NPR Music - Alt.Latino: Venezuelan producer Ella Bric spins songs with a 'teardrop of optimism'

Episode Date: January 28, 2026

This month Alt.Latino's been looking at the music of Venezuela from a lot of different angles. For this episode, we’ve invited trumpet player and producer Ella Bric to be our guest DJ. She shared what she thinks are the most socially, culturally and politically impactful pieces of music to come out of Venezuela in the last half century.Ella Bric grew up in a migrant-rich town in Venezuela called San Antonio de los Altos, surrounded by a culturally-minded, socially conscious community. She’s now based in New York, and in recent years has positioned herself as a prolific producer on the rise in the Latin music space. In 2018, she won a Latin Grammy for Producer of the Year, and she says her art comes from a curiosity about the state of the world and her desire to reflect that.(00:00) Introduction(01:46) La Vida Bohème, 'Hornos del Cal'(06:41) Betsayda Machado & Parranda el Clavo, 'Sentimiento'(11:35) María Rodríguez, 'Los Dos Titanes'(15:11) Ali Primera, 'Techos de Cartón'(19:52) Linda Briceño & Orlando Watson, 'Unfinished Song'(24:38) Desorden Público, 'Politicos Paraliticos'(27:36) Bucle Lunar, 'Subió El Maldito Dolar'This podcast episode was produced by Noah Caldwell. The executive producer of NPR Music is Suraya Mohamed.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

From NPR Music, this is Alt Latino. I'm Anna Maria Sayer. Felix is out this week and I'm once again on the mic solo. But not quite. I've invited a very special guest to share the host chair with me. Hello, hello, hello. I think it's good. Yeah.

Ella Brick is an amazing Venezuelan trumpet player living in New York. In recent years, she's positioned herself as a prolific producer on the rise in the Latin music space. In fact, in 2018, she won a... a Latin Grammy for producer of the year. And she says her art comes from a place of her curiosity about the state of the world and a desire to reflect that. This month, we've been looking at the music of Venezuela from a lot of different angles. So I invited Ella on to walk us through her personal playlist.

Ella grew up in a migrant rich town in Venezuela called San Antonio de Los Altos, and she grew up surrounded by culturally minded, socially conscious community. The city known for rappers and resistance, most of her friends, friends were curious about sharing social commentary in their music. It's something she still focuses on a lot in her collaborations today. The collection of songs she'll share with us are once she's identified as some of the most socially, culturally, politically, politically impactful pieces of art to come out of Venezuela really in the last half century. So we'll jump her on in time a little bit, but we're starting in 2013. The first one I wanted to start was the album Cera by La Vanda,

is a Venezuelan rock band. To say that it's a rock band is very small because they do whatever they want to do. But this album, CERA, is one of those albums that mark a time where Venezuela was going through a political transition, a very complex one. And there was not many hopes for the young people to stay in the country. Many of them had been forced to flew the country. I was one of them, although that I left because I was. I got a full scholarship and all of that.

But what about this album is that it talks about the reality of people who were living in Los Barrios. Los Barrios in Venezuela is something pretty much similar to Las Favelas. And Ornos Decal has the name of one of Los Barrios in Venezuela, which is in San Agustin. And La Vida Bohem wrote this song about what it means to be someone who lives in the barrio and knowing what is your reality. And I like the theme of the song because it talks about a neighborhood that is both refuge and a prison

because people stay awake even as the song goes down because safety is never guaranteed. So this is the reason why I chose this album to start with. This song to me, it's so energetic, it's so alive and visual. Is there anything? anything in particular about the music or the lyricism that you feel like really captures the essence

of what La Vie de Wem was trying to do here? Yeah, the song is very symbolic in the way that, you know, we will keep each other awake even though it's the night time because many of the people who lives in the barrios experience that, you know, arm groups and all those kind of thing that people, you know, experience while living in Los Barrios. But also it talks about the poverty of deciding to think or having to go to bed with an empty stomach, it's a phrase that really sticks with me because it's a reality of many of the people who lives in Los Barrios. And it's still, although this song starts with pretty similar to a song by Vonie Verre,

I guess that there was some influence in there is very alternative. It doesn't lose the sound of Latin American rock. I know there's some parts where there are sounds of tambores, Afro-Venezuela and Tambores, and it's what I love about La Vida OEM, that although that has this very particular rock Latin song, they still can go back to their roots at the same time of being, you know, sound like a futuristic sound. And it's still lyrically, they remain positive about the future, although they're still reflecting in the inequality of being in El Barrio. Does that positivity feel unique to some of the sounds that you brought today?

