LOLAA

La fusión del inglés y el español existe en su maxima expresión con lo nuevo de LOLAA. Nadia Valerie King y Lex Valentine son las dos hermanas que conforman el dueto LOLAA, proveniente de Canadá. Las jóvenes nos presentan el día de hoy el primer video de su nuevo sencillo titulado “Espíritus,” que proviene de su EP que lleva el mismo nombre de la agrupación.

Con raíces latinoamericanas, las hermanas decidieron re-lanzar su primer material discográfico en español, para rendirle honor a este bello idioma.

"Para nosotras, LOLAA es un proyecto muy especial. Por la primera vez en nuestras vidas, no sentimos ninguna presion para ser aceptadas. Estamos haciendo algo que amamos, estamos creando y explorando algo nuestro, y conociendo nuestra cultura en el camino. No hay nada mas positivo que hacer que verdaderamente uno ama a través de su música, y como persona. Nuestros planes han sido siempre el querer hacer y crear algo en Español. Pero como vivimos, y nuestras vidas se han desarrollado en Canada, empezamos a escribir las canciones en Ingles.” dicen las hermanas.

Entre sus influencias se encuentran Daniela Romo, Kim Carnes, Gloria Estefan, Debbie Harry y Donna Summer y obviamente eso se percibe desde los primeros segundos del track.

“Espíritus” es una canción llena de energía y de estruendos que harán vibrar sus corazones y es aún más especial porque esta hecha especialmente en español para todos los hispanohablantes. Además, el ritmo es magnífico para bailar y sentir la música de una manera diferente. La combinación del pop y el indie moderno hace que esta canción te enamore.

Su EP debut en español estará disponible a partir del 8 de junio así que tienes sólo unas semanas para aprenderte esta canción. - Nylon

The self-titled debut EP from Canadian sister duo LOLAA opens with a cavalcade of percussion. Clattering, clave-like adornments give way to a galloping rhythm topped with snare on the album opener “Breaking Sound.” An intricate dance beat drives the following track “Always Been.” The songs are modern power ballads that call to mind the pop-rock anthems of HAIM or even Heart, with glimmers of Tegan and Sara and Jenny Lewis. Singer, guitarist, and principal songwriter Lex Valentine’s emotional vocals invoke the early 1980s, when badass femmes like Pat Benatar, Janet Jackson, and Gloria Estefan bared their hearts while prowling stages in spike-heeled pumps.

Valentine has always had the badass part on lock. It’s revealing her heart that has been a learning process for her as a songwriter, she says. “I always wanted to get to a place where I could lay it all on the table and express my sadness and my happiness and my passion in the most vulnerable way, which, for me, lyrically, has always been so frightening. I’m one of those people who, even in life, constantly struggles with allowing myself to become a vulnerable person,” the Toronto musician admits in a phone interview.

A first-generation Mexican-Canadian, she says she was raised not to be vulnerable. “Growing up as a Latin woman, in my family, you are constantly taught that you have be strong, and so we grow up strong. And the women in Latin families, we are strong,” she asserts. But coming from a Mexican background also meant growing up with diva Daniela Romo, legendary ranchera singer Vicente Fernández, and, of course, Selena. These were the voices the songwriter looked to as an example when she came to a crossroads in her creative life. “One of the things I love about Latin American artists, when they’re sad, they’re so passionately sad; when they’re angry, they’re still crying, but they’re so passionately angry,” she says.

“In our last band, that style of writing, in terms of the lyrics – it was very hard to be vulnerable in that space,” she reflects. The band she is referring to is Magneta Lane, the gritty yet tuneful indie rock trio Valentine started with her sister Nadia Valerie King on drums and one-name bass player French when Valentine was 16 and King was 15. They were signed soon after forming, and Valentine and her sister proceeded to “grow up in the Canadian music industry.” Valentine says they learned “everything” from the experience, but that after 10 years of touring and recording music, the band not longer fit who they were as people. Now in her 20s, Valentine had hit a wall with her songwriting. It was time for something new. Magneta Lane broke up around 2014. It was an amicable split, but, as much as everyone agreed it was time, the ending left the sisters in an uncertain place.

During the same period, a close friend of Valentine’s died. He was a fellow Toronto musician who she’d known since she was 17. His loss affected her very much. “He was one of those friends who I knew always had my back even though our lives went in two very different directions. When he passed away, he was very young and it came out of nowhere,” she explains. The frontwoman says the single “Spirits,” which we are premiering today on Remezcla, is her way of trying to say a proper goodbye. In the chorus she professes, “I will always sing for you,” and doesn’t sound like she has trouble being vulnerable.

