Meet: Lily and Sangito

Meet the Creator: Lily & Sangito

As a company that highly values creative expression and unique style, Plenty had the opportunity to meet with two musicians Sangito Bigelow and Lily Elena Towers from the Psychedelic Latin band, Los Duendes. Sangito was born in Montreal but is now based out of Vancouver. He is a visual artist, percussionist, vocalist, guitarist and bandleader. Art and Music have always played a central role in his life. Los Duendes provides him with a platform to play the music that he has studied from a young age, inspired also by elements of the musical discoveries he made along his travels in South America. Lily Elena Towers is a born and raised Vancouver-based singer, percussionist, and photographer. Her mixed Mexican American and Mexican ancestry and her British, Scottish and Irish roots have inspired and influenced her natural affinity for Latin music and dance.

Latin Psychedelic Band: Los Duendes

Los Duendes is a Psychedelic Latin Fusion band based out of Vancouver. Engaging timeless rhythms like chicha and cumbia while fusing jazz, fusion, salsa and soulful house create a unique on-trend sound that mirrors the vibrancy and diversity of contemporary Canadian culture.

We hung out with Lily and Sangito at Casa Studios located in TrebleFive Music and got an inside scoop on their life in a band, from rehearsals to shows and all the fun instruments they use to make the melodies and rhythms of Los Duendes. Read the full interview below.

Q&A with Los Duendes

Q: What are 3 words your friends or family would use to describe you?

Lily: Compassionate, sensitive, and artistic.

Sangito: Creative, artistic, and special.

Q: Who inspired you to become a musician?

Sangito: My dad definitely inspired me. He was a visual artist but he really appreciated music, particularly world music, jazz, Latin jazz, and African music. He encouraged me and my older brother Myles Bigelow by getting us instruments, enrolling us in and driving us to our lessons. Since my brother was nine years older than me, I followed in his footsteps as well. He was my hero and I wanted to be just like him. He was learning Afro-Cuban percussion, so then I picked it up.

Lily: The same for me. My father inspired me to become a musician. He was an incredible guitarist, he played Bossa Nova and Gypsy Jazz guitar. My brothers are also musicians and have inspired me to play as well. When I met Sangito eleven years ago, he was playing a lot of the same music that my father used to play on the guitar and it just dawned on me that I wanted to learn that kind of music. He offered to teach me how to play guitar and asked me to join the band Los Duendes, and the rest was history.

Los Duendes Instruments Close-up

Q: What is your creative process like?

Sangito: In this band, we are actually a 5 or 6-piece band. We get together in this beautiful space, Casa Studios located in TrebleFive Music and someone will come up with a seed, some kind of idea. It could just be a riff, a guitar riff, a baseline, a melody, or a particular Afro-Cuban rhythm and then we workshop it together as a band and develop something out of that seed. Other times, we produce music on the computer, create a whole composition from start to finish, and then come together and learn that composition as a band.

Q: What do you do when you’re in a creative rut?

Lily: I like to move my body and get into nature. I draw a lot of inspiration from other artists and musicians. Listening to other musicians that inspire me really helps. In terms of my own artistic practices, talking to people and building connections allows me to build and move forward with new ideas.

Sangito: You can’t force things to come out when they’re not flowing. So, sometimes a good thing for example if you are a visual artist and nothing comes up that feels authentic and sincere, it’s good to just copy someone and draw inspiration from the masters to get that flow state happening and to digest some of their imagery and then you can transform that into your own. It’s the same thing with music, you can learn music from other artists that inspire you and get that flow state going so that when you are attempting to compose new music, it will just come to you more naturally.

Q: If you could give one piece of advice to other creators or musicians at the beginning of their journey, what would you say?

Lily: One thing I wish someone had told me was to be kinder to yourself. It’s definitely a process when you’re learning anything new or becoming something. It takes time to develop a skill. Fortunately, having Sangito advocate for me to be in this band, he was really patient with me but also very kind and wanted me to be on stage right away to get comfortable with performing and not shy away from that just because my skill level wasn’t quite where I wanted it to be. So having that support and having my band mates as well have all been really supportive of me during my evolution as a musician. To conclude, I would say to be kinder to yourself from the get-go and don’t let any moment define you, because it’s just a moment in time.

