Starting #BarzakhFestival day with a workshop on Afro-Cuban music with @ladameblanche13. She talks about her father, musical director of @BuenaVistaSC, her early plans to be a classical flutist (but had no instrument of her own) 
She became a young mother, and moved to France where she connected with her producer. It would have been easy for her to sing old standards like Besame Mucho
But they didn’t speak to her. So she started writing her own songs. She worked for a long time with Sargeant Garcia. Recorded this song.
We never put Cuban Rhythms explicitly I’m the background of the music, explains @ladameblanche13 producer. We don’t need to put it in the beats. It’s in Mayte herself.
I wake up every morning. Shower, coffee, prayer, beats. Making music every day.
It’s a fantastic mix - when @ladameblanche13 bring the Cuban-ness in herself. It’s not easy to live outside Cuba (she lives in France) because it has such a strong draw.
Marc, @ladameblanche13’s producer, admits that the Cuban music slips into the beats - a bass line might allude to a Cha Cha Cha for example - but it’s not a conscious imposition.
Does @ladameblanche13’s religion as a santera influence her music? asks audience member. Every morning she reads her cards. Everything stays in the house. Definition: Santeria a Yoruba religion as a mix of Spanish and African influences in Cuba that “hid itself in Catholicism”
The stories in @ladameblanche’s songs aren’t necessarily from her own life but observations of her neighbors. And details from Santeria may find their way into the stories because they are a part of life
Her father didn’t initially approve of @ladameblanche13’s musical choices. It required a lot of courage to stand up to this resistance when the mix is so organic.
Whenever something happens in life, I have to go home. I have to live it. The most important thing is to have some experiences. @ladameblanche13 #BarzakhFestival
We have to write a LOT of lyrics to have one good song. @ladameblanche13 on creating lots of drafts and producing a lot of songs before they find the keepers.
How does @ladameblanche13 keep the energy to move forward with constant creation of songs that don’t work out? Light a lot of candles, drink a lot of water, sports, a little love, and a lot of spirituality. #inspiration
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