Amor del Sur

Celestial L’amour and husband Luis Lopez have been making and performing music since the pandemic and are now only getting busier.

Onstage and at home.

Full-time workers and parents, the young couple is running two projects concurrently: L’amour’s eponymous alt-rock band that’s releasing a new EP this month and Amor del Sur, an R&B-esque outfit with Lopez on guitar, Jack Emery on sax, Tanner Moseley on drums, Sean Powers on lead guitar, and David Sentendrey on bass. Amor del Sur also has an EP coming out soon.

“Being a mom of two children, we have managed with a great support system for me” and Lopez, L’amour said, shouting out her father and mother-in-law, who help L’amour and husband Lopez follow their “dreams of creating music that brings hope for the world.”

Amor del Sur has released two music videos so far, and both really reveal a sound that’s much softer than the frontwoman’s crunchy namesake group.

Amor del Sur’s debut singles, “Fiction” and “So Alive,” do not in any way represent a rebranding of Celestial L’amour, the frontperson said.

“The [del Sur] songs are something different and new that spark interest,” L’amour added. “If audiences enjoy Amor del Sur over Celestial L’amour, there’s no loss.”

For the EP, Amor del Sur worked with Blue 13 Productions’ Greg Muzljakovich (Kyoto Lo-Fi, MD Wulf, Big Fan of the Bison) and sound engineer and good friend J.M. Burton (Mountain Kid, Keanu Leaves), whose creative touch was “tremendous,” L’amour said, adding that she and the band are “happy” with the results so far.

“It’s a big difference going from high-energy rock to a more slow-paced feel,” she said. “We are embracing both to what they are and are comfortable doing whatever needs to be done.”

Celestial L’amour, she added, “has been great for the venues we have played at, but at times it can be limiting when we want to play in different environments. We created Amor del Sur to achieve just that,” with the aim of performing at such marquee spots as Tannahill’s Tavern & Music Hall and Texas Live!, plus private events.

L’amour said her new project’s first show will be local and soon.

“Celestial L’amour is our main project,” she said, “and we have a bit of shows lined up that we are making a priority for. Locally, I noticed a trend of there being a lot of the same messages behind the songs that didn’t hold a lot of value to the listener. We wrote what we felt inside and what we ourselves wanted to hear, and it has really paid off. If we can just bring hope to one person to not give up and realize that their life has value, then we have accomplished everything we have set out to.”