Sangito: You need to practice. If you’re young and you’re starting out in music, practice every day. If it’s half an hour great, but if it’s two hours even better. I wish I had a stricter practice regime when I was a young child because when you enter your twenties and thirties you will want to go out and enjoy all the things life has to offer as an adult and will have lots of opportunities coming your way. Sometimes I’ll find myself in the practice room for three hours a day and I’ll ask myself dang, why wasn’t I doing this earlier? So just choose an instrument you love, it’s never too late but make sure to practice every day. Eventually, you will find yourself at the level where it is easy, fluid, and part of you, you don’t have to force it or try. It’s something that’s become so ingrained that you will have practiced so much that it feels like an extension of yourself.

Q: What’s one song you can listen to on repeat and not get sick of?

Sangito: I play school shows with my band Kutapira and sometimes kids will ask us this question and I usually play a trick on them and say Taylor Swift. But the truth is, I can’t nail it down to one song but I do love Bossa Nova, Brazilian music, Choro, as well as African Highlife, which is really happy and beautiful music that is dear to my heart. I could listen to this type of music all day.

Lily: I would say Gypsy Kings, I grew up with that music, my mom and dad would play that at their big lab parties. My father was a professor in Science.

Sangito: We got lucky because we actually got to meet the Gypsy Kings a few summers ago and they came to one of our shows.

Lily: And played with us! So Gypsy Kings for sure. I love D'Angelo, Neo Soul, YEBBA, Marvin Gaye, and some of the Motown Classics and Oldies.

Q: What’s your favourite childhood snack?

Sangito: Same thing as everybody: cheese. Except here’s a wrinkle, cheese wrapped in lettuce.

Lily: My mom used to make big fruit platters for us. I guess the wrinkle in our fruit platter was jicama, a vegetable that goes well with fruit.

Sangito: My dad also used to make grilled cheese sandwiches for us on Friday. I would get to rent a cartoon and eat grilled cheese sandwiches, can’t go wrong with that. Oh, also lasagna!

Q: If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?

Lily: There are many places I want to travel to. A lot of different countries in Africa have spoken to me from childhood. I'd love to go to Ghana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Egypt. I would really love to see the pyramids. Also Spain, Portugal and Brazil are places that have incredible roots in the music we like to play.

Sangito: I have always been drawn to Latin America because I am involved with that kind of music, from playing congas as a young child into my adulthood. When I was old enough to travel, I went to Brazil for 6 months and made it to Mexico, Ecuador, and Peru. I feel like a part of me always wants to return to those places. One of our band members Allen Ruiz is from Colombia and I have heard amazing things, so I would really like to visit Colombia and check out the music down there and study percussion. Cuba, I have also been once and I would like to return. Anywhere in Latin America really.

Q: Any upcoming projects or shows you would like to share with us?

Sangito: Yes, we have a vinyl that is hot off the press. We got this printed two months ago. It’s an album we composed over the course of 2022 and we recorded it in the summer of 2022. We got a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts to make this album. One of the biggest gifts of that was to be able to collaborate with the people we love and respect and pay them properly. That is something that getting funding from the government was a huge gift to be able to give back to the community. The album is called Me Recuerdas, which means “Remember Me” and I would like to dedicate this to my Dad, Robert who passed away in 2021.

Lily: And Sangito designed the art of the album cover. He is also a visual artist! Our next show is going to be on November 23rd at Guilt & Co in the heart of Gastown.

Los Duendes Wearing Plenty Clothing for Women's and Men's

Q: How would you describe your style?

Sangito: When I try to go shopping, it’s hard to find something that resonates with me. However, if I go to the skate shop, I usually find something. So I think my style is influenced by skate culture.

Lily: With a little bit of a hippy flare. You like patterns and colours.

Sangito: Well, you know in Vancouver especially, people wear all grey, black, and white. But when you go to Brazil, people are wearing bright colours and there’s something about that that brings joy and vibrance to the culture.

Lily: I would say my style is eclectic. I love simple jeans and t-shirts, kind of LA-inspired, West Coast vibes. I also lived in New York, so I love really tailored looks that are clean. I do like a lot of black, white, cream colours, and neutrals, along with mixing in some vintage.