, it’s kind of like Narnia. I get glimpses of cities like shooting stars, it's melancholic. Sometimes, I wish I could teleport to places instead of being at low vibrational places like airports, but I really enjoy plane and train rides. I feel like it’s the best place to ignore everyone and meditate. A tube where nothing exists for a moment.
Does familiarity ever feel creatively dangerous?
Familiarity and comfort in art is what kills creativity. I think we should always remain curious. Of course, it’s important to build an inner language first and establish what your world and intentions are as an artist, but don’t ever ever fall into the marketing agenda of becoming a product. It’s what the industry wants you to do so they can make money off you. I think to be fearless is to be free. Taking risks and experimenting is the best thing you can do. Why not do anything you want at any point of your life?
You’re in a moment where your life seems to be expanding in a very real way. Does becoming someone new always require leaving something behind first?
Definitely. I’m moving to L.A. soon, and leaving behind a lot of things. I don’t like looking back. If you want to become someone new you have to let it all burn and rise like a phoenix. Life goes on.
Always trust your gut! Have you ever felt yourself pulling towards something before you even understood what it was?
I was in art school painting and drawing when I randomly decided to drop out and become a singer. It was a pretty reckless move, but it ended up being much more liberating than following the rules. I try to trust my intuition even when I don’t understand what the future will look like. I have no idea what being in L.A. will be like, especially with the current climate in the USA. I think the secret is just to be constantly amused and romanticize any situation instead of catastrophizing things. If aliens abducted me I’d be so happy.
I like the idea of romanticizing uncertainty, but at the same time, there’s a feeling of loneliness in transitional periods because nothing fully belongs to you yet, not the old life nor the new one. How do you handle these in-between moments?
In the past four or five years, I released two albums and did two world tours without stopping, so it’s my first time being still and having time to make art and do whatever I want again. I feel a bit fried but also unstoppable. I went through severe loneliness, and literal and symbolic deaths that I had to deal with in the midst of it all. You realize who’s real and who’s a fake bitch in those dark moments. It’s a blessing. I’m accustomed to being alone since it’s the only thing that’s been stable. I just got a skull with a bow tattooed the other day. Memento mori. It’s nice to just absorb life
It sounds like you’ve become comfortable with that kind of impermanence. Are you good at letting things go?
I moved around so much as a kid and was exposed to so many things, so letting things go is like second nature to me. There were so many relationships that had to end and things I lost access to. Right now, I’m letting go of past collaborators and friendships that don’t fit anymore, and that’s okay. It’s exciting to not know what comes next. As poetess Hilary Duff once said “Let the rain fall down and wake my dreams...”I actually sang this song at my sixth grade talent show.
Such a banger. Speaking of things that stick with you, is there somewhere you’ve left that still follows you everywhere?
Probably the mountains in Tegucigalpa where I grew up and the magic I felt there. I always try to keep my heart as wild as it was when I was a kid.
Has time become less frightening as you’ve gotten older?
I have a nest of white hairs now. I’m 32. Industry people have suggested I lie about my age and I think that’s the ultimate pussy move. I want to be 100 years old and look like it. I don’t race against time. I think Kim Gordon’s brain and soul is younger than many TikTok brainrot musicians. Time shouldn’t be scary. The fear of aging is a disease. We’re living in very vampiric absurd times and Clavicular’s horrible nose job is proof.
I suppose that also means knowing when to move on. What’s harder: landing somewhere new or knowing when it’s time to leave?
Knowing when it’s time to leave. Sometimes leaving a cozy bed is what hurts the most.
At what point do you know a creative world has expired for you?
When it becomes digestible.
So what are you mourning?
Everything.
- Written by: Amanda Breeze
- Photography by: Félicie Alessia Diaz
- Creative Direction: Jaime Salgado
- Movement Director: Fernanda Alvarez Larrain
- Image Consultant: Marjorie Matamoros
- Creative Lighting: Melodie Derderian
- Hair and Makeup: Carole Méthot
- Stylist: Angelina Salgado
- Set Design: Natalia Solano
- Set Design Assistant: Ricardo Fuentes
