Sibling Latin music sensations Isaac et Nora aren’t easy to pin down for an interview. For starters, they live in the pottery-making town of Quimper, in the part of France that juts into the Atlantic. Secondly, the time difference between Australia and France means it’s often past their bedtime.
Viral phenomena often quickly flame out but Nora and Isaac, now 12 and 15 respectively, seem to be playing a longer game. The pair became an internet sensation in 2019, with a YouTube video of them performing a 1930s Cuban classic, Veinte Años (Twenty Years), hitting 7.8m views. Nora was only nine at the time; a native French speaker, she learned the Spanish lyrics phonetically.
Since then, supported by their French-Korean guitarist father Nicolas Restoin, Nora (vocals and ukulele) and Isaac (trumpet and guitar) have delighted audiences in Europe and South America with a repertoire of classic Spanish and Latin American songs. They start their debut Australian tour in late February.
We’re on a Zoom call early on a Sunday morning. Along with their native French, Nora and Isaac speak some Spanish and a little English. Nora is all but buried in a big blue woolly scarf (it’s 8C in Brittany) and Isaac is rocking a flannel shirt and baseball cap. Dad Nicolas – who smiles and laughs all through the interview – squeezes into view, to help them with their English, which Nora claims to be learning from episodes of Breaking Bad, The Last of Us and Stranger Things.
“Breaking Bad is my favourite!” she says.
Nicolas hurriedly explains. “I try to find easy solutions for the kids, so they don’t have the sensation of working. We try to find TV series with some addiction … something to get addicted to … what is the word?”
“Binge-watch!” Isaac says.
“Yes! Something we get hooked on, but not too much … couch potato!” Nicolas says with a huge smile. “With the [French] subtitles on, they quickly learn, they get used to the pronunciation. It’s a good way to learn.”
Bright-eyed under-16s learning English with meth cooker Jesse Pinkman and hitman Mike Ehrmantraut? What could possibly go wrong?
“I don’t know if we can say, because Nora is only 12,” adds Nicolas. “But we also like the Narcos series. There is a lot of violence and some sex, too, but it’s in Spanish and English so it’s perfect for us to learn from.”
For Nora, the challenge goes beyond the language. The Latin songs she sings with such disarming candour often speak to the most adult of feelings – the Cuban, double-entendre strewn El Cuarto de Tula, for instance, is about a young woman whose sexual desire got so hot she set her own bedroom on fire and called the fire brigade. Many others are about love and desire, disappointment and loss.
“But I don’t have any boyfriend!” Nora laughs, eyes wide. “So, when I sing, I don’t think about someone. I [use] my imagination. I work a lot on pronunciation and how to sing the melody with emotion. But I am single!”
So far, Nora and Isaac don’t seem to show any signs of rebellion against the music their parents clearly adore, especially their mother, Catherine, who plays Cuban music in the house because it rains a lot in Brittany and the music makes her feel “sunnier”.
Nora also brightens up her day with K-pop. “I like Stray Kids – and two members of the group are from Australia, Felix and Bang Chan,” she says. “I really love them.” Isaac is fond of metal bands from the 70s and 80s, including AC/DC.
“There is a lot of music in our family,” says Nicolas, who is French but Korean-born. “Sometimes it can be a little bit noisy. In one bedroom is K-pop with Nora dancing, and the other is Isaac and his rock. And the mother who is listening to Latin music in the living room.”
For Isaac, Latin music is “a question about taste”.
“How do you explain why exactly you like a dish?” Isaac says. “You just know that you like it … But I understand the question. We are from France and we have no Latin roots in our family.”
As for Nora: “I like the melodies, I like how the original artist sang them.
“I like the emotions that the songs give to me.”
Nora and Isaac’s set for the Australian tour will stick to tried and true material from their 2021 album, Latin & Love Studies, including Brazilian composer Luiz Bonfá’s Manhã de Carnaval, the Colombian classic Arroz con Coco, and the Mexican pop song Hasta la Raíz.
But there will be a few songs in English too. “We just learned the Violent Femmes song Blister in the Sun,” Nicolas says. “So maybe we’ll play that – more like a joke, or something funny during the show because Latin songs are usually very sad. Maybe we’ll play some AC/DC.”
Isaac suddenly tunes into the conversation. “Yes! I am a really big fan, and they are an Australian band!” His father ponders on it: “I’m sure it’s possible to play an AC/DC hit in a calmer way, a gentler softer way.”
Nora et Isaac play at Mona Foma in Hobart on 23 and 24 February, and at the Hobart town hall on 25 February; the Factory theatre in Sydney on 28 February; and the Thornbury in Melbourne on 29 February
