“I might not be the most dexterous piano player, but I only sound like me,” says Victoria Canal. “There’s no other piano player that’s going to sound like that.”
A seasoned performer at just 26 years old, the Spanish-American songwriter has already learned to embrace her limb difference as a value-add, not a limitation. That might help explain why Canal seems to be creeping up on breakout stardom. Over the past couple of years she’s performed with Coldplay at Glastonbury 2024 (in front of 250,000 fans), opened for Hozier on a segment of his world tour, and won her second Ivor Novello Rising Star Award for songwriting. It reached the point last summer that she was forced to shoot down rumors that she was dating Tom Cruise.
Canal’s debut album, Slowly, It Dawns, came out last month and merited reviews in Rolling Stone UK, Spin, NME, and other major music journals. She told Rolling Stone UK how the album reflects her sense of being willingly “ignorant to the ways of the world” and then dealing with the sting of the comedown. The album’s opening tracks feature indie-pop flair, but it’s in the second half of the album that we hear Canal’s self-awareness dawning. The minimalist guitar ballad “How Can I Be a Person?” addresses the ongoing struggle of comparing ourselves to others, while the album’s closing tune, “swan song” (which Coldplay’s Chris Martin calls one of the best ever written), offers a refrain that’s both question and affirmation: “Who knows how long we got? / As long as I’m breathing, I know it’s not too late to love.”
On a recent call with Amplitude, Canal opened up about reaching her core truth, strength in vulnerability, facing that inner critic, and wondering if she’s shared too much. Visit her website to buy the album or get tickets to a show on her upcoming US tour (starting February 15 at The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC). She’s on Instagram @victoriacanal. You can stream Slowly, It Dawns at this link.
What have been some of the biggest musical influences in your life?
I’ve had different musical influences at different points in my life. One would be my grandma, who played piano and led the choir at her church. She was the first person to notice that I had an interest in music. When we would visit her in the summers, I would sit on her lap and watch her play, and I would want to play along and sing. She was the first one to encourage my parents to put me into lessons.
And then there were things that would play around the house. My dad was a big Dire Straits fan, and my brother loved Queen. I loved Aerosmith because we would play their songs on Guitar Hero, and then there was Coldplay, Brandy Carlisle, John Mayer, and Jason Mraz. When I became a songwriter and sort of started finding my own voice, there were many artists who continued to influence me. Radiohead and Feist and Saint Vincent were a few.
As a singer-songwriter, what does it mean for you to find your own voice? How do you know when you’ve found it?
My main concern through writing music is to reach the core of my truth. I want to know that when people listen to me sing something I’ve written, they believe me. I have a tattoo of something my Cuban grandma used to say to me when I was playing playing piano. She would say “Con alma,” which means “With soul.” That’s my main criteria as a songwriter. Am I putting my soul into it? Am I reaching a deeper level of myself?
I don’t think you ever arrive. I think it’s a constant, ongoing pursuit of the truth. That’s one of the things that I was interested in exploring with this album: How is my own reality changing through my 20s? And then as you get older, you become a little more self-aware, and maybe you regret certain choices, but they inform who you become next.
In your bio, you mentioned how you’re trying to be unapologetically honest about what you put out there. What hurdles have you had to overcome to be able to do that?
It’s a great question. The main hurdle I find is that it is hard. It’s very taxing. It’s very vulnerable, and sometimes you don’t know if you’re the only one feeling that way, because relatively few people admit to feeling the weight of comparison, self-doubt, perfectionism, depression, anxiety…like saying them out loud is like an admittance of weakness. But ultimately, to be vulnerable is strong, and it is a way to remain connected to people and to reach people. I think the main hurdle I’ve faced is that I’m very hard on myself. I come away even from conversations like these and wonder if I shared too much. But I signed up to share myself for a job; it’s what I do.
It taps into that vulnerability you’re talking about. You really put your heart and soul into the music, so your life, thoughts, and feelings are out there in a very intimate way.
