Diandra Interviews Estereomance: Love On The Radio

I absolutely adore Estereomance: as a band and band-name. It is so hard to come up with a title for anything, but especially your artist name. It has to be symbolic, memorable, and marketable: as if those are things people are so casually every day. Yet, for Estereomance, their band name has a simple meaning: an ode to their deep love for love songs. For them, music gets you in the mood to fearlessly love in every way, and in our interview band members Manuel Calderon, Paulina Reza, and Adria Del Valle discuss fell for each other and their sound.

Diandra: How is the pandemic inspiring you musically?

Manuel: We started writing more music and making the best out of a strange situation. Paulina is in Juarez so we can’t see her often because they closed the border. We only really meet when we really have to.

Adria: We accept the days when we have no motivation because we believe it is apart of the creativity process. Those days, when we are not inspired, help us for the days when we really jam until 3 in the morning. Some days, we just stay in and watch movies.

Diandra: Being singers of love, do you see the pandemic changing how we love and make music?

Manuel: Adria and I are a couple so we live together with our 5 dogs and 2 cats. We don’t need much to be happy, but we have been thinking about our friends who are single and what it will mean to be a bachelor in the future. More and more, people are taking their avatar seriously and their online presence. I’m not really worried or I don’t know if we should be scared about how that will turn, but I know within a hundred years our life will be way more virtual. I just feel this time is showing us that we should really enjoy the earth and the animals while they are here because our grandchildren might not get to see these animals, plants, and the nature we have left. Hopefully, humanity becomes more conscious and does not continue to destroy. We are just going to end up adapting, and, as a human, I rather be optimistic and wrong then negative and right.

Paulina: I think that no matter where you are you need to find inspiration: in your families, friends, surroundings. That is what we are trying to do and I think it is working.
Seen City Official Music Video by Estereomance

Diandra: So do you feel your music is a form of adaptation?

Manuel: Yeah, it is definitely a bridge. I think 2020 is a marker year: life before 2020 and life after. I think our music is a bridge to how love will be in the future. Human beings are evolving intellectually and spiritually and learning more to co-exist; letting people believe or follow what they want. I think we will evolve into human beings with more capacity to love each other. I think we will figure things out, which is why we chose our name. It is a mixture of stereo and romance. It is connecting the older days when people had a stereo and vinyl to now when someone says, “Hey, Siri! Play me this!” Also, I think we provide people a romantic break from politics and social media.

People need to shut down, sometimes, and our music gives people the space to relax and be stronger. I think people needed a break and you need to be 100% healthy, mentally and physically, to be an activist. We noticed, during this time, a lot of our friends are getting creative and learning new things. This Covid has caused a lot of anguish but also has strengthened people and given them a second chance to do things differently and cherish more. People are more grateful.
Crimson Queen Official Music Video by Estereomance

Diandra: How do you put your life into your music?

Adria: We put our experiences into the music like, the nice things that happen and the stuff we go through with our families. When we wrote the album we were going through a transitional phase in our life. We needed to hear more, from life, like “You have to keep going!” The album is optimistic and nostalgic, and I think the project has what we like. We call it a collage because we implement sounds that we really like. We all like the same music, but we also have our own, separate interests.

Paulina: On the album, I wrote “Riviera” about being on the beach Riviera with my family. It is a beautiful beach with very few people. I was swimming with my mom and then she screamed, and I rushed to her and said, “What is wrong?” Long story short, my mother was stung by a stingray. The song was about giving my mom motivation to keep going. My father was crying in the hospital, and my brother was very nervous. I was really happy that I was so brave in the moment, and the song is about being brave for the ones you love when they need you. I was very calm for them, and it is one of those moments when you experience how much someone means to you.

Diandra: What is the most romantic thing you have done?

Manuel: I think being in this group is romantic. This project is romantic. I’m doing this group with two of the people I most love, and I would do anything for them. I think there are two types of romances: one is falling in love and one is platonic. The main reason we do music is to bring joy and give happiness to our fans. We miss performing in front of them, and we are excited for the day when we can travel and play again.

Adria: I had a partner before Manu, and he was diagnosed with cancer. I had to take care of him, and I was very happy to do it. I worked with his parents in taking care of him, and, unfortunately, after a year he died. At that time, I was a junior in school, studying to be a doctor, and I dropped out. When he passed, I decided I want to do music, it is what makes me happy. Then, I met Manu and this project, and it has been the best.
Estereomance- UP (Stay-at-Home Version)

Diandra: What is your favorite love song?

Manuel: For me, anything Bossa Nova like, “Tu Mi Delirio.”

Adria: I think Paulina and I would say, The Beatles’ “Because.” That song has the simplest lyrics but it is so deep: “Because the sky is blue, it makes me cry.”

Diandra: For me, I think Rocio Durcal’s Amor Eternal for me. It is so much about the universality of love and loss.

Adria: There is a romanticism in every relationship like, a mother to her daughter. We feel love is universal and a connection with everything: Mother Earth, your family, your soul…. In this pandemic, people really got to know themselves. We have so many things inside of us that we have never realized. It is a feeling you have for yourself that you connect with everything. You can’t discover that without being connect with yourself.

Manuel: No human can portray love without loving yourself first. Those who are angry at the world are angry at themselves first.

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