'We need to raise our voice for women’s rights,' Perla Batalla on voting, new cover album and success

Author’s Note: 

For decades, whenever anybody asked what I wanted to be in life, I said: “The Mexican Leonard Cohen!”

In the 90s, I had the opportunity to meet him in a wine shop in Beverly Hills. It was like my moment to seize but I couldn’t do that to him. He was elderly at that point and seemed to be quietly buying a bottle of wine. I just remember approaching him to thank him for all that he had given me through his music.

When Perla Batalla released her latest album of Cohen covers this season, I remembered seeing her up on the stage. I knew her story was traumatic and dramatic but upon hearing it from the source, I couldn’t help but think about how singing literally saved her life.

Upon the release of her single, a cover of Leonard Cohen’s, Democracy, I asked her about democracy in the USA given the elections in November.

“A Harris administration will begin moving in the direction this country must go in order to survive intact," Batalla said. "I am so deeply insulted by the Supreme Court’s attack on women. We need to raise our voice for women’s rights once and for all. This must be our priority now. I must be able to control my body. My daughter must have the legal right to control her body.”

How do you identify?

I am an Afro Mexican Hungarian Jew. My mother’s family emigrated from Eastern Europe to Buenos Aires. My father was Afro-Mexican. His mother, who lived to be over 100, was from the upper classes. She married a black man who her family disapproved of. He disappeared mysteriously when my dad was a baby.

Please describe your childhood home:

We were very poor. We were a family of six living in a small two-bedroom apartment in Santa Monica back when it was still an affordable town for the non-rich. We lived in an ugly 1950s apartment building with thin walls and toxic ceilings. You could hear everything from every family. There were drunken fights, and teenage pregnancies: desperation and so much drama. My parents slept in the living room and left the bedrooms for us kids. It was mayhem. My brothers were wild animals, involved with gangs and jail and constantly getting into trouble. I had to stay in the house to cook, clean, and take care of my siblings while my mom ran the family record shop called “Discoteca Batalla”. My father came and went. Eventually, I began running the shop when my mom had to be away.

When does music enter your life?

First, at our record shop, listening to every kind of music – since we played music all day long. My father was a singer, but he was also a self-destructive alcoholic who kept shooting himself in the foot each time an opportunity presented itself. Music next came to me through the Santa Monica school district whose curriculum saved my life. I had the most incredible teachers who taught me how beautiful and transformational music could be. I was in Junior High when I began studying classical, jazz, pop, opera, everything. I adored my teachers and still do. I credit them with my salvation.

As you are releasing this album of Leonard Cohen covers, I thought that you restrained your vocal range quite a bit. Was it because Leonard Cohen had limited range himself?

No, that is not the reason. I am currently reading a book Judi Dench wrote about Shakespeare where she says: “Oh just get on with it; say the words!”. These songs are not about me; they are about the words, and ultimately the deep respect I have for Leonard Cohen’s poetry. I want the songs on this new album to be all about his words. I didn’t restrain my range purposely. I am simply here to tell the story. As a singer, my job is to be of service to the song. When I listen to new music –which I do constantly– I rarely want to hear the vocal gymnastics of a singer, even when it’s impressive. I simply want to be moved by an honest performance.

What was your first project with Leonard Cohen?

The “I’m Your Man” tour in 1988. We toured that album throughout Europe. It was a huge success. We were playing in enormous stadiums. I had no idea that Leonard was that famous. For the audition, I was asked to sing the high part in an intense section of “First We Take Manhattan”. The arrangement called for a high C, which I nailed. I knew then that I also nailed the audition. I remember how giddy I was when I left the studio and oddly I realized I didn’t care if I got the job or not – I just knew that I had just been in the presence of a very special artist.

Although there have been some passable tributes to Leonard Cohen since he passed away, I felt very soothed by your album in the same way that I felt soothed by Leonard Cohen’s music.

Thank you. I am soothed by simply singing his words. I still miss him so much. He and I used to text constantly, and even today his absence is deafening. My approach to singing his music is based on a promise that I made to him long before he died. This music is deeply, deeply personal to me. There are many times when I sing his songs that I feel his presence. So much so that my objective now is to conjure him when I am performing. There is no end in sight.

It seems that Leonard Cohen always wanted to have nicer voices collaborating with him….

