- When begins your love for mixing genres?

I grew up listening and reading about various musical cultures. My father would play me music from Brazil, Mali, Italy, France, Italy and more very often from his album collection and my mother would teach me songs from all over the world. I also had a curiosity and eagerness to learn different languages as a child and continue to do so to this date.

- What do you get from these genres that do not give others?

Not sure if you are familiar with the term synesthesia. It's the production of a sense impression relating to one sense or part of the body by stimulation of another sense or part of the body. Sound for me generates colors in my mind. The way I write and perform music is dictated by this thing of mine. The genres and musical styles that attract me and make me want to explore them appear in my mind distinctively colorful, like paintings. Whereas other genres or particular pieces of music appear just grey, like blurry clouds.

- What do you find attractive about them?

The major influences in my music are: music from Latin America - for their vast and endless richness and diversity of rhythm, French Chanson - for the lyric content, the story-telling and the song structure , Symphonic music of the 20th century - for the attention to detail, the nuances, the beauty of orchestration and colors of the orchestral instruments and Greek Folk music - for the simplicity, the melodic contour and unbreakable connection I have with the country that brought me up!

- Besides this characteristic mix of genres. What do you think got different from other music proposals?

This is a simultaneously hard and easy question to answer. What makes us different from others that we are we are not afraid of being different. When we started this band, the purpose was not to create something unique that would set us apart from others, rather to communicate our collective musical world as purely and honestly as possible.


- Tell us about "Yerakina"...

Yerakina is a collection or re-imagined folk songs and mid-century classics. All the songs in Banda Magda's album #2 are not original, but songs that we have enjoyed playing in shows but also in social gatherings, parties and such. They are beloved songs sung in 5 different languages, orchestrated and arranged with our musical vision for them. The album seeks to portray the friendship and devotion that characterizes the band and its collaborators.

The title song, Yerakina, is a greek folk song about a bird on her way to fetch water from a well. When she inadvertently falls in, she gets out with the help of all the villagers who listen to her jingling bracelets.

This album is about friendship & devotion. Through the lyrics of these particular songs I wanted to portray the devotion that my bandmates have so generously bestowed on me; their devotion to their own individual craft, my devotion to be the best bandleader I can be, and my devotion to you, reading this.

In many ways, Yerakina has nothing to do with music. It's about one hand holding the other, climbing up that deep, dark well, together, towards the sunlight.

- What differences do you find with "Amour, t'es là" ??

Yerakina is more about the band and less about me as a singer/songwriter. It was a more collaborative album and there was more input from the bandmates throughout the whole process.

- How was the exprience of recording with Michael League from Snarky Puppy and Fab Dupont?

Michael, Fab and I are 3 very stubborn chefs in the kitchen, all of us with a very strong vision of what the dish should taste like. When we are in the same room, magic happens. We all add our own ingredients and techniques, and because we all know about good food, the road into making a delicacy is smooth and beautiful and such a fun playground! Working with these masters of sound and music was a rare treat. They sailed with me towards the vision I had for Yerakina with great respect and enthusiasm. They will be producing the next album coming out in 2015 as well!

- Have a very versatile band that accompanies you through all these sounds. How hard is to connect with others at a deep level? Because the project is very personal but they seem to understand perfectly what you want.

Ah! My favorite topic. Bandmates! I understand what you mean and sometimes I wonder about it myself. It's really as if they are part of my body, we move together. I supposed that one of the reasons why this came to be is that at its core, Banda Magda is a group of friends that have similar aesthetics and similar reasons for making music. Another common characteristic of ours is that we are all very honest, straight-forward people. That truth is what, in my opinion, makes the connection deeper. The amount of trust and love in this group allows us to be very comfortable with trying things, making mistakes, asking questions and exploring new ideas.


- What think that caught people's attention? The intimate atmosphere you generate? The eclectic sound?

It's hard for me to tell. I am too much in the eye of the storm to understand how people see us or are drawn to us. My guess is the authenticity. Our music represents so much exactly who we are. We are not trying to sound like anyone else but the sum of who we are. We also pay a lot of attention to visuals, and they are extremely authentic as well. That is my 10-year-old trenchcoat on the cover of Amour (that I still wear), the plant is sitting on my desk as I type, the plate on the cover of Yerakina has been in my kitchen for ages and the limes were in the fridge. What I am trying to say, is that the closer the image you give out to the world is to the real thing, the more the chance of finding people in the world that will be able to connect with you. So, concluding, I think honesty and authenticity maybe two things that have grabbed people's attention.

- Do you know any south american band? From Argentina?

Many! I am a great fan of Spinetta. I melt each time I hear Muchacha (Ojos de Papel). I love Aca Seca Trio, Puente Celeste and I am in love with Fito.

- A message for your latin fans...

I looking forward to touring extensively in this incredible part of the world and meet its people and get to experience up close their warmth, and their joy for life and their rich musical heritage that has brought so much richness in mine.