By Melanie Henderson
“I feel strong enough to cross the bridge, although the darkness can be felt, I face it without fear.” Valentina Cooke (song: Amor y Miedo).
Between that and the fact that major record labels are producing less music of quality and more hi-tech music in quantity; it is all the more difficult to find good stuff. Music just isn’t like it was way back when.
That said, if the music is good and the artists are talented, the fact that you can get your music online can turn into the perfect stepping stone to discovery and success. Argentine Soul/Hip-Hop/R&B lady Valentina Cooke is one of these artists. Her latest album Amor y Miedo (Love and Fear) went live on iTunes and Soundcloud almost a year ago and has seen great initial success online.
I stumbled across Cooke’s music on Soundcloud last year and was completely blown away. After months of listening to her latest album “Amor y Miedo,” I finally got the chance to meet her in person and talk about, well, a little bit of everything.
Singer/songwriter, rapper and guitarist, Cooke has been in the professional music game for close to ten years. During that time she’s performed in all of the major music venues in Buenos Aires with numerous famous local artists. Not only that, she was also one of the pioneers of Hip-Hop and R&B music in Argentina, particularly in the capital, starting her own R&B night in San Telmo, before the likes of Makena’s Afromama night existed.
Cooke has been singing for as long as she’s been writing songs, and her musical education comes from a rich and diverse background living in the south of Argentina.
Brought up by a London-born British singer, guitarist and sitar player in El Bolson – a small Patagonian town, located about 200km from Bariloche – her introduction to music in the home, listening to her family.
In terms of her international music education, Cooke listened to a diverse range of artists such as Sting, Concha Buika, Ledisi, Jill Scott, Raúl Midon, D’Angelo, Meshell Ndegeocello, Prince, Stevie Wonder, The Roots, Lauryn Hill, Nneka, Erykah Badu, Indie Arie, Sade, Tracy Chapman, The Rolling Stones and Snoop Dogg.
She studied singing with national rock singer Maria Jose Cantillo, someone who gave her an introduction into classical and rock singing, as well as pushing her to pursue her singing further. Later she also studied with Eduardo Jose de Bianco, a classically trained singer.
As for her guitar training, she owes her musical knowledge to her teacher and husband, Gaspar Benegas – lead guitarist to Argentine star el “Indio” Solari and artist in his own right – who gave her the basis of knowledge she needed in order to compose her own music.
“Even though my dad and my brothers were musicians, I didn’t become a composer myself until I was 25 years old, which was just after I had my second child.”
The struggle
Many say that the best artists went through the harshest of circumstances. Many times that is the truth. Cooke could never be classed as an average porteña princess, even though she could be mistaken for one by her looks. She moved to Buenos Aires at the age of fifteen alongside Benegas, as a way of escaping her harsh and turbulent upbringing.
She grew up in a marginal area of El Bolson, forty kilometres away from the nearest town. Her parents were very hard-up, which made sustaining an education extremely difficult; replaced by an innate struggle to stay afloat as a family. One out of five children, playing her part in keeping the family alive became apparent from an early age.
“The truth is that we really didn’t have a penny to our name. In my house it was about collecting the wood for the fire, cooking and making sure that there was enough food to be split between six kids. In all honesty, I didn’t have the best time growing up.”
School was a difficult and alien place for Cooke. She went to a school in the middle of the countryside and was bullied for being the little white, blue-eyed blonde girl among the darker skinned, haired kids. For her mother, if she didn’t go to school it was a positive: more hands to help out at home. At the age of six she learned how to cook and by the age of eight she cooked for her brothers and sisters and washed clothes by hand.
“We didn’t have electricity, so we had to make fires and use candles to light up the house at night.”
The situation was made worse by the fact that her dad was an alcoholic.
“My dad did try to work as hard as he could, but he slipped up a lot. Many times he would come home with half of the shopping, reeking of alcohol.”
“It was a difficult situation to digest. My mum was a very educated woman, but we were living in very marginal circumstances. Sometimes the difficulties we were experiencing made it hard for her to push us to go to school.”
Although growing up in the south of Argentina was difficult, Cooke underlined the positives of having grown up in a rural area.
“Even though we had next to nothing, I always had a very strong connection with nature. Whenever I was feeling bad about life, I would go for a walk in the woods to clear my head.”
It took some time for the art to be gathered, but her upbringing formed a very strong basis from which Cooke’s inspiration came with regard to her music and lyrics.
The music
Cooke’s music by no means can be classified into one genre. It’s a fusion of Rap, Funk, R&B, Pop, Dubstep and Rock. The cool thing about it is that the style of each song is craftily tailored to the lyrics, which at times go deep into thoughts on human existence, social interaction and Cooke’s own personal story.
Huellas
Growing up in a harsh environment, living on the breadline in the south and raising her own children from an early age have all worked in the making of her music.
Album one: Despertar (2008).
Tracing back to her country girl days, Cooke’s first album shows the visually hippie side to her, but evokes a very fusion-filled sound. Influenced by rappers from the States, such as Snoop Dogg and Eminem, as well as many African American artists from across a range of genres, her sound is a cross between Spanish Rap, Argentine Folklore, Funk and R&B.
A varied, but more developed sound, the full depth of what she has experienced in her 32 years of life so far starts to shine through in her lyrics in a sometimes brutal reality check.
“I dreamt of death in my mind, smile, the devil no.
Prudent is that who challenges what goes on inside themselves.
I feel strong enough to brave the bridge now that the darkness can be felt I face it without fear.” (Amor y Miedo, 2013).
These days, Cooke is performing, recording and working as a musician and singer alongside her husband, raising their two children in Buenos Aires.
Unsigned (at the moment) her music is available online. Some of her best tracks can be found on her SoundCloud account:
https://soundcloud.com/valenyelsol
Both Despertar and Amor y Miedo are available for purchase on iTunes:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/valentina-cooke/id332655455
You can follow Valentina on Facebook and Twitter:
https://www.facebook.com/valentina.cooke
@ValenCooke
—
Argentine Arts is also on social media:
Argentine Arts 