"You make music, but what do you do?" It is the constant commentary that many artists face. It is the comment that Sandra Monfort, therefore, faces. And Sandra is dedicated to music. But what it is to do, it does much more.
Sandra is in full promotion of his new album, The monkey, but he makes time to serve us. The gap is at 13:00 p.m. on a business day in the center of Dénia. And he comes in a car that he has to park. I mean, it's a little late.
For more than an hour we are chatting with her, at all times attentive and predisposed to open up as much as she has done with her last album. She is a great conversationalist and doesn't hesitate to answer anything. She didn't expect her to have a brief photo session, but she poses with the skill of someone who has already faced many cameras. Sandra Monfort is an artist.
The musical seed
Music has always been part of his life. Her interest awakens at the age of 6, when her parents sign her up for the Pedreguer Music School. His first flirtation was with the piano, his great love was the guitar. But this long relationship has always been open, since today the pedreguera shares a bed with any instrument that emits sound to create its songs.
He soon began his training at the Tenor Cortis conservatory in Dénia, where his path crossed with Concha Ballester, a teacher who not only accompanied her for much of her career, but thanks to her there was a career. "He introduced me to the seed that gives one the drive to love music and want to learn," says a smiling Sandra when recalling her beginnings.
Since then the guitar has always been an extension of her and music her life. She finished her degree and started working in a school. Already then music fed him, but still there was something missing. "He needed to transform the creative flow into something and dedicate time to it." That's when he decided dedicate to the music. Live with and from her.
Marala and first steps alone
In 2020 his career took off with To trenc d'alba, album with which he became known marala. Only three years have passed and she already has, both that of her and her solo project, the unanimous recognition of critics and a huge loyal audience that adores her. Many successes in a short time, which can be misinterpreted as a bed of roses. But the roses, as she herself sings, have her thorns.
Both his previous work, child, reptile, angel, as her two albums with Marala have made her a great expert on the stages and the current panorama of a voracious and ungrateful industry, which is more aware of the likes than about music.
The two Sandras: the one from 'La Mona' and the one from 'Child, reptile, angel'
Music, in addition to his livelihood, has become an anxiolytic. "When I am thinking, nervous, hurt, sunk, music is a channel through which I can express all the anger I have, or all the pain, and transform it into something beautiful, which are songs." That transformation It is also seen in their works. It comes from a first album that was a priori darker but full of beauty. He compares it to the depths of an ocean, where there may be monstrous beings but also fish of a thousand colors that stand out when the sun's rays filter from the surface. With the album I wanted give light to those monsters, show the beauty of the things we consider ugly. Make peace with shame. "Some mornings I look in the mirror and I look ugly, or I just said something and I feel stupid. All these things are part of us and make us feel fragile, but they are precious. And Sandra wanted to give that space to hug them.
The monkey flee from the depths, flying next to the sun, closer to the light. In this last album we meet a Sandra who is tired of dramas and who prefers to face them smiling and dancing. She continues to open up with each song, and not everything is joy. His themes deal with revenge, loss, disappointment... but he faces them at a time when he feels emotionally strong, which is why he stops crying when narrating them and opts for irony, humor, and if a electronic base, why not?
He escapes from the conventions of Valencian folklore that guided his past and allows himself to play the genres he wants, with the mixes he wants. It's his disco, he's clear about it. Which does not mean that it is a job that breathe Valencia from all sides, sharing tracks the copla and pasodoble that she heard on the radio in her grandmother's kitchen when she was little, with the València of the tracksuit, the bakalao route and the electric scooter.
An album in which he has given everything of himself, also financially. “I have given myself completely,” he sighs. Just like he does in his performances. Because seeing Sandra Monfort or Marala in concert is more than going to listen, see music played and dance. «We are serving everything: costumes, choreography, speeches... Who has worked so hard? Guys don't have to work so hard. The guy arrives, does the sound check, has dinner and, wearing the same clothes, goes up to sing. And they criticize me for going up in a tracksuit.
Exposure to everything
Not only do they have to deal with a moment in which they compete in social media algorithms, with an audience that finds it difficult to go to a concert in the stalls instead of on the dance floor, or with the tug-of-war of seeing who has more money to make more video clips that will play for 5 seconds on the verticality of a mobile screen. Plus, you have to deal with everyone. the prejudices suffered by women. A singer cannot be mediocre, she has to be perfect. "Girls are criticized when they sing normal, and how many men are on stage singing normal or terrible?"
Everything is looked at with a magnifying glass, she admits, because they are women enjoying themselves on stage. "They are afraid to see women doing whatever they want." But it does not imply improvisation or carelessness, since everything in their live shows is well thought out and worked. "For me it is a responsibility as an artist to offer something beautiful to the public."
There was a time when the industry changed and concerts and tours went from being the main axis of musical projects to being an excuse to get financial returns from the artists. Singles from Spotify and YouTube video clips. If it's selling the group's t-shirts to become a clothing brand, then okay. But this is not the case of Sandra Monfort. Whoever goes to one of her concerts leaves having witnessed a lovingly cared for show. With the dance between intimacy and extravagance that defines his resume.
Thanks to all this, and to the perpetual smile that he does not hide at any time during the interview, not even when recounting his hardships, he has managed the current return, the applause and awards that accredit her as the artist she is.
We stop the recorder with more than an hour of sincerity recorded. Sandra feels comfortable with the current situation and eager to face the dizzying start of the tour. In February she presents in Valencia and Pedreguer The monkey. From then on it will be a new non-stop that he will enjoy like no one else, because he has managed to dedicate himself to music. "I love my work. "There are beautiful things within this and I can't imagine my life dedicating myself to anything else."
