Of Empress Underground Music Showcase 2019 - Foto: Julio Enriquez from Denver,CO, USA
Lorely Rodriguez (born October 19, 1989), known professionally as Empress Of, is a Honduran-American singer, songwriter, musician and record producer based in Los Angeles, California. To date, she has released three studio albums via XL Recordings and Terrible Records, her critically acclaimed debut, Me (2015), Us (2018) and I’m Your Empress Of (2020).
After finishing a sound engineering degree at Boston's Berklee College of Music in 2011, Rodriguez moved to New York City and quickly broke into the local music scene performing in a Brooklyn-based band with Sam Owens called "Celestial Shore" but soon left the group to focus on her own music.
In 2012, Rodriguez initially gained attention for anonymously releasing a series of one-minute-long demos (via YouTube) prefaced only by a solid color entitled “Colorminutes”. Her first 7” single, “Champagne” was released soon after on November 5, 2012, through a limited run via No Recordings. Lorely's stage name was inspired by a tarot card reading she did with a friend: “The first card he pulled out was an Empress card and I was like, ‘It's me, I am Empress’. [...] The Empress card is connected to fertility and mothering and strength. It is kind of nice to have those feelings”.
On April 2, 2013, her bilingual four-track EP “Systems” was released via Double Denim and Terrible Records in the UK and North America respectively. Since the release of her EP, she's showcased at SXSW, Iceland Airwaves and Pitchfork's Summer Music Festival and toured as a support act with the likes of Jamie Lidell, Jungle, Kimbra and Florence and the Machine.
“Water Water”, the first single off her debut full-length Me was released on April 14, 2015. She also released a Spanish version of the track,”Agua Agua” so that [her] mother listens [to her] music”. Rodriguez’s debut album Me, which she self-produced and recorded in Mexico was released on September 11, 2015, via XL Recordings and Terrible.
During 2020, Rodriguez founded and announced the start her own record label, Major Arcana via partnering with US-based artist management company, mtheory. The announcement marked the fulfillment of her contracts with XL Recordings and Terrible Records respectively, thus allowing all future releases to be fully independent under her own brand.
On April 30, 2021, Rodriguez announced partnering with an Ad Council-backed national campaign called “Sound It Out Together”. The purpose of the campaign being, to highlight youth mental health and create an outlet for adolescent school children of color, to express their emotions and experiences through music.
On Apr 8, 2022, Rodriguez premiered “Save Me”, the first single from her forthcoming EP of the same name, which was released on June 24, 2022, via her independent imprint, Major Arcana.
Rodriguez is a first-generation Honduran American. She was raised by her mother, Reyna in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, and her father Adán, one of the original pianists and founding members of the Honduran Latin music ensemble, Banda Blanca. Lorely's first experiences with music were listening to her father's cassette tapes of the Beatles and she has a degree from Berklee College of Music in Boston. She cites Julee Cruise, Elizabeth Fraser of the Cocteau Twins, the Zombies, and the Beach Boys as some of her musical inspirations.
