Behind The Scenes with Pao Pestana

After stirring up a quiet storm in November with the release of her single ‘Pajaritos’, rising Venezuelan London-based artist Pao Pestana returns with a captivating new track and video for ‘San Menace’ out now via Big Indie Records. Opening with choppy guitar strums and punchy bass-driven production, ‘San Menace’ was co-written and co-produced with Sour Sync and SHEVLANE. The track exhibits Pao’s experimental sound that marries influences from her Latin American heritage with the inspiration of her London home, pulling elements from pop, electronic and organic textures to create something hypnotic. We had the chance to catch up with Pao before the release of her next single ‘NMIGO’.

KALTBLUT: So shall we start with the making of the video, how it came to be. How did you come up with the concept?”

Pao: “So while I was writing the song and getting into the production of it, I would see the colours, the mood, and the atmosphere of the video. For example, I saw a kind of vintage style, that almost looks like a hazy world in the desert, like it’s hot in there! I saw all that while I was working on the song in the studio – it comes together with the lyrics sometimes.

Sometimes you work on songs and then you let them go, like “this is a cool idea but let’s move on”. But when a song is complete for me, when I feel that it is a song I can release, when it really feels correct & it has its own life, then I can see them visually as well. When it is more mature in the songwriting process, I start to see the colours & the mood. Obviously, it mutates in the making, because you may have a vision, but I believe in collaborative work big time, and I love working with people that I admire and whom I can learn from.

I’ll have the concept in my head and then I’ll communicate it to my team. They’ll also bring a lot to it, a lot of life and a lot of different points of views which I love! I think that’s the most beautiful part of the creative process.

KALTBLUT: I love that. So how was it to work with the director, talk me through that – you creative directed the video but you built a team around you as well.

Pao: “Yeah of course – so firstly I knew the director, Anna Francesca, from the music scene, she’s a great photographer and she makes videos as well. We’d wanted to collaborate for a while, so we got together and I told her about my idea. At the beginning it was a very small idea, we wanted to keep it simple, but we have such amazing chemistry – she’s an Aquarius like me – and I feel like together we fly. One was feeling the other’s ideas, bringing other references, and the video was just growing and growing.

We had the most beautiful first meeting, where we really let our creativity fly – without any issues about the budget or about what was not possible, we just wanted to let our child run! We wanted to get the vision in our heads and see how we could make it happen. It was just Anna and me at this point – we were laughing and making fun of how ambitious we were being.

At the end of the meeting we thought it looked like a movie in our heads, but was it going to be possible? But we made it possible, and it was really a wow moment. We saw proof of the power of your desires and your mind, literally. It proved what women can achieve together!”

KALTBLUT: So how did it feel to incorporate the choreography?

Pao: So I’ve always wanted to add dance into what I do. It’s been a pending thing for a while, but the more elements you add to your productions means more effort. But for this song, I thought it definitely had to have choreography, and I was lucky to be introduced to Liv, who was so hungry to create. As I had some background in dancing already, I already knew a little bit about what I wanted. I had an idea for the choreography, I sent it to Liv and she developed it further. We then met, and made little changes together, taking from the things I was seeing in my head like the cowboy vibe, and it was great!

KALTBLUT: I felt some of the movement in the video was Latin inspired.

Pao: Yeah well it’s gonna have Latin cos it’s me *Pao laughs*. I think when you come from somewhere and you grew up there, and you were so influenced by your culture, you don’t even need to try to add it. That’s something I’ve learned – it just comes out because it’s in your soul you know? Sometimes you make the conscious decision for example “use this rhythm”, but in my dancing it’s just Latin. In fact, I know the bit you’re referring to! *Pao hums the melody in the chorus of San Menace* – that bit feels like a salsa song, so I thought the movement had to be salsa!

KALTBLUT: Going back to when you said you see colour when you make songs; was the colour red the colour you saw for this song?

Pao: It was red, and also a lot of sandy colours like browns, you know like the wild west, when you walk into a saloon – I saw that! I was trying to recreate that feeling. The video is a contrast of emotions, so the red represents more danger, and the white background is more lucid, and the other colour represents more softness and vulnerability. Does this make any sense or do I sound crazy?

KALTBLUT: No that’s really interesting, it’s like when you see a video everyone has their own interpretation?

Pao: Exactly. And I love that about music and art. Some of my songs are very specific, with a clear topic and story, but I also like music and visual art that leaves space for me to be the interpreter because then you are involving the listener as a creator, and I find that beautiful – the creative collective that it becomes when you leave space for interpretation.