my flamenco. How has your experience in Spain affected the music of Caramelo? We did an interview the day before yesterday and the interviewer asked us about fusion and flamenco. I was trying to explain very unsuccessfully that I don’t see myself as fusion. I love flamenco puro. I don’t gravitate so much toward more modern styles of flamenco, but it’s a little bit of a dichotomy because we are mixing genres. We always try to maintain that feeling of true flamenco even though we’re messing with it. Some people would disagree. We have very high standards for the flamenco in the group. We have to be very precise with the rhythm and form. We’re dedicated to flamenco, but at the same time, we’re American. Music is deep in our blood and psyches since we were children. Like your son with your harmonica. It’s so deeply ingrained in him. My dad listened to bluegrass. I grew up with reggae, R&B, and hip-hop and I love it all. We’re just being honest about who we are. We decided let’s just make the music we like with all our different influences. That’s what has been so exciting about it. We didn’t come at it from the point of view that “This would be really cool.” We have accordion in the band because my husband is from Ukraine and has played the accordion since he was 10 years old. Everything happened in an organic way. Have you heard of a band called LoCura? Yes! The people at Rock Paper Scissors turned me on to them. They’re amazing! Your story of how this all came together sounds very similar to the story behind LoCura. The singer had roots in Spain, then they all just came together with all these various backgrounds. It’s Latin-influenced, but they bring in a lot of other stuff too. (laughs) Tristra from Rock Paper Scissors said, “You’re like the east coast version of LoCura.” We’ve been corresponding. We’d like to set up some shows together. I really like their vibe. What kind of reaction do you get from people when you describe your music to them? We get really excited reactions, except from true 4
flamenco people who don’t want anything interfering with flamenco. I got excellent feedback from flamenco artists that I respect a lot. Mostly I get really positive feedback. When you describe your music, is it something people then want to hear for themselves? Definitely. People coming to our shows a lot. As a choreographer and dancer, one of the things I wanted to do with our live show was flamenco dance. You can’t separate it from the music. It’s intertwined. Flamenco dancing is part of the music. There’s the visual part of the music and also there’s aurally as a percussionist with our feet. I wanted to use that model in our live shows and also the model of hip-hop where you have backup dancers. Hip-hop is similar, where there is always a dance component attached to the music. We have amazing dancers and I dance as well. We have a lot of numbers that are choreographed and we go into straight flamenco dancing in the set as well. I think it’s fun for people. It’s like a candy bag with a lot of good things. In the live shows there is a lot going on. I never wanted to be the lead singer who just sings. How boring! What would you be doing if you weren’t making music? Oh boy! It’s so sad to think about. If I weren’t making music, I would continue the other work I do. I’m an assistant director for the Metropolitan Opera. I work on putting together opera productions. I still dance in the productions and choreograph as well. I would continue being around music even if I weren’t making it. If I could do none of those things, I would make art because it helps human beings. It helps us deal with the pain of life and comforts us, gives us joy, and helps us express our feelings.
In our next issue: A guest column by Helmut “The Bruiser” Von Schoen of The Coyote Men
Incognito Music, Models, and More (August 2012)
incognitomusicmagazine.com