The first time I listened to Elán’s latest album Recuerdos y Tequila, her first one in her native language, I started to cry. It brought out a deep sense of remembrance and melancholy. You see, I’m originally from El Salvador and moved to this country at a very early age. My relationship with my culture continues to shift, grow and change, but it never ceases to be a deep part of my essence, of who I am. Elán’s voice, her choice of songs, and her interpretation of these beautiful Mexican classics is both invigorating and deeply moving and it took me back to my Heart, the place of my birth and my short life there. Upon hearing her voice caress the spanish lyrics, I imagined a smoky bar, almost closing time, and a beautiful older woman singing. You knew that she had lived a full life, complete with her share of heartache, perhaps too much heartache. She sang alone, hardly anyone was there. She didn’t sing for the audience. She sang for herself, to fill a deep yearning within her for something she would never get.

That’s not Elán…

What I hear in her voice does not reflect who she is nor what she looks like. Elán is complicated. Elán is quirky. Elán is expressive. Elán is creative. Elán is sweet. Elán is sensitive. Elán knows who she is. Elán is fiercely herself. If you google Elán DeFan the first picture that comes up is of a gorgeous young woman with long straight blonde hair. Her face is beautiful. She looks like an angel. She appears to be, perhaps, a rebel surfer girl of some sort. As you continue to browse through all the images, they begin to morph into lots of different expressions of this same beautiful woman. You are not quite sure if this is the same woman. Is it?

It is. If you think you know Elán, you are wrong. She’s still shifting and changing. She’s still discovering all that she and is looking forward to doing it through as many mediums as she can. She’s has a youthful exuberance and is ready to take on the world.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Elán outside of my home as my Beloved watched our toddler. The following are a few questions and I will conclude with a few more wonderful thoughts from the multifaceted Elán. It all begins with someone twitternapping her identity.

Somebody’s being you on twitter!

Yes this is insane I’m going through the worst time right now it is crazy. I don’t know how it happened. It happened to me once before on Facebook, and then it happened to me on MySpace and it was driving me crazy and then I thought, ok, finally Twitter and then yesterday, somebody let me know. I didn’t even know about it and it’s just killing me. It’s so frustrating you know?

Yeah, I totally agree with you. It was interesting because I totally went out there and blocked the person and I made her or him (because you never know) a spammer. It’s so crazy.

Yes it’s crazy, and I’ve tried to contact twitter, a bunch of times, for like an hour this morning. I mean, please either block him or verify me or something. Do whatever you need to do, you know, ugh, it’s so annoying.

Why don’t we just clarify what your twitter account is so that everyone is clear.

Ok, it’s @_elan_

Ok perfect, so anybody else is not the one!

Exactly.

Good, good! Well, other than this little issue, how has twitter helped you to connect with your audience and being more available to them, in what way is it different than Facebook and MySpace for you?

I think it just changes as usual. A few years ago we had MySpace, then there was Facebook and now it’s Twitter. It just goes by episodes you know. I think it’s a great tool. I just think it’s great to be able to, I don’t know in many other people’s…how they handle their bands and people who follow them, but I like answering them. I like thanking them when they like something that’s mine. I’m just very grateful. I just think it’s very cool that I can just be in touch with a bunch of people who like what I do, it’s a very good and useful tool.

I see that you are very active with your audience and it seems incredible genuine, and I particularly love your Tumblr.

Oh yea, thank you. You know I was talking to my Dad a few months back and I was like, you know I wish that I could have a space that I could just say whatever I’m thinking. I wanted to give myself a space to do that, and I thought, which one am I gonna use, Blogger, this that and the other and I found Tumblr and I thought ok perfect. I’m glad you’ve seen it, that’s awesome.

Actually it shows so much about you, and it gives you so many different sides too, especially when you share about your music and the pictures that you love and that post that you had about the record collections was really nice because, it made me think about that…

Oh, I’m so glad you read it, that’s fantastic. That means that I’m not writing out of the blue and nobody’s listening.

Oh no, no, of course we’re listening! So what do you think, music has changed so much as we see from your post, and also you have changed so much, can you share a bit about your journey as a musician as all these changes have taken place?

