Maluca Interview: SXSW 2010

Posted on Mar 15th 2010 9:18PM by Shyema Azam
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Soon after Maluca's serendipitous encounter with DJ-producer extraordinaire Diplo, who also helped spearhead the careers of M.I.A. and Santigold, the NYC-born artist came onto the scene in 2009. Signing with label Mad Decent, the young artist has already toured internationally to Scandinavia, and to a crowd of 10,000 people in Belgium. "It was intimidating, but I killed it, as always," she says with a laugh. She'll be making her second visit to SXSW following the release of her EP, "El Tigeraso" last August. Spinner caught up with Maluca who was in her studio already at work on her next mix tape to talk to her about about her electro-merengue sounds and bringing the Latin flavor back to SXSW this year.

Describe your sound in your own words.

Tropical punk. I don't do your typical Latina pop music.

How did you get your start?

I was always doing music ever since I was a kid. I was working in the fashion industry for a while and was just miserable. So I started making music at home and decided by the push of a friend that this is what I need to be doing. My dad, mom and her husband have all influenced my musically. My dad used to work with artists like Samantha Fox, and the Jungle Brothers and my mom was just a disco queen. We just had a huge Latin music collection and it was a combination of all of that.

What are your musical influences?

Nina Simone, ESG, Wu-Tang, Bjork, Erykah Badu, there are just so many.

How did you come up with your name?

My uncle gave it to me. It means "crazy girl" in Portugese.

What's your biggest vice?

Law and Order: SVU.

What's in your festival survival kit?

My cookies and my dancers. They're the best.

Who was your first celeb crush?

D-Nice, the rapper from the 80s. I loved that song where he goes "My name is D-Nice, D-Nice." I used to see the girls in his videos and just think "Why can't that be me??" Of course, I was only in the 6th grade at the time.

What's with the all the hair rollers in your music video for "El Tigeraso"?

I was born and raised in New York and the hair rollers are just a street thing, a hood thing. I know a lot of girls that put soda cans in their hair to set it. The video is just a peek into my life, me poking fun of myself and just having fun.

What's your musical guilty pleasure?

Mariah Carey. That song, "Obsessed," she just took it in that song and she won.

What's your favorite part of the musical process?

I like being in the studio and the creative process. The best thing about performing live though is watching people's reaction. Sometimes they're into it, sometimes they're not and just look confused. I get a kick out of that.

What's the craziest thing you've seen or experienced while on tour?

Recently when I was on tour in Sweden, an old couple asked me and my DJ, Paul, if we could help them in car with their dog. While I was helping the older, the dog decided to unleash itself and gun it through the streets. Paul began chasing after it, yelling, "Dog, come back!" The old woman turns to me and asks, "Where is your friend and my dog?" After a wild goose chase through Sweden, we finally found him in a park a good half hour later.

Shyema Azam is a contributor from Seed.com. Learn how you can contribute here.