Singer/songwriter Nathalia performs her own original bilingual songs for young children, and her music has taken her to plenty of libraries, including one concert in Santa Barbara’s Public Library. Her concert was well received, and so she was invited back for several more concerts in the Santa Barbara and Goleta branches, as well as a July 20 performance at the Solvang Branch Library.
Though Nathalia—who hails originally from Colombia—has never performed anywhere in Solvang before, that doesn’t mean she isn’t intimately familiar with the Danish-themed city.
“It’s like disappearing somewhere totally different, the architecture everywhere, the giant horses, it’s just totally gorgeous to walk around,” she said. “That’s where my husband proposed, in Solvang, so I do love it there.”
Nathalia performs with a guitar or ukulele while singing her original songs. She has other musicians sit in with her, billing herself as Nathalia and Friends, but it will be just her husband joining in on percussion for the shows for the Santa Barbara Public Library System.
Her songs are bilingual and arose out of a pragmatic decision after her and her husband had kids, Nathalia explained.
“I started writing songs because I wanted to teach my kids to speak Spanish,” she said. “Also, I feel that children need quality music out there. It doesn’t sound like typical kid stuff.”
Nathalia doesn’t hold to the convention found in some kids’ music that the instrumentation and rhythms must be simple. She only hires skilled musicians when recording albums and playing with a band, she said.
But why defy convention? Why give little kids songs that sound more like rock, folk, jazz, or Colombian-inspired styles of music?
“Because they deserve that, they deserve to be exposed to not always the same simple melodies, and because they appreciate it,” she said. “I think it’s a good way to expose them to different art out there. Every style teaches you about culture, and they need that, and families deserve that.”
Her songs also empower young people to use their imagination or share their own stories. Nathalia’s songs relate many aspects of her childhood, including her vivid imagination, from dancing with dinosaurs to escaping the planet in rocket ships.
Nathalia was born and raised in Barranquilla, Colombia, which she described as a party town, with “so many holidays we can’t keep track of them all.” There is a large carnival every year, and music and dance are an integral part of the celebration, she said.
“That’s where I come from, a place where people hear music and there’s a chance for dancing at any moment,” she said. “I think it’s important for my kids to experience that, and it’s in my songs. I have a song about an iguana that came into my garden and ate all the flowers, or drinking coffee as a kid, which I did.”
The kids love that kind of storytelling, Nathalia said, especially when an adult relates to them on their level, whether it’s in sharing her nightmares or stories of singing with her parents and siblings.
Music was very much a family experience for her growing up. Today, her brother produces her albums, her husband is her drummer, and sometimes her daughter will even join in on her songs with some flute, Nathalia explained.
“I want all families to do the same,” she said. “Before, people used to play more instruments, used to listen to the radio, or just dance more. That’s something I want to do to empower people, because we can all be music makers, whether clapping, or snapping, or shaking some maracas.”
Arts Editor Joe Payne has a musical family too. Contact him at jpayne@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jul 14-21, 2016.