This is a London story. Two migrants, products of economic upheaval in their own lands. Out of uncertainty, insecurity and hardship is born a new hope, a confidence made out of necessity and, above all, new creativity. This is the story of Angelo and Clara.
“Usually, I start off writing in Spanish,” Clara Hurtado says. “It’s the first language that comes to my head. It didn’t used to be like that, but it’s become my main language for song-writing.” Born in Madrid, growing up in London, with roots in Birmingham, it’s as if she finally decided: it’s OK to be Spanish.
Clara is kicking back on the sofa in a dimly lit recording studio in Wood Green, where she has been collaborating with producer Raf Riley (sat behind the mixing board with his headphones on, in the flow). The pair are in the sonic process of fusing Latin beats with the distinct sound of London - a mashup of drill, Afro-Brazilian percussion and Latino melodies – enhanced by Clara’s soulful and clean vocals.
Clara adds: “I haven’t just been sticking to mixing UK and Spanish sounds. I’m including bossanova, salsa, things like that. I’m incorporating elements of everything.”
Born to a percussionist father from Madrid and a singer-songwriter mother from The Midlands, Clara credits her parents’ eclectic taste for her genre-bending musical habits. In the backdrop of her youth, she imbibed the gift of song; her parents played great records at home. “Luckily, they listened to really good music. My dad had a lot of jazz around the house, I remember him listening to Miles Davis. My mum liked to play Jill Scott. But they never stuck to any particular style.”
After spending her early years in Spain, economic opportunities were few and far between in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis and, when Clara was a teenager, the family moved from Malaga to the leafy English town of Haywards Heath in West Sussex. “We had some friends that also came back to Britain from Spain, and my mum decided that we should do the same thing. My dad stayed in Spain, and my mum took me, my younger sister, and a suitcase…”
Clara was in the equivalent of Year 10 when she came over. ”I had to redo the year in England. I was so amazed by the British schooling system. I had been doing really badly in school in Spain.” She says. “I did a lot of growing up in Haywards Heath, around those ends. It’s a small town, calm, not too much going on, but I have a lot of good memories there.
She eventually found herself in Brighton studying Music at university, before following her dreams to the big city. “Once I came to London, I told myself: ‘this is my place, this is where I’m meant to be’. In Brighton it always felt as if I was passing by there. I couldn’t really tell you why. The music scene wasn’t exactly my scene. I feel like in London there is so much more variety.”
Down the road at Candela Records’ studio in Turnpike Lane, Venezuelan-born Angelo Flow looks like he’s made it his home; zipping from the studio to the kitchen to make tea and then flopping on the large brown leather sofas.
After making a name for himself on the London club scene, Angelo’s Latin-Caribbean swagga and stage charisma caught the attention of Candela executives who invited him to perform at the Candela Stage at last year’s ‘In the Park’ Festival in Finsbury Park. His electrifying performance was the deal breaker, on a stage that was a game changer for Latin music as footage of 20,000 festival goers vibing to the urban sounds of Latin London went viral.
Angelo is now about to release his first single under the label - a reggaeton/dancehall/afrobeats hybrid featuring Jamaican dancehall artist Lisa Mercedez. His second will follow; a collaboration with Lyrical UK heavyweight J Spades, produced by acclaimed Dutch producer Diztortion.
Fresh-faced (he’s already known in the industry as el bebe) yet eagle-eyed and determined, Angelo speaks with intent and conviction: “For now, I’m calling it reggaetón,” he says of his music. “but our vision is greater than that. We are creating a new genre, Latin beats with a UK vibe, and we want to take it to all of Europe, and then to Latin America, and then to the United States. That’s what I would love to do.”
He remembers…“back when reggaetón was a subculture, nobody could have predicted the way that Latin music would climb the charts globally and affect Western tastes. Now in the UK we are part of a new subculture, like the old days in Puerto Rico, a space where directors, photographers, Latino artists from all backgrounds are expressing themselves. Candela is giving us the tools to make our dreams come true.”
