A talented young voice has surprised us lately from various spaces in the media. Her name is Camila Daniela Felibert Gutiérrez and she is as good a conversationalist as she is an instrumentalist, composer and performer. This versatile artist spoke exclusively with CubaSí.
You are a bassist by training. How and when did the concern to compose arrive?
“The restlessness has always been, but I am very shy, especially as a child, even when I had ideas and little things like those that come out when one is studying, I also studied piano. However, I was always afraid to teach that part. Really It wasn’t like until I was twenty-something that I wrote something complete. The first songs are saved, I don’t think they will ever come out, but writing with a precise and defined purpose for other people to listen to, it was precisely for “The face of the days. “It was the birthday of Ernesto Cisneros, the pianist and musical producer of the soundtrack of this telenovela, and he enthralled me, he said:” Cami, I need a song for a soap opera that has to do with motherhood. ” I wrote the song Vivo en ti, which was the first, from then on we continued working because we really felt very good working together and the others came out: “Veneno”, I can’t forgive you, that Cisneros himself had already made the music and I did the lyrics and the melody. From there I started to get excited “.
And the decision to sing? What drove you down that path?
“I have always liked singing, but for the same reason I had not done it before, because of shyness, because I also feel that it was a little late, I wish it had started in adolescence, right now I had a path traveled in that sense, but really The first person who told me “you can make a career” was Adolfo Martínez, Fito, who is the producer of Buena Fe and is being the producer of my first album now. That is precisely one of the reasons why I chose him. And nothing , life was taking me there little by little, I did work as a showgirl; for the novel I wanted to sing my own songs and that’s how it happened “.
As a composer, do you feel identified with a particular genre? What kind of music are you interested in?
“I like Cuban music a lot, a lot, a lot. I am an inveterate fan of Havana D´ Primera and I love to dance, but really the music to sing, to make, to identify myself, is jazz. I like it, it is the path I want to follow, the place I want to get to. It is a bit difficult because to all the people I have told them, even the producers I have spoken with, they tell me no, that music has Very little public. I think it is also a bit of ignorance in this tropical island, where what moves the most is urban music and popular dance music, but in the world the jazz circuit has many festivals, many doors, a lot public and it is where I would like to insert myself in the very near future “.
Now, from the interpreter’s point of view, do you prefer to sing your own songs? Any specific one that you would very much like to interpret?
“I prefer to interpret my songs, not for any egocentric sense, nor that I think they are better than those of other authors, not at all, but honestly, I spend a lot of work to feel happy with a song that I do and from that moment, the last song I write becomes my favorite and is the only one I want to sing, but still, of course I love them and I have sung songs by other authors, of course, but whenever I have to choose, I choose one of those who were born from my.
“Even so, Veinte años, by María Teresa Vera, is a song that I would have given my all to have written it myself, but I know that if I had written it I wouldn’t like it the way I like it, so that particular song is a that I will always want to interpret and that I will always do it in the most wonderful way that I can. “
I think there are two moments that brought you closer to the public, the Adolfo Guzmán contest and definitely the telenovela “The face of the days” How much did these opportunities influence the course of your career?
“They were really defining. The Adolfo Guzmán contest was the first time that I sang alone, like Camila Daniela, without a band, because until that moment when I was doing a song at a concert or something, I always had a group of friends who were accompanying me, But in the contest I saw myself alone on stage, very uncomfortable with the wardrobe, very uncomfortable with television as such, uncomfortable because I was not prepared for it and still I am very happy that the moment has come because it made me, precisely, El Guzmán was an intensive course of “artist work” and of breastfeeding the situation, of defending a song of mine and above all it was a space for making mistakes and for right now to review the video and say: I can never see myself again in that situation, I have to learn to say no when I am not comfortable with something, when I am not comfortable, what do I know, with the costumes, with the ways in which they tell me that I should make a presentation and, of course, also those situation ions I got very positive things, I got ways in which I do want to work, not the whole situation was negative for me, but I do feel that I gained the experience of knowing what I don’t want for myself and what I don’t want for my image. From Adolfo Guzmán, what I am most grateful for is that and, of course, the friendships that came out of there, that until today we are in contact and, well, the wonderful experience of being fair in an event like that. “
And in the case of the soap opera?
“It was also the opportunity to know how much an audience could like the music that I made. Noemí Cartaya, director of this telenovela, had, for me, a very strong battle with the telenovela and it was really a pleasure to accompany her as part of the music. Also a very big challenge was to write in a “tailored suit”, as Sabina says. I had to write according to situations that I have not experienced, which were, of course, dramatized by soap opera actors, but all of them I had to put a piece of me on them because otherwise they would not be sincere. That is, even if I am not a woman of seventy-some years who has lived a life of pain and bitterness (I hope I never get to that situation) , I had to put a little of my pain and my bitterness to the topic Poison so that it would be real, so that the person who listened to it at home felt that what was happening with Daysi Granados, with Mercedes, was real, so it was a very big challenge and I loved it. I am willing and ready to continue working on soundtracks. I would love to, all soap opera, film or other audiovisual directors who read this interview know that they can communicate with me and I will be delighted to work with them “.
Recently, we saw you as a presenter at the Cuerda Viva Festival, a new facet in which we could find Camila Daniela in the future?
“Yes, yes really. Since I was on the radio for the first time I knew that I had fallen in love with the voiceover. I have not had the opportunity to be on the radio constantly, but when I saw a little bit of light in the Cuerda program Viva I wanted to take advantage of it and I contacted Yanara Camila, one of the assistant directors of the program, who in fact was through Guzmán that I was in contact with her and I told her: Yanara, if at any time you have to look for presenters for the program I would like to do it, I want to prove myself, I know that, in addition, it is a difficult program, because it is very interactive, it is a program that is alive, just like the rope, Anita is very demanding, which I thank her very much, but also being demanding is giving us the possibility of being us. So when they called me to say yes, that I was going to be in a program I got very nervous, very nervous. Luckily there is Annie Garcés who is a friend I have known since elementary school, like this that’s good, it really is comfortable to go to work with someone I have known for so long and who has taught me a lot in this world that she dominates better than me because it takes longer.
“And yes, I hope I can keep working on television. I have an idea of doing more, there is a surprise that I am not going to comment on, but I do want you to know that I am not going to stop at Cuerda Viva, that is, I want to continue growing in that sense and hopefully There is a super interesting project that I am coordinating, in fact, with another of Cuerda Viva’s presenters, so let’s keep our fingers crossed and hopefully it happens. “
Projects?
“I am currently recording my first album, it is a production with EGREM, the music producer is Adolfo Martínez, Fito and I am also assuming part of the production, because it is something that we are doing with four hands, I will tell you that there are 11 songs, the The album is going to be called 11 and 11. I chose to do it in a very intimate way, it is an album that has the pianists as its crown jewel. I am accompanied by pianists younger than me, as is the case with Andy García and Arthur, but also by pianists with whom I never thought to work as in the case of Rolando Luna, Tony Rodríguez, Cucurucho Valdés. I will also have Roberto Fonseca. Then you can imagine that it is a phonogram in which I have taken a long time, but I have really achieved make it as close to the way I wanted, that for me is a gift. It is linked to an audiovisual that I am going to do from this work and in the long term, well, I would like to start my career in a serious way, I feel that I have given some Steps, which have been very good, very profitable, but I have not really been able to start and I would like to do it in 2022. So, if you wish me luck and success, then I am going to take advantage of it, really “.
