Harmonizing with Soluna

By Leslie Dinaberg

SuperOnda Managing Editor

Soluna, For All Time

Soluna, For All Time

Somewhere between the sun and the moon is the female foursome Soluna. Formed in the late ’90s, the group quickly signed with DreamWorks Records and recorded its self-titled debut CD, which came out in May. With the release of their hit single “For All Time” and the accompanying video airing on MTV’s popular TRL viewer request show, band members “T” (short for Christina) Lopez, Jessica Castellanos, Aurora Rodriguez, and America (pronounced Amereeka) Olivio are clearly on a roll. SúperOnda caught up with them in Santa Barbara, hours before they performed as the opening act for Marc Anthony. The four Southern California Latinas were energetic, excited, and entertaining after a rare day of rest for them during the tour.

SO: I know you’ve been together for only three years. How did you get signed with DreamWorks?

Jessica: We were fortunate to get noticed early on in the inception of the group. We had all been struggling artists as soloists. We’ve been trying to do this since we were four years old – singing in church since we were little. But once we got together with the band, doors started to open. People who knew people opened doors for us. They had friends that you never knew they knew. Like your friend had a friend who had a company … and you’re like, “you never introduced them to me before …” [all laugh].

SO: So in the beginning, you were playing what kind of venues?

Aurora: We actually didn’t play any venues in the beginning.

Jessica: America and Aurora, they’ve known each other the longest. They’ve known each other since they were young girls. I met them through a friend, a producer that I was writing with. They had been introduced to him because we were all trying to break into the business separately – somehow, some way. So when we met, I knew people, and she knew people, and she knew people that were in the business, and after we found T [through a producer friend spotting her photo in her father’s auto body shop], doors just started opening.

The second we found a manager; she introduced us to people at DreamWorks [and other labels]. It was like they saw the talent from the onset. And fortunately we didn’t have to go through the grunt part, doing showcases in LA … because we had done it all individually. We feel that we did all the work before … so that when we got together as a group, people recognized the talent. We got signed six months after we formed the group, which was really lucky.

Once that happened, we needed to find a sound for ourselves. We sought out different producers. DreamWorks helped us with that. We ended up with Steve Morales and did the bulk of the album with him. [Morales has also produced albums for Ricky Martin, Enrique Iglesias, and Jon Secada.] It’s not the overnight thing that people think it is. It does take a lot of hard work. We were hoping and praying that we’d get on the Marc Anthony tour. We didn’t know it would come this soon. Our album just came out in May, so we’ve really been lucky in getting the opportunity to open for him. And now we’re going to open for Enrique Iglesias [in the fall]. [Girls all cheer.]

Jessica: We’re doing about 30 dates with Enrique.

America: So we won’t be seeing home for a while, but it’s so exciting to tour and see the world. T is keeping track of how many states we’ve been in – we’ve already been in 31, right?

SO: And are you getting to see any of these places that you’re going to?

T: Yeah, sometimes. We try to stay overnight, then go to see whatever the big sight is, whenever we can.

Jessica: We try to soak it all in, but sometimes after the shows we’re just beat. All we want to see is a bathtub. Just soak in there.

T: But I don’t know if I’ll ever be back to Paducah, Kentucky, so sometimes you just have to go all out to see something.

America: When would you ever have gone otherwise?

Jessica: Plus it’s great to meet the people from different places. The people are so interesting. We didn’t realize before that there are so many different cultures and accents going on.

SO: Are you finding that audiences are different in different areas? I picture places that are “not LA” being more enthusiastic, for example.

America: Right. The Midwest is so enthusiastic. A lot of them don’t even say our name right: “Selena.” But they just love being entertained and they show it, which is just awesome. Especially when we’re singing the song “For All Time.” In Cleveland, Ohio, they loved it. I think Ohio’s been the best as far as radio play is concerned.

SO: That sounds very cool.

T: It depends on how much a radio station [in the area] plays it. Sometimes we’ll go somewhere and every person will know our song. Everybody knows it and everybody’s singing it and you’ll actually get some people who recognize you. We did get that before. So that’s cool.

America: It’s fun to see how the shows change. We started doing some of these shows before our album came out, and gradually there are more and more people, more and more faces that are familiar with us, and more and more signs that say “Soluna.” The first couple shows we were at, people were staring at us, like, what?

