SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Lido Pimienta thinks a lot about what's considered beautiful. She's a Colombian Canadian artist and musician.
LIDO PIMIENTA: It's really troubling when the Caribbean or the Caribbean diaspora is spoken about in terms of exoticism or us only being known as these exotic beings that are just lounging by the water, you know? The reality is that we're carriers of immense sublime beauty.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LIBELULA")
PIMIENTA: (Singing in Spanish).
SIMON: Her new album explores what she calls the Caribbean sublime. It's called "Caribenya." And while it's full of cumbias and other danceable beats, it starts out with a lullaby, "Arrullame."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ARRULLAME")
PIMIENTA: (Singing in Spanish).
Arrullame - it translates into lull me or hold me. It's another manifestation of human tenderness. It's a song that I wrote in that holy, intimate space and stage with a partner.
PIMIENTA: (Singing in Spanish).
I have a real problem with heteronormative, just cookie-cutter love songs. I always like to make songs that have no gender. I like to write songs where everyone can feel seen.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ARRULLAME")
PIMIENTA: (Singing in Spanish).
SIMON: And right after that, you have the song "Toxica," about a toxic person. Certainly not somebody you'd want to welcome into your arms.
PIMIENTA: No (laughter).
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TOXICA")
PIMIENTA: (Singing in Spanish).
I wrote it about a very specific person, and that person's MO was that they always put themselves first, no matter what. We all have those people in our lives that we love so much. But we definitely understand, after a lot of humiliations, that maybe they're not the friend that we thought.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TOXICA")
PIMIENTA: (Singing in Spanish).
My friendships are more intense. Like, I share so much more intensity with my friends than I do with a romantic partner or with, like, any boyfriend. But it's just that it was a moment in my life, and I included it because I needed, also, to just release myself from that friendship.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TOXICA")
PIMIENTA: (Singing in Spanish).
SIMON: Your daughter, Martina, sings on the song "Asi Naci." What was that like?
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ASI NACI")
MARTINA: (Singing in Spanish).
PIMIENTA: She just turned 7 when she sang on the song. And she did because, originally, I invited another artist. Our schedules just - it didn't work out. And then one of the producers - he said to me, but I hear your daughter singing "Asi Naci" all the time.
SIMON: Aw.
PIMIENTA: And it was one of her favorite songs. And we were like, well, Maria Jose can't make it, but I have my daughter. And she can join the song, and she was so proud.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ASI NACI")
PIMIENTA: (Singing in Spanish).
I always talk about myself in that I am an artist who happens to be a mother and a mother who happens to be an artist. But motherhood is so important to me. And making space where children are embraced, you know, it's at the core of my practice, and I really believe in that. So that's why "Asi Naci" made so much sense to have my daughter singing in it.
SIMON: There are notes of resistance on this album. Let me ask you about the song "Marea." This is an angry song, isn't it?
PIMIENTA: It's an anti-colonial song disguised as a love song (laughter).
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MAREA")
PIMIENTA: (Singing in Spanish).
There's a lot of layers to this song. You know what I'm saying vayanse de mi isla bonita, it references "La Isla Bonita" by Madonna. 'Cause I remember being a child listening to that song and being like, I'm going to the pretty island. Which island? So I feel like it embodies perfectly this, like, colonial view of Caribbean diaspora, where we are that subject.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MAREA")
PIMIENTA: (Singing in Spanish).
We know what's happening to our communities and societies, and it's just not fair that, suddenly, you go to the beach, and then there's, like, a line that you can't cross because someone from the USA or Britain bought the house over there, and then they decided that this is going to be their private backyard. And that's just not how it works.
SIMON: May point something out as a reporter? I've made a number of trips to Cuba.
PIMIENTA: Yes.
SIMON: You know, there are places that Cubans can't go because they keep them just for tourists.
PIMIENTA: Yeah, because every government is corrupt. Until we can really overhaul those systems that don't work, we're never going to get to liberation. You know, I'm one of the many Colombians that were forced to leave due to violence, displacements and, you know, like, the leftover from colonialism. So I have a deep understanding and a deep hurt that I get to heal when I make this music. When I make songs and art that resonates with people that are going through that same hardship of not being able to wake up every day to the beautiful paradise where you were born.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HOY POR TI")
PIMIENTA: (Singing in Spanish).
SIMON: You're also a visual artist. How does your music get along with your art?
PIMIENTA: I write music the same way as I paint. I'll have notebooks that are for lyrics, but they're full of drawings. I can trust the drawing more than I can trust my memory. And the melodies, too - like, I carry melodies more than I can carry someone's name. So having a notebook where I'm writing the music on this page and then the drawings that are related to those words and that music. It keeps me levelled, grounded.
SIMON: Lido Pimienta. Her new album, "Caribenya." Thank you so much for being with us.
PIMIENTA: Thank you so much.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HOY POR TI")
PIMIENTA: (Singing in Spanish). Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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