This is not a story of perseverance, although it could be, that of a woman who decided to dedicate herself to music after 30 and who, without expressly looking for it, has just presented her second album. She now combines her work in a communication agency with a career on stage that does not stop growing supported by her wonderful voice. We are talking about Itziar Yagüe and Girl like me, six songs linked by Afro-American music that this passionate and exciting blueswoman born in Vitoria and resident in Madrid presents today Saturday at the Nova Jazz Cava (10 pm) inspired by the great ladies of the genre such as Dinah Washington, Billie Holliday or Bessie Smith.
How was Girl Like Me born?
It is the result of having worked for two years with Greg Izor, producer and friend of mine. When we start making music together there is no record in the pipeline, we just start making songs and playing them. We have been working at the same time that we have deepened our friendship, something important for the songs to be so tailored to my needs. From there, in a two-year process we have made the songs.
And what is its measure?
Well, we are not going to talk about physics (laughs). Greg has in some cases made the effort to think like a woman. For example, the song that gives the album its title is based on the first impression I made on him the day we met at La Coquette, a venue in Madrid with a long history programming blues. I sang a Dinah Washington standard, a song that features a woman who punishes a lot, a bad girl who has men morning, noon, night and early morning, who drinks champagne and eats caviar. Greg was based on that character to make the song, and she is a character that I really like to play. The songs are cut to my measure because they are designed for me to sing them. We are very stubborn that the music we make is very representative of the person we are.
What inspires you when you compose?
In my own life and in my experiences, where I believe there is a story. All artists are always telling the same story. What matters to you in life is that they betray you, that they love you, that they disappoint you, everything that is our day to day. My songs are very emotional, maybe because that's the part of my life where I can be the most emotional. I still use my songs a lot to express my feelings because maybe on a day-to-day basis I don't have so many occasions to do so.
Is the blues composed the same here as it is in the US?
I've only written two blues, I can't compose like it but I can take the form of the blues. A large part of the messages and the intention of my songs go there, I don't seek so much to imitate but rather to be inspired with the intention of making demands. When I write a song from a woman's point of view, it usually comes out in the form of blues, I usually use it to claim much more than for other things. In my music there are ballads and gospel, which I used to express the love that comes to you by surprise, because it's like a revelation. I used the spirituals to denounce the helplessness and loneliness of the victims of gender violence. Delicious, the song that gives its name to my first album, is a New Orleans rumba with something seductive and mischievous. Rather than making music the way they do, I can take ideas based on their form to tell my own stories.
So you can play the blues without being born in the United States?
Yes, it is possible and I think that it is also necessary, if one investigates, soaks up well and knows the historical context. Blues is telling you the history of the United States just like jazz, which represented the fight for civil rights. It is an excellent way to understand racism, or the dominance and oppression that women suffer, it is all told there.
something like flamingo
It's also a story of an oppressed people, but beware of the general idea that blues is a sad genre. There is not only pain in the blues, there is also joy, there is irony, there is nostalgia, the blues is redemption, it is survival. It is music made for the human being to rise above misery and daily misfortune.
And can the blues be sung in a language other than English?
Yes, I remember a very interesting blues that Santiago Auserón made called Obstinate in my mistake. There are people who do it but I can't, the genre tells me where I have to go. If I wrote a Basque rhythm it would be difficult for me to write it in English, if I write a bolero it would come out in Spanish, French or Portuguese, which are Romance languages. Our rhythm when speaking is closely related to our rhythm when making music, we speak in octosyllables or hendecasyllables, however, English is a language that matches everything.
On the other hand, the rock genre can be done in any language because the rhythm doesn't mark you so much. Classic genres ask me to do them in the languages they come from. I find a link to the copla with the blues of the 20s and 30s for women, the themes they talk about are the same, a lot of drama, a much more complex orchestration that usually includes piano. They are from the same period, those of Bessie Smith's blues, I find a parallel in that drama, those heartbreaking stories, in the copla you are always the other one, the dodgy lover, the darling, and there is a lot of that in the blues of that time as well. epoch.
What will your JazzCava concert be like?
I'm like a motorcycle, I have some musicians who are a gift and well known to the Terrassa public. I play with Dani Domínguez on drums, Paul Sanmartín on piano and Fran Serrano on double bass, who was at Esmuc. I'm like floating when I play with them. When you go on stage and are honest, the public usually appreciates it, especially the knowledgeable public, because the more demanding the public, the more they appreciate that you show yourself with sincerity.
He started singing late
I sang when I was little because in the north, in the 80s, middle-class ladies played the piano. I never considered dedicating myself to it and in university days I stopped singing and that's it. Then, at the age of 30, I realized that singing made me very happy, so I started looking for a group here in Madrid.
In all these years I only sang in private
I've done a lot of karaoke, it's something that people don't say (laughs) but I've done a lot of karaoke and a lot of Singstar with the PlayStation, until it was too small for me. Then I went through different formations until I founded my own and started making my own songs in 2019. First I rolled around the Madrid circuit, through the tiny rooms, until my songs began to emerge in a super natural way. If instead of singing again at thirty something I had continued doing it at 20, maybe my songs would have come out at 30 instead of 45 years old. But nothing happens, things are when they have to be.
Do you seriously consider dedicating yourself completely to music?
I am there, I really like my job, both my A job and my B job, and they are complementary. They ask me many times about leaving communication and it would seem very sad, I don't want to, I've been 20 years old and I'm passionate about the media. If I start to earn a lot of money with music, very unlikely things, well yes, but I really don't think about it and I don't want to think about it.
If you don't make mainstream music it's hard to get rich
Making music can be a business, but I'm not that profile. I have to make music that I like. If you make a lot of money but the music you make makes you unhappy, then it doesn't make sense, I take that very literally.
