The atmosphere is present in their songs inspired by Caribbean music and played with instruments made from 100% municipal waste.
The atmosphere is present in their songs composed with a pop-electronic wave, inspired by Caribbean music and played with instruments made 100% with municipal waste.
In Colombia there is a band that for ten years, through its music, has inspired social transformation and environmental sustainability, are the Latin Latas, who create musical instruments from waste and compose songs facing the environmental crisis with sounds inspired by the Colombian Caribbean folk music fused with an electronic pop wave.
©Latin Cans
The project, in which a contagious sound of hope and transformation was present from the beginning, was born while Andrea Latas - the band's vocalist, urban luthier and sound engineer - worked in a suburb of Bogotà as a music teacher for children in extreme poverty.
"After two years of teaching music, the children wanted musical instruments, but there was no money to buy them like that, as there was a lot of garbage - like everywhere - together we started using it to assemble and make them ourselves and from that moment the project. Then I met some guys who were already making violin making with this raw material (garbage) and Latin Latas was born ”, says Andrea.
The small seed, therefore, that allowed the birth of Latin Latas was that need to act to find a solution to various problems: on the one hand, access to a musical instrument, unfortunately still a luxury that many people in the world on the other hand, they cannot afford to protect the environment by starting to take responsibility for the waste we produce.
Urban luthiers for sustainable music
©Latin Cans
In addition to being musicians, the members of the band are also urban luthiers, who take the art of making musical instruments to another dimension of sustainability. The result is real professional instruments made with waste and disused objects collected on the street, such as the ho'pomoponofono, a ukulele made with a heart-shaped can of chocolates or plasticordium, a built-in keyboard synthesizer inside a 90's vacuum cleaner.
The sustainability of music and its role in change
For the band, the role of the artist begins with his own actions, trying to eliminate the superfluous and constantly reflecting on what can be done to reduce the environmental impact of the music sector. Even their video clips are made with energy savings in mind and are recorded using the energy provided by their Good Energy bike-generators.
Faced with the lack of information regarding environmental issues, Andrea explains that the musical text is a valuable information and educational channel, and that is why the words in their songs are always an invitation to the good use of water, they promote recycling, the reuse and reduction of waste, the protection of seeds, the use of bicycles, the protection of animals and biodiversity.
“People don't want to harm the planet and their life, the problem is that they see the environment as an external thing not connected to them. It is important that people understand and have accurate information to start transforming their consumption habits, ”says the Colombian singer.
Latin Latas is a huge musical project that in a creative and innovative way carries out concrete actions to promote sustainable development, carrying out educational workshops, composing their songs to the rhythm of the environment, building their own musical instruments with the garbage and applying movement " Zero Waste ”in every musical note.
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