Meet Irka Mateo

Today we’d like to introduce you to Irka Mateo.

Irka, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I started singing Brazilian popular music in Spain with Brazilian musician Tadeu Demarco. A couple of years later this project transformed into a group, we called, “Irka y Tadeu”. We played Caribbean/Brazilian jazz with our band. This project went on for fourteen years in which we recorded, toured, and lived between the Dominican Republic, Montreal, Canada, and Brazil. And if that was not enough we had our beloved daughter singer/ songwriter Jarina de Marco and son Amawta De Marco.

Today I am a singer/songwriter, folk music researcher, and performer living in Los Angeles. I write Dominican/ Latin American alternative music, and my songs have a focus on accordion, guitar, and percussion dance rhythms. I had the opportunity to study Dominican folk music—some fifteen different genres—by traveling the rural areas of my home country.

As a result, I got to know this music deeply and began mixing it together with the sounds from my cosmopolitan background. I have released two albums, based on this dream, Vamo a Goza and Anacaona. I moved to LA in 2018, after ten years of living in New York City, and have and now put together “Irka Mateo y La Tirindanga,” a group of exceptionally talented musicians.

The group consists of: Hector Torres from Puerto Rico on guitar, Gee Rabe an LA native, on accordion, Juan Perez also a native of LA on bass, Reynold Roque from Dominican Republic on drums and Nakeiltha Campbell, who was born in Panama, and raised in LA, on percussion. Three women and three men, the perfect balance on stage! We had our first appearance in the city on New Year’s Eve at Grand Park, performing for a wonderful audience of over 50,000—a modest inauguration for a new band!

Has it been a smooth road?
Getting a place in the music scene is always a challenging project—an understatement for sure. It takes time to build an audience, make contacts with the venues that book your band, getting your music out there in the media, radio, and TV shows. It takes lots of work, focus, determination, the ability to deal with rejection, and no small amount of luck! If you are looking for an easy life, this is probably not for you, but if music, and the culture underneath it, has lit a fire inside you… and you want to introduce others to that fire, your path has, in a sense, been decided for you.

We’d love to hear more about what you do.
I specialized in creating songs that bring together the music of the Caribbean and Latin America. In the Caribbean and South America, we have folk and pop music that is common among us because we share the same historical past.

We went from being a continent of native people to one taken over by the Spanish, and a few other European conquerors – who in turn brought people stolen from various parts of the African continent.

The music I am bringing forward springs from these roots: Indigenous, African, and European. I am proud to be creating a unique mix, inspired on my personal journey.

Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
I like that the people are happier in LA than in other cities in the country, we are social beings we look to interact with other people so… it makes life a lot easier!

I also love the proximity of nature and the low urban landscape, we literally have more horizon to look at. As for dislikes, who needs to hear negativity — we all have our limits.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.irkamateo.com
• Email:  [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/irkamateo/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/irkamateo
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/irkamateo
• Other: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iu12cDlYG4c

Image Credit:
Sun Mask- Peter Figen Photography, Singing -Peter Figen Photography, Ladysoulfly MUA & Hair
Headshot- Elise Mesner Photography, Elaine Karras MUA & Hair
River- Mimi Raver Photography, Elaine Karras MUA & Hair

Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.