PHOTOGRAPHY Polina Boyko
Attempting to survive a scorching heatwave as we connect on Zoom, Montreal-based multidisciplinary artist Isabella Lovestory – stage name of Isabella Rodríguez Rivera – is locking herself in her house, only leaving for absolute essentials. “I have to go get a manicure,” she chirps, holding her nails up to the camera.
After her 2022 debut release Amor Hardcore, Isabella embarked on a tour of sensational live performances, including at Paris’ We Love Green and Barcelona’s Primavera Sound. “It was a crazy big tour that looked very glam, but it felt like Kill Bill at some points,” she recounts. Riding the wave of that fabulousness and wildness-packed tour, Isabella now steps into the spotlight with even bigger theatrics and sparkle.
Known for her rebellious blend of alt-reggaeton and punk-infused beats, the Honduran-born artist dives deeper into a shadowy, metallic soundscape – a bold departure from the raw energy that first put her on the map. Inspired by a lifetime of diverse influences, from the post-punk icons of her childhood to the sleek artistry of K-pop’s New Jeans, Vanity explores the intoxicating allure and inherent terror of beauty itself. With the enchanting phrase “Mirror, mirror on the wall / who’s the fairest of them all”, the songstress opens the door to her sophomore album Vanity, inviting listeners into a world where reggaeton and glam goth aesthetics meet experimental pop.
DIY resilience
Isabella’s independent and experimental spirit doesn’t just shine through her sound, but is also reflected in her worldbuilding, image, and sense of style. “I’m very DIY and quite punk spirited,” she affirms. In fact, the entire concept behind her artist persona and creative direction has been up to her entirely, taking on multiple roles in the style, production, and overall visual galaxy of her music. “It’s a hard task, but I’m really proud of the way I came up with everything in that universe,” she continues, citing the music video for ‘Telenovela’ as the closest to her heart amongst her visual creations.
Her love for fashion is clearly palpable in songs like ‘Fashion Freak’ and ‘Kitten Heel’, and that passion and artistic skill came in handy as she was preparing for her tour, when she hand-made ten costumes composed of detachable pieces so she could mix and match each one to create multiple looks. Disastrously, these were stolen as her manager’s car was broken into the day before her first ever LA show, alongside her precious archive pieces. “I had to go into making the album right away, so I was in my raw feelings,” she recounts. “So I decided to take the glamour away and show the real dark side of beauty, and I made Vanity.”
Luckily, her loyal fans swiftly came to the rescue, showing support by bringing clothes that they had made especially for Isabella. “ I still want to recreate those pieces one day and call it like ‘Lost Luggage Line’ or something,” she laughs.
I had to go into making the album right away, so I was in my raw feelings. I decided to take the glamour away and show the real dark side of beauty, and I made Vanity.
Dark romance & Baroque fantasy
For her album Vanity, Isabella drew heavily from the lush excess of French Baroque aesthetics and the seductive allure of dark romance, channelling these inspirations into a fantastical alter ego named Vanity. “I think Marie Antoinette was definitely inspiring,” she explains. “Especially that French Baroque and the dark romance vibe it had.”
The result is a theatrical, vampiric dreamscape tied to a surreal, imaginative realm. Vanity, the cartoonish character depicted on the album artwork and described by Lovestory as a “Baroque Princess devil,” became both muse and medium: “I began seeing a lot of things through her eyes, in the music.” With nods to blood suckers and gothic fairy tales, Vanity emerges as a glittering, unearthly escape from our reality, to a world where beauty is as haunting as it is decadent.
Haunted Honduran heritage & reggaeton rebellion
Lovestory has proudly retained the influence of reggaeton and her home country, again intrinsic in Vanity through powerful tracks like ‘Perfecta’, ‘Fresa Metal’, and ‘Púchica’, which is Honduran slang for “darn it”. “I always think it’s funny how being Latina has become such a trending concept in the past few years,” she tells me. “I like to make fun of that, and even my song ‘Latina’ is satire. It’s empowering, but it’s also making fun of that obvious and stereotypical concept of being Latina.”
Unlike her previous releases, this project’s otherworldly soundscapes are deeply rooted in her Honduran heritage and a lifelong intimacy with the paranormal. “It’s a very haunted place, and that’s how I see Vanity too, so I leaned into those eerie feelings too, not just the cultural sound,” she reveals. Growing up in a house full of women in Honduras – her grandmother’s home, where both her mother and aunts were raised – Isabella was surrounded not only by matriarchal energy but by an undercurrent of eerie, unexplained phenomena. “I would see things everywhere,” she recalls. “Shadows and weird feelings.” One uncanny moment came during a childhood tutoring session when her math tutor suddenly revealed that he was a medium and he knew she was the same, affirming what she had long felt.
Her family’s brushes with the supernatural were equally intense, like when her aunt used a Ouija board and received a chilling message from a spirit accusing a neighbour of murder before the board spun wildly and snapped in two. These early experiences shaped the alt-pop artist’s fascination with surrealism, ghosts, mermaids, aliens, and fairies, as they instil the textures of her music and lend it an ethereal, untethered quality.
I always think it’s funny how being Latina has become such a trending concept in the past few years. I like to make fun of that, and even my song ‘Latina’ is satire. It’s empowering, but it’s also making fun of that obvious and stereotypical concept of being Latina.
J-Pop, Visual Kei & experimental genres
For this album, Isabella embraces a maximalist, genre-blurring approach, weaving together a vivid collage of glamorous J-pop, unexpected influences like Soulja Boy and crunk, and French baroque-inspired Visual Kei. “It gets very dark… but it’s also still very sexy and weird,” she explains as she talks me through the intricacies of the genre. “I just love that psychedelic vibe you get by mixing a bunch of things together and making something new.”
Japanese artists like darkly theatrical Malice Mizer, and hyper-produced Perfume and Capsule, also played a major role in shaping the album’s electronic palette, creating a sound that is part metallic elegy, part electronic rave anthem, and always unbothered by boundaries.
“We love combining things and having a collage view of music,” she says of herself and fellow trusted producers Chicken and Kamixlo. “There’s freedom in the way we work.” Tracks like ‘Pill’ reflect that ethos heavily inspired by the nostalgic, daydreamy textures of NewJeans’ Ditto, but filtered through Isabella’s singular lens.
Creative alchemy
Isabella Lovestory adores intensity and worships extremes, and luckily, her aforementioned collaborators follow a similar religion: “They’re both Scorpios and are very intense. What I love about them is they’re never going to be neutral or mediocre, so every sound is very intentional, they both have their own fantastical view of things,” she continues.
Neither Isabella nor her two production guides frequented music school, but they’re all united by a hunger for experimental sounds and limitless creative freedom.“Kami is an elementary school dropout, so he doesn’t have limits in his brain. Chicken is part genius, part art school survivor,” she explains. The results are an incredible personal and professional synergy, and a concoction of infinite experiments and psychedelic blends. “It was definitely powerful, but also liberating in the sense that they’re my best friends and my soulmates.”
The intensity of the creative process and overall experience composing Vanity made into a journey that became a thematic evolution of her whole sound. “No pun intended, but I had a really deep look into the mirror,” she smiles. For the next project, Isabella just wants to build a character. “I’m really inspired by spies. I want to move away from the psychedelic, technicolor fantastical world and go the opposite direction, something inspired by Irma Vep,” she anticipates, as we laugh talking about childhood cartoon favourite Totally Spies and her resemblance to fuckass bob queen Alex. “That’s what’s on my mood board right now – a very sexy, minimalist spy who creates different characters wherever they go, and they put crazy work into that.”
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