After several years of steady work, the Trenton-based Latin hip-hop duo Agudos Clef wrapped up production on its debut LP Teoria and is ready to celebrate. The band just announced a show on March 18th at The Trocadero Balcony.

The band has been teasing material from the record for a while now, between their Key Studio Session, songs on MC Josue Lora’s Bandcamp like “No Soy Yo” and the brilliant video for “Raices,” filmed while Lora and his collaborator Nota G were traveling in the Dominican Republic, which you can watch below.

Leading up the album release and the show, I swapped emails with Lora to find out more about the project.

The Key: How long have you and Nota G been working on the album?

Josue Lora: We have been working on the album for four short years. We are extremely picky and ended up hating everything we recorded after listening to it three months later. The album sounds nothing like it did four years ago. [It has] some of the same concepts and themes, but sonically it is completely different.

TK: When did you and he form the band?

JL: We formed the band in his home built studio which he named the “Kabin”. I met him through his cousin Raphy which was his musical partner at the time. We did one song together and we thought we should work on an album together. After performing at a few local spots, Agudos Clef was born.

TK: What were you trying to capture in writing the album?

JL: We were not trying to capture anything, everything pretty much came together. Most of the album is a reflection of our current and past situations, so I guess the album pretty much wrote itself. As far as writing it, we did focus on the wordplay and poetic value of the lyrics.

TK: What do you hope listeners take away from the album?

JL: I hope they get to know us a little better and view different things with an open mind.

TK: Any special plans for the release party?

JL: For the release party we will perform the entire album with a full band. We will have limited edition physical CD’s – it seems like people buying CDs is over, but we are big fans of actually having physical copies of music. We would also like to give AfroTaino productions a huge shout out for helping us put the event together.

Agudos Clef performs at The Trocadero, 1003 Arch Street, on Friday, March 18th. For tickets and more information on the show, visit the AfroTaino Productions website.