The Brazilian Girls on their latest album

The first thing you notice about the Brazilian Girls in person is the accents: French, Eastern European, and an almost-Southern inflection. Though all three band members have lived in New York for some time—starting at an East Village club in 2003—they don't try to act like it. Yes, the new album is called New York City, but it's also the band's clearest bid for international credibility—from a bossa nova intro to shout-outs to Berlin, Baghdad, and 55 other cities just on "Internacional," which serves as a kind of dance-music travelogue for the world-weary globe-trotter.

The Brazilian Girls are the first to point out that this is their third album, having predated indie's new crop of world-music wannabes (Vampire Weekend, Yeasayer) by a few years. Though they've lost a bassist to creative differences and haven't seen much of an increase in popularity, their motto remains steadfastly laid-back: As lead singer Sabina Sciubba says on the new single, "We just want to have a good time."

Radar recently talked to Sciubba and her bandmates about the city they live in, why they write less about pussy, and how they would have loved to smoke a Lollapalooza bowl with Barack Obama.

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RADAR: You started playing at Nublu in New York. Do you still think of yourself as a club band?
Aaron Johnston: It didn't even really feel like a club. It was more like a lounge.
Sabina: Like a living room.
Aaron: More like a house party.
Sabina: We started as a Nublu band, but then we moved onto bigger venues very quickly. And even though for us it's quite different, we've always been doing the same thing.
Aaron: It's not like we're 18. Everyone has played music for such a long time and played any kind of scenario—from house concerts to playing for 10,000 people.

What was the biggest difference in making the new album?
Sabina: Obviously, Jesse [Murphy] wasn't on board for most of it. He's not presently in the band. We're still on good terms, and Aaron is still playing with him. It's an amicable thing, but musically he's doing other things. He's on—correct me if I'm wrong—three or four songs.

The songs on New York City sound deliberate. Were you trying to make a more serious record?
Sabina: Yeah, I think we made a more serious record. There's something a bit more vulnerable and clear about the songs—there's something more introspective. I just read something someone announced: "the international party band Brazilian Girls." I'm not sure on this record we're so much a party band as on the first record. I think it's a natural part of our lives. And so were the last two records.

Would you say you've been tagged as a "party band"?
Sabina: That was definitely what we were at some point.

And what are you now?
Didi Gutman: At home watching TV.

Sabina: Times have changed. At the time it made sense to sing, "Pussy, pussy, pussy, marijuana." Now it makes sense to tell something from our lives, be a bit more autobiographical. And that was autobiographical, too, actually.

How was "Pussy" autobiographical?
Sabina: In a way, there was a certain rebellion and irreverence in that song. And also it was a line that came up in between us. Not necessarily that I was having pussy and marijuana all the time.

How is the new album autobiographical?
Sabina: Everything. This is exactly our last year.
Aaron: What happened the last year? Let's see, we broke up, got together, broke up, got boyfriends, girlfriends, I had a baby.

Is it hard to have kids and do this?
Aaron: No, I don't think it's hard.
Sabina: Not if you're a man. Someone else is doing the kid-having.
Aaron: Yeah, that part was pretty easy for me.

The name of the new album is New York City, but some people would say your music has more in common with Europe. What, if anything, do you think it means to be a New York band?
Sabina: We are a New York band because we were formed here and perhaps nowhere else.
Aaron: I think it's a more modern word, too, to say "New York band" in that sense. Because, say, 10 years ago, even in music like jazz or African music or Cuban music—there were enough Africans in New York that they would play together. And maybe if you go to Brooklyn, it's more of a rock thing or punk. But I think more nowadays—and especially where we came from, Nublu, which is Turkish- and Brazilian-owned, and it's just Europeans there and different DJs—it's a more natural thing. It's like our little spot. That's why we call it a New York band.

Would you say the album is a celebration of New York in that sense? One song that sticks out for me is "Internacional," where you basically list a lot of cities.
Sabina: Actually, it's all the cities I've been to in reverse. It starts with New York and then Austin because we had just come from Austin—so it's like my biography in cities.

But, yes, it is a celebration of New York. Even though New York has changed tremendously, I think it remains a city of extreme vitality and activity compared to many other places in the world.

Are you trying to put everyone at the same level, no matter where they come from? That's what it seems like on "Nouveau American."
Sabina: Actually, it's the opposite on that song. I think that Americans, with everything that's happened in the past 50 years, have gotten a reputation that's not necessarily a very positive one. And understandably so. I felt like, in a way, in "Nouveau American," there is such a thing as an American that is cultivated, pleasant, classy, and well-traveled. And it was sort of like a hopeful thing. If I show you the lyrics, they say, "eye-catcher/I saw another one from a distance." It talks about that experience of seeing someone who is that, sort of going against the preconception of the ignorant, provincial American. Frankly, provincial, ignorant people exist everywhere.

What do you think of African music and other global sounds finding their way into popular indie bands like Vampire Weekend?
Aaron: It's great. It means they're finally checking out history, rather than getting some watered-down version on the radio.

But do you think that's a watered-down version of those cultures?
Didi: Those guys, like Vampire Weekend, we're feeling. And that's it. You feel it, and it comes through you. If it's mixed up, it's mixed up. It's because we're in a mixed-up culture.
Aaron: I think we're definitely in a time now where people are getting more information and not just listening to radio or not just watching MTV. That's why you have people listening to Muddy Waters.

Pitchfork said that because you guys try to do so many things at once, you don't have a specific audience. Do you think there's some truth to that?
Didi: We get invited to do all kinds of different things, from jam-band festivals to hipster festivals to fashion shows. It can be old people in the crowd, or young people.
Aaron: That's why we get to travel so much.

Do you think that's problematic in trying to find a fan base?
Sabina: I think that's our niche—this international thing. First of all, it's a reality: We are an international band. We are a multilingual band. It's a fact. It's not something we made up, or prepared, or tried to do. It's just what it is.
Aaron: I think it's problematic with trying to find an immediate fan base. I don't think it is when you plan on having a career. In the long run, I think you're better off. Most innovators are. I don't want to say we're Charlie Parker or anything, but a lot of those guys were dead before they developed a huge fan base.

You're not saying you're going to die.
Sabina: Maybe. I don't feel so good today. Tell everyone I was dying—that'd be a little bit of promotion. I was thinking about that, actually, if we just say I'm dead.
Aaron: Sounds good to me.
Sabina: I'm ready, too. Don't tell anyone, okay? If I suddenly die, you know what happened. Like Kurt Cobain.

There were rumors that Barack Obama would show up at Lollapalooza. Were you worried about being upstaged?
Sabina: No, we were hoping he'd come onstage and smoke with us.