LOLAA began as a way of dealing with everything that was going on, of healing and starting over. “A lot of endings were happening at that time, so we needed this creative space to go and experience something cathartic and just release all the stuff that was happening,” Valentine recalls. With King on bass, they went into the studio with their producer and friend Jon Drew, who has recorded bands like Toronto punks Fucked Up, to write songs without any preconceptions about the kind of music they would make. With no band, and no label, they were free to do what they wanted.

“There were no expectations from other people for what it was supposed to sound like. It was a space where we could go and be ourselves again and that was so amazing and so liberating and refreshing for us,” Valentine continues. The music that came out of this process is melodic but beat-driven, tender and, indeed, vulnerable. It sounds honest and fresh, and it’s very pop.

Their new approach to writing allows them the freedom to express parts of themselves that didn’t fit into their old project. In addition to being more emotionally vulnerable, the newly minted duo felt free to draw on any musical influences that came to mind, including the Latin pop artists that they grew up on, artists from Spain and Latin America of the 70s and 80s. It’s a big reason why LOLAA is so danceable. “The musicians and the music that inspired us, a lot of them, there’s a lot of beat to those songs. When you listen to Latin music, it kinda makes you want to groove and dance. We take a lot of that into our live performance. If you see us play as LOLAA, we get up there and we dance. It just feels natural to express yourself through movement,” Valentine relates.

The project is a promising new beginning, emphasis on the new. LOLAA has only been playing live since last spring, but they’ve already opened for Helado Negro in Toronto. Tapping into their musical roots seems to have energized them for the adventure ahead. “Making music like this and taking from all those influences, it reminds us of being kids and growing up with that and that’s a really positive, happy place for us,” Valentine says. - Remezcla

You might remember the band Magneta Lane - a rocking trio who put out their first record in 2004 while they were still teenagers. Sisters Lex and Nadia from that band, have a new group, along with drummer Jon Drew, called LOLAA. The sisters are working their Mexican heritage into their new music releasing a new EP entirely in Spanish. LOLAA released the EP in English last year and now have completed the Spanish version. Watch LOLAA perform music from the self-titled EP in the videos below:

https://www.cbcmusic.ca/posts/20171/first-play-live-lolaa - CBC Music

You may have heard LOLAA’s debut, self-titled EP last May, filled with dancey pop bangers primed for your 2017 summer songs list. But this year, sisters Lexi Valentine and Nadia Valerie King have put a new spin on it: they’re releasing the Spanish version of the original six songs.

"The plan for us was to always record the songs in Spanish, but naturally because we live in an English-speaking country, we decided to start with what made sense in terms of geography,” Lexi said via press release.

The name LOLAA is a play on the name “Dolores,” which, in Spanish, can mean “the Lady of Sorrows.” It sounds deceptive, as LOLAA’s pop songs are buoyant and shimmery, but the lyrics often hit on a weightier sadness, with breakups and heartbreak at the centre.

“One of the things about Latin Americans is that we find ways to celebrate even the saddest of times or the toughest of times. We rise above,” Lexi told Now Toronto last year.

When Lexi and Nadia were teens, the first generation Mexican–Canadians formed Toronto-based indie-rock trio Magneta Lane, spending the next 10 years performing and growing up in the music industry. They broke up in 2014, and after a close friend died around the same time, the sisters started writing music as LOLAA to process everything.

“A lot of endings were happening at that time, so we needed this creative space to go and experience something cathartic and just release all the stuff that was happening,” Lexi told Remezcla last year.

Through LOLAA, Lexi and Nadia are able to fully focus on and celebrate their identities, inspired by Latin American greats like Gloria Estefan, Selena and Daniela Romo, as well as disco idols like Donna Summer. Now, hearing their debut EP a second time feels fresh, giving us a whole new perspective on their music. The Spanish lyrics nestle right into the synth-heavy pop songs, completing what feels like a full circle for LOLAA.

LOLAA will be released on June 8. Listen to it in advance in the player above. - CBC Music

“We put so much sweat, blood and tears into this.”

Lex Valentine is talking about the new EP she’s made with her sister, Nadia Valerie King. Together, they’re LOLAA. For simple categorization purposes, they are a pop band. But peek beneath the vibrant, thumping neon veneer and they’re more than that.

Valentine and King are creating an explicit celebration of Mexican identities, Latin American culture and love. That’s what’s at the beating, tear-stained heart of LOLAA’s immersive retro dance-pop.

It’s a rebirth for the sisters, who were co-conspirators in Toronto’s beloved alt rock trio Magneta Lane. It’s also a dramatic shift for the self-taught musicians. Despite speaking rosily of their former outfit, they knew a change was needed, one that took them back to their roots.