Or is that pretty consistent in a lot of the impactful music that you've found from Venezuela? I feel like the nature of the Venezuelan has that not only we have a lot of comedy in the way that we socialize with people, the way that we interact with people, and this comes from our history of how we, you know, take the day-to-day life. But the optimism is also part, I feel, of what it shaped us as Venezuela, even though that we've been having a very complex history in the last 26 years. So I will say, yes, most of this music reflects social issues and political issues, but at the same time, there's like a little teardrop of optimism for a better future, yeah. That was Ornos Decal by La Vida Bohem from their 2013 album, Serra.

Okay, Soella, moving on to the next song that you selected. This is something that I think really brings in an important part of the Venezuelan tradition that is sometimes overlooked, forgotten. Tell me about this next song that you have and who sings it and why it's so important to you. This song, it means so much for me. not only I've had the opportunity to work with Bessida Machado, well, the next artist is Becada Machado in La Parranda El Clavo. They have been doing an amazing job,

not only in Venezuela and internationally, but the way they represent the most contemporary Afro-Benezuelan woman tradition and bearers, and at the same time, she has become a major reference, both inside and outside Venezuela, is something that is really worth to mention. Her present is important,

because even as so many artists are moving into more mainstream spaces, Bitsaida, it's also a reminder that our roots are not optional. And I say this because we're seeing a wave of new artists, Venezuelan artists who are doing an amazing job in sharing our culture. But at the same time, all those bands are using some reference from Afro-Benezuelan ideas. And I feel like Bitsaida has been one of the most, contemporary and pioneer figures that not only live in Barlowento, which is predominantly habitat by Afro-Menezuelan people, but they also keep the same traditions that has to do

so much in common with all the regions in Latin America and the states of calling response, the drumming the way that we dance, the way that the black people in Venezuela, they live their own culture. So this song in particularly, talks about, it's a protest song because it talks about insecurity in Venezuela the way that many people were killed in the hands of whether police or by insecurity or by being robbed by someone, Venezuela has been experienced that violence in regards of chose the society itself.

And this song talks about that in a very deep way, in a way that it feels moving and it breaks me apart. But it's just what Betzaida and La Parranda El Clavo has been doing. They are simply wrong the way that they present this song. Let's hear a little bit of that. This is Sentimiento by Betzaya Machado and La Parranda El Clavo. She's so direct and really uncompromising. And what she's trying to say here, there's that beautiful line.

It makes me want to cry how they kill people in this beautiful country. I mean, where does that sit? It sits from a different place because many people don't understand the differences of what is a protest song and what is a song that is promoting an specific reality

that has like a political, you know, connotation. Bexada Machado and La Parranda del Clavo has been leaving this reality firsthand not only because they're based in Venezuela, but they have seen their friends, you know, experience violence. You know, many people, many artists also in Venezuela, has been, you know, under threats of incarceration

just because saying, I don't have a food in my table. And I believe Bexsada in La Paranda, El Clau, which is a tremendous band, a cultural band, that I know that they're going to transcend in time with this song, keeping alive the traditions of our Afro-descendent Venezuelan in that region. That was Bitsaida Machado in La Parrand Del Clavo's 2017 song Sentimiento.

Okay, Ella. Your third track today by Maria Rodriguez. Explain to me a little bit about the importance this plays. We're going back in time a little bit in Venezuela's tradition. Well, the next ride I chose is Los Ostitania by Maria Rodriguez, written by Felix Haldedon. She was known as La Cirenna de Comanah, one of the Venezuelan great tradition bearers.

This song's career's deep sense of national feeling, almost like a conversation between two historic figures of liberation, Antonio Jose de Sucre, which is like one of the, Abraham Lincoln and Simon Bolivar, they're two, one of the biggest historian figures in Venezuela. It's a song about sovereignty, but not in a partisan way. It feels more like a reminder of collective identity, what a country imagines itself to be,

what it wants to protect, and what it refuses to surrender. When people think of Venezuelan traditional sound, they often think of Joropo from the plains. But Venezuela has many regional roots, and Maria comes from the eastern coast from Kumana. She's a major voice of musical traditional oriental, styles like the Polo, Zucreense, Fulias, and other Afro-Indigenous coastal traditions that carry history through rhythm, storytelling, and collective memory. It's interesting El Doropo It's interesting Jopo

and people knowing Venezuela for that And there is like an interesting re-emergence right now of, you know, Neo-Joropo, people kind of reimagining some of these traditional sounds on the side of Cubana and the eastern coast, have you heard anything new lately that's been inspired by that? Well, I've been doing horopo lately

in a more contemporary way without having a necessity to do like a tradition for him. But I know for sure that there is like a neo-folk coming from different regions, The Tullero Illustrated, which is new artists doing Joropo at the hands of Elver Ramirez. And it's beautiful seeing people doing this form of music because the lyric and the form that is written is not very simple.

