The instrumentation of the song “Tiempos Violentos” reminds the listener of the James Bond saga. But when the unmistakable voice of the Chilean-Mexican alternative star Mon Laferte appears in it — adding melancholic nuances and a dramatic air, and then merging with the soft and powerful singing of the American St. Vincent — this new bilingual version of the song “Violent Times” reinvents itself.
Released Friday (May 23) on digital platforms under the Virgin Music Group label, the new collaboration between St. Vincent and Mon Laferte not only translates into the language of Cervantes one of the most outstanding tracks from this year’s Grammy winner for best alternative music album, All Born Screaming (2004), but also transforms it into something new through two languages and two visions that connect in a masterful piece.
“Collaborating with Mon gave the song new shape, new blood, new depth,” St. Vincent told Billboard Español on Thursday in a video call. “Like a dream falling into another dream.”
“Tiempos Violentos”, the Spanish-language adaptation of “Violent Times,” was originally included in the translated edition of All Born Screaming, titled Todos Nacen Gritando, which singer/songwriter and guitarist Annie Clark, better known as St. Vincent, released last November as a “humble tribute” to her Hispanic-American fans who go to her concerts and sing her songs in perfect English without it being their native language.
“I just think she’s so powerful and incredible and I thought that her voice would be so well suited to this song because she has all of that jazz standards in her body, but also an edge to her voice,” Clark explains. “So yeah, I initially reached out seeing if she might want to cover the song or reinterpret it and then she made her own translation of it and then we made it this duet really between us, which I think has ended up being just interesting and beautiful.”
Meanwhile, Mon Laferte says that when she first heard the Spanish version of “Violent Times,” she felt “a deep pull.”
“It was beautiful and haunting. I wanted to give it my own voice, to make it mine too — and to do it alongside an artist I’ve long admired,” recalls Mon Laferte, according to a statement from Virgin Music Group shared with Billboard Español.
And that is precisely what she did. On “Tiempos Violentos,” the Chilean-Mexican singer/songwriter delivers a poignant and intimate verse in Spanish that reframes the emotional meaning of the song, while St. Vincent’s English refrains resonate like distant memories, creating a raw, cinematic version.
“Tiempos Violentos” was recorded in a studio in Bogota at the end of last March, when both artists were in the Colombian capital to participate in the Estéreo Picnic music festival, where the friendship blossomed.
“Her voice is just fire,” St. Vincent notes about the Chilean-Mexican artist. “It’s emotional. It’s pure. It has an edge. And I’m just very honored to get to be on the same track with.”
Part of the experience of learning and improving her Spanish also includes listening to music in that language, and in Portuguese, so St. Vincent’s Ibero-American playlist naturally includes Mon Laferte, but also artists such as Bomba Estéreo, Caetano Veloso and Rosalía, according to the artist.
Regarding the relationship between Latin America and Spain, St. Vincent points out that it has become closer. She confesses that Mexico is one of her favorite places to perform, but she also feels a great affection for her fans in South America, where next week she will play concerts in Chile, Argentina and Brazil, with former Sonic Youth bassist Kim Gordon as opening act.
“I just think what’s so incredible is just the way that people love music,” says Clark of her Latin followers. “It just feels so authentic and true. It just feels like music isn’t some other extra commodity. It’s like it is life itself. It is as essential as like food and air.”