Carrying out an independent musical project is complicated: the lack of opportunities and appropriate places to organize concerts are problems that haunt artists.
Women artists often face additional obstacles due to their gender. Even so, the national independent music scene has several exponents. These are some of the female soloists and bands looking to break the established order of the music industry.
Isabel Gallegos-Anda
Isabel Gallegos-Anda, or Sabi, as she is known in Guayaquil’s independent music scene, has led her band’s musical project, Tayos Tayos Tayos, with great attention to sound and visual details.
The clothing of the band members and the staging refer to the mix of genres represented by the music of Tayos Tayos Tayos: bright colors mix with black in their concerts, as dark melodies are interspersed with tropical rhythms in their songs. They have performed on the stages of important national festivals such as Funka Fest and El Festivalito.
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Gallegos-Anda is in charge of the composition of the lyrics and melodies. Along with guitarist Aldo Vanoni, Gallegos-Anda is one of the creative engines behind the project’s conceptualization and songwriting efforts by Tayos Tayos Tayos. Despite this, she indicates that both industry men and audience members confuse her with other artists and detract from her sacrifice.
“It has happened to me a lot that, instead of taking the time to listen to the band, they categorize you as a ‘woman with a guitar,’” explains Gallegos-Anda. “It’s turro, because one works a lot so that they know her band and not confuse it with something else,” says Gallegos-Anda, who adds that people in the public used to confuse her with another well-known Ecuadorian artist.
“Nobody said it to me in a bad way or anything like that… but they categorize you as something and they don’t look any further, when that doesn’t really happen with men,” reflects the group’s singer-songwriter.
It also happens to him that male musicians assume that he doesn’t know what he’s doing: one of the several bassists his band has ever had told him that it was not necessary for him to attend composition sessions, since Gallegos-Anda “doesn’t compose” and just it is “the face of the band”.
“Tayos is about to reach the finish line, but he stopped to drink water,” he says about the release of the band’s next album, a production of twelve songs, which is “almost finished” and which they hope to release soon.
Valeria Cali
One of the young promises of the musical and sound arts career at the University of the Arts Valeria Cali, 21, seeks to be a female reference of the salsa genre, a style that according to her does not have many references of her own sex in Ecuador.
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His first and so far last single, let me take care of you, is about heartbreak, but also has a protective and loving tone regarding relationships. Cali composed the music and lyrics, and is vocally inspired by artists such as the Puerto Rican singer La India, the Peruvian Daniela Darcourt, and the Ecuadorian Pamela Cortés. “I have a pretty versatile voice. I not only sing salsa, but other genres such as cumbia, merengue, ballad”, says the singer.
Although she has never had an uncomfortable situation with another man within the industry, Cali indicates that she constantly fights against stereotypes: “I have come across having to fit in, that you are tall, that you are white, that you are quite produced in that sense… I’ve been struggling with that.”
In the future, Cali hopes to continue releasing music, forming an orchestra, and internationalizing her career.
Sweet dreams
‘Pogueo y perreo’: that is the motto of Elaine Silva, Diana Gardeneira, Ana Vásquez and Maite Villacreses, members of the punk music band Dulces Sueños, a musical project that seeks to “shake up” the country’s music scene.
The energy they transmit is something that Villacreses, drummer, “had not found” in other bands he was a part of. “People feel the intention of the songs, they begin to pogue, to perrear” expresses Villacreses.
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Gardeneira, vocalist, Silva, keyboardist, and Vásquez, guitarist, met thanks to the feminist collective La Gallina Malcriada, a group of women artists united with the aim of promoting and supporting women from various artistic disciplines.
The activism of its members is at the center of the concept of Dulces Sueños as a band. Many of the lyrics of her songs are set to music of the slogans that feminist groups chant during their marches, and Gardeneira usually goes up to sing with a green scarf on her left wrist, as a sign of support for the feminist struggle and the legalization of abortion.
The independent music scene, they claim, is “full of people who cover up abusers,” says Silva. “There are people who prefer to play crazy or turn a blind eye” to alleged abusive male artists, adds Silva.
Consequently, the punk quartet seeks to make its concerts safe spaces for women. They have expressed their discontent on social networks, for example, with the possible abuse that women can suffer during concerts, especially during the ‘pogo’, a kind of dance that involves jumping and pushing with the rest of the concert audience.
Another of the objectives of Dulces Sueños as a band is to give more prominence to female artists: “Most of the artists in the history books are men, and they always talk about men. We have had that concern since we were part of La Gallina Malcriada. She made us wonder: where are the women in other spaces? ”, underlines Gardeneira.
The quartet hopes to release their first album next March and soon they hope to launch a live session.
shalom mendieta
Pop, Urban, Bachata, Son Cubano, and soon bolero-chachachá: Shalom Mendieta’s versatility as an artist landed her on the biggest stage of her career in December of last year. She was part of the opening of the concert by Fanny Lu and Anuel along with other Ecuadorian artists, including Tábata Alvarado, daughter of ex-Tranzas Troi Alvarado and Mendieta’s former classmate in the music and sound arts career at UArtes.
The singer-songwriter began her musical career in 2019, at the age of 20, with the release of her first single titled calm down Since then, he explains, he feels that he has had an exponential development as an artist.
“Time does not pass in vain”, Mendieta reflects on the development of his career. He has entered new genres, his voice has matured, and now his work presents more musical complexity, Mendieta points out.
Now he also owns the stage better. “I have been growing on stages. The first time I performed there were my relatives and close people, they were very small places…then I went to venues like Wanka Beats, with about 4,500 people”, recalls the singer from Guayaquil.
In his experience, the Ecuadorian music scene has a deficit of music producers. He has not run into production companies so far in his artistic journey. However, in terms of the number of female artists on the music scene, the Guayaquilean believes that women have already taken over the Show.
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“I think we dominate the industry right now…we have a lot of references and in various genres. We are so many and that seems beautiful to me,” says Mendieta, pointing out artists like Ceci Juno, Camila Pérez, Luz Pinos and Latorre as prominent female artists.
The singer hopes to release her first album in the middle of this year. (YO)
Source: Eluniverso
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
