From punk drummer to Latin Grammy nominee: The evolution of Ela Minus

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Every night before going to bed, Ela Minus shuts off her phone.

The Colombian artist and producer often doesn’t check her accounts again until the next day. One day in mid-September, when she finally logged on, she was surprised to find a flood of congratulatory messages from old and new friends alike. She had no clue what everyone was celebrating, as she hadn’t been online the night before.

The Latin Grammy nominations are out, and her song “QQQQ” from her 2025 album, “Día,” received a nomination for best Latin electronic music performance.

“It was so confusing!” Minus explained, laughing during our video call. “Everyone was just congratulating me, but no one actually told me what was happening.” She was speaking from Mexico City, preparing to fly to Italy to continue her “Día” tour.

The moment I found out I’d been nominated, I immediately turned my phone off. I really needed some time to process it all. Honestly, it was a complete surprise – I didn’t even realize anyone had submitted my name for consideration.

Since it came out last January, the album “Día” has resonated with both critics and listeners. Through 10 songs driven by synthesizers, Minus explores a time of personal change and self-reflection, a period marked by constant travel – living out of airplanes, hotels, and studios around the world. She expresses these feelings through atmospheric synth sounds and energetic dance rhythms.

Much like her music, her path to Latin Grammy-worthy acclaim has been anything but linear.

Minus explains that their journey to the Latin Grammys wasn’t a straightforward one. It’s been full of surprises and unexpected opportunities. They believe that whenever they’ve taken a chance or faced an unexpected situation, something positive has resulted.

Born Gabriela Jimeno Caldas in Bogotá, Colombia, Minus began her musical journey as a drummer at age 12 in a local punk band called Ratón Pérez. Her talent on the drums earned her a place at the Berklee College of Music, where she studied both jazz drumming and music synthesis. While at Berklee, she discovered electronic music and began blending her drumming skills with synthesizers and electronica.

Minus launched her solo music career after years as a touring drummer and synth software designer. Her 2020 debut album, “acts of rebellion,” gained attention and was entirely created by her in her Brooklyn home studio. The album features cool, driving club rhythms and strong synth sounds, and she intentionally kept the instrumentation minimal for a focused sound.

She wanted to experiment with new instruments and a different creative process for her next album, due in 2025, hoping to achieve a completely fresh sound.

Unexpectedly, her New York rent increased fourfold due to inflation caused by COVID-19, forcing her to move. She describes the situation as chaotic, but she responded by embracing a nomadic life and focusing solely on creating music instead of finding a new home.

Minus explains she wanted to create a record that captured her current feelings and experiences in real-time. She felt pressure to produce the album and believed she could put her personal life on hold to focus on finishing it.

For six months, she traveled from city to city – London, Mexico City, and Seattle among them – carrying her life in a suitcase and recording music in different studios. This constant cycle of packing, moving, and unpacking helped her decide which songs were worth developing and which ones to discard.

During her travels, she spent some time living in downtown Los Angeles. She describes the city as feeling isolating and having a particularly intense atmosphere. Fortunately, she found that the city’s overall vibe actually complemented the musical style she was developing for her project, ‘Día’.

Minus describes feeling more withdrawn whenever they spend extended time in Los Angeles. They found staying downtown to be both intense and strangely comfortable. They observed that while the city has a lot of traffic, there aren’t many pedestrians, and Los Angeles generally feels incredibly vast.

This album marks a difficult time for Minus, as she grapples with questions about who she is. The opening track, “Broken,” features atmospheric sounds and a building bassline, where she openly admits to putting up a facade and feeling lost, without any clear beliefs. In the initial songs, she honestly confronts her own thoughts and challenges herself to see things as they really are.

Minus explains that creating music with deep bass makes him feel inspired and encourages him to write lyrics and sing openly. He finds it harder to be vulnerable when the music is simpler, like just a guitar, and feels that can come across as insincere.

I have a lot of contrasting elements within me – both gentle and intense, sweet and harsh. When I express vulnerable emotions, it’s naturally followed by these heavier, more distorted sounds.

Minus’s music, with tracks like “Idk” and “Abrir Monte,” creates the feeling of being underwater, driven by a strong, echoing bass. Songs like “Idols” combine upbeat dance music with darker, atmospheric sounds, giving her music a raw, industrial edge. She perfectly captures the feeling of getting lost in the energy of a crowded dance floor—a surprisingly freeing experience.

The Latin Grammy-nominated song “QQQQ” represents a shift in the album’s mood. She wrote it quickly to reflect her own changing perspective. She felt the first half of the album built up a lot of tension and needed a cathartic release – a moment where listeners could just let go and dance, even if it meant crying – for the album to truly connect with them.

The album concludes with the artist deciding to face her issues with self-acceptance, culminating in the raw and honest track “I Want To Be Better,” which then builds into the energetic and fast-paced “Onwards.”

She describes the album as a blend of darkness and optimism, mirroring both the turmoil in the world and her own growing sense of calm. Having created and performed the music repeatedly, she feels she’s truly learned from the experience. She explains that when facing difficulties, time is often all you can rely on, and your outlook will inevitably shift, whether for the better or not.

“Time heals,” adds Minus. “That’s something I learned for sure.”

Ela Minus will be headlining at the Echoplex in Echo Park on Oct. 29.

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2025-10-23 21:32