OPAL: Singer. Songwriter.

After a thousand unanswered questions, of wandering search, of imprecise approach… I discovered that the most exciting journey is the one that takes us inside.

I have learned that what we believe so safe and tangible one day can disappear without prior warning, leaving us with a tremendous sense of emptiness, helplessness, desperation.

Stardust that slips between the fingers to leave us only the reflection of what it was or might have been. The subtle traces of their tiny shining particles leaves its mark on the heart and memory.

Those stars that, although do not see them, are with us showing the only and genuine way: love.

Opal

BIOGRAPHY

Daughter and sister of musicians, since Gemma was born music always had an essencial rol in her life. Her parents say she learned to sing before learning to speak…

The fact is that for as long as she can remember, she always knew she wanted to sing. Singing always has been her passion, it is the most important thing in her life.  It’s like the blood that runs for her veins, it’s a part of her DNA, of her identity. Iit’s the air that she breathes, without that she would die.

She grew up  listening to the rehearsals os her father’s group every friday, she listened to behind the door, learned all the songs… and already at 4 years old she sang a popular song in her first stage accompanied by musicians.

Since then she asked her parents for receiveing music lessons, aim that she achieved when she was 8.

At 15 she began to work as a professional singer (in cover groups of pop, soul, a-cappella…) and at 24 she was already a singing & music graduated teacher, alternating her career as a professional singer with teaching.

But singing another’s songs didn’t satisfied this woman completely and she felt the need of expressing her own interests and emotions. In fact, since always she wrote her own texts and songs, which he left forgotten in her room’s drawers.

She was lucky of finding Vincent Roca, a great musician and guitarist with a long career. He encouraged her to dig up her old songs, helped her to give them shape and encouraged her to write more frequently.

Above 2002 they decide to join their musical ways and began their common project.

That’s OPAL’s birth, Gemma’s alter ego, a woman who writes and sings her own songs, accompanied always by the guitarist, producer and coautor Vincent Roca.

2004: With her debut album,  SUEÑOS (Dreams, 2004) Opal forms her own band, performing concerts with her songs in clubs and festivals in Catalunya (Spain).

2007: She records her second album PIENSO DISTINTO (I think differently) and performs concerts around Catalunya, receiving very good reviews from the press for her quality as interpreter and her very communicative live.

Her songs are more mature, more energetic and with a more marked identity. She includes props and dance at her shows,  dramatizing what she sings.

2009:  A speaker of  Berkeley Liberation Radio, an U.S. Radio station, discovers her music and promotes it in the U.S.A.  The American independent label Jenpet Records releases her work in the U.S.

She then acquieres more national and international spreading, performing on stages in Spain and the USA, performing an American tour to Jenpet Records in the St. Francisco’s Bay Area.

2011:Creation process of her third project, composition of the new songs and design of the concept and the show. Filming of the video clip “Estrellitas” (wich will be the first single), photo shoot and creation of the official website

2012:Opal is selected to be officially part of the international multidisciplinary artistic platform The Caravana.

– Presents her new show within the Festival 30Nits.

– She records her third album, 17 and releases it thanks to the crowdfunding platform Verkami.

– In december she comes back to the USA to play three concerts and to appear on a radio show,

presenting her new CD.

2013:

– Publication of “17”, with the record label RHRN.

-Herproject is selected from over 600 proposals to participate in the 2013 edition of the Girona’s multidisciplinary art show, Inund’art.

– Filming of the second video clip, “Entre tu i jo“. This new video is selected by the music magazine Enderrock as video of the day in its website, in 12th november.

– Presents her show “17” in the concert hall Luz de Gas (Barcelona), with a very warm wellcome by critics and audience.

– Her new song “De cop, l’amor“, is selected by the music magazine Enderrock to take part of its CD “New women and songs”, published with the magazine in december.

– She is nominated for 2014 Enderrock music awards.

2014:

She takes part in the charitable project “Catalunya per Kenya”, with her song “Ànimes”. This project consists in the publication of a CD and live shows with artists like Txarango and Mone Teruel amog others.

DISCOGRAPHY:

-2004: SUEÑOS

-2009: PIENSO DISTINTO (Jenpet Records)

-2013: 17 (RHRN)

COLLABORATIONS:

-With the songs of Pienso distinto, she also takes part of the “CADA MUJER – EACH WOMAN’S PROJECT” (group exhibition of contemporary art), playing her music in the vernissages. The exhibition starts in Caravaggio and runs spaces in Milan, Rome and Lisbon among others. It remains opened and on tour in Europe (next schedule to be determined).

-Currently she also takes part of the project BREAKABLE, sponsored by the contemporary art platform The Caravana.

Breakable is the project of the filmmaker Ramon Jimenez and the photographer Valérie Catalá. It is part of a wider collective project called CRASH INTO ME wich was exhibited at the Vyner Vyner’s Studio Sessions in London. Opal is the protagonist (the sitter) of a project born with her during the creation of her latest album, “17“.

-In parallel, she comes into contact with the world of dance, an aspect that is gaining a bigger role in her artistic life. From 2008 to 2012 takes part of the dance company SÍ! as a dancer and singer. In July 2010 they presented the show SENTIR(music, dance, performance) on the SAT! Theatre in Barcelona.