Andrea Echeverri - Biography
It’s one thing to be a political engaged artist, composer, songwriter or musician when living in the United States, which is to say, it’s relatively easy, as the terms of engagement are reasonably well defined, and the risks are rather low. It’s been a while since death squads prowled the streets of, say, Ani DiFranco’s Buffalo. Andrea Echeverri is an outspoken and politically engaged singer, guitarist, and songwriter from Bogotá, Colombia, where the rules of engagement are impossibly opaque and the risk of violence, and worse, is pervasive. In 1990 she entered a combustible cultural atmosphere like a roman candle, alight with tough language, feminist rhetoric, and a strident individuality that ran completely perpendicular to the mores of the conservative Catholic oligarchy. She also did it with a rich, sensuous voice, and a gripping aesthetic more attuned with indie rock than shrill, Sabado Gigante treacle. Although Echeverri Echeverri pirouettes effortlessly through a kaleidoscopic array of North American styles, she ultimately and intently filters everything through unmistakable idioms of her native country. Echeverri has displayed an ongoing and resolute commitment to a variety of social and humanitarian causes, including putting an end to violence in Colombia, staunching political corruption, and halting environmental destruction, and she has worked tirelessly for women’s rights. The result: She is one of the most critically lauded performers in all of Latin America — and she’s making considerable inroads into Anglophone America in the process.
By Echeverri’s own admission, her musical perspective blossomed when she mer bassist and arranger Héctor Buitrago in the early 1990s. Buitrago grew up on fare like prog rock and Zeppelin, and had played in punk bands; in her press kit, Echeverri relates, “He brought new aesthetics, unsuspected rebellion, and truckloads of music.” For her part, Echeverri contributed a natural, vibrant charisma, a serious flair for subsuming genres, and a mesmerizing voice that could sell sneakers to a rattlesnake. They named their band Aterciopelados (it translates to English as “The Velvety Ones”), and soon signed to a major, where their debut, Con el Corazón en la Mano (1994 Sony), received notices for its aggressive approach. The follow-up album was spectacularly varied. El Dorado (1995 RCA) swings from Latin percussive forays to acoustic passages to flat-out, hook-laden rockers that could fit comfortably on a PJ Harvey record. Critics began to take notice, and the next few Aterciopelados albums gained them international notoriety, especially La Pipa de la Paz (1997 RCA), which was produced in London by Roxy Music’s Phil Manzanera, and earned the first of several Grammy nominations in the US, as well as an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
Aterciopelados would continue to make impressive gains on the international stage, an unprecedented event for a Colombian group. In 1998, they recorded Caribe Atómico (1998 RCA) with guest appearances by famed avant- and pan-national guitarists Arto Lindsay (from DNA) and Marc Ribot. Gozo Poderoso (2001 RCA) won a Latin Grammy for Best Rock Group, while in that same year, Time Magazine voted them one of the most influential groups in international rock, alongside U2 and the Rolling Stones. However, both Echeverri and Buitrago were getting antsy. Solo efforts were forthcoming. Both were critical and commercial smashes, but it was Echeverri’s eponymous solo debut (produced by Buitrago) that really shocked her fans. In Andrea Echeverri (2005 Nacional), its contrarian, pierced, tattooed, outspoken author celebrates her own, interior landscape, and explores her emotions, motivations, and sexuality following the birth of her baby. It’s a lyrically frank discussion of the myriad forms that gratification can take, painted with a sophisticated yet subtle wash of aural color. Echeverri and Buitrago returned to Aterciopelados in 2006, and Oye (2006 Nacional) promptly won a Latin Grammy for Best Alternative Album; Rio (2008 Nacional) followed, and received similar praise.
Echeverri and Aterciopelados continue to receive accolades for their efforts on behalf of justice and human rights. The release of Rio (“River”, dedicated to the once mighty, now decimated, Bogotá River) coincided with a constitutional referendum in Colombia intended to designate access to clean, potable water a basic human right for every citizen of the nation. Aterciopelados traveled down the Bogotá, and helped raise over 15 million signatures in support of the legislation. Echeverri and Buitrago are also intensely involved with Destierro y Reparación, a project that raises awareness and funds to address the forced displacement of indigenous peoples — a major issue in all of the countries that share in the bounty and plunder of the Amazon and its upper rainforest estuaries. Most recently, Echeverri and Aterciopelados have teamed with Amnesty International to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and have had the privilege of filming a promotional video in the United Nations General Assembly. It’s an honor, one that Andrea Echeverri has earned with the uncompromising yet unerringly compassionate stance that she displays in her art, her activism, and her daily, personal actions.