Angelo was raised in Venezuela’s third most populous city, Valencia, close to the Caribbean coast. As a teen in Valencia, Angelo and his pals were captivated by the ‘beef’ between feuding Venezuelan Hip-Hop groups that were releasing ‘diss tracks’, insulting and lyrically humiliating one another. Inspired, he began to write his own bars and impressed in rap battles.
“It was always rapping before singing,” he says. Only when he started being invited to high school parties did Angelo discover that singing could be cool, too. Since then, his harmonious vocals added to his rapping, plus his undeniably good looks, have elevated his potential as a reggaeton heartthrob. Now, as a performer, he deftly switches tempo between drill verses and smooth romantic melodies.
Angelo’s family was badly affected by the economic and political crisis, which saw oil prices fall dramatically in 2014, leading to widespread food shortages across Venezuela. “From one minute to the next there was nothing…no medicine, no food. We had to queue for six hours for flour and sugar, for basic stuff and we often didn’t have light or water.” Angelo remembers. “I remember my mum went out for an entire day and came home with a mere packet of flour that she mixed with water to make bread to feed me and my younger brother. It got so bad, we lost all hope for any future and so decided to leave for Italy to have a chance of a normal life.”
And so it was that, at eighteen, Angelo left Venezuela to work alongside his father as a dishwasher at a restaurant in Rome. “My life in Italy was pure work. For the first seven months I didn’t stop. I had debts to pay off. I worked at a restaurant washing dishes where I earned 700 Euros a month. That only covered bills and basic expenses. When I started to improve my Italian, I got promoted to the bar and waiting on tables. I was working 13 hours a day. From 10am until 11pm, Monday to Saturday. I didn’t have time for anything else.”
Anything else but music, that is, which Angelo kept producing and even got offered management and recording deals from two independent labels in Italy. However in 2019, he decided to take a trip to London to visit some friends. “I saw a world of opportunities. There was a better scene for urban music and I knew I might be able to study music. In my very first week in London, I managed to sing live at a venue so I decided to stay and keep on working towards achieving my dreams. Since I’ve been in London, I’ve been able to take care of my mother in Venezuela. I can send her some money every month and that feels good.”
Clara knew from a young age that she had a strong singing voice: “I used to sing to [Carlos] Santana’s guitar solos when I was a kid; that’s how my parents realised I could sing.” In 2017 she first gained widespread exposure as a contestant on The Voice UK.
“I was 20, studying my undergrad at the time, and I was performing at a local show where there was a scout in the audience. She came up to me and asked if I wanted to participate in the show. At first my response was to say, ‘No, I don’t like shows like that.’ But I also felt that I had nothing to lose, so I said yes. They were interested in my story, the fact that I had moved to England, so they filmed me at home and at work, making coffees at Nero in Haywards Heath.”
“My blind audition was terrifying. The judges all turned at the last minute, and I went with will.i.am. I’ve always been a Black Eyed Peas fan growing up, so it was surreal being in the same room as him at times. I was enjoying that backstage rush. I had people doing my hair and makeup. By the time I would go to perform, I was so much more confident. It happened so quickly, and then coming off it was such a downer. It was difficult to get back up.”
But it was not long before Candela Records picked up on her talent, encouraging her to delve further into her roots and sculpt her own sound. Her lyrics are often introspective; she confronts heartbreak with a sentiment of self-preservation on her song Sola.
“I write about feelings,” Clara says. “I like to write on the train. There’s something about trains that get the juices flowing. If I’ve had an experience in the week that made me feel a certain way, I draw on that, and that feeling becomes a whole concept in my head.”
With their fiercely original sounds that dare to be proudly Latin, Clara and Angelo stride towards becoming the UK’s very first breakout Latin stars. Defying the odds of past uncertainty and change, Angelo’s lyrics betray an artist full of confidence, who is forging his own persona, foreshadowing his rise to the top and who is being missed already:
“Adivina quien volvió…”
You’ll have to translate that yourself.
Clara Hurtado and Angelo Flow perform at The Great Escape in Brighton on May 14th FRRE open air-concert register here
Angelo's single will be released later this month