“Growing up, we listened to a lot of Latin American 80s pop stars,” Valentine explains. “That’s the stuff our mother used to play. We always loved that sound because it reminded us of our childhood.”

The lush warmth and relentless poptimism of their heroes is transposed into LOLAA, with Gloria Estefanesque vocal work set to revamped Bette Davis Eyes atmospherics.

“It felt like something that was ours, and like something that was pure,” Valentine says, citing the voices of Daniela Romo and Celia Cruz as solace providers during turbulent times related to draining industry pressures and the death of a friend. “To us, [that music has been] our happy place.

“We didn’t get a chance to show this side of us with Magneta Lane. Not being able to put that in music in some way, it felt like it hadn’t come full circle.”

From inception to release, LOLAA is an expression of King and Valentine’s identities, with a Spanish version of the album coming later this year.

“We want the world to know this side of us,” Valentine says. “We’re so proud to be Mexicans.

“One of the things about Latin Americans is that we find ways to celebrate even the saddest of times or the toughest of times. We rise above.”

The music is thick and inviting, swathed in a sweet haze, but it’s also distinctly mournful. Lead single Always Been begs to be danced to, but it feels like you’d be dancing to something sad.

And though it’s not a religious work, the name “LOLAA” is derived from “Dolores,” the Spanish name for the Lady of Sorrows. (Dolores means “sorrowful.”)

“In Latin American culture, there’s a lot of Catholic symbolism,” Valentine says. “When you think of Latin Americans praying to something, it’s quite a beautiful thought. They have so much faith that things will get better, or that they will rise above. They’re just such positive people.

“I like the idea that someone, whoever that is, is listening on the other side.” - NOW

Sisters Nadia Valerie King and Lex Valentine spent nearly 10 years as two-thirds of Toronto’s Magneta Lane, before embarking on something different and decidedly more personal under their LOLAA banner. The sisters hit the studio in 2015 with producer Jon Drew (Fucked Up/Tokyo Police Club), diving head-first into a project that draws on their own cultural experiences and inspiration from discotheque and the 80’s Latin American sounds of Gloria Estefan, Kim Carnes, and others.

Indie88 is pleased to premiere the self-title EP from LOLAA. It’s pop music, with heavy cultural influence stemming from the sister duo’s Mexican heritage. “The thing about Latin Americans is that our culture is so colourful. We are always smiling and laughing, we love to dance, we feel immensely – passion, sadness – we celebrate life. We wanted LOLAA to have these ideas at its core, no matter what shape the songs took,” Valentine explained in a release. - Indie 88

Well, not that old an Old Favourite Thing. Sisters Lexi Valentine and Nadia King were still in high school, and covertly just a tad more underage than they typically let on to the promoters booking their band into nightclubs on both sides of the border when they rose to prominence as members of lovable local trio Magneta Lane in the early 00s — and became pals of mine who would eventually ask me to write the bio for their 2013 EP, Witchrock. So it’s not like the pair’s recent reinvention as the shinier, synth-ier duo LOLAA has been conducted in the shadow of their imminent consignment to the rock ’n’ roll retirement home.

In deference to Valentine and King’s Mexican heritage, the name LOLAA is a play on the shortened form of the Spanish name Dolores, which means “Lady of Sorrows,” but the duo’s musical arsenal, at least as it’s been sparingly unveiled to date, appears more intent on shaking a tailfeather than wallowing in misery.

It definitely pursues a more tech-savvy trajectory than Magneta Lane’s scruffy/punky catalogue, yet the pop heart beating at the music’s centre is entirely familiar. An EP’s worth of material is ready to go, Valentine reports, and “we’ll probably be sharing a new track online soon.” Stay tuned.

SUM UP WHAT YOU DO IN A FEW SIMPLE SENTENCES.

“Drums, bass, movement, rhythm, pop-infused vocals and no-limits songwriting,” emails Valentine, defaulting in part to the LOLAA bio. “For LOLAA we took inspiration from Latin American music, as well as the discotheque era: Donna Summer, Bianca Jagger. The lightness, the elegance, the dancing. Pop music. It just became a mix of all the ideas in our heads, a cultural collide of colours … Onstage the vibe is really fun, yet soulful. It’s glittery, it’s shimmery. We want people to feel like they want to dance and celebrate life with us. We want to make people feel good. That is all!”

WHAT’S A SONG I NEED TO HEAR RIGHT NOW?

“Always Been.” It’ll have to do, since it’s pretty much all the LOLAA there is to be found out there on the Interweb at the moment. Still an inviting first foot forward a year on from its release, in any case. We await more.

WHERE CAN I SEE THEM PLAY?

At the Drake Underground, opening for Helado Negro on Saturday, Oct. 29. - Toronto Star