The Passion of Delfina: Local musician brings her socially conscious songs to the stage at the Manhattan Beach Hometown Fair this weekend
Delfina, a Manhattan Beach native, plays at local venues like Shade Hotel, and at various yoga studios. Photo courtesy Delfina Music
The word “aspiration” is commonly taken today to refer to a goal or ambition, strongly desired. Its root, though, is in phonetics. An “aspiration” is the burst of breath that accompanies certain sounds of speech. Hold your hand in front of your mouth, say the word “put,” and you will feel it on your palm.
There is a certain logic to this etymology. Look closely at someone confronted with a looming challenge — an Olympic athlete, say, just before a heat or event — and you will often see a pattern: deep, nasal inhale, followed by a physical, shuddering release. An even clearer example is that of the musician about to perform a song. Though done reflexively, some artists deliberately choose to include the moment in their recorded music. (Listen closely, for example, to the opening seconds of Jeff Buckley’s version of “Hallelujah.”)
Manhattan Beach native Delfina Ure takes a deep, settling breath before beginning one of her latest songs, “Beautiful.” A simple acoustic guitar provides a path along which her voice wordlessly meanders for the first third of the song, confidently sounding the boundaries of melody with little fear of the limits imposed by her vocal chords. The lyrics, when they arrive, are minimal — less anthem than exploration.
But the reasons for the ritual run deeper than respiration. Taking in air has, literally, a buoying effect, lifting the singer high enough to see the scope of her preparation and remind her what she can achieve; letting it go returns her, from the lofty and the beautiful to grounded and the present.
Delfina, as she goes by, prides herself on being an artist engaged with the world. Another recent song, “I Still Believe,” was inspired by the presidential campaign of former candidate Bernie Sanders. The song takes the form of a litany of social ills plaguing the United States, so extensively detailed that the real work is less in listing them than in somehow circling back, in refrains, to the optimism of the title. With its assaultive lyrics, syncopated-piano rhythm and pulsing verbal emphases, the song can feel almost like hip-hop.
Delfina will be engaging with audiences this Sunday, one of several musicians to take the stage at the annual Hometown Fair. She will be playing having worked hard to develop an artistic identity that stresses social consciousness and positive lifestyle, big ideas that she covers under her broad artistic umbrella “Passion is Powerful.”
While interviewing her, I asked if she felt “obligated” to do this as a musician; she reacted strongly and, to explain, turned to etymology.
“It’s a vocation. ‘Vocation’ comes from the word voice, it comes from a voice inside telling you what to do,” Delfina said. “It’s not an obligation, it’s a higher calling.”
Breathe in, breathe out
“I loved the fair growing up. And for some reason, I always envisioned myself on stage,” Delfina said of the Hometown Fair.
She acknowledges how strange this was given that she did not start playing music until her junior year of high school. Her first guitar was a castaway from a cousin’s house, and Delfina taught herself to play by watching YouTube videos. She began performing publicly within months of beginning, starting an impromptu acoustic night at the Coffee Bean on Manhattan Beach Blvd.
Soon, people were stopping by to express their admiration. Among them was South Bay resident Jordan Belfort, the former stockbroker and subject of the book and film “Wolf of Wall Street.” He was, Delfina said, among the first to push her to pursue her dreams. (Belfort’s representatives did not respond to phone and email requests for comment on this story.)
After finishing high school, Delfina had a choice to make. She had been offered a scholarship to Pepperdine, she said, but felt the pull of songwriting.
“I turned down a full ride to Pepperdine to pursue a nonexistent career in music,” Delfina said. “And not that much after that I got picked up [by a music publisher].”
She moved to New York City, couch surfing until she could support herself with a combination of musical and modeling gigs. She had great experiences there, including playing in Times Square during the 2010 New Year’s Eve Celebration. But she found New York draining, and returned to California.
Back on the West coast, she further developed the conscious style that today defines her music. Among the opportunities she has most enjoyed are playing for yoga classes, something she will continue in October, as she performs during select classes at Manhattan’s Green Yogi.
Kate Duyn-Cariati, a yoga teacher who formerly taught at Manhattan’s Yoga Loft and recently opened the studio Light on Lotus in Mar Vista, has often had Delfina playing in her classes. Duyn-Cariati said she appreciates the way Delfina can sing in multiple languages, which is especially helpful to instructors worried about their cues being overwhelmed in song.
More importantly, though, she said that Delfina is able to tap into the feelings that students go through during the practice.
“She is so in tune with the vibration of what people are going through,” Duyn-Cariati said. “It’s like a little dharma talk. She can verbalize things we all experience.”
Deflina recently finished an album meant to be played during yoga classes. The melodies are derived from her tinkerings with Tibetan bowls, a type of bell whose vibrations are harnessed rubbing the rim rather than striking the body, and which are a common feature in yoga and meditation classes. The album was recorded live, she said, to better mimic the feeling of having a musician in the yoga studio.
“It’s stream-of-consciousness. I wanted it to be as real as possible so that people literally feel like I’m in the room with them,” she said.
Art in the world
Delfina will be sharing the stage this Sunday with Norton Wisdom, a visual artist who will create impromptu paintings as she sings. The two have been working together for several years now, and Delfina said that she has found it to produce a highly desirable reaction among audiences. The works, she said, are completely improvised, texture and color bouncing off her “gothic, angelic creatures.”
“My favorite thing to do is art and music together, playing on more than just one sense,” Deflina said. “The people in the crowd, they can see it, feel it and hear it.”
Wisdom is a trained artist who moved his work beyond the studio in the late 1970s. According to a biography published in association with a previous gallery show, he became inspired after painting a segment of the Berlin Wall, longer than a football field, using guard-tower searchlights to guide him. He joined up with punk rock acts, painting as they rocked, and piqued the interest of jazz guitarist Nels Cline, who in 2004 improbably became the lead guitarist for alt-rockers Wilco.
Wisdom built up a dizzying roster of musical connections that includes classical pipe organist Chistoph Bull, and now regularly joins Wilco on tour. When we spoke, he had just returned from a show with Cline at the Crystal Bridges Museum of Art in Arkansas. He was looking forward to taking the stage with Delfina this weekend, and said he feels a connection to her through the themes she addresses in her songs.
“She’s talking about issues of humanity coming together instead of being driven apart,” Wisdom said.
Surveying the state of modern music, Delfina said such songs help fill an unmet need.
“I think that the music industry, where it’s at, has stopped taking risks spiritually,” Delfina said. “But there are a lot of artists out there who aren’t getting as much recognition, but who who want to change the world, who want make it a better place, and inspire people through music.”
She has several projects underway to blend her music and desire for social outreach.
She has partnered with the Los Angeles chapter of After-School All Stars, a nationwide nonprofit, to coordinate a music and arts education program for underprivileged youth. And she has joined with two friends, a visual artist and a dancer, to form a trio to that travels to homeless shelters, group homes and, in her words, “anywhere there are kids needing love and help.”
The projects share a desire to move high culture beyond the bounds of high society.
“I want to bring art to people who wouldn’t necessarily have it — to places where they wouldn’t necessarily get that.”
Delfina will be performing at the South Stage of the Hometown Fair this Sunday at 4:30 p.m. ER