I’ve always, I’ve had a long run. My first record came out almost 6 years ago, and I had already been doing a whole bunch of things that a 20 year old or an 18 year old shouldn’t be doing at that age I don’t recommend, kinda like going to tons of meetings and going through all these things. It was just very rushed for me. I kinda did a lot of soul searching and so many things and it helped me a lot because I matured very quickly. I just realized all the things that I wanted to be, like you said kinda genuine, and I really didn’t want to sell my image, and you know, that’s very hard in this business because everyone is going out there and selling exactly that, instead of art and their music. I just kept myself very true to myself. I think it’s thanks to my family, you know we come from a very, you know my Mom always said, “don’t ever try to fit in when you were born to stand out” and I kept that, and I’ve kept that as a way of life and I’ve learned from it, so I don’t really, you know it’s very strange the way that I’ve kind of gone around it because I’ve been with major labels and then I’ve left major labels and then I went independent and that was really hard for a while, and at the same time, it’s very freeing. You can be very free when you are independent. Both sides of the coin are very interesting

Something that I love about you is that you can’t really categorize who you are in a way, when you look at what you put out there. It completely changes. So now that you are going back to your roots and your culture. I’m actually from El Salvador, I was born in El Salvador, I’m bilingual, I’m bicultural and so I absolutely soaked in this culture and I’ve been here and I know that every time that I have to step into my own culture or step into speaking spanish more or writing in spanish more or expressing myself in spanish more, sometimes it’s a little scary for me, I don’t know what it is, it’s sorta like a safety for me when I do things in English?

I completely understand. That happens. It happened to me too, when I was 16 and I went to San Diego and I didn’t have any friends and the culture was so different and then I came back here, and then the culture was so different and I was like woah, this is kinda strange, everything just changes, kinda scary.

I know that you refer to Spanish with words like heart, respect and mysterious, what was the difference, in what way was your process different with this latest album of yours?

I think the important thing, like I’ve said in other interviews is that I just really wanted to touch base with not only with my roots and where I came from but also it was important for me to have a certain maturity. I wanted to make this record once I had the maturity to sing Jose Alfredo and serious, you know these guys wrote some of the biggest hits not only in Mexico but worldwide when it comes to Latinos. I really, I was just very proud that I could finally pull it off. Because I think the most important thing is that when you don’t have a certain age or maturity to go into the studio and sing songs that are really heavy, it could go wrong. If you don’t believe in yourself, if YOU don’t believe it, you know that kind of thing? So I was very concentrated on trying to make this record where I could finally say thanks to generations before music wise and you know remind people that these came before, that they did actually exist, you know?

Was there a defining moment when you chose now, this is the time…

Yea! Absolutely! It was last December I was sitting with my brother and it was kinda cold. We usually get in the studio like every November, December we just kinda camp out for a couple of weeks and come up with another record, and we’ve done that for the past couple of years. I just came up to him, and he was always asking me “are you ready, are you ready?” and I was like “no, I think I need another tour.” And so we’d go on tour and we’d come back and he’d ask “are you ready?” and I’d say “nah”. I’d still need something , you know it, it’s kinda… has to be a little heavier. And so finally one morning I woke up and I said, we were having some coffee, I said “you’re not gonna believe this but, I’m ready”. I’m ready to make the Spanish record that we’ve been waiting to make for so long, and so he was like ok, this is insane, let’s call the studio, let’s book it, we’re going, cause I don’t want you to change your mind, so we just ran and it was pretty hilarious.

•••••

Elán has accomplished what she set out to do with this record. It is most certainly an homage to those wonderful artists in Mexican music. Her voice is absolutely mature as she delves into the richness of expression, and yet, she still makes these songs sound modern and brings out the timelessness inherent within them.

Elán is not only a musician. She is an artist of life. Her inspiration comes directly from her life and the world as it’s reflected back to her. As you browse through Mixtapes and Lollipops her Tumblr blog you will see her unique eye for the world and her respect and love for her family (including her cat!) Her father is a photographer and has infused in her a love for the visual arts and their expression. She would love to work in movies and storytelling whether it be in front or behind the camera. She wants to travel to exotic places to soak in culture, people and beauty. I expect greatness from this multitalented artist.

I asked her where someone that had never experienced Elán should start. She told me to step into it all, not only her current album, but delve through the ones before it, not only via her videos, but also through her personal expression in her blog and the genuine conversation with her fans. Do it. You won’t regret it.

Learn more at Elan-online.com • iTunes • MySpace • Facebook • Twitter • Tumblr • YouTube

After spending the past decade cranking out hit songs, Lifehouse is at it again with today’s release of Smoke & Mirrors – and we’ve got the interview. We also talk with rising soul singer Daniel Merriweather, American Idol veteran Elliott Yamin, and Latin pop star Elán.

On the tech side we get hands-on with some new iPod nano cases, a bunch of laptop stands, and five new iPhone apps including the highly anticipated Riddim Ribbon app based on the music of The Black Eyed Peas (and just for fun we’ve also included our interview with The Black Eyed Peas).

Thank you to those of you who’ve been with us going back to 2004. In between issues, keep an eye on beatweek.com for new interviews and reviews published daily. And yes, the rumors are true – Jason Derulo will be on our next cover.

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