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Q&A with Elaine Lachicaby Dina GanElaine Lachica has that haunting, heart-stopping, ethereal kind of voice that brings to mind what the philosopher Plato said about music giving soul to the universe and a charm to sadness. Hailing comparisons to Kate Bush, Tori Amos, and Cassandra Wilson, Lachica writes and sings songs that range from folksy modern pop to lush vocal dreamscapes that would be right at home on a movie soundtrack. Listen for yourself at ElaineLachica.com. Check out Behind My Mind, for example, and you can't help but picture a scruffy, cute, and hopelessly smitten leading man of a romantic comedy wandering through market flower stalls, picking out daisies for his new crush. Or listen to Milk River 
, and see if it doesn't evoke the image of a melancholy, kohl-eyed heroine roaming rain-slicked, city streets after losing her true love to an untimely death. And after hearing "Rapture," a paean to the wall-of-sound stylings of the Cocteau Twins, you wouldn't be surprised if it gets picked up for the next Twilight movie.
Raised by Filipino American parents and classically trained at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore as well as the Royal College of Music in London, Lachica now lives in Brooklyn, New York. After self-producing two CDs, Elaine signed to the indie label Stunning Models on Display and has spent most of the past year touring with her band. On the eve of her February release, I Think I Can See the Ocean, she answers a few questions for JADE:
When did you first know you wanted to be a singer? My mom told me I was singing before I was speaking and since she was a musician, she had me singing in public as early as I can remember. But I didn't choose singing as a life path until I was 15. I was in a car with a friend and we were driving around listening to the Cocteau Twins -- I was so inspired by Liz Frasier in the moment that I decided singing was what I wanted to do with my life. How did you get started in the music business? Well I've been singing since I was a child but I guess if we are talking about being a professional musician, I started singing for paid gigs when I was 12 or so. My band Azure was my first exposure to making original music, collaborating with a band, recording a CD, and touring. How did you get signed to your label, Stunning Models on Display? After we finished this latest record, I Think I Can See the Ocean, my producer, Kieran Kelly recommended it to Stunning Models and I signed soon after. Have you been enjoying your tour experience? Tell me a highlight and a lowlight. Touring has been thrilling and exhausting. We have had incredible shows, really enthusiastic crowds, great venues. Though there are shows in cities where we know no one and so we're playing to few people -- that's going to happen. But it's a great learning experience and it makes you stronger as a performer. And even if it's a small crowd there are always at least one or two people that love the music, and that's why I do it. You once toured with your band Azure in the mid-90s. Do you feel audiences are more receptive to Asian female singers now, more than 10 years later? Well, I feel like audiences were receptive to it back in the mid-90s as well. It's just now, there are many more of us out there, so it's not as unusual. Also many of the younger bands are second-generation American and their parents grew up in this country, as opposed to being first-generation American, like myself, where my parents were immigrants. I think that makes a big difference. Both the performers and the audiences feel like it's normal, especially in the indie world. 
Where do you see you and your band in five years? Hopefully I will have made two or three more albums and will be touring more cities in more countries. Where can we buy your CDs? In stores and online, Amazon, and iTunes. Do you have a personal favorite song among all your songs? What has been an audience or radio favorite? I think my favorite song on this record is Bewilder. Rapture and Behind My Mind seem to go over really well with the audiences. What advice would you give to young Asian women who aspire to be musicians and singers? I'm not one for giving advice, but this is what I've learned for myself: I've tried to be honest with myself and show up for myself as much as possible, writing as much as can, practicing my instrument, listening to great music with great singers and musicians of all genres, performing and touring, surrounding myself with a community of supportive musicians and friends, and even when it's hard, never giving up. |
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