So there is a new wave of Neo-Joropo coming up and I'm excited for that. And Maria Rodriguez is one of the first strong women, you know, singing Joropo Kumanes. But there are many, many, many women doing that since she started. So it's huge. That was Maria Rodriguez's a song from the 70s, Los Dittanes. Okay, so we're going to keep it in the past a little bit. You brought on a song from the artist Ali Primera. Now, who was Ali Primera, Ella?

Well, Ali Primera was often called El Cantor del Pueblo, and he was part of a wave of Latin American songwriters. He was part of Latin American's Nueva Cancion Movement, Griding Sons, rooted in working class life, inequality, and dignity. This song in particular, Techos de Carton, stands out very similar to what La Vida Bohem son was, just from a different time.

He wasn't describing hardship from a distant. He knew it, he lived in, and he wrote from inside that reality. I feel like what makes the song so powerful is that the symbol is also literal. Carboard roofs are in, only poetic, they point to real informant housing that grew around Venezuela cities. Hillside communities bold through self-constructions where families created shelter from whatever materials they could find. Also immigrants from Colombia who were part of that wave.

So then Zon evokes rain falling on cardboard. And it comes to the phrase of Nina Simone, how can you be an artist and that reflects the times that we're living? I bet Ali Prima was familiar with that, that inequality and he wrote this song that has been, you know, amazing within generations. Let's hear a little bit of that. This is Techos de carton by Ali Primera. It feels like the Bruehersault And so

It feels like a hug To the heart to the heart, right? I was going to say, Does it feel different listening to that today? Not really. I feel like a good song can travel in time and still, I don't feel like it feels different to me. It feels relevant, even though that it was written many years ago. That's how will I feel it. And obviously, he has great voice and it's very traditional. But at the same time, it's moving. To me, that's how I will describe it, moving. Does it feel like the expression of resistance of some of these feelings has evolved a lot with time in Venezuela, musically? Yeah, definitely. Obviously, we had a big influence of the pop culture from the states, you know, inspiring all these artists like La Vida OEM using different influences from abroad.

But the theme about the stories is not, it hasn't changed much. We are repeating history. We've been repeating it for a long time. So it's kind of like amazing to see how Ornos de Cal has an amazing similarity to Techos de Carton by Ali Primera, because it keeps talking about the same inequality that people is experiencing over and over three generations. Okay, we're going to take a break and come right back to these songs from Venezuela with Ella Brick. Back with Ella Brick and Ella, I actually want to start with a more contemporary song that you actually wrote. The song is called Unfinished Song and it's under your name Linda Briseño featuring Orlando Watson.

Well, I used to go by Linda Briseño. That's how people know me in Venezuela when I was a jazz musician. And I remember when I moved to New York City, I was not able to go back to my country for a living years. And it was a political reason why I was not able to go back. However, every single thing that I will do in college or after graduation, it will have have a social theme. And I remember pretty well, 2019 was marked by a horrible event that took in Venezuela, where Venezuela ran out of electricity for at least four or five days. There was no

refrigeration, no water system, no way to preserve food. And I was not able to even to speak to my family for many days. And I never forget the image of a mother who was carrying her child, almost malnouraged because during that time also there was a lot of like people were not able to have access to food because of inflation and all of the things that were happening back then but that song confronts the cruelty of inequality when entire never who's wearing darkness people in power still had electricity and there were even stories of parties so i decided to make a song about that it is part of a short film that i released and um although that it's still It starts very, you don't know what the song is about,

it start becoming into a nightmare, which is how I experience it as an artist living in New York City and not being able to be back home. And so it was written by journalists who sketch our scars and pick apart our plight between political party lines. No wonder where defined is marginalized, but we make exhibiting unity under duress,

protesters under arrest, artists, afraid to express but I digress see there's been a blackout around town for some time now six days with only daylight to rely on 144 hours without power to the people justice ease just discomfort and cyclical dysfunction on the fairest will of misfortune but there ain't much amusement in this maze of illusions where mirrors reflected distorted revolution fueled by greed and that's the But we the people possess the necessary solutions for a brighter day. So rest assured, we won't always be lost in the dark.

What was the reaction when you released this song? Well, I feel like it has been one of the most kept secret of the music that I've released. Many people don't know this song exist. I've been always an independent artist. And the reach that I can get is what I can post. on Instagram and sometimes the algorithm doesn't make any, you know, justice to the music. But this song was also, by the way, when I was hearing it, I remember that this song was also co-produced with Henry Lartanae, which is the lead vocalist of La Vida Boem.

