Mexican singer Ely Guerra takes charge

Wednesday September 15, 2010

from New York Daily News

Mexican singer Ely Guerra takes charge
BY Nuria Net

The last time Mexican songstress Ely Guerra performed in New York, she ended her set at the Knitting Factory by dropping her mike and acoustic pink guitar and whispering a song a cappella, eventually jumping down to the audience and singing at the top of her lungs, eyes closed, embraced by devoted fans who joined her in a communal chant.

Three years later, Guerra continues to bare her soul in the most independent work of her career. Her new album, “Hombre Invisible” (“Invisible Man”), is the first as her own boss after parting ways with her longtime label, EMI.The album was nominated last week for two Latin Grammys (Best Alternative Album and Best Album Packaging), and she is kicking off an extensive U.S. tour at (Le) Poisson Rouge on Sept. 24, as a headline act in the seventh annual Celebrate México Now! festival, which starts tomorrow.

“In a graphic way, I feel masculine because I’m the provider of a team of 30 people,” she says about her hands-on approach, from executive-producing her music to founding her own management and label enterprise, Homey Co. The title of the album also refers to the exploration of what she calls her “masculine” side.

“It’s been beautiful to realize that [we] women, we are in general impetuous; we have a capacity of making decisions fast,” she says.
It might be surprising to hear that Guerra, 38, feels empowered now, since she is one of the few successful singer-songwriter women in Latin American alternative and rock music, a veteran who’s been on the scene since she was 15.
Buoyant in her present creative renaissance as a businesswoman and her own woman, she is even venturing into acting. She’ll star in the upcoming Mexican film noir “La Pantera Negra.”

Her music is more subdued, veering from the strident, loud bursts her mezzo-soprano voice flaunted in the past.
The new vocals are still as feminine as ever, soft and sensual in bilingual songs that have less rock, in favor of bossa, ballads and even a classical piano solo.
“It has to do with a powerful essence that, in a way, translates to my present moment,” she says of the stripped-down nature of her new work.
The name of the CD also has to do with the “invisible” men who collaborated on it in a very particular way. Although Guerra’s biggest commercial hits have been duets with artists such as Chilean pop-rock band La Ley and the Mexican hip-hop group Control Machete, she asked musician friends such as Juanes, Enrique Bunbury and Gustavo Santaolalla to send her a harmonic sequence, which she broke down and used as the genesis for songs.

Through the process, Juanes, who contributed to the track “Antes de septiembre” (“Before September”), went to Guerra’s house in the Coyoacán area of Mexico City, where she cooked for him and they rekindled a friendship that goes back more than 15 years.
“Cooking for me is very important. If you have eaten my food, it means you are part of my life,” she says.
None of the invisible men sing or play any instruments on the album. Instead, they triggered a creative flicker.
“They’re a great inspiration. It was a different pretext to write songs,” she says, “to throw myself into an unknown corner.”

Vale Que Tengas	2:50
Antes de Septiembre	4:42
You Love Me	3:00
Bumeran	4:24

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