Over nearly a decade, Angélica Garcia has emerged as a member of the nueva vanguardia generacional of Latinx artists embracing their language and culture through their music. We’ve featured her numerous times in the past but a proper introduction of the Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter for those who’ve yet to dive into her eclectic catalog has been long overdue.
Born and raised in the San Gabriel Valley, Garcia grew up in El Monte, CA in a home overflowing with musical passion and talent. This included three family members — including her mother — who performed Latin pop and as mariachis. Unsurprisingly, such an environment inevitably exposed her to the musical mosaic inherited through her Mexican-Salvadoran heritage. Her stepfather, a manager and representative for the likes of Los Lobos, nudged her in the direction of country staples like Willie Nelson and Neil Young.
Urged throughout her adolescence to try her hand at the arts, she started studying jazz and classical music while attending LACHSA (Los Angeles County High School for the Arts). She then fell a rabbit hole of indie acts like School of Seven Bells, Bat for Lashes, and The White Stripes — foreshadowing her future genre-busting approach.
After leaving California for Richmond, VA, with her family, she released in 2016 what would become her seminal debut album, Medicine for Birds. A blend of soul-throwing Americana and off-kilter alt-rock in the vein of PJ Harvey, the album is filled with rollicking anthems (“Woman I’m Hollerin'”), as well as intimately sprawling poeticisms that dig into Garcia’s bloodlines (“Red Moon Rising”) and anxious yearnings (“Twenty”).
Her 2020 sophomore record, Cha Cha Palace, entrenched her even further into that cultural lineage while highlighting her talents for uncovering and rebirthing its musical traditions. It also served as her first album to feature Spanish lyricism: as on the beat-funk adoration of “Guadalupe” or the uproarious banger “Jícama,” Garcia beating her chest with roots of her Angeleno pride.
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Amid the pandemic, she inevitably steered her music in another magnetic direction. For the 2021 EP Echo Eléctrico, she cut out any trace of English lyrics and stripped down her sound to dually alluring but eerie folk. Showcasing for the very first time the astronomical range and emotionally lacerating power of her voice on songs like “Macorina” and “Cama De Piedra.”
Since then, Garcia has refused to stop the growth her music has undergone over the years. Now experimenting at the edges of ethereal alt-rock and dance, every new single illuminates a shocking and gripping new facet of her art. There are the pulsating rhythms that rage joyously in “Quema,” the ferociously wailing might that propels “Y Grito,” and the concussive electro-thunderer “El Que.”
Like those last two singles, her newest offering, “Juanita,” was produced by Carlos Arévalo of Chicano Batman. Drawing on the sounds of cumbia, the track is a throbbing ode to feminine endurance of generational trauma, one that was borne out of Garcia’s desire to look to her past — and the ancestors that speak through it — for guidance. It also comes with a genuinely captivating black-and-white music video, directed by Sonia Malfa, that challenges restrictive Latin gender roles and continues her trend of pairing her music with visually flooring films.
Words: Steven Ward
Visit Angélica Garcia on her website and Instagram to stay updated on new releases and tour announcements.
Angélica Garcia tour
MAY 16 – The Great Escape – Brighton
JUNE 10 – The Louisiana – Bristol
JUNE 11 – Castle Hotel – Manchester
JUNE 12 – The Lower Third – London
Watch the music video for “Juanita” the new single from Angélica Garcia below!
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