Musical empowerment: Ecuadorian artists who want to break into the local scene

Running an independent musical project is complicated: the lack of opportunities and suitable places to organize concerts are problems that haunt artists.

Female artists often face additional obstacles because of their gender. Still, the national independent music scene has different 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 the musical project of her band, Tayos Tayos Tayos, with great attention to sound and visual details.

The band members’ clothing and staging refer to the mix of genres that Tayos Tayos Tayos’ music represents: bright colors mix with black in their concerts, while dark melodies alternate with tropical rhythms in their songs. They have appeared on the stages of important national festivals such as Funka Fest and El Festivalito.

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Gallegos-Anda is responsible for 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, it indicates that both industry men and spectators confuse her with other artists and detract from her sacrifice.

“It’s happened to me many times 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 crazy because you put a lot of effort in so that they know your band and don’t confuse it with something else,” says Gallegos-Anda, who adds that people in the audience used to mistake her for another well-known Ecuadorian artist.

“No one 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, while that doesn’t really happen with men,” the singer-songwriter of the group looks back.

It also happens to him that male musicians assume he doesn’t know what he’s doing: one of the many bassists his band has ever had told him there was no need for him to attend composition sessions, as Gallegos-Anda “don’t do”. t compose” and it’s just “the face of the band”.

“Tayos is about to cross the finish line, but he stopped to drink water,” he says of the release of the band’s next album, a 12-song production, which is “almost finished” and hopes to come soon to issue.

Valeria Kali

Valeria Cali, 21, is one of the young promises of the musical and sound arts career at the University of the Arts Valeria Cali, 21, tries to be a female reference of the salsa genre, a style that she says does not have many references of her own gender in Ecuador.

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His first and 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 don’t only sing salsa, but also other genres such as cumbia, merengue, ballad,” says the singer.

While she’s never had an awkward situation with any other guy in the industry, Cali says she’s constantly battling stereotypes: “I’ve come across that you have to fit in, that you’re tall, that you’re white, that you’re pretty produced in that feeling… I’ve struggled with that.”

In the future, Cali hopes to continue releasing music, forming an orchestra and internationalizing her career.

Good night

‘Pogueo y perreo’: that is the motto of Elaine Silva, Diana Gardeneira, Ana Vásquez and Maite Villacreses, members of the punk band Dulces Sueños, a musical project that aims to ‘shake up’ the country’s music scene.

The energy they convey is something Villacreses, drummer, “hadn’t found” in other bands he was a part of. “People feel the intent of the songs, they start to tease, to persecute,” expresses Villacreses.

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Gardeneira, singer, Silva, keyboardist, and Vásquez, guitarist, met thanks to the feminist collective La Gallina Malcriada, a group of female artists united with the aim of promoting and supporting women from different artistic disciplines.

The activism of its members is central to the concept of Dulces Sueños as a band. Many of the lyrics of her songs are set to music from the slogans feminist groups chant during their marches, and Gardeneira usually goes upstairs 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 covering up abusers,” says Silva. “There are people who would rather act silly or turn a blind eye” to allegedly abusive male performers, Silva adds.

That’s why the punk quartet tries to turn its concerts into safe spaces for women. For example, they express their dissatisfaction on social networks about the possible abuse that women can undergo during concerts, especially during the ‘pogo’, a kind of dance where you jump and push with the rest of the concert audience.

Another goal of Dulces Sueños as a band is to give more exposure to female artists: “Most artists in the history books are men and they always talk about men. We have had that concern ever since we became part of La Gallina Malcriada. It made us wonder: where are the women in other areas?” Gardeneira underlines.

The quartet hopes to release their first album in March and hope to launch a live session soon.

shalom mendieta

Pop, Urban, Bachata, Son Cubano and soon bolero-chachachá: Shalom Mendieta’s versatility as an artist took her to the biggest stage of her career last December. He was part of the concert opening of 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 art career at UArtes.

The singer-songwriter started her music career in 2019, at the age of 20, with the release of her first single titled take it easy Since then, he explains, he feels he has developed exponentially as an artist.

“Time passes for a reason”, Mendieta looks back on the development of his career. He has entered new genres, his voice has matured and now his work presents more musical complexity, says Mendieta.

Now he also controls the stage better. “I grew up 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, “remembers the singer from Guayaquil.

In his experience, the Ecuadorian music scene is short of music producers. He has not encountered any production companies during his artistic journey so far. However, in terms of the number of female performers in the music scene, the Guayaquilean believes that women are the show.

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“I think we dominate the industry at the moment… we have a lot of references and in different genres. There are so many of us and I think that would be nice,” says Mendieta, pointing to artists such as 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.