Chicocurlyhead speaking about his new EP & creating music in Spanglish

Atlanta-raised Panamanian artist Chicocurlyhead creates music in the R&B, Pop, and Hip-Hop with Latin roots. He is also known as  ‘El Pana Con Flow, for  his bilingual tracks like “Modelo” and “Dame Más de Ti” which have million of streams. Featured in Spotify and Apple Music campaigns, he has opened for Tiago PZK and performed at major festivals like LAMC and SXSW. His track “Modelo” was on Fortnite’s BEAT BOX radio. Chicocurlyhead recently released his EP NEVERENDING  ROADTRIP.

This year at the Latin Alternative Music Conference, Chicocurlyhead was named as the Discover Artist, award presented by Taylor Guitars (the awardee also gets to receive a gift from them). Each year, the LAMC highlights artists they believe are ones to watch and demonstrate unique talent. Awardees in previous years include Nathy Peluso, Buscabulla, Carla Morrison, and more. Chicocurlyhead performed twice during LAMC week  including the Indie Showcase presented by BMI and the LAMC Offsite event at Youtube Music. 

Sarah Ruiz: How does it feel to have the opportunity to perform at the LAMC? 

Chicocurlyhead: Honestly, I’m excited. I’m super grateful for the opportunity, my team, for also putting this together with the people here at the LAMC. I’m just grateful for it. 

SR: After people watch your performance, what do you want listeners to take away from you? 

C: I just want them to see me as a regular human being. I want people to take my honesty away from me. How honest and how down earth I am about everything. That’s how I grew up and I think I’ll always be that way. I never got into music for fame or any of that stuff. So for me, it’s, it’s not about that. That’s not even in my top five goals for music. 

SR: I already heard your new EP, are there any artists or topics that inspired you?

C: There’s two of those inspirations, artists that I like. But the main inspiration was just me being honest, authentic, different, and expressing what’s going on in my life too. I just wanted people to hear what’s going on in my life, Chicocurlyhead’s life, in an honest, cool and diverse way for people to enjoy. 

SR: If you had to choose one song from the EP for someone to listen to, what would it be? 

Chicocurlyhead: Honestly, it would be CUPIDO TE FALLÓ, but a song that you should listen to, to really get an idea of Chicocurlyhead,  would be WASTED WEEKEND I would say. 

I mentioned to Chicocurlyhead that he is bringing something new to the music industry and stands out as someone uniquely different, to which he replied:

C: I always tell people, don’t judge a book by its cover. I was always judged growing up, obviously being black, coming from Atlanta, growing up in the Southside. People always judge you based on where you’re from. And then when they got to know me, they were like, oh, he’s a lot different than I thought. So that’s a big saying for me, is “don’t judge a book by its cover”. 

We began to talk about stereotypes and genres that Latinx artists are faced with sometimes and he shared his thoughts. 

C: Yeah, I throw a little bit of reggaeton, a little bit of Dancehall, I’m not forcing it either,  it’s also to show culture like we don’t just make reggaeton, we make other stuff too and there’s other genres. Us as Latinos, we have to show that more too, and as a culture. We lock ourselves in too much and reggaeton that people from the outside also think that’s all we do. So we have to show love to those artists too, coming up, trying to make R&B, trying to do like indie pop and whatever it is that it is like we have to show love to them too.

I think even us Panamanians know we don’t get too many artists, on that spot, like, that big. It’s very regional, most of our artists. We have Sech that really broke through and made a big highlight that there is someone coming up from Panama. Boza is doing a really great job right now too.

SR: In five years, where do you see yourself?

C: I have a lot of stuff. If everything goes amazingly great with music, I would probably be trying to somehow go pro at soccer. That’s, like, really big. That’s a far reach, but I think it’s really possible. I keep a balance between my music and soccer. Musically, definitely uniting cultures, that’s my goal. There’s still that gap between the English and the Spanish and the American culture and the Latin culture. That’s a big goal for me to bridge that gap as much as I can.

SR: If you were to perform at a specific venue or go on tour in the future, where would it be? 

C: Definitely in Atlanta, I would say the Mercedes Benz stadium. That’s a huge one. But honestly Estadio Rommel Fernández in Panama. That’s like, my bucket list, because that’s where I come from. 

SR: What inspired “Chicocurlyhead” to become your artist name?

C: There was this lady in Panama who stopped me, like, “Hey Chico Curly.” I’m guessing she was assuming that I was black, because in Panama, guys don’t have long hair because of schools and their jobs, and it’s mandatory to have your hair very low, presentable, and decent matters. I went, and I had all this hair, and then people are  just kind of staring at you. Then this one lady, I guess, had the confidence to come up and  I’m assuming, she thought I was American, so she tried to speak English, and that was way before I made music, though.

So that name, I remember, when it came time to put a name when uploading songs,  I was like, I need a name. I remembered that occasion, and I put Chico curly and I was like, that’s cool, but it’s missing something. Then I put Chico-curly-head, but like Chico space curly space head. And then I was like, nah, that doesn’t look right. And then I just bunched it out together. And I was like, Chicocurlyhead. I was like, that’s pretty cool. I like that.

SR:What is next for you? 

C: I got a nice collaboration coming up, I really do. A well -known artist and it is Afrobeats. It’s like Afrohouse, Amapiano.

SR: If you were to give your younger self advice about being in this industry and doing what you’re doing now, what would you have told yourself?

C: Believe in what you believe in and stand on what you believe in. There’s a lot of people who are gonna want you to be something that they envision in you. Somebody always has an image of you. Everybody has an image of you differently. Everybody sees you differently. So that’s how it is in his industry, everybody has a plan for you and an image for you. It matters how you see yourself and what you want to do with yourself and your image. Believe in your image and yourself and your ideas.

All images courtesy of the artist