And I feel like the reaction was people were moved by it. But the reaction that I take with me in the heart was Lin-Manuel Miranda. I remember I was one of the finalists of the Rolex mentor protegee program. And when we talk about it, he was very moved by the way that the son was created and all the different scenarios that took us to the spoken word part because it's unexpected. And the voice of Orlando is very dramatic at the same time that we were using. He asked me about the songs in the background while he's speaking. we sample original sounds of people protesting.

And it's one of the things that makes a song different and is special for us when we produced it. Okay, so we're going again back in time a little bit to the 80s. I love that you brought this in. One of Venezuela's most iconic ska groups, Desordern Publico. Talk to me about why you picked them and this song. Desordern Publico has been the most fun

and special bands so legendary. We will say that the Sorden Publico is like Argentineans so the stereo is to them. That's how important that band it is for us. I decided to chose them because they always bring projects through humor, which is also a part of who we are as Venezuelans and what is shaped in our culture. The hook is very funny and absurd is,

I wish politicians were paralyzed, but behind the joke, behind the joke, there's a sharp root and it calls out corruption, impunity and the feeling that leaders can still disappear and laugh in people's faces. What I love about is that it turns anger into movement. And if you see the sort of publicos all videos back then, there's a lot of what people call Pogo,

which is when they do this rock dance and people will just go crazy. And this band has been playing for generations and they still had that, energized performance life, which is so powerful about them. And I feel like this song is, it talks for itself. It's fun. It energizes you and it gives you hope.

And at the same time, bring some humor. So that's why I chose it. Okay, let's hear it. Politicos, paralytical by desorden, publico. It has like the best of that rock in Spanish energy to it. It just moves you. Yes, absolutely. And if you ever had the chance to see them performing life, you will experience, if you feel, I felt energized after all the dark themes and all of that.

But it's just an amazing band. And I really, they're very dear to me. And I'm happy that I grew up in that time where Desordian, you know, was a band. That was Desordern Publico's 1988 track Politicos Paralyptychos. Okay, you have one more song for us, Ella, and it's very contemporary. From 2025, how did you pick this song? What is it about? Tell me everything.

Well, I couldn't leave this song behind. I'm very passionate about a new generation of musicians, specifically musicians who are based in Venezuela, because many of them don't have the platform to be able to have certain opportunities and to chose exist. And Venezuela is very limited in the support that they give to artists at the moment for reasons that we already know. Bucle Lunar is a band that I discover on Instagram because they released this song. The name of the song is Subio Al-Maldi-Dollar.

Like the dollar came up again. And it's such a current song that is not only current for them, but it was current to us because our economy has been, it has fluctuated so much. song captures something very specific and very real, how the race of the dollar isn't just an economic fact, it reshapes, friendships, families, and entire towns. The lyrics said, in plainly, the dollar went up and my friends are living the country. It's a band that is not from Caracas, they're from Merida, which is the Venezuelan Andes. And it's just amazing to see how people is still resisting by doing music and be encouraged in talk about these social

problems that affect them in the present. What was so striking to me, listening to this track is that, I mean, thematically, in 2025, this is a concept that we heard in a lot of art from all different parts of Latin America.

I mean, most notably, obviously, it was something we heard in the Bad Bunny record, but to hear that same sentiment coming from a rural corner of Venezuela feels really important. And her voice, The lead vocal is a girl, and you can hear how young she is in her tone and the way that she's... Even how the track is mixed, it sounds like they did it from their bedroom, you know?

And it's heartbreaking, but at the same time, I like the phrase that they leave this, and it's a beautiful phrase to end this interview. It doesn't matter how bad it is, we have to charned bolas, which is a very Venezuelan. them phrase, it doesn't matter how hard it gets, we are going to keep resistant and we we're going to keep resisting and let's go ahead, 19 year old girl and boy, they're doing it, they're saying this to me, it gives me hopes, although that I'm very far away from them and I haven't met them or see them at all in my life to keep going. And it's the message for everybody in Latin America, we have to keep going.

It doesn't matter how hard it gets. We're going to keep continuing. we're going to keep resistant. Ella Brick, thank you so much for joining us today on the show. This has been really, really exciting to have you and for walking us through all of this beautiful art. Thank you so much for the space and everybody involved. You have been listening to Alt Latino. Our audio producer is Noah Caldwell.

Seraa Muhammad is the executive producer of NPR Music and Sonali Metta is the executive director. I'm Anna Maria Sayre. Thank you so much for listening.