From the Beatles to Venezuelan folklore, including the Fugees, La Chica’s youth playlist

As a child, La Chica played the violin for the trees and birds. In the evening, his father made him listen to punk bands as a lullaby. She looks back on the music that marked her youth, between France and Venezuela.

Where did you spend your childhood and in what environment?
I grew up between the Belleville district in Paris and the city of Mérida in Venezuela, where I spent all my holidays with my mother’s family. This dual culture nourished me a lot and opened my mind, particularly musically. In France, I went to the conservatory, I studied classical music in an academic setting. In Venezuela, music is everywhere, on every street corner. She is more natural and freer. My mother was a mathematics teacher, my father a schoolteacher.

I was a very shy little girl who couldn’t communicate easily. I played the violin for the birds or for the trees. I had a more direct connection with nature than with humans. As a teenager, things loosened up a bit, even though I retained the temperament of an observer more than a leader within my groups of friends. I also did sports, French boxing and taekwondo. After a scientific baccalaureate and two years of studying mathematics and physics, I joined a sound engineering school.

Did your parents listen to music?
My parents are big music lovers. We listened to music all the time. My father loved English rock, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, but also punk groups that he made me listen to on headphones to fall asleep. Apparently, they had soothing properties on me! My mother loved baroque music, Bach, Venezuelan folklore and salsa.

What is your favorite song from your childhood?
When I was 6 or 7 years old, I played the album on repeat Rubber Soul, of the Beatles, on my parents’ turntable. I knew him by heart. The song Girl was one of my favorites. Hearing the singer systematically take a deep breath before saying the word “girl” made me laugh a lot. At the age of 11, when I entered middle school, I developed my own musical culture through American hip-hop. I was listening to Ado FM which, at the time, was an alternative hip-hop radio station. I recorded the sounds on audio cassettes and then found out about the artists I liked. Among them, I remember listening to the album a lot Black on Both Sides, by Mos Def.

What was the first concert you attended?
In Venezuela, I saw musicians playing all the time, at friends’ houses or in the street. Venezuelan folk music groups are generally composed of a cuatro, a small four-stringed guitar, a llanera harp, maracas and a low guitar which takes the role of the bass. In France, the first concert that I chose and for which I paid my ticket was that of the Fugees at the Zénith in Paris. I was 15 years old. We were a whole group of friends probably accompanied by a consenting adult! I remember the incredible energy of the group. I thought it must be great to be on stage playing this music.

Did you learn music as a child?
When I was little, my mother heard sounds, door slams, animal noises whose source she didn’t understand. Until the day she realized that I had fun reproducing all the sounds of everyday life with my voice. Seeing that I had a rather developed ear, she decided to enroll me in private violin lessons. I was 7 years old. But very quickly, the teacher detected my obsession with the piano. When I was early, she gave me paper and pencils. I systematically drew a keyboard on which I pretended to play.

I accepted every plan that was offered to me. I said yes to everything, all styles of music.

I entered the Lilas conservatory at the age of 9. For thirteen years, I took piano lessons there with an extraordinary teacher who taught me the instrument on the basis of music therapy. She explained to me that each frequency, sound or tone would have an impact on my body, which music could heal. She made me work with the composers with whom I resonated, Debussy, Ravel, Fauré and Stravinsky. The music made me feel good. Later, when I returned to sound school, I met musicians. By chance I found myself having to replace a pianist on stage for a piece. I loved the moment so much that I ended up spending the whole concert on stage with them.

From that day on, I didn’t want to do anything else. I accepted every plan that was offered to me. I said yes to everything, all styles of music. I went home to listen to references. I worked by picking up the keyboard parts by ear. For several years, I accompanied artists on stage including Zap Mama, Yael Naïm, Christophe Maé and Pauline Croze. It kept me very busy but I still had my project, my songs that I was composing at home. I gave my first concerts in bars in Belleville and Ménilmontant when I was 25 years old. In 2015 I released a single and an EP in 2017 which allowed me to tour and become known as La Chica.

Do you remember the first song you wrote?
Her name was Sola. I was 25 years old. Composed on a Rhodes, I set myself the goal of writing it with only two notes which also gave a rhythm. She spoke of female independence and the difficulty of deconstructing oneself. You can hear it with another arrangement on my first album!

The Girl’s album, La Chica & El Duende Orchestra, was released on October 11, 2024.