After the quarantine, Pascuala Ilabaca warms up to sing at Lollapalooza 2022

Pascuala Ilabaca is at the door of her house, in Valparaiso, ready to leave. He has to go to a commitment and wants to be punctual. Then he will go to work with his band of musicians, and in the evening he will go to celebrate his eleventh anniversary of marriage. If today he is going to answer questions from the press, he says, it must be right now, because after the celebration he will no longer be in a position.” My husband is Jaime Frez, the drummer with whom we founded the group Fauna and who accompanies me in all my projects. We have been together with him for about eighteen years, since we were studying at the University. It is a joy to have a partner who is from the art world and with whom we are within the same work team. Our history has been very beautiful,” says this composer, singer, accordionist and pianist. The interpreter of hits such as “Lamenta la canela”, “Ay mamita mamita”, “Busco paraíso” and “La curiosidad” returned to perform live at the end of last August, when at last the health situation allowed to resume some face-to-face activities. She is confident that this shooting will allow her to arrive in perfect shape on the stage of Lollapalooza 2022, the great international meeting that will be held in Santiago between March 18 and 20. The instance is not unknown to him, because he already participated in it in 2013, but now he will have great benefits.” I am very motivated by that recital, because now we are going to have a bigger stage than the other time and also in those same days of March we will be releasing an EP, called “Lucero”, so in the show we are going to premiere songs. We are also going to touch on all the songs that we were showing on the internet during the pandemic and those that we were launching during the second half of 2021. We are going to make a very colorful show, with a great scenic display that we are preparing from now on, “he announces. ” But what excites me the most, actually, is that at the festival they scheduled us for Saturday 19, the same day that Toto La Bombosina, whom I have admired since I was 14 years old, is going to perform. In Lollapalooza there will be very few of us who will be playing root music, or world music, because most of the groups that are going to perform will be of a more pop rock wave and other genres, so it is bacán for me that our project and that of Toto La Bombosina are that day representing this type of music”, Are you uncomfortable playing in front of an audience where most people will go to listen to pop? No, I think that in Chile, as we are few people, we have become accustomed to being eclectic and listening to all kinds of genres and styles. When I was a kid I laughed to see the cultural carnivals in Valparaiso, because I saw some punkies in a show of La Floripondio, for example, and two hours later those same punkies were hesitating with Joe Vasconcellos, so all peace and love. Deep down, Chileans are super good audiences. I myself grew up listening to Mr. Bungle and Violeta Parra, without any problem. It’s like that bipolarity that’s part of our identity. We have to waver about everything. Before you talked about being married to the drummer of your group. For many people it is difficult to have a partner who is also a colleague and co-worker. I think that depends on the personality of each one. In my case, the support that Jaime has given me has been super important. If I hadn’t gone with him to India in 2008, for example, maybe I wouldn’t have stayed there for a whole year. It also helps that we are both musicians, because that gives us the freedom that each one has its own intimate, impenetrable and deep world, which is the artist’s own thing. I feel like it can be harder for a couple where only one of the two is an artist. You, in addition, are the daughter of artists. Your father is the painter Gonzalo Ilabaca and your mother is the stained glass artist Pilar Argandoña.-Of course, that influences how you live your relationships. As I grew up in a family of artists, where there was no salary or many certainties about the future, I have advanced with an ant step, building day by day what I want to do, without worrying about the future. That has been a strength in my career and also in my emotional life. In our case with Jaime, music plays the leading role in everyone’s life, so we are really like a trio. Music is the queen, and when you put music as the protagonist, human relationships become easier.Has that strength also allowed you to maintain a band as stable as Fauna? Music is a collaborative art, and with Fauna there is already so much trust and affection, after twelve years working together, that we know how to criticize each other without hurting the other, always delivering the best of each one. TodWe also cultivate a self-discipline, a personal responsibility, so if someone shoots in the middle of a tour, before a concert, for example, you must be sure that this will not prevent you from fulfilling on stage.

Original source in Spanish