Leonardo Prakash is a French-Mexican musician classically trained in his youth in guitar and sitar, and later in harp, flute, and jarana jarocha. His unique musical voice has transcended his traditional foundations.
For the first time in his musical career, Leonardo has recorded a song in nis native French. Written after a lightning storm, Éclair speaks to the beauty of nature’s dance between light and dark, night and day, sun and storm. Leonardo Prakash’s acoustic guitar and voice stir up melancholic emotions and are slowly surrounded by synthesizers and beautiful harmonies as he summons his awe of the majesty of nature.
We are honored to interview an incredible artist and instrumentalist to hear about the journey behind his new music. Read the interview with Leonardo Prakash below
What’s the story behind Éclair? How long ago was it written?
I wrote Éclair last Summer.
The story behind it is that one day I was in Ibiza in a house on a mountain with a wide ocean view. One evening during sunset I saw a big dark cloud over the water, heading toward the island. It was far away so it took at least an hour and a half to reach land. During this time I got to see the most beautiful spectacle of nature— the lightning coming down to the ocean from the clouds and connecting the earth and the sky in a beautiful dance. It got darker and darker and eventually was a very dark night, but the lightning was here to bring the day into the night.
Of course it wasn’t the first time for me in this kind of scenario, but this really touched me. I was alone and in silence just observing and absorbing the beauty of it all.
Can you translate the song for us?
I see the lights in the sky
A feeling awakens
A deep respect for everything I see
For what I am, for life
As if what I’m seeing speaks of me
In nature this light
Brightens the sky and the earth
It dances to do so
It shouts to do so
It sings to do so and in an instant
The night brightens
This is your first song recorded in French, one of your mother tongues. Do you feel the song communicates its original feeling / meaning better in French than in English or Spanish?
Every language has a vibe, and makes you sound different. I like English because it just opens the accessibility to a wider audience. But I think that some things can only be sung in French or Spanish. I could and have thought of translating this song into other languages, but there is definitely a flow with the French language that works in this case.
What is the biggest motivation & inspiration in your writing and compositions?
I don’t think I could name one thing, you know? Every composition is its own planet living in the same universe.
Some moments, people, movies, crises, landscapes, etc. touch me deeply and inspire me, and always without pushing and with patience music comes.
Your new music explores a whole new territory in your career as a singer songwriter. What has been your experience putting out your last three songs?
It has been a beautiful experience but also very challenging. I am doing quite a dramatic change in my genre and I can see how it is not easy for some to receive. So in some moments I’m like “What the hell are you doing? You are 34 years old, you cannot be making these big changes in your life”, but then a deep trust comes back to me and I realize that there is nothing else I could be doing, because I love this new project.
I have no intention to stop the Leo Sitar part of me and doing this project has re-ignited other aspects of music in my life.
If there is a sense of place in your upcoming album ‘Dry Leaves’, what would it be?
I don’t see a place in particular. Some songs do take me to places, like the song “Dark” which takes me to the underwater river system of Yucatan, Mexico. It was by my experience there that I wrote this song.
But other songs take me to people or books I read, or to moments of tremendous joy or sadness in my life. And because I am constantly moving, then the context is normally secondary, it’s always about the emotions or thought processes.
What does making music mean to you in this time of your life?
I can’t escape music. It has allowed me to express things I was not even aware of, to realize aspects of myself that were completely forgotten and to open to new qualities of life. It is something that goes far beyond myself, that belongs to no one, that is not only for my personal pleasure but to be shared with the world.