stereochemistry
Wednesday 20th April 2011
FAULT: How has 2011 been for you so far?
Karla: On the road! Over 12000 km, 7 countries, 16 flights, touring, playing and making new music, meeting crazy, interesting, inspiring people and amazing artists to work with.. and it’s only April now. I am constantly on the road since september 2010, but 2011 really gave it an extra rush! People started exchanging me for a flight attendant. A minstrel-flight attendant.
FAULT: How did begin your musical career?
Karla: When i was one year old, my dad who was a professional musician but later opted for a chemical engineering career, asked me: which one do you prefer, a gramophone or a tape recorder? Tape recorder, i said. Two years later, he took me to the lab and let me play with some colorful chemicals. The final outcome was: a Master of Science in Industrial Biotechnology i took at University of Padova, 2007, and a PhD in Experimental Audiology at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, i abandoned in 2008 in order to dedicate myself full time to music which i have been playing and composing since i was twelve. I moved to Barcelona to be a street musician. My parents survived the shock and are my biggest fans, by the way.
FAULT: What has been the source of inspiration for your latest work?
Karla: Life, traveling, people i have met on the road, lovers, friends… anything that comes into my life, from small everyday things like a sunny day at the beach with friends, to mayor unpredictable and uncontrollable disasters such as a civil war and NATO bombing. Ah, and of course, men. They are always a tremendous source of inspiration, human specie never stops surprising me, really! In september 2010 i decided to make a collection of these travel experiences, some sort of a musical photo album with singing pictures and post cards from different places and newly encountered faces.. and so a live/studio album “Vagabond Cabaret” was released shortly after. I am very lucky to have a pretty intense life so i am never out of inspiration
FAULT: What are you currently working on?
Karla: Well a couple of projects: i recently released two singles, “Cotton Candy Love” and “Alice & Peter” so i am currently working on the videos for these two songs.. and in the meantime I am recording a new studio album temporarily called “A Professional Siren”, as my job this year was to sell my heart to various pirates, vikings and other sea pillagers in change of inspiration for my music. It is being recorded on the road and i got many people from different places, backgrounds, nationalities collaborating with me, so I think it’s gonna turn out to be a nice international melting pot experience.. and as it often happens in arts & entertainment, i’m into some other collaborative, mysterious and queer things i can’t say much about at this moment. But i’ll keep you posted!
FAULT: Has your approach to song writing changed over time?
Karla: Not really.. it has always been my way of dealing with the reality and life. Whenever something overwhelming would happen, i would sit at the piano or pick my guitar up and just sing and play.. and well, press REC button on my voice recorder. Music is and has always been my way to make the best of everything. If I felt sad, hurt or angry i would write a sad, hurt, angry song and simply feel better afterwards. Instead of pouring those feelings on to somebody else, i’d actually end up having a nice song to sing, so something positive and beautiful would be created out of negative feelings.. On the other hand, when l feel euphoric and happy, music just multiplies it and makes it sharable with others! Music has this unique power and magic that resides in it.
FAULT: What is the story behind Cotton Candy love?
Karla: Ahhhh touche! Well i can say it all now ’cause there’s nothing left to lose anymore. Last year in Barcelona i ran into a street musician and.. completely lost my mind. I liked him so much that instead of leaving him some money i left him my CD with all my contacts written on it and said: “this is 10 euros”. So eventually he called me up and we started dating, and well.. after one of these dates i came home, threw myself on the bed and realized i was wearing that stupid shining love struck smile i had when i was 16 years old and fell in love for the 1st time. So i wrote him a song which tells about this feeling of being sweet 16 again and daydreaming about someone who is fundamentally a stranger but who is so interesting that you simply can’t escape it. Sweet and sticky and irresistible. And, as all the other sugar rushes, it lasted for about half an hour.
FAULT: What can fans expect from Stereochemistry in 2011?
Karla: Everything, except of me settling in one place and stopping until i stereochemistrize the whole planet! A part from my hegemonistic plans, people can definitely expect a lot of new music, a lot of new shows around the world as i don’t plan to settle anywhere for the moment, a lot of love and some surprises.. I’m a workaholic and i always expect a lot from my own self in the 1st place so whoever’s there following me will always have a new rabbit coming up from my hat!
FAULT: Who would you like to work with on future projects?
Karla: If i could pick one artist and producer to work with, it would be Moby. If you let me write a whole lovely wish list and assure me it will be delivered to Santa Clause ASAP, i will add Timbaland (i got this one tune in mind he’d be perfect for), Lady Gaga (one crazy video with her) and Brandon Boyd (whom i’d lock up in a studio and wouldn’t let go until he’s got any voice left in him). Ah and Flea, from Red Hot Chili Peppers. That man has an energy of his own and his grooves just take me to another planet.
FAULT: What is your FAULT?
Karla: I got so many you’d need a couple of issues for it, but the main one is being a terminal, incurable, annoyingly optimistic optimist. Not even Wile E. Coyote can outmatch me.
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Photos Daniel Andres Ospina Lopez