Exactly. He always knew that great voices could help propel his music. One of my pet peeves is when people use the term “background singer”. “Backing singer” is more accurate. Backing vocals are art in themselves – for hundreds of concerts, all over the world, I sang right alongside him throughout each song. Leonard recorded the albums, “The Future” and “You Want it Darker” with the backing vocals in mind. After living with his music, I began to love what I could feel was happening with his songs inside me. As his singer, the songs became a part of my body, part of my DNA. I invested everything into what I did with him. And in turn, he was very generous with me artistically, and as a collaborator.

"The Future" really is peak Leonard Cohen in my opinion….

I agree. Oh my God, Anthem…..

Tell me about your home today

I no longer own a house. I rent a two-bedroom cottage in Ojai. I live there with my husband of 35 years. While I have very little furniture, I do have a baby grand piano in my living room where I sing every day. I don’t like car culture and where we live I can walk almost everywhere I need to go. But really, home to me is where my family is: sometimes Barcelona, sometimes NYC or Los Angeles.

Do you have perspectives on prosperity?

It’s so important to differentiate prosperity from success. I find it disturbing that in our culture success is equated with how much money you make. I don’t think that way. Coming from how poor I was as a child; I do carry a lot of pride that I have supported myself as a musician my entire adult life. For me, prosperity is simply enjoying a rich and balanced life with a good partner, living a life of quality. We raised a remarkable child who grew up with a respect for art, music and literature. She has been able to follow her own path devoted to social justice, while still expressing herself artistically. She knows that art and music are the things that will comfort her when she is down. She is an extraordinary human, and best of all: she still likes me! I value that very much.

Who is doing better, 10-year-old Perla or Perla today?

Oh my, 10-year-old Perla was so scared. My father was such a horrible alcoholic and so abusive that I was constantly frightened. I literally feared for my life, but I have to say, I became a strong little cookie. I knew I needed to seek out things that made me feel better: Theater. Chorus. Opera. And I didn’t turn to drugs and alcohol. I had so much on my shoulders as a 10-year-old. My mom counted on me a lot; to help run the shop and the house and cook for my brothers. Looking back, I was so brave. When I was 16, I turned and looked straight at my father one day and told him that I had to go, and I walked through the door and left home for good. I knew he carried a gun, and I remember thinking: either he lets me leave or he shoots me dead here and now. Everything after that was a piece of cake.

How is your business as a musician?

After the COVID shutdown, touring dried up for the entire industry in U.S. Theaters (the venues where I mostly play) were shuttered. Performing arts centers lost much of their funding. Even today many still struggle to recover. While post-COVID performance fees for musicians have not returned to where they were, airfares hotels and other touring expenses have risen higher than ever. It feels as though independent musicians are facing a perfect storm of financial adversity, with profitability growing more elusive each day.

I would have loved to have had more guidance around the business side of music. There are thousands of independent musicians like me who are barely keeping their heads above water because the odds are increasingly stacked against them. For years, I did incredibly well through CD sales and touring –the sale of one CD is still more profitable than 10,000 online streams – so, the irony is that today there are more people than ever listening to my music all over the world, but I earn far less. Something’s got to give.

Luckily vinyl is making a comeback. My upcoming record, “A Letter to Leonard Cohen” will be released both in an LP package and a CD. Another new development for me is using a major distributor for both physical and digital distribution. Symphonic will be making my music available pretty much everywhere music is sold.

As you promote your version of Democracy, do you have opinions about the current political climate? Do you think Kamala Harris cares about Afro-Mexican Hungarian Jews?

It helps If you think of an elected leader as a train taking you in the general direction you’d like to go. No elected leader will exactly mirror my own goals and values, but I trust that a Harris administration will begin moving in the direction this country must go to survive intact. I am so deeply insulted by the Supreme Court’s attack on women. We need to raise our voices for Women’s Rights once and for all. This must be our priority now. I must be able to control my body. My daughter must have the legal right to control her body. As a daughter of immigrants, and a citizen of the world, I see myself as a humanitarian first, so I believe it’s vital to be there for those who want a better life, like my parents. I must have faith that with time and the right people at the helm, we may begin moving in the right direction. You know, most of my life, I identified both as Latina and a person of mixed blood, a Mestiza. I have spent years trying to find peace with all the conflicting things that make me who I am. For me, that quest led to music. I guess what I’m saying is that I never chose this path; it chose me. Like any worthwhile endeavor, I have confronted abundant challenges along the way. But by staying true to my path, prosperity has followed and blossomed at every turn.