Home > Austin Music Source > Archives > 2010 > March > 16 > Entry
SXSW preview: Anita Tijoux
Anita Tijoux admits that before recording her latest CD, she knew she wanted a simple and clean sound for her new material. And that’s exactly what the songs on ‘1977’ are: pure respect to early hip-hop.
Even in her promotional photos, the Chilean singer (who was born in Lille, France, after her parents’ political exile from Chile after the military coup of 1973) wears a pair of shoelace-less Adidas, the same kind Run-DMC made so popular in the late ’80s.
‘1977’ is not only homage, but also a return to the golden age of hip-hop.
Nothing — the beats, the lyrics or its themes — in this CD is complicated or experimental.
‘I like writing songs so much, both of what I see and what I live,’ Tijoux says by phone from the beaches of Santiago where she was vacationing. ‘My approach to music is simple.’
Tijoux’s arrival to this simple formula shouldn’t be interpreted as lack of experience. Tijoux has been rapping since the ’90s after meeting members of the Arraya Homie Clan, a group of Chilean youth freestylers. She met the group after she returned to Chile with her family. Later, Tijoux would be one of the founding members of Makiza, with whom she recorded three albums. After leaving Makiza, Tijoux made her first solo album, ‘Kaos,’ which was nominated for three MTV awards.
Though hip-hop is well-represented in the United States, the same is not true in Latina America, and yet Tijoux has been one of the few to reach stardom levels in her native country, as well as surrounding countries and Spain.
‘I’ve been very fortunate to have the support of everyone around me,’ Tijoux says. ‘It was never a question of whether or not I fit in (this genre). Everyone knew this is what I wanted to do, and they supported me.’
Outside Latin America, however, Tijoux was virtually unknown. That changed when her collaboration of with Julieta Venegas, ‘Eres Para Mi,’ hit worldwide. Though the two had collaborated on a project prior to Venegas’ ‘Limón y Sal’ album (2006), this was the first song to achieve international success.
It also gave her the vision to return to a more basic approach to her music.
‘In the end, what I want to do is entertain my audience, and simple is good for me,’ she says, explaining that even her stage wardrobe is a simple pair of jeans and a T. ‘What you see is what you get.’
Midnight Thursday at Flamingo Cantina, 515 E. Sixth St.
1 a.m. Saturday at Maggie Mae’s, 323 E. Sixth St.
If you like Anita Tijoux, check out:
1. Maluca
2. Choc Quib Town
3. Systema Solar
4. Bomba Estereo
5. Huecco
Follow Austin Music Source on Facebook and Twitter.
Permalink | | Categories: SXSW 2010
