Name: Andrea Lacoste
Nationality: Venezuelan
Occupation: Producer, singer, songwriter, composer, DJ
Current Release: Andrea Lacoste's Hexagrama EP, a collaboration with Azaria, is out via La Belle.
About “Soleil,” the lead track off Hexagrama: “It’s my favorite song from Hexagrama! It wasn’t originally an acoustic song. Azaria had some beats / idea already and that day I grabbed my guitar and the riffs came. I made a couple of riffs and guitar plucking and that’s how we then chose the ones we finally added to the track.”
[Read our Azaria interview]
If you enjoyed this Andrea Lacoste interview and would like to stay up to date with her music, visit her official homepage. She is also on Instagram, Facebook, and Soundcloud. To dive even deeper into the topic, continue reading our Andrea Lacoste interview about healing with music.
What were your first experiences as a dancer like?
I’ve always danced.
When I was a kid, I would always perform (sing and dance) for my family, at the school, at day camps during the summer holidays. However, it wasn’t “professional”, it was because I loved to move the body and I really had good rhythm. My mom and all her siblings are dancers: my mom used to dance ballet, my aunts Flamenco and my uncle he’s the king of Merengue!
So, actually, I could say it runs in my blood - plus, I would say that the fact of being Venezuelan is also a huge influence, it’s pretty normal in our culture to dance.
When did electronic club music enter the picture and what did you find in it that spoke to you so deeply?
Everything started at home, my dad is a musician and he would play Genesis and Peter Gabriel when I was 0-2 years old. However, I think that it officially started with a singer from Mexico called Fey, she released a single when I was 5-6 years old that I would love, called “Media Naranja”. That song is 100% synth pop in Spanish!
Then, she released Tierna la noche in 1996 which is an album full of synth pop / Eurodance (and even Techno). Fey was my favorite singer at that age, when I was living in Bogota.
Then, I moved to Geneva (1997) with my family and that’s when the Spice Girls boom happened. I fell in love with their music, it was fun and I loved them, they inspired me as a kid and I wanted to be like them. My favorite songs where “Say you’ll be there”, “Never give up to the good times” and “Who do you think you are” - these 3 songs where my introduction to “funky/disco music” …
… besides the classic disco music that my mom would also play from time to time! I remember she had many Disco compilations at home and we would dance together in the living room with my little sister.
Also, while we were still in Geneva, I discovered MTV and I remember music videos from Basement Jaxx, Moby, Modjo ("Lady"), Chemical Brothers, The Prodigy … I was around 7-8 years old and all these artists, songs, sounds, videos, would fascinate me because I could dance to it and enjoy it.
We can dance to the same music in an infinite amount of ways. What does dancing allow us to express compared to the act of writing and performing music?
Language is a system, it has rules, and there are feelings that can’t be expressed through words. And something similar happens with music: even though music can also be very ethereal and emotive, there are some feelings that are better released or expressed through the body.
Moving our body is more about releasing and making space in our body for better feelings, thoughts and emotions. Although we can also do that through music and lyrics/words, when you record music or write on a paper, it’s like “Ok, I want this feeling to exist forever and that’s why I’m going to turn this into music / a poem / lyrics /book”. Whereas, when you dance spontaneously and you move without any rule, it’s more about “I’m feeling this, I want to enjoy it / release it from my body right now.”
In this case, music and body movement go hand in hand, because most of the times it’s challenging to move without any rhythm or sound in the background. I feel it’s like music represents a gentleman offering his left hand to invite you to move/dance.
Does the way we dance reveal something that's in the music, comment on it, enhance it? Do you think that dancing to a piece of music is similar to the process of interpreting or “covering” a song?
The way we dance can definitely give hints of the music we are dancing. I believe we become channelers, another type of interpreters of the song and that is related to the process of “covering” a song. The way I would dance a salsa song might be very different from how somebody with a very different cultural background would dance to it.
Dancing is as personal as the sound of our voices and that’s why the process of how we move to the rhythm of a song is very similar to how we might sing it or event play it with an instrument.
I've always thought it strange that many DJs and producers don't actually dance and that many club guests would rather stand and listen to the music like it's a pop concert. Why do you think that is and how can we get past this development?
