Thursday, Nov. 05, 2009
Lorissa chapa defies stereotypes
Lorissa Chapa
Sample Lorissa Chapa's music for yourself on iTunes or at www.lorissachapa.com. Have a thought, comment or newsworthy item for Weekly Surge Music Notes? Send an e-mail to pgrimshaw@sc.rr.com
It's been said that to make it in the music business the cosmos must be in perfect harmony and an assemblage of traits must be evident in the would-be pop star: talent and ambition, intelligence and humility, youth and maturity, good looks and accessibility, and perhaps most importantly, timing and dumb luck. If any one of these essential traits is missing, or the stars are out of whack, success can be elusive. That being said, a few anomalies will occasionally slip through the cracks and defy the gods of music - Vanilla Ice and Susan Boyle come to mind. Ice and Boyle aside, the traits mentioned may apply to 20-year-old newcomer Lorissa Chapa, a Texas-born Mexican-American singer/songwriter who first fell in love with Tejano music (a Tex-Mex blend of styles) as a little girl, but who has chosen a decidedly non-Tejano style in which to express herself.
Chapa, promoting her new CD "Selfish," will bring her five-piece band and her brand of light pop to Myrtle Beach for two performances - Nov 13. at Senor Frog's (Broadway at the Beach, Myrtle Beach), and Nov. 14 during the second evening of Myrtlestock a two-day music extravaganza at Drink! (501 8th Ave. N., Myrtle Beach).
In addition to all Chapa brings to the table through her own efforts, it doesn't hurt her to have business manager and indie record label owner David Wicker (Wicker Records) on her side. It was through the efforts of Wicker, who recently moved to Myrtle Beach to moonlight as an air traffic controller, that Weekly Surge came to know about Chapa, the upcoming shows, and the team's unrelenting desire for Chapa to "make it," in this crazy business we like to call music.
"David [Wicker] signed me almost three years ago, when I turned 18," said Chapa, who was calling between classes. She attends Delmar College in her hometown of Corpus Christi, Texas. "We met when I was 15 and he really liked my performances." On the phone Chapa sounds bright, cheery and energetic, much like a Jack Johnson-loving college girl who could be from Iowa - but she's not. She comes from the world of South Texas, which is a bilingual soup of Mexican and American cultures; in the same way Montreal and Quebec are both French and Canadian. "I'm a Texas girl through and through," she said. But aside from her photogenic images on her CD and Web site (Chapa has also modeled), you wouldn't guess her heritage by the music she writes and performs. "Selfish," a 10-track debut of Chapa's material, is a decent first effort, however it highlights both her promise and plenty of room to grow. The disc mixes pop, rock and even tinges of country, without even a hint of traditional Tejano, and that's the way she wants it, for now. Lyrically, Chapa is relating to first love, lost love, and other topics you'd expect a young woman to write about. "Everybody has that fear of rejection," said Chapa, referring to her music, "but so far people seem to really like ["Selfish"]. All these songs are sung in English. We thought about doing a bilingual album but we decided to wait until the second or maybe third. I love my heritage but I'm more comfortable doing English music."
Chapa's professional life started in earnest when she landed a six-month stint on the national tour of "Selena Forever," where she played the 9-year-old version of Selena, a Mexican-American superstar pop singer who was murdered at the age of 23 in 1995. Chapa grew out of the role at 14 and the ill-fated show never really found its legs, but Chapa was hooked on performing and she scrounged up gigs all over Texas while she developed her songwriting. "I've played festivals, nightclubs, arenas, football and baseball games, even a motocross event," said Chapa, who looks forward to both of her upcoming Myrtle Beach gigs. She and family members flying in from Texas will celebrate her 21st birthday while performing at Drink!
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Chapa and others who share her Hispanic heritage now represent around 14 percent of the U.S. population, some 46 million potential music buyers - a sizable and market-worthy demographic, but will Chapa's decidedly non-Latin style help or hurt her efforts? Wicker has a plan and Chapa's music, he thinks, will appeal to a broad range of listeners. "She has so many likes - she wants to record the whole 'Phantom of the Opera' show in the future. We hope her career will take a path like Linda Ronstadt, who made her mark in pop music first, and then went on to do a Mariachi album, country, big-band standards, many different genres. Lorissa has been compared to Taylor Swift and Avril Lavigne. It was a deliberate effort of the producer, Lorenzo Banda, to not sound Tejano. But that time will come."