Russian Red | Loving Strangers & Upset Room In Rome

Lourdes Hernández González, known professionally as Russian Red, is a Spanish indie and folk singer-songwriter. Known by many as the “Spanish Feist“, in reference to the Canadian singer-songwriter who inspires her in many of her attitudes on the microphone, Hernández—who writes and sings all of her compositions in English—states that she sings in that language instinctively because she has always listened to music in English. Russian Red’s project began when Hernández met Brian Hunt, a musician with an English father and Spanish mother, with whom she recorded a demo (which included tracks that remain unpublished like “Reason“, “The Night of the Paper“, and “Sadie“) that reached more than 70,000 visits on her MySpace page by 2008. The name Russian Red comes from the color of a lipstick that Hernández herself usually wears. When asked how she chose the name, Hernández stated: “I had a band without a name some time ago. Since then, I was haunted by an obsession: to find the ideal artistic name. One day, I fell in love with this colour that a girl was wearing. I pronounced its name, and now it is my pseudonym.“ Hernández become well known in the Spanish indie arena, performing more than 60 shows during 2007 and taking part in the prestigious Primavera Sound, among other festivals. #RoomInRome #RussianRed #LovingStrangers