I think this happens because of the fact that now DJs are the new Popstars: large amount of followers, photoshoots, VIP treat everywhere, luxury, etc. All of this is not bad, but it’s what makes people act as if they were at a pop concert. The electronic dance movement started as something very underground, and when the underground becomes pop, that’s the most natural thing to happen, to have DJ Popstars.
Part of the pop / fashion culture is about how people see you, how you look, who you’re with, the events you go to, etc, and that doesn’t help in matters of really enjoying a party and really dancing. People are still afraid of really showing who they are, their pure essence, and it’s even worse on the dance floor: people are afraid of releasing control, of shaking their bodies because either they’re usually not in touch with they bodies or they didn’t learn how to dance.
In regular schools, kids don’t move that much, it’s everything about the scores in maths or history, while getting really in tune with our body is one of the most important things we can ever do as human beings, because the body is the vehicle God gave us to live on earth, and in order to keep it healthy, it’s also important to learn how to get in sync with it, to move the body so that you can release what needs to be gone and so that you can enjoy it as it gets old …
The best way to get past this pretending and controlling era is by learning to move in a conscious way, to learn how healthy it is to dance at least one song per day and how amazing it is the fact that we can get ideas, solutions, meditate, relax the mind also through dancing. Plus, it doesn’t have to be a professional dance, it’s only a matter of moving and enjoying the movement while the energy also moves inside of us.
I noticed that in the places you're playing for these events, there will often be a lot of space for moving around freely. Do you actually think that clubs are the best places for dancing – or do we need to rethink the traditional dancing experience?
Having space is good for feeling more freedom while you’re moving. However, what, in my opinion, makes a place better for dancing is the atmosphere, the people attending the event, and, above all, the DJ/Artist and the music.
Personally, I don't like most clubs because people usually go there to unwind, to disconnect from their reality, and there's often a lack of consciousness, which usually drains me. If I go to a club, it's because I'm there to see a DJ or artist whose music I love, and the power of their music helps me connect with high-vibrational emotions. In such a case, what we should "rethink" is the level of awareness with which we go out to party, what we consume, the music we dance to, everything.
I believe that more overall awareness would have a significant impact on those who attend a party, as well as those who produce it and the artists, and consequently, even the music would change. Perhaps we would have less violent lyrics, and we would see a bit more light on the dance floors …
Tell me about your involvement at the Festival of Consciousness, please, and how it came to be?
Last year, at the first edition of the Festival, I collaborated with Frizzant, which is a top yoga and wellness studio in Barcelona. We made a couple of events together and they asked me if I wanted to do another collaboration with them at the FoC. We did a silent Ecstatic Dance in the terrace from the Fórum in Barcelona and oh boy, it was really crowded! That was a wonderful surprise, and that was maybe one of my best Ecstatic Dance ever!
After that, the Directors from the FoC contacted me because they wanted to do another one but with visuals and at the main Auditorium in the second edition of the FoC. We agreed that this time we wanted to create another experience and I contacted Miguel Palacios, who is an amazing graphic designer from Mexico City. He did the visuals for this year’s performance. This time I had less minutes for my performance, so I had to pre select the songs I would play (I usually never prepare preselect songs because I flow according to the vibe of the people).
I brought my most important crystals, my guitar to sing and play acoustic music at the end of the set and I wore a disco ball dress from the Venezuelan designer Ana Canaan.
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The festival's name does not make reference to music or dance. How do you see that yourself - what is the connection beween dancing and consciousness?
Dance and consciousness are closely related because when you dance, there is a lot of presence; you need to be in the here and now to listen to the music, let yourself go, and move your body. Presence is consciousness, and by being present, we are witnessing the gift of the present, which is all that truly exists.
Movement meditation is a branch of meditation that is practiced while moving the body, whether it's walking, doing yoga, dancing, and so on. That's why dance is considered a conscious and highly spiritual practice, just like listening to high frequency music for instance.
What I do, Ecstatic Dance, is primarily led by the carefully selected music to enable people to enter deep meditative states.
In one of your videos, the dancers are wearing headphones. What are the benefits of this type of experience?
The difference between a Silent Ecstatic Dance and an Ecstatic Dance with speakers is that one experience can be more immersive than the other. Using headphones invites a more introspective and personal journey, while with speakers, the experience is more collective.
Both ways are beautiful and unique, but one thing is for sure: the sound must always be impeccable so that people can enter into meditation while dancing.