T: They have posters everywhere, all of these different cities, all over the place. You know Eddie Kay Thomas – he’s an actor? [The pseudo-sophisticated guy who beds “Stiffler’s Mom” in American Pie.] He lives in my building, and I hadn’t seen him for a long time because we both travel so much. He saw me the other day in the elevator, and he’s like, “You gave me your CD before, but I didn’t know you were a real singer. I’m seeing your posters everywhere in New York.”

America: We love New York. [Laughs]

SO: What was it like shooting the video? Did somebody come up with the concept – was it the producer? How did that work?

Aurora: Well, we already had filmed one video, “Bring It to Me,” which was our first video. We kind of came up with that concept. You know we loved the video, but …

America: You can’t afford to do everything you want to do. You want to do all these fancy things. We wanted to have the sun turn into the moon, and then have the sky eclipse yellow. And there’s four of us…

Jessica: Mind you, there are four different opinions and ideas here. So we like to leave it up to the director. So they can do their job. We do give opinions, of course [all laugh], but what we really want is something that reflects us.

Aurora: What we really wanted was to have something that make didn’t make it seem like we wanted to be all supermodel-y. We wanted to show that we have four personalities, and show that we’re fun and like to hang out.

Jessica: And not take away from the song. It’s such a pretty love song. We wanted to really portray that.

T: We did that in all of the individual room shots. Did you see the video?

SO: Yeah, we did. [Readers can view it at www.solunagirls.com]

T: In each of the different room shots we each had our own personal stuff, and our own guy … and we were just chilling in tank tops and jeans or shorts or pajamas or whatever. I think that kind of gave the audience more of a feeling like, okay, this is how they really are. You know, they’re not…

Jessica: Untouchable. We don’t want to be like that. We always like to be in contact with the fans, and talk to people as much as we can.

SO: Do you know yet what the second video is going to be? .

Aurora: We’re mostly just touring now, so it’s hard to take the time out.

SO: I imagine it would be hard, with touring. But when you do another video, you’ll do another track off that album or your next album?

T: We’ll do another track.

America: We’ll do one of those Michael Jackson albums where everything’s a single.

SO: And are you noticing that, as you’re touring, your record sales are going up and people are starting to notice you?

T: Uh huh. Every week the sales go up.

SO: I’ve definitely noticed, tracking the different Hispanic bands for SúperOnda, that you guys are getting a lot more comments on websites. There’s a lot more Internet activity.

Aurora: Yeah? [Claps.] Great!

Jessica: Especially with Marc Anthony and Enrique. I mean, we’re hoping that there will be. We always sell a lot of albums at concerts, and it’s such great exposure for us just to get out there. These are our people. There’s a lot of Hispanics here as well who will definitely love the album.

SO: You have songs in English and Spanish. Among yourselves, do you speak both languages? How does that work?

T: We speak Spanish when we don’t want anyone else to know what we’re saying. Especially when we’re a place like Wisconsin, where not many people speak Spanish.

SO: Be careful in Santa Barbara, because a lot of people speak Spanish here.

T: We really don’t do it that much, especially here or in New York. But in the Midwest, a lot of people don’t know Spanish, so we use it there. Not to be rude, but if I have to say, “Aurora, your bra strap is showing,” stuff like that.

SO: Speaking of bra straps, do you have somebody who handles wardrobe? Does somebody walk you through that?

Jessica: We have a stylist who puts together outfits for us when we’re on tours. Although we like to look individual too.

SO: I noticed that in all of your PR shots you’re kind of color-coordinated, but not wearing the same thing.

T: That’s what we try to do.

America: We usually stress over it. We’re like ohmygawd, what are we gonna wear?

Jessica: It depends on how you’re feeling that day. Sometimes you might be a little bloated and think, “The white top just makes me look even that much more big.”

Jessica: The reason why we started the color coordination is that at first, when we didn’t plan it, one of us would be in black and somebody else would be all in lavender. And then people would ask, “Are you supposed to be the lead singer?” or something … and it just got weird. So we try to at least coordinate the colors. But now, we’ve gotten really lazy the last couple of shows, so we’re like, let’s try something new – everybody just wear whatever you want.

America: We’ve been trying to ask our fans whether they like the matching outfits.

