Natalia Lafourcade and Leon Bridges on Songwriting, Death, and Time Travel

MCO Studios is a quiet, woodsy space tucked away in the leafy neighborhood of Anzures in Mexico City. With its sky-high ceilings and the bursting trees on the patio, it’s a site that reflects the beauty of the Mexican capital, and singers Leon Bridges and Natalia Lafourcade are immediately at peace when they arrive here one bright afternoon in August.

It could be because both of them have been finding endless inspiration in Mexico City. Lafourcade was born here, and in the past several years, she’s made albums like the two-part Musas projects and 2022’s De Todas las Flores, digging into folk sounds from her hometown and the rest of Latin America. Bridges is a more recent arrival; after releasing three acclaimed, soul– and R&B-inspired LPs, he found himself in need of a change of scenery. The Fort Worth, Texas, native decided to come to Mexico, where he recorded this year’s Leon.

Though they celebrate heritage in different ways, each of their journeys has taken them here, where they are meeting for the first time. Sitting in the studio, they start off talking about their shared love of mezcal. From there, they quickly realize how many similarities they share, from their passion for classic eras to their love of guitars. By the end, they’ve both shared some of their most intimate songs, singing to each other. Bridges shyly dives into “Blue Mesas,” Lafourcade’s favorite song of his, and Lafourcade ends their conversation with a stunning rendition of the Mexican classic “Cucurrucucú Paloma.”