Gaby Moreno is Going the Distance

Written by Hilda Gabriela Wednesday, 31 March 2010 17:07

With her debut album Still the Unknown in hand, and a follow-up already in mind, Guatemalan singer/songwriter Gaby Moreno has come a long way from her days performing covers in festivals and telethons. The 24-year-old songstress, who also happens to be the first-ever Latina to win the international John Lennon Songwriting Contest, talks to Al Borde about her drastic move from singing Gloria Estefan tunes as a wedding singer to performing her own material as an opening act for the likes of Fergie-licious, Tracy Chapman and Ani DiFranco.

I’m an independent artist so that makes it harder to put your name in magazines and on the radio. It’s been almost two years since I released my debut album, Still the Unknown, which I’m still promoting now. I know it’s kind of strange that many people are just now hearing of me, but we had a CD release party for it; I put it on iTunes and on CD Baby and was selling it at all of my concerts. I’ve been trying to do as much as I can on my own here and there but really, I didn’t start to get some attention until last year when I toured with Tracy Chapman and Ani DiFranco, which helped to promote my album to a larger audience and really helped get the ball rolling with this word of mouth monster.

The tour I’m making progress slowly, but it’s still pretty tough. Winning the John Lennon contest was also a big boost to my resume. I was flown out to open a concert for Fergie in New York City as part of the award, which was the first time that I played in such a huge event. It was a great honor for me.

Still the Unknown is a collection of songs that I wrote throughout the years. It’s a bilingual record that represents who I am and says exactly what I want to say, in the way that I wanted things said in both English and Spanish. My close friend and I wrote some of the songs together and worked on the music together as well. I seem to work better that way—bouncing ideas of one another and collaborating in that sense. I also collaborated with David Garza on the album and he is simply amazing. I met him here in LA and one thing lead to another and he ended up playing piano on the track “Amapola”. And that’s what I mean by this “word of mouth monster” since that’s how I got the gig with Tracy Chapman and Ani DiFranco. Some friends recommended me and next thing you know it was happening, and now it’s happening with Still the Unknown as well.

Still the Unknown is a very mellow album. It’s very organic and pure, which is the sound that I’ve been searching to find. We recorded it in about three days, which is just insane. But it worked. I met this great producer and we just went to his house, jammed out, recorded some songs and just like that everything made sense. The first song from the album is titled “Little Sorrow” and I think it’s the song that best defines who I am as an artist. It’s a very simple song in its musicality, but at the same time very powerful and passionate. “Amapola” is another song that is very dear to my heart. It’s a beautiful cover that my grandmother used to sing to me as a child. It’s a very special song that is equally beautifully written. That song seems to move people every time I sing it even if they don’t understand it since it is in Spanish. There’s something truly special about it.

It’s been nine years since I left Guatemala to pursue my dreams as a singer, and it’s been worth it. I consider both places my home, although both places are very different to one another. The prominent rock scene in Guatemala makes it difficult for someone with my mellow tunes to find a space. Here in Los Angeles, however, I feel as though there is space to venture into different musical realms and experiment with many sounds. You have a beautiful array of scenes here, from soul to R&B, an awesome underground jazz scene to an indie one… But it’s also nice to play outside of LA. Just last year I started feeling antsy and wanting to play in different cities. Luckily it happened, so it was perfect timing.

I’m already thinking about my second album. It’ll definitely have more songs in Spanish and will be more upbeat. It’ll have more soulful songs and more songs that you can dance and groove to which, is always fun. I’ve written some songs for it already and have even performed some of them at my shows. I always feel bad when people ask me why those songs aren’t in Still the Unknown, so I think it’s about time to record them into an album! I’m really into bossa nova right now so perhaps you’ll hear more of that on the next project as well. I’d also love to do collaboration with Gilberto Gil…that would me amazing! I was at his concert recently and I had goose bumps the entire time. It was incredible. It’s setting my goals pretty high up there, but it can happen.

I’ve been involved in this music since I was around 7 years old. I’ve gone from singing in small town festivals and telethons, to singing Latin songs as a wedding singer! Yup, I did that for a while. When I first came to the U. S., I couldn’t get a regular 9-5 job because I came with a student visa, so it made sense to play those types of gigs. But thankfully that’s not happening anymore! I got to tour with great musicians whom I admire very much and although I had to finance it myself, it was a wonderful opportunity. I would spend every last dime touring and making music if I could. I left Guatemala to pursue my music, and that’s what I’m here to do. I would be in debt just to tour again. How can I pass on an opportunity like that!

 

 

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