Perhaps because of that compulsive mania of being attentive to what happens, four years ago I stumbled almost by chance with Frank’s White Canvas, a Chilean rock band composed of Karin Aguilera (voice / guitar) and Francisca “Pancha” Torés (drums and choirs), and it was as if they ripped the floor from my feet, since I had gone too long without finding a Chilean group that shook me.
Something absolutely unusual within the national scene, conditioned by a mainstream, marked by escarceos between urban music (reggaeton, trap and hip hop) and an insipid pop, with brief glimpses of brilliance. Something that in this case is a bet that breaks with the established, and not only because the songs are composed in English (except “Abrázame” which is in Spanish), but because the metaphors and encrypted messages that make them up confirm a commitment to corroborate in an overflowing interpretive intensity, and that Dimitri Tikovoï himself (Placebo, Charli XCX, Blondie, Ghost), produced at Narcissus Studio in London My Life, My Canvas (2020), recognizing in them a talent that was already felt when they obtained the “Best Rock Album 2020” on Radio Futuro, the “Album of the Year” on iRock, being on the cover of Rockaxis magazine in December 2020, and taking the award in “Rock Artist of the Year” of the Pulsar Awards 2021. Incidentally, the first delivered to a female band.
Devoid of any Frank’s White Canvas pose, they move between sonority and sisterhood, with a display in which the undisputed presence of rock / metal merges with pop, swing or even rap, as part of the experimentation, and all in turn framed by a look and feel in whose intense aesthetic proposal reveals the personality of a band with character that stands out for exploring the visual, either in the costume design, the graphic or in the color that identifies Karin with red and Francisca with purple as an extension of that temperament that is enhanced by creating a whole synergistic drive expressed through the various thematic axes that they exhibit in their songs, with which without a doubt, they establish an open dialogue from the intimate, which can be seen both in a guttural whisper in the ear and in a shocking cry – “I challenge you to let me go / I challenge you to let it grow / I beg you to break these walls / Once again”.
All in order to share experiences and give hope and accompany in their personal struggles to those who need it, as it feels in Easy to forget – “… it’s so easy to forget/ You make us feel so powerless/ “No one by themselves can make a change”/ But I decide to break the leish, rebel against apathy/ I destroy myself to start over.”
Fortunately, they know well that this is the rules of the game, and they have shown it from the beginning when they were encouraged to participate in a gang war in the alliances of the school. Not satisfied with that, they applied to the Mad Cool festival in Madrid 2018, where they had to deal with 938 bands, be in a pre-selection of 65, and win as the Pancha says – “A 33-hour trip for three songs in ten minutes”, but in a line up that included figures such as Pearl Jam, Arctic Monkeys, Jack White, Depeche Mode, Queens Of the Stone Age, Massive Attack, Dua Lipa, Franz Ferdinand, Post Malone, Alice In Chains, Nine Inch nails, among others.
Undoubtedly a place of privilege, which was marking a rise not exempt from sacrifice, but above all perseverance, with which they were leaving behind anger and frustration. Which resulted in a musical onslaught that accounts for his drive and that talent out of the mold, which expresses his feeling in lyrics and music that does not go unnoticed and that his schedule of shows is increasingly completed with tours in 2021 in Spain (Bilbao, Madrid) and Germany (Berlin), Colombia (Ibagué, Bogotá, Cali), completing eleven concerts, which add and continue, since this March 20 they were at the Vive Latino festival in Mexico, where they premiered “Abrázame”, their first single fully sung in Spanish – “Abrázame, vuelve a jugar. I need you today more than anything…” As if that were not enough, on April 19, they will open the concert The final tour ever with Kiss. Therefore, if you have never heard them, lie on the bed and listen to them. You will see why they occupy a preponderant place, within the music scene
Although the most transcendent thing is that above their achievements they have not lost their charisma, nor their simplicity and continue to make their way without the need for a splint, salvo bullets or false brilliants. Because as a theme of My Chemical Roma saysnce – “I don’t need it, but I’m going to have what I want from the heart.”
The content expressed in this opinion column is the sole responsibility of its author, and does not necessarily reflect the editorial line or position of El Mostrador.
