Silvia García Herráez |
Madrid (EFE).- Many things have happened since the young singer-songwriter Valeria Castro became a name to be reckoned with with her debut, the EP “Chiquitita” (2021), especially the eruption of the La Palma volcano that disrupted the life plans of the entire island and that inspired her in her first full-length album.
“As an islander and palm tree that I am, that affected me personally because the lava took my grandmother’s house and in the end I have tried to convey what was happening to me,” she tells EFE about feelings reflected especially in one of her 11 new songs , “A home”, in which there is a short introduction and closing with words from his “yeya”.
The song appears written in lower case, like the rest of the titles of these songs “quite linked” with his family, including the one that closes it and gives its name to his first LP, “With love and care”, dedicated to his parents and the way in which she has always felt treated by them.
“Self-love guides these songs a lot, without forgetting what is close, mine, which also ends up being part of what you want. That is why the island and my family are very present ”, says “proudly ”who made herself known on the networks with her versions and who conquered Alejandro Sanz thanks to a voice with her own stamp.
Castro (La Palma, 1999) points out that coming from a small place that is also surrounded by water makes you understand life differently from people who have grown up with many more stimuli around them.
“Moving to Madrid and having the chance to return has made me realize the value of my home, the island and my people. The least I can do is capture it and vindicate it with this work, ”he alleges about the appeal he makes in it to his personal and artistic roots.
Thus, in addition to foreign sounds such as rumba and bolero, the influence of Canarian popular music is reaffirmed, for example in “Perdón (I had not realized)” and in the aforementioned “Un hogar” Benito Cabrera, one of the best-known interpreters of the timple (a popular string instrument in the archipelago), while other songs feature drums typical of El Hierro and La Gomera.
Unlike her previous musical work, in the words of its own author, this album exudes a little “more anger” and musical maturity thanks to the experience she has gained in these two years, although without losing the “sweetness” with the who likes to do things.
In May he begins a tour that will take him through 18 Spanish cities, from the 5th of that month at La Rambleta in Valencia to the 1st of November at the Teatro Gayarre in Pamplona, with important stops such as Seville (Cartuja Center) on the 9th. June, Noches del Botánico in Madrid on June 16 or in Barcelona (paral·lel room 62) on October 19.
“I really want it, because this is my first album and I wanted to bet everything on it in some live performances that are going to be very special”, predicts the artist, who will stop at various points in the Canary Islands, including La Palma (Teatro Circo de Marte) on June 2 and the Mujeres World Fest in Tenerife on August 26, and which will head to Latin America towards the end of the year. EFE