Legend has it that Doug Martsch essentially commissioned Built to Spill’s lineup for their last album while playing shows in Brazil, where he connected with musician Lê Almeida. As Martsch continues to tour with Almeida’s former partner Melania Radford on bass, Almeida himself has since left the drum kit to refocus his attention on his own psych-rock band, Oruã, who are celebrating a decade together this year with a new collection called Maldição (2016-2026) that arrives this week through BTS’s early home of K Records. The album primarily serves as a retrospective of the band’s various eras, but also the moments that have shaped the collective—for better or worse.
Lê Almeida chalks the last pre-album single “México Suite” up to the latter. The song was initially written on the heels of a US tour as the band traveled between America, Europe, and their home or Rio de Janeiro, though ultimately documents his experiences at customs in Cancún where he was detained on his way to a gig. “[Melanie and I] were going to perform a set of ambient music in a yoga session and Mel was also going to play with Built to Spill and it was all part of a huge Wilco festival in a big resort,” the songwriter recalls. “When we arrived in Mexico I was unfairly sent to a room at the airport where they claimed irregularities with my passport, but everything was OK. I was detained for a whole night in a room with several other immigrants (none of whom were white). The next day they sent me back to the United States and from there I took another flight to Brazil.
“The festival did absolutely nothing to help me and it's quite possible that they didn't realize how serious the situation was. A few months after the event, I wrote this song as an outburst, without any fear or remorse about reopening such a painful and intense wound. ‘Mexico Suite’ is a questioning of some of the injustices that are so present and alive in the life of an artist traveling the world to spread his art. After developing a project for an artist’s residency in a peaceful and calm environment, the situation in Mexico hit hard and instigated even more struggles about racial and social equality. It is still extremely necessary to question white privilege.
Check out the track Lê Almeida describes as a song about “self-respect and about having courage” below, and pre-order Maldição ahead of its release this Friday here.
