For years Colombia has become a hotbed for musical talent, beginning with Aterciopelados, followed by Shakira and Juanes, but now there’s whole new set of new and independent artists like Bomba Estereo, Alto Grado, Diamante Electrico and Elsa y Elmar to name a few.
A young Elsa Carvajal left her native Colombia to pursuit her musical dreams and enrolled at the Berklee College of Music in Boston and later moved to San Francisco where she founded her musical project Elsa Y Elmar
In October 2013, Elsa Y Elmar released a 6 song EP of all original songs written by Elsa and produced by Mateo Lewis. The single “Inmadura” quickly took off and spent 8 weeks at the top of the charts in Radionica, a leading radio station in the independent music movement in Colombia.
Elsa y Elmar has recently released a single titled “Exploradora” and two videos, the latest version, a live version of the song and this Friday Elsa Y Elmar will be opening for critically acclaimed Mexican rockers, Porter at the Roxy Theater on the Sunset Strip.
“Exploradora” is a bit of musical departure of Elsa as it is a moody song filled with synthesizers, distorted sounds, but it very much has passion and during a phone conversation with Elsa, she added: “Yes, this song is different fromwhat I’ve done before, it is very much based on electronica, but it still has a lot of feeling and I am the type of artists that doesn’t believe in musical barriers so I am going to do what my muse dictates at the time.”
When asked about a second video for the same song, she indicated: “The first video is very cinematic with lots of scenery and I think it works well with the song, but we also wanted to show what Elsa Y Elmar is like in a live setting and the song is also slightly different which also shows how music takes on a whole new vibe when played live.”
The single “Exploradora” is part of what will be Elsa’s new album and when asked how this album will differ from the first album, she replied: “I think, as you could tell from the first single, it will show that I have matured and so has the music, the album will have different types of songs, I have not gone electronic all of a sudden, this single is just one of my many facets as an artist.”
Elsa y Elmar will be performing with Porter at the Roxy Theater on Friday July 10, and before the show at the Roxy, she will be playing at the Levitt Pavilion at MacArthur Park as part of the BMI Summer Night Series.
Elsa y Elmar’s music can be purchased at iTunes and Spotify.
