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OLAF GROWALD
Victoria Canal
Playing on her home piano.
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OLAF GROWALD
Victoria Canal
Posing with her guitar.
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Victoria Canal
Playing on guitar on her couch.
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Victoria Canal
Writing music and creating lyrics.
Victoria Canal compares her Fort Worth domicile to Picasso’s pad — the inspiring crib of one of the world’s most prolific and inspiring artists. It’s a minimalist approach to living, where she takes comfort in the few things she brought with her: incense, record player (along with hordes of records, obviously) and a giraffe sculpture that she named Geoffrey.
This is where Canal, a singer-songwriter-musician with a soulful voice and mission to inspire, works with fellow songwriters — whom she often brings from faraway distances — to compose music and jot lyrics. It’s the perfect spot for a musician’s gap year — a time to do a 180 and clear the mind of everyday stresses. For many, such as those in college, a gap year means traveling and experiencing as much as possible. But for a touring musician who’s already trekked the globe, it means picking a spot and staying put. And that’s exactly what Canal, a world-renowned musician at the age of 20, is doing in Fort Worth.
“I just think, as a touring musician, your life’s just chaos all the time,” Canal says. “So, I couldn’t decide where else I’d wanna be in the states. New York is so busy, and LA is so spread out. And Fort Worth is not busy, and it’s super calm. It’s relaxed, walkable and it’s clean, and the people are pleasant. So, I’m just excited — literally just proud — to write here, make my album here.
“When writers are here, we’re just banging songs out, so I have them here like two, three days. We literally just start, go and complete a song.”
The routine goes: Canal writes in her flat and records the material at Spaceway Productions, a small, understated studio on East Lancaster, where the likes of Evanescence and Abraham Alexander previously recorded. Eventually, all of this will result in an album.
“It’s a bedroom album, really,” Canal says. “Because I’m producing most of it myself.”
Canal likes to block her life out by years — a year dominated by a certain activity or experience. Years could be defined as a traveling year, a fit year or even a “I lost my job” year. And, if this year is the writing year, then last year was the touring year.
“I had something missing and something different from everybody else, and it taught me early on that you have to be thankful for what you do have, use what you’ve got and embrace what comes.”
Victoria Canal
An opportunity came up for her to tour with Michael Franti & Spearhead, which included a stop at the world-famous Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado, a 10,000-seat venue, where she played in front of a sold-out crowd.
“So, I ended up doing 130 or 140 shows with [Franti],” Canal says. “And I didn’t know where I was going to go after that year of touring. I lived out of a backpack for such a long time, and I needed somewhere to settle down and write, because when you’re on tour, it’s impossible to write. At least for me.
“So, this year has been amazing, and just being here in Fort Worth, it’s like I don’t want to go anywhere else; so I stay here, get my coffee every morning and bring people to me.”
I met Canal at Sons of Liberty Coffee on Lancaster Avenue, a place that’s becoming one of her favorite spots — partly because of the coffee and partly because of its proximity to her Picasso-inspired digs. She has an extroverted energy and a knack for hip headwear and avocado toast.
Something that makes her journey unique — and, even more inspiring — is the fact that she was born without part of her right arm due to Amniotic Band Syndrome, which is when the amniotic fluid — what we grow in as babies when we’re a fetus — thickens and wraps around a part of the body like a band. This stops whatever it’s wrapped around from growing.
“I think it’s affected my life in a lot of really good ways,” she says. “I think people waste a lot of time, most of their adolescence and probably a lot of their adulthood, wondering why they don’t have more and wishing for things that they don’t have. And it’s because they’re not really missing anything for real.
“But I think the moment that you encounter real struggle in your life, and you have to overcome something, is when you start to count your blessings instead. I feel like I had a head start in that sense because from the get-go, I had something missing and something different from everybody else, and it taught me early on that you have to be thankful for what you do have, use what you’ve got and embrace what comes.”
She doesn’t allow this to affect her musicianship, taping a pick above the elbow to strum guitar and crouching over a piano to play soulful tunes.
“I want people to get over it and enjoy the music for what it is. Sometimes, I wonder if they would take as much interest if I didn’t have a disability. I want to know that my music is powerful because I’ve put the time and work into it.
“But that’s as bitter as it gets for me.”
With a mother from Alabama and a father from Barcelona, her parents’ wanderlust took them to Munich, Shanghai, Tokyo, Dubai, Amsterdam, Madrid and Barcelona. And this multicultural background makes its way into her music. While the majority of her repertoire consists of mid-tempo ballads, there are nuances of a wide-array of influences. You can find her music on whatever your preferred download service may be — her song “City Shoes” has over 7 million downloads on Spotify.
Next, Victoria will continue traveling, playing and recording — eventually releasing the material she’s recording in Fort Worth. She’s also going to work on a couple music videos in London with her brother.
“I’ve only ever done music, man. There’s never been Plan B ever. Ever since I was a kid, this is what I’ve wanted to do. I’m already doing what I want to do and what I’ve always wanted to do.
