Colombia’s Ela Minus talks new album ‘DÍA’ : NPR

Plenty of music as of late is created with none devices; only one particular person and a laptop computer.

Colombian artist Ela Minus is making an attempt to deliver the human contact to a largely digital music scene.

“I really studied coding for a very long time,” Minus advised Morning Version host A Martinez. “I began getting very, very used to the sound of laptops. So I used to be simply on the lookout for a distinct sound, and I discovered {hardware} synthesizers, which means there’s an precise instrument – separate from a pc – that has piano keys.”

Minus – whose actual title is Gabriela Jimeno Caldas – says she’s been pressured to surrender the cumbersome, analog synthesizers. “If I am utterly sincere, it is largely come from male engineers which can be, like, ‘Why are you carrying all of this round? You [should] simply get a laptop computer.’ My query is all the time: Why?” she mentioned. “The reply has by no means been convincing sufficient.”

Ela Minus grew up in Bogotá, the place she performed drums in a punk band. She then got here to Boston’s Berklee Faculty of Music to review percussion, however she discovered her true inspiration in that metropolis’s dance golf equipment.

Ela Minus’s new album is named DÍA and was launched earlier this month. Musically, its sounds are wealthy and layered; the beats are fierce and joyous. However lyrically, Minus leans towards melancholy, describing the mixture as “dancing and crying.”

“My music has a number of juxtaposition. I am the kind of person who – whenever you inform me one thing actually unhappy, I snicker. Most likely out of nervousness, in all probability out of not realizing methods to react.”

She says that is gotten her into a number of hassle with vital others or associates.

“The particular person will get madder, after which I am laughing extra, after which they simply maintain getting extra offended. I imply, it isn’t nice. I’ve gotten higher.” It even impressed her to put in writing one in all her new songs, “I Need To Be Higher.”

Minus is on tour together with her new album, with varied dates in Europe earlier than returning to the U.S. in March.