T: One time we did a show with Otown in Rochester, New York. We’re so interested in how everybody else does it – we’re like, “so what do you guys do when you get dressed?” And Trevor is like, “Um … I get dressed. We just, you know, take whatever out of our suitcase that we want to wear.” [Girls laugh.]

America: Another thing about the matchy-matchy is it’s like a contrived thing.

T: We don’t want anybody to think that we were put together by somebody else. Like we were put together and have to match and have to wear this outfit and have to be like four girls that other people are telling what to do.

Jessica: We’ve put ourselves together since the beginning. We manage ourselves, along with our manager, but we’re very involved in everything and we want people to know that. People aren’t telling us what to wear. We’re wearing what we want to wear.

Aurora: We try to learn from veterans that we meet about what works on the road – we’re just trying to pick their brains.

America: Look at Destiny’s Child. They always had to have the same material, and that’s not our style.

Jessica: No, that’s not our style.

T: But Spice Girls are cool. Each one had her own individual style, which is cool.

Jessica: Their style I really, really like. But don’t quote me on that! [Laughs.]

America: So we’re trying to find a niche. We’re looking for that thing, and I think that thing might just be that we are Soluna. We are who we are.

SO: I think the thing that might be most unusual about you is that you don’t have a lead singer. That makes a difference – I mean, that’s definitely something unique.

T: The thing is, you want to hear everyone sing. A lot of people mention that they like to hear everybody.

Jessica: In a lot of groups, not everybody really has a chance to be heard. But people want that, I think. They’re sort of rooting for you.

SO: So you guys, obviously, are spending a lot of time together on the road. Do you have sisters?

Jessica: All of us come from big families. That’s how we stay sane in the group.

SO: I imagine that would be a big adjustment, so much togetherness. I mean, it’s probably a big adjustment anyway, being on the road.

Jessica: We share a lot.

Aurora: We’re together all the time. Sometimes we have to share rooms.

Jessica: Sometimes we have to share a king-sized bed. [Laughs.]

T: It was no big deal. When we were first starting out, it was me and my mom and dad, my three sisters, in one room. In this one-bedroom apartment. My mom and dad had their room, and we shared two bunk beds.

Jessica: I used to sleep with my sister till I was 22.

Aurora: I remember I was upset when in my family we got separate rooms.

SO: In terms of sort of your musical role models, do you have any bands that you aspire to be like?

T: Boyz II Men.

America: En Vogue.

Aurora: People like Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, and the Beatles, all of the classics. That’s one thing that we share in common – we like the classics.

America: We all have individual preferences, beyond those.

Jessica: Harry Belafonte.

America: Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston probably influenced us all.

SO: If you weren’t doing music, if you weren’t in a band, what would you be doing?

Jessica: I’d probably be dead. Just kidding! I would be working part time and trying to do music.

America: She’d be 90, still working, trying to have a music career. I think we’d all be doing something in the arts. We talk about it, and we’re always artists, one way or the other. Artists always need to emote, I think; we’d always be doing something where we were creating and moving people, one way or the other.

SO: So do you have any acting aspirations, like Beyonce [from Destiny’s Child]?

America: Who doesn’t? I’d like to know who doesn’t want to be a movie star, deep down inside.

Aurora: Even doing theater is great.

T: Just to try on being someone else, it’s just so fun to be in a whole different world. That’s what you do when you sing a song, anyway.

America: You’re not necessarily in that situation at the moment, but you know when you’re singing, “hey, I love you” or whatever, you have to put yourself in character and be in the moment.

T: True that. True that.

SO: Tell me about some of your charity work, your community service work.

Aurora: Well, in the past couple of months we’ve been so busy promoting the album, we haven’t had the time that we usually get to do charity stuff, which we love to do. Our first-ever performance together was for the McClaren Children’s Center. It’s to foster protective services for children who need emergency help. We’ve done stuff for the Revlon Breast Cancer walk; we’ve done the AIDS Walk a couple of times in Los Angeles and in San Francisco.

T: We performed for Elton John’s AIDS fundraiser, the Academy Awards party.

Aurora: We’ve done some benefits for cancer.

Jessica: Being an artist gives you an opportunity to give back. It’s your opportunity to be where thousands of people can see and hear you that you would never be able to reach if you were working at an odd job or something. It’s an opportunity for us to be involved with something good, and we love to take those opportunities and be able to help. We’re grateful that we can, because we’re so fortunate. I mean, people try all of their lives to do what we’re doing. Now that we’re doing it, we want to be able to give back.

