From Carson, California, a community south of Los Angeles, Trish Toledo was born into an Ecuadorian-Guatemalan family with much older siblings. Their musical tastes – plus the influence of her father, who was a musician - provided her with access to music that existed long before her time. Although the first music she sang was cumbias and ballads, she discovered that it was the timeless pop and soul ballads that she felt most connected to. “The lyrics were so simple and the performances so raw and clean,” she remembers.
While her father’s musical influences permeated her childhood, it was his “musician’s life” that accounted for his absence from the family. Subsequently, when she became a teen parent herself, Trish put her own musical aspirations on hold to offer undivided attention as a mother. In May 2017, now old enough to realize his mother’s formidable vocal abilities, it was her 11-year son that noted the void in his mom’s life, as he encouraged her to reestablish her musical journey.
Exploring a classic catalog of material, Trish selects songs to record based on how the themes most faithfully mirror her life experiences. ”What I have gone through, or am going through,” she says. She prefers to record much like her predecessors did – in one take, all the way through, without punch ins and overdubs. Her cross-generational audiences include both older listeners who grew up with the type of songs she sings, to young fans for whom this music is brand new.
When she is not performing or recording, Trish explores art shows. She is especially interested in the vibrant visuals of Chicano art, and her multiple tattoos bear visual testimony to her appreciation of shapes and colors. Trish Toledo does what she does best: sings, performs, and connects a historic line between the music of an earlier era, and the audiences of today. “People are so happy that I’m reviving this music,” Trish concludes. “ Bringing it back – so that a new generation gets to hear this.”
