![]() ![]() Blurb:Īlisa Amador’s music is a synthesis of the many styles she’s voraciously absorbed: rock, jazz, funk and alternative folk, all wrapped in the spirit of the Latin music she grew up with. Whoever you are, whatever your struggle, pain, or joy – you belong at an Alisa Amador concert. Everyone who shows up –who participates in the revolutionary act of listening– is a part of the experience. No matter what the setup, you can be sure of this: no one leaves a concert unmoved. And, it’s not uncommon for her parents to grace the stage for a song or two. And Noah Harrington, a lauded bassist who has played in Lincoln Center, Jordan Hall, festivals across continents, and studied with luminaries such as David Hope, Kayhan Kalhour, Béla Fleck, Mike Marshall, and Julian Lage.Ĭome to a concert and you might see Alisa performing solo with her hollow body electric guitar, or harmonizing originals and jazz covers with Noah Harrington singing and playing upright bass, or turning up the volume and syncopation with the help of Jacob Thompson on drums and vocals sometimes, you might even encounter a horn or string section. Jacob Thompson, a multi-instrumentalist and songwriter of his own right, who has collaborated with great songwriters across the country, from Grammy award-winner David Mullins to ASCAP award-winning singer-songwriter Erica Leigh. She picked up some incredible collaborators along the way. Alisa returned from Argentina with a renewed belief in the power of music to break down social, political, and emotional barriers and create a space where everyone belongs. Together they started an amplified band outfit that toured through Buenos Aires and the United States. Add a life-changing trip to Buenos Aires where she met the brilliant songwriter, Mica Ipiñazar and her husband Facundo Parla of the Argentine rock band, Rabiosa. That is part of a toxic culture.It was in green rooms, living room rehearsals, and cramped mini vans that Alisa Amador received her first musical education, singing backup vocals since the age of five for her parents’ Latin band, Sol y Canto.īut, how did Alisa’s sound grow into the Latin- Jazz- Soul and Blues-influenced folk rock that it is today? Start with years of jazz study, solo performance, and training in vocal harmony and improvisation all while pursuing a degree in gender studies at Bates College in central Maine. I used to think that was part of being a woman and now I’m like: No. Or, that man just told me I have a good voice but I have to be careful, because I can turn a lot of people on with my voice. Like, that guy just told me if he were 20 years younger he’d want to go on a date with me. And I’m not totally sure why.” Because I still saw experiencing that behavior as just part of the deal of being a woman. I would leave conversations and interactions saying, “Huh. Before I prioritized everyone else’s happiness and comfort over my own comfort. But being able to share this music gives me so much hope.Ī. Sometimes I don’t feel strong sometimes I just feel tired. I’m still learning how to listen to myself. When I come out of a conversation and say, “I don’t feel like I was respected” - now I have a vocabulary for it. Before I, the behaviors I accepted are so different from the behaviors I accept now. It’s so hard in so many ways that I’m still trying to understand. It must be hard being a woman in the music business.Ī. “Narratives” feels like a standing-up for yourself. In “Nada Que Ver,” the chorus is: “I want it to be a drop of honey/ for it to last longer than a paper airplane.” And I never would’ve come up with those words in English. ![]() In Spanish, the lyrics are more poetic because I have fewer words to draw from - I’ve read fewer books, listened to fewer people talking, so I don’t draw from tropes or phrases. Do you find it easier to write in Spanish or English?Ī. Now when I sit down to write, it’s either English or Spanish and I don’t know until I start. Before, I saw as this private coping mechanism - I didn’t conceptualize that people would want to play with me. In Buenos Aires, I played with a band for the first time. Something that changed me was a semester abroad to Argentina. ![]() It’s this helplessness feeling - like there’s nothing you can do to help them heal. A friend got really sick with mental illness, due to their being closeted. You started writing songs in high school. I started playing classical nylon-string guitar at 10, wanting to look and play like my dad who was a classical guitarist - but I was playing Don McLean’s “American Pie” and “Monster Mash”. ![]()
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