America: One of the charity events that’s going to be telecast is the One World Jam. It’s for world education. It was filmed at Radio City Music Hall and it had Nelly, Boyz II Men, Souljahz, Olga Tanon, Hakim, Ja Rule, Elton John, Juanes, Musiq, Riverdance, Allesandro Safina, and Chicago. [Note: The two-hour television special airs on the WB Network from August 25 to September 7 in several cities. Check your local listings for air times.]

SO: Do you feel any kind of special responsibility as role models? Obviously, you have a lot of young people who listen to your music.

T: Yeah, we do. Especially young girls, on the website. We’re constantly thinking about being good role models.

Aurora: It’s a role model thing, but it’s also … growing up as Latinas you have a lot of respect for your parents and your family.

Jessica: And you don’t want to do anything that they’re not gonna be proud of, you know what I mean?

T: On top of that, we really think about what we do, what we say and what we do onstage, because there are little ones out there and they’re looking at you. Especially the young ones.

America: Especially the young Latinas. They’re looking at you not for guidance, exactly, but for inspiration. … When our album was done and we looked back, we realized that all of our songs were really motivating and inspiring and positive. Every one of the songs is kind of a feel-good song.

Aurora: Even the heartbroken ones are.

America: Well, the heartbroken ones are like a good sad movie, inspiring and passionate.

Aurora: It’s part of who we are as people. No matter what we are doing, we always care about giving a good impression to people, no matter who they may be. It’s just part of the way that we were raised. We’ll always be like that.

SO: Do you think that being Hispanic has had any effect on your success? Has it helped? Has it hurt? Did it make any difference?

Aurora: I think it’s helped. Singing in English and Spanish just makes our audience that much broader. Especially now, in these times, everybody’s appreciating music in any language. English-speakers are coming to appreciate music in Spanish more than ever. We’ve had such an overwhelming response from the English-speaking people to our songs in Spanish.

Jessica: So many people in the United States are becoming bilingual. Many times, when they hear our songs in Spanish, they appreciate them and they try to understand the words. People always ask, “What does ‘Soluna’ mean?” And they say it’s so cool when we explain it [the sun and the moon] to them.

Aurora: There are so many people in the United States who have Latin heritage, like us. [Aurora is Puerto Rican, T is Mexican, Jessica is Mexican and Colombian, and America is Chilean, Spanish, and Irish.] They’re proud, but they think of themselves as American first. And that’s what we are. We do American pop music. We’ve got an album on an American label, and that is what the majority of American pop music is out there.

SO: Any advice for our readers?

Aurora: Expose yourself to whatever art or music that you can find.

America: Don’t be stopped by not having money for training or lessons. The best education is finding people to expose yourself to.

Jessica: Practicing your craft, having perseverance. Don’t listen to the negative. There are always people who will tell you it’s too hard, you can’t do it. But we’re living examples, living proof that you can do it.

America: I’m sure all of us at some point in our lives have tried to do something we weren’t sure we could.

T: Yeah, you tell people you want to be a singer and you get so many people saying, “That’s great, but what’s gonna be your real job?” And I hate that, because if I had ever gone back and thought about what a “real job” could have been, I would have missed my opportunity, or I would not have tried so hard to do what I really wanted to do, because I had a fallback plan. You’ve always got to follow your heart no matter what you hear.

America: And sometimes there aren’t a lot of opportunities out there for students. I mean, we’re extremely lucky and fortunate to have this job. But sometimes when you go for it … I know I have a lot of friends who went for it, and it can lead you to something that you love. They’re now writing music or doing other things related to music – not necessarily performing, but doing other things.

Jessica: Sometimes it leads to something else that is also in an area that you love. Something that interests you. I mean, if you’re working at a job that doesn’t interest you, then you’re not going to be happy at that job and you’re not going to be fulfilled. You need to do something that you want to do, and at least try to go for it. If you don’t, you’ll regret it, and you don’t want to live your life in regret.

America: I know a lot of people who never really thought about writing or production or something like that, and then fell into it.

Jessica: Exactly. It can lead you to other things if you just keep following your heart.

Originally appeared in SuperOnda Magazine

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