One of the most innovative global live acts in pop returns, thanks to the age four-and-under crowd

Band gets together for love of music. Band blows up and tours the world. Band gets stressed out. Band starts in-fighting. Band tries some personnel changes. Band breaks up.

Yeah, that’s pretty much the story of popular music, so NYC’s cabaret electronic dancehall quartet Brazilian Girls were doing nothing unique when they split up a few days before Christmas 2010. Sad, because their torch songs, like “Pussy” and “Good Time,” were the best hope for a global sound that would finally lay waste to the deeply irritating descriptor known as world music. They did so by unifying virtuosic musicianship, Ibiza dance beats, and a multi-lingual, sexpot intellectual singer — one who regularly performed in a flesh-colored bathing suit with giant black bars pasted over her eyes and her privates (front and back).

So yes, it was a sad moment for popular music when they broke up. But maybe kind of predictable, especially for a band who was rumored to have lived the party life as seriously as they sang about it. The end, and moving on to the next episode of Behind the Music.

But this is where the story gets so culturally, like, “now.” While the band had been disintegrating, they’d conversely been very fertile in another department — baby-making. And in the year after they broke up, Didi Gutman, Aaron Johnston, Jesse Murphy and Sabina Sciubba strapped into their respective Baby Bjorns, moved to different countries and did QT with the fam. It was a “procreation vacation,” Sabina called it when we spoke over the phone recently, describing how a band whose signature chorus is “Pussy, pussy, pussy, marijiuana,” are now the attentive parents to seven children ranging from infants to toddlers, including two of Sabina’s.

And that saved the band, apparently. Over diapers and teething, they started talking to each other again this past winter. Then recording again, in Madrid. And finally performing together, on a mini-tour from D.C. through Boston last week. After working on various solo projects, now Brazilian Girls are working on a new album, which includes, “the best song we’ve ever done,” gushed Sabina.

A quick rundown of salient Brazilian Girls facts:

1) No one in the band is Brazilian, although keyboardist Didi is from Argentina.

2) Vocalist Sabina grew up in Rome, Munich and Italy, so she sings in English, French, Spanish, Italian and German.

3) They got started at a small New York City club called Nublu, where they had a weekly Saturday night show.

3) They make irresistible cabaret dance pop music that is impossible to describe.

Read on to learn how babies are saving one of the most innovative live bands in pop music.

Brazilian Girls broke up for a while, and now you’re back, that’s amazing! When did you break up, and when did you get back together? 

It was a couple days before Christmas before we broke up in 2010, and then around December 2011, January 2012 we got back together.

How has the process been? 

It was really good for us.

You worked on a solo record in that time, right? 

Yeah, I did. I think we’re going to put it out at the end of the year or beginning of next year. I also did other peoples’ stuff, like the band Pretty Good Dance Moves, I was on a couple of their songs. I did this thing last year — I did a musical with the Lincoln Center, and I was pregnant, and it was a totally different vibe.

What about the other members of the band?  

The guys were doing a bunch of different projects, not electronic but more dance projects.

How is it being back in Brazilian Girls?

It’s really healthy. Because Brazilian Girls kept us all so busy, so none of us lived out our alter egos. And this year really helped. And now we can come back with a very different attitude.

When did you start recording the new album?

We’d started with Didi before the breakup. I had a melody and approximate lyrics already, but when I came to Madrid I didn’t like it anymore. We had good energy and I just sang a new melody and lyrics, and it’s super nice.

How does Brazilian Girls songwriting happen?

Generally speaking, pretty much who brings the initial vibe is Didi. He comes with even just a beat. And many songs, [though] it’s not always, I came up with melody and lyrics. And Jesse and Aaron…bring the oomph. And sometimes we really jammed, and we were playing with [the East Village club] Nublu, and we came up with melodies at Nublu to pretend that we had songs.

What about your famous song…?

Oh, we have a famous song? [Laughs]

Yes, “Pussy!”

That was more the boys. The chorus was the first part of the song that we wrote. The guys were all like, ‘Pussy, pussy’ and I was all “Oh, that’s good!” And we gained a whole lesbian audience because of it. But I do I love marijuana and I do have a pussy, as far as I remember.

But then “Don’t Stop” existed before Brazilian girls. The best song we wrote was one we just wrote when we were in Madrid, “Pirates de la Nuit.” I think it’s a killer song.

So what’s it like being the only girl in the band?

It’s horrible. [Laughs] No. But it’s not easy. It’s not that the guys are mean or anything, but that girls and boys — there is a difference in the way we deal with things. It gets a bit rough, for a girl. But the guys, after all the break and the fact that everyone has children, it’s different. We have seven kids, between all of us. It was a procreation vacation.

How do you define your sound? Your music has like a cabaret punk vibe, sort of.

It’s not that punk. It’s the forte and weakness of the band, that we cross genres. That’s why the first record [Brazilian Girls] they put it into ‘opera.’

But you also had an Ibiza vibe — partying til dawn, “Dance to the Morning Sun,” etc. Is that what you’re going for in your new album?

No, I don’t think so. I think it’s more gonna be diapers. [Laughs]

Are you coming out with an album soon?

It’s not like we have all the material recorded yet, but we have about five songs. We don’t really want to put out an EP. We’re still kind of old-fashioned in the album idea, it’s so outdated.

We’re getting together again in Madrid, for just another week of recording. And then the question is how to put the album out, that’s the question mark. We want to do it in vinyl, like a collector’s item. Because God I hate cds, I threw away all my CD’s because they’re so ugly. I’m kind of happy about the whole digital thing.

You guys broke up in 2011. Why did Brazilian Girls end?

Well, we’ve all come along way. When we started out, there was a great energy and a great togetherness. When you’re having a laughing attack with somebody, it’s your body expresssing happiness. In the beginning, we had a lot of laughing attacks. We were a great team. But I think maybe a couple of years of touring and maybe everyone accumulated small frustrations [that added up.] Now it’s much more mature. [We're] paying a bit more attention.

How is Brazilian Girls today different from the past?

It feels very different. In the very beginning, it was something new. You can’t compare it to a love relationship because a love relationship, once it goes into the toilet it’s hard to revive. But in this case there’s a common interest, it’s almost like we’re divorced parents. In the beginning we were madly in love and now, and now we’re great divorced parents.

How did you decide to do the show?  

It’s really just the one-off, including a few others, a one-off stunt. It’s before the record, we don’t have anything to promote. It’s just to make a little bit of pocket money, to see our fans here who are very loyal.

Brooklyn Bowl is a relatively small venue. We had offers from Webster Hall, but we weren’t sure if people remembered us, so we chose Brooklyn Bowl. Then the Brooklyn Bowl show sold out in a day or a week, and we added a second date.

And then we’re also playing in Nublu. That’s supposed to be unannounced, but everyone knows about it because as I said we’re a bit messy.

We only realize a manager is useful when you don’t have one. When you don’t have one, you think they’re just a parasite who takes your money. [Laughs]

What was the songwriting process for the new album?

It was done in parts over the Internet, there are two songs we have now that we started before breaking up. Because we started working on the record, we got back together. We got together in Madrid and recorded a bunch of songs.

For how long?

Just a week.

Wow, that’s not a lot of time to write songs.

We’ve always been like that. These guys, they’re performers. The first take is always the best.

All images of Brazilian Girls at Brooklyn Bowl performing on Monday, Jun. 19 by Michael Weintrob.