By José Gandue @Gandour
Within the framework of a new edition of Beautiful Noise Festival, The event, to be held in Bogotá from September 21 to 23, will feature a woman who has given reasons to believe that she possesses a talent that deserves to be recognized by the Latin American community. Juanita Carvajal is internationally recognized as the bassist for the Colombian artist Esteman, But for the past few months, he has been presenting his solo project, promoted under the name of Emilia. Under that alias, Juanita is promoting, under the Polen Records label, an EP titled Bad intentions And with it, she has begun performing on stages both locally and throughout Mexico. Hoping to release her first feature film next year, we took the opportunity to talk with her before her performance on Friday the 22nd at Ciné Tonalá, in the La Merced neighborhood of Bogotá.
What is Emilia about?
Emilia is a character I created through whom I wanted to share my music and start fresh, free from the burdens of what people had assumed about me during the five years I've worked with Esteman. That's how Emilia was born. It's about showing my darker side and sharing the music I've been writing for about two years.
What do you call the "dark side"?
When I talk about the dark side, I'm referring more to the song lyrics, which are inspired by situations in my daily life. Specifically, the EP deals more with the demonic side of heartbreak, when not everything is rosy and not everything in love is pain or happiness. Sometimes it has malicious intentions.
What kind of music does this character make, Emilia?
Emilia brings electro-pop, with guitars that have Caribbean sounds and beats inspired by champeta and danceable rhythms. What we call alternative pop today.
Do you feel comfortable in your roles as a soloist?
Quite a bit when it comes to music. When I'm speaking in public, I find it harder to organize my thoughts about what I want to say.
How have people reacted to your project so far? Are they able to separate your work with Emilia from your work as Esteman's bassist?
I'm realizing over time that many people were expecting to hear something from me apart from Esteman. All the years alongside Esteban have been a learning experience and, of course, a valuable journey as I embarked on my solo career. People have taken it very naturally, as a process that was meant to happen, recognizing the years of work and the love I have for Esteman, just like Emilia or Juanita.
Let's return to the dark side and allow me to pose a cliché (perhaps to be challenged): In your latest video, I see a woman with a soft face and a high-pitched voice resort to unusual violence against someone at the end of the story. Does this action have a message behind it? Some kind of warning, or is it simply humor intended to stir the viewer's emotions?
Well, the idea the director and I had was that everything in the song—the warning about love and ill intentions—was always coming from that character, and my character was the one warned and affected, but that was only going to be revealed at the end of the video when my character takes revenge. It was like people were going to see me as the bad guy, but the other person was the one who did something wrong.
How do you feel about the positioning of women in the current Bogota scene?
I think it's an issue we need to discuss at a Latin American level. The presence of women in the music industry is growing significantly. We can find groups of women united to end the discrimination that exists in the industry, which stems from the construction of a stereotypical view of female representation in bands. In Bogotá, we're just now realizing that this is happening, and that there's a growing empowerment of women in this regard.
So, what do you propose to do?
What I feel is that women are starting to come out without fear in the industry. In a way, they are joining forces to do it collectively. In Colombia, we can find women like Nina Rodriguez working to promote female projects and creating spaces where people can see the women in the scene, or Sol Okarina with the collective of Women in music - Colombia Giving talks like the one last Tuesday at Bomm, where you can see the growth of women's projects and how we can develop them.
What does the future hold for Emilia?
Finish the EP, continue promoting these three tracks, and introduce the project in Mexico and Colombia through live concerts. The first album is slated for release in 2018. This is a very young project that has developed very quickly. I released the first song with Polen Records five months ago, and I want to take my time before releasing the album.