By José Gandue @Gandour Acid Coco archive photos
She's in Berlin, he's in Geneva, Switzerland. They're siblings, Colombian, and have been living in Europe for two decades. They've always been involved in music, even before they left. Andrea and Paulo Olarte, now responding together under the name of Acid Coco, They have decided to take advantage of this year full of surprises to to reconstruct, in their own way, popular Latin genres such as cumbia, reggaeton and champeta, approaching them with a punk attitude, and mixing them with expressions and instruments of contemporary European electronic music. This project, which might seem too exotic for many inhabitants of the old continent compared to what they usually hear, has begun to yield interesting results, both in terms of digital platform figures and the performances they've managed to schedule amidst the pandemic. Acid Coco earlier this month has released his first full-length album called Nice to meet you, a compilation of ten songs, with a simple and direct sound, where Andrea's voice vibrates in a particular way amidst reverberations and other digital effects, always inviting movement and dancing. Throughout the album, there's a modern tropical party atmosphere, which, at this point in the Nordic autumn, must seem like a necessary ray of sunshine amidst the arrival of the worst of the cold.
We found Paulo, responsible for the instrumental part of the band, online to find out more about what they do and what's coming up, even in times of Coronavirus:
How can Colombian music be rediscovered in Central Europe?
When you're far from home, you cling even more tightly to the things you miss, and one of the things that transports you through time and space is music. Since leaving Colombia, my tropical music collection has only grown, but my initial time here in Europe was dedicated to producing electronic music, which was, by the way, a very good training ground for production. This wasn't a rediscovery; it was a continuation, but at that time I wasn't thinking about producing tropical music.
How does Colombian music perform in Europe?
People are going crazy. They love it.
Do you have any theory that explains that euphoria?
Well, I think that on one hand, Latin music is really taking off worldwide. There have been artists who have been working on this for years, and I also think that the number of Latinos who are all over the world today has a lot to do with that.
Let's talk about Andrea, how would you describe her participation in the project?
Well, Andrea is the voice, and with her voice she has given meaning to many things that weren't obvious. She has given a voice to the feelings and emotions surrounding issues like harassment and female empowerment. Lyrics like those of I dance alone, When I wrote it, I knew where to That was going well, but when she sang it, the song came to life!
How is that message, made in Spanish, received by an audience with little Spanish speaking?
Well, the truth is when I arrived in Europe there were some people who spoke Spanish, but nowadays the number of people who speak it is incredibly large, so the message gets through no matter what.
What's next for Acid Coco these days?
For now, we're enjoying the album release and doing interviews practically every day. A few weeks ago, we got together to record new material, so there's a lot of new music coming, and we're waiting to see what happens with this pandemic to see when we can start playing live again.
