Local audiences are going to get a rare chance to enjoy the music of Mon Laferte, the most successful music artist in Chile today.
That’s no exaggeration: She’s the most listened-to artist from Chile on Spotify. She’s the Chilean artist with the most Latin Grammy Award nominations in one year (five, in 2017), and she’s the best-selling Chilean music artist in the digital era.
Mon Laferte will be playing Chella at the Riverside County Fairgrounds on Wednesday, April 17, and will be appearing at Coachella on Friday, April 12 and 19.
Laferte is currently living in Mexico. During a recent phone interview, Laferte talked about the differences between there and her native Chile.
“In Mexico, the music industry is much bigger,” Laferte said. “It’s obviously much more consolidated. It’s bigger; the roof is higher; there’s more diversity; there’s room to grow, and that nurtures an artist in several ways. In Chile, there’s a really good music industry, but it’s a lot smaller; the ceiling is lower. It doesn’t allow you to grow that much, and there’s not room to travel as much as you can in Mexico. But this is a very good moment for the music industry in Chile, and there’s a lot of new talent coming out.”
In 2003, she performed on the Chilean music-competition television series Rojo. She wound up becoming a regular on the show for four seasons.
“These programs are edited before they are aired. I feel that it didn’t hinder my creativity in any way, because my personality is very strong,” Laferte said. “There were a lot of times where I went off-script completely. Aside from what could have been edited when it was broadcast, it was a reflection of who I am as a creative person.”
Her latest album, Norma, released last November, was a collaboration with At the Drive-In and Mars Volta guitarist Omar Rodriguez-Lopez.
“It was a great learning experience,” Laferte said. “This was the first time I’ve ever given the production of an album to somebody else in full. The demos were given to Omar as guitar and vocals only, and I followed his intuition of his vision for those tracks, recording them live at Capitol Studios. It was a huge learning experience and something I loved doing for the first time.”
An accompanying film is slated to be released later this year.
“Initially, the album was created as an audio-visual piece. I didn’t intend to release the album first and the visuals later,” Laferte said. “When I wrote it, it was like a documentary on love, and the tracks went along with the visual piece—kind of like visual resources to tell the story beyond what music and lyrical arrangements can do. I’m very excited to see this come to life.”
Laferte said she’s excited about touring the United States and playing at Chella and Coachella.
“Being able to build my life around music and live off my music is the best dream come true,” she said. “Coming from Chile and having a career that developed from a small country and connecting to people performing at Coachella—those are the bigger rewards. I get to live for music.”
Chella, featuring Los Tucanes de Tijuana, Mon Laferte, Cola Boyy, and Giselle Woo and the Night Owls, takes place at 6 p.m., Wednesday, April 17, in the Fullenwider Auditorium at the Riverside County Fairgrounds, 82503 Highway 111, in Indio. Tickets are $30. For tickets or more information, visit www.goldenvoice.com/#/event/370991.