It’s like I am literally surgically opening up my heart. It is an open wound. I’m doing it on stage and on the internet, and I’m saying, please don’t hurt me.
Another hurdle I find is [dealing with] anonymous hatred online. Yesterday I did a TikTok live, and people were just ripping me apart about my appearance and my limb difference and saying really cruel things. When I work constantly on myself and take pride in being open despite the pain, to be treated so violently can be really wounding. If [the judgment] wasn’t about my disability, it would be about something else. Every single person I know who puts themselves out there in any way is subject to anonymous criticism. That’s just what you’re signing up for. So that’s the main hurdle I find is not letting that shit get to you, and knowing that the people who really deserve what you’re sharing respect it.
In your songs, we can hear you overcoming these hurdles, but I also think you give listeners a way of overcoming their own. Can you tell me about your process as a songwriter? Where do your ideas come from?
A lot of my ideas and lyrics come from everyday conversation. There will be a line or something that hits me that speaks to a deeper feeling, and I’ll write it down. I’m always jotting down notes, and then I’ll pick up an instrument and just start messing around and have some melodic idea or chord progression in my head, and just let it flow from there.
How does your disability fit into the process of discovery for you? How have you seen that part of your identity evolve?
Within my musical practice, I think limitations are really interesting because they serve as parameters and guidance for what makes you uniquely you. I might not be the most dexterous piano player, but I only sound like me. There’s no other piano player that’s going to sound like that, and part of the reason is because I make very specific choices based on my limb difference. Also, the way I play guitar sounds a bit softer and unique to me. I’m sure it would be fun to be able to just riff all over the block. And then you know, in life, something that never ceases to amaze me is humanity’s capacity for resilience. Resilience is the best thing we have to offer, and I think having a body that’s different makes you confront your own ability to persevere. I think it sometimes instills even a stubbornness to overcome and prove people wrong.
It motivated me to achieve in ways that no one would have expected, and then I was surrounded by a really amazing family who encouraged me to build up my own confidence and belief in my own capabilities. People really rush to help you and save you when you’re disabled, and I think that can be really damaging in some ways, because it does limit the muscle you build to believe in yourself. If everyone’s coming to your rescue, you don’t build up that muscle. I think it’s really necessary to self-impose certain challenges when you’re someone with a disability, because people aren’t ever going to impose those challenges on you. They would much rather save you out of pity, and I am allergic to pity. I don’t want anyone to waste any time pitying me.
When you talk about building up your own resilience, and when you look back on things that you’ve done and how you’ve grown, not only as a person but as an artist, what do you feel most proud of?
Great question. Honestly—I think this is just because of where I’m at hormonally right now—I have a very hard time feeling proud of myself.
Where do you think that comes from?
You’re my therapist now! I think it’s just a desperate desire to be better. You know, I have a song called “Black Swan,” and it addresses very openly this sense of perfectionism and [how you’re supposed to be] further along, or be someone else. I struggle with that feeling a lot, but you know what? Then I go and play a live show, and when I am singing “Black Swan” live, and there’s a crowd of people singing it back to me in tears with their arms wrapped around each other, that’s when I’m proudest. That’s the proudest I feel of myself…when I realize that I’ve done that for people, and that by being honest in my pain and my expression, I’ve somehow saved or helped heal someone, or at least taken part in their healing, the way that music has always done for me.
I think that’s often why people come to music. There’s something very healing about the way you can relate to a song, or feel seen or validated in your own feelings.
As you probably recognized about this album, there’s this poppy side, and then there’s this emo singer-songwriter side. Last year I was really trying to put on a pop show to try out. I would put that outfit on and see what it felt like. Turns out, it’s not so much for me. I’m more of a folky singer-songwriter type, so I’m building a new show, and it’s more acoustic and closer to my heart. It’s got a grounded living room vibe to it, so more back to my roots.
Canal kicks off her US tour next week in Washington, DC. Get information about the album, concert tickets, merch, and more at victoriacanal.com.
