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UCLA student David Villafaña to harken sounds of Mexico in Fowler Out Loud concert

Fourth-year ethnomusicology student David Villafaña will perform as a part of the Fowler Out Loud concert series tonight.

Today, 6 p.m.
Fowler Museum courtyard, FREE

By Jessica McQueen

May 2, 2012 11:59 p.m.

Thirteen years ago, 11-year-old David Villafaña sat down with a book of Mexican songs and a nylon-string guitar. He strummed the guitar strings, attempting to play the chords printed in the book and match them to the lyrics he already knew. He eventually taught himself to play the guitar, but this was only the beginning of his musical career.

Tonight, Villafaña, a fourth-year ethnomusicology student and singer-songwriter, will perform covers of traditional Mexican ranchera songs as well as songs from his own folk pop-rock repertoire as part of the Fowler Out Loud concert series.

“This performance is an ode to the composers and songs I fell in love with as a kid. … A lot of people complain about the lack of artistic integrity in artists today, and I think this type of show pays tribute to those old-school composers that kept that integrity and did quality work,” Villafaña said.

Villafaña also said he grew up listening to the composers of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema, including Agustín Lara and José Alfredo Jiménez.

Tonight, he will play covers of “Solamente Una Vez” (“Only One Time”) by Lara and “Amanecí en Tus Brazos” (“I Woke Up in Your Arms”) by Jiménez, a song describing two lovers waking up together.

“I want to go to back to the roots of Mexican music, which are the guitar and voice. These songs originated in the rural world and out in the ranches, around bonfires and in intimate settings. I want to recreate that atmosphere,” Villafaña said.

According to Villafaña, he will also perform some of his original songs, including “Amor Traicionero” (“Treacherous Love”) and “Cada Vez Más Lejos” (“Farther Each Time”), the first of which was inspired by ranchera music, a genre that originated on ranches in Mexico. He also draws inspiration from Latin dance music like cumbia and salsa, and modern artists including Adele, John Legend and Jason Mraz.

As a singer-songwriter, Villafaña said he appreciates soulful artists who use only their guitars and melodic voices. Villafaña, however, also plays the piano, as well as bass and percussion instruments such as the congas and the cajón.

Diego Quiroga, a UCLA Extension film scoring student, said he sometimes helps Villafaña to compose his music and write songs in both English and Spanish to appeal to a global market. The two work together and draw from their similar Latino backgrounds and musical interests, which include salsa, merengue and reggae.

“We share the same passion, and we bring our influences together to try to melt them together into one single feeling. Then we work on getting that into a melody and chords and build something based on that,” Quiroga said.

“Won’t Stop,” an acoustic folk-rock song and Villafaña’s first single on his upcoming EP, even includes elements of French.

Mathilde Bresson, a third-year American Indian studies student and a native of Paris, wrote a verse for “Won’t Stop” in French and provides vocals for the song as well.

“The verse I wrote talks about having the desire and inspiration to do something. In French, “˜inspiration’ means inspiration, but it … can also mean “˜to breathe in.’ It talks about wanting to do something because it’s your oxygen, it’s your life,” Bresson said.

According to Villafaña, this song is meant to inspire people to follow what they love. He said his songs are also meant to share his creativity and emotions with his audience.

“Music triggers something in people. I like being able to connect lyrically and musically with the audience with something simple yet sincere, and when a song has soul, people can connect to it,” Villafaña said.

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Jessica McQueen
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