About

People often ask me if I write in Spanish or German since those are my first languages, and I usually reply with something along the lines of, “I do, but only on special occasions since English has always felt like my go-to language for songs, probably because most of my favorite bands write in English too.” Special occasions have included personal songs for people I love, songs I’ve written for hire for weddings or birthdays, and occasionally songs I wrote for projects or occasions that were happening in a specific language.

Oxígeno falls into that last category—it’s a companion song for a student short film of the same name that I directed as a teenager. At the time, I had joined the Fridays for Future protests, and the team of students and teachers involved in the short film all felt very passionately about protecting our planet as well. So we made a post-apocalyptic film about a world that didn’t make it, with a tiny bit of hope at the end. I had the chance to perform a song at the premiere and wrote Oxígeno for it. It’s a protest song that has traveled with me ever since and become a part of my live shows.

With lyrics that translate to: “I find it hard to breathe when all we touch seems to die, and no one seems to care. Oxígeno, give me hope that together we can still save us.”—it dives into the frustration of witnessing what we are doing to our planet and to each other.

Years later, I improvised a singalong part at one of my shows— “Hope for another sunrise”—I really liked it and kept it for this recorded version too. It was lovely to see this song selected for the Rescue Songs EP; it’s the oldest one my supporters picked. But as is often the case with protest songs, it remains as relevant as ever.

I really love the additional guitar by Michael Stephenson on this one and the kind of apocalyptic radio sound we gave it to honour the song’s origin. Getting to give this old song a new dress with Dominic Romano was really fun.