{"id":1497,"date":"2010-09-12T20:04:36","date_gmt":"2010-09-13T03:04:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=1497"},"modified":"2010-09-12T20:04:36","modified_gmt":"2010-09-13T03:04:36","slug":"perla-batalla","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2010\/09\/perla-batalla\/","title":{"rendered":"Perla Batalla"},"content":{"rendered":"

PERLA BATALLA<\/strong><\/h1>\n
A cross-cultural journey from her parents\u2019 <\/strong><\/p>\n

record store to the world stage<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>Singer, songwriter and indie label owner (not to mention wife and mother) Perla Batalla has pursued her passion for music for the better part of the past 25 years. She\u2019s made her mark in the realms of Latin and world music, played some of the most prestigious venues and attracted a global following that transcends musical boundaries.<\/p>\n

Born in Los Angeles to an Argentine mother and a Mexican father, she discovered her initial influences at her parents\u2019 record store, Discoteca Batalla. \u201cI wasn\u2019t aware of how important Mexican music would be to me back then,\u201d she says. \u201cThere\u2019s a big match between music and the Spanish language. It has its own rhythm\u2014it just all fits together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Batalla left home at 16 (\u201cI was way beyond my years in maturity,\u201d she says) and kick-started her singing career playing the jazz haunts and musical enclaves of Southern California. A friend helped get her an audition as one of Leonard Cohen\u2019s backing vocalists, and she got the gig after a 20-minute tryout. Two weeks later, she found herself on tour with a legend. \u201cI was spoiled right out of the gate,\u201d she says. \u201cMy first world tour was like touring with the king. He bent over backwards to treat everybody well. He was extremely kind and loving and caring.\u201d<\/p>\n

Batalla ended up doing two extended treks with Cohen, in 1988 and 1993.\u00a0(In 2005 she released an album of Cohen songs, Bird on the Wire<\/em>.) She attracted\u00a0the attention of record executive Jac Holzman, who brought her to his Warner\/Discovery label in 1994. She released one self-titled album for the company, but when Holzman retired a short time later she\u00a0opted to leave the label and go the independent route.<\/p>\n

She launched her Mechuda Music label with 1998\u2019s Mestiza<\/em>. \u201cThat move fit my personality way better,\u201d she says. \u201cI was signed to Warner by Jac Holzman, who basically said, \u2018Do what you want. I love what you\u2019re doing.\u2019 But when he retired, leaving seemed a natural progression. They tried putting me together with other people. I just said, \u2018If I can\u2019t have Jac Holzman, I don\u2019t want to be on a record label.\u2019 I\u2019m not going to trash the label and say they didn\u2019t do anything, and that I hate record companies. After all, they put the record out. I feel really lucky that happened and that they put my name out there. But when I suggested that we try to get it on NPR, or do something a little more grassroots to get the music out to the people, they would have none of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Batalla credits her inner circle for helping her find her footing as an independent act, particularly husband Claud Mann. The chef, author and television personality is her partner of nearly 20 years and the father of her 15-year-old daughter, Eva. \u201cIt helps having the support of people around you,\u201d she says. \u201cLike having an agent that gets me great gigs, because I make my money from touring. If I didn\u2019t have that, it would be much more difficult. Nobody sells records anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

She admits that running a label while remaining a creative artist can be challenging. \u201cThis is a crazy job,\u201d says Batalla, whose latest album is Gracias a la Vida. <\/em>\u201cI\u2019ve had to be both an artist and a\u00a0businessperson, and I don\u2019t recommend that. Unless you\u2019re actually out there working to bring the money in to support the business, it can be really difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Lee Zimmerman<\/strong><\/p>\n

June 2010 Issue of <\/span>M Music & Musicians<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PERLA BATALLA A cross-cultural journey from her parents\u2019 record store to the world stage Singer, songwriter and indie label owner (not to mention wife and mother) Perla Batalla has pursued her passion for music for the better part of the past 25 years. She\u2019s made her mark in the realms of Latin and world music, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[1039,1044,1045,1040,80,1042,1043,1038,1041],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1497"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1497"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1500,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1497\/revisions\/1500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}