BACKSTORY: A songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who wields her razor-sharp pen like a samurai sword
FROM: Born in Munich and raised all over the world with time spent in Tokyo, Dubai, and Barcelona (she identifies as Spanish-American)
YOU MIGHT KNOW HER FROM: Emotionally bruising anthems like “Swan Song” and “She Walks In,” as well as from touring with Michael Franti and Hozier
NOW: Promoting the arrival of her latest EP, the multi-layered and crushingly honest WELL WELL
Victoria Canal is rightly championed as a trailblazer, but the artist’s limb difference is one of the least radical things about her. “I’m always trying to figure out ways to be more outrageous, because missing a hand isn’t that outrageous,” she quips. Instead, Canal’s most transgressive quality is her devastating vulnerability—whether she’s writing songs about body image or mental health, the 25-year-old fearlessly explores the darkest nooks and crannies of the soul.
victoria canal,portrait, music, katherine sheehan los angeles photographer
Take “Shape” and “She Walks In,” the dual singles that introduce Canal’s newly released Well Well EP. Both songs come at dysmorphia from very different angles: one resolute, the other despairing. “‘Shape’ speaks to body image in a more lighthearted way,” the songwriter explains, “while ‘She Walks In’ delves into the experience of feeling so unwanted for the body that you come in and desperately wanting to be anything else.”
Canal’s lyrics are rooted in personal experience. “My obsession with my body has really shaped my sense of self,” she admits. But instead of pretending to have won the battle, Canal has the audacity to share her fallibility. “I hate when artists talk about something in their music as if it’s already over,” she says. “I think my body image issues are always going to be there, I’m just wrestling or dancing with them.” And that honesty is freeing. “It’s scary to release music about my disability and my limb difference,” Canal says, “but I’m so much further along with accepting my body because I’ve let myself talk about these things.”
“You can be beautiful and be different—that’s kind of the message I’m trying to get across.”
victoria canal,portrait, music, katherine sheehan los angeles photographer
The devastating “She Walks In” cuts particularly deep: “Sometimes I get fooled for a second / But they’re staring because my body’s different,” she sings over mournful piano chords. It’s raw and bruising, but also jarringly matter-of-fact. “I’ve never felt like I could walk down the street and get stared at because I’m a pretty girl,” Canal tells me. “I’ll always get stared at because of my arm.” She now realizes that those things are not mutually exclusive. “You can be beautiful and be different—that’s kind of the message I’m trying to get across. But I don’t know how to be overly optimistic.” Instead she opts for pragmatism: “This is reality, so how do I control my own narrative and reclaim my power?”
“I hate when artists talk about something in their music as if it’s already over. I think my body image issues are always