David Lindes

David Lindes is an independent singer-songwriter originally from Guatemala City, Guatemala, and currently resides in Salt Lake City, Utah. He graduated from Brigham Young University in 2007 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Latin American Studies. He speaks Spanish and English with native proficiency and Italian with elementary proficiency.

His genre of music is Latin Alternative. Some artists that have influenced his music include Silvio Rodriguez, Paul Simon, Ray Charles, Juan Luis Guerra, Ricardo Arjona, The Beatles, Jorge Drexler, Charly Patton, Novalima, and Quetzal.

His self-titled debut album was released June 1st, 2014, on the CD Baby label. In creating the album, he borrowed from Southern Mexican, Caribbean, and Brazilian traditions, adding a strong dose of Americana and subtle electronic elements to tell stories about love and the border. The album consists of 11 tracks – 5 in English, 5 in Spanish, and the last track, “No Woman, No Cry,” in both English and Spanish.

The themes for David’s songs come from his personal experiences, having immigrated to the United States from Guatemala with his mother and older sister as a child. He sings about immigration as both an act of heroism and hope, as well as, an act of violence or what he describes as “a brutal break with your past, your family, and yourself.”

For his version of Bob Marley’s “No Woman, No Cry,” he sings from the perspective of a migrant farm worker somewhere in the United States who is thinking about his wife and children in Mexico, promising to someday return to them. The song “Mi Tierra” (My Land), an infectious, upbeat song, conveys the complex sense of ownership and belonging immigrants fight to develop in their new countries.

The album’s overall focus on immigration lends itself effortlessly to relatable statements about love. For example, the song “Si No Fuera Por Ti” (If It Weren’t for You) explores love’s ability to make a person feel at home. And the song “Tu y Yo” (You and I) is a celebration of love as an unlikely miracle.

The following statement from the About section of David’s Facebook page sums up his unique style of music: “From gently syncopated Latin ballads sung in English to Delta Blues-tinged anthems about migration and social change, the rhythms and languages combine to capture a bi-cultural world where identity is hard to define and a sense of home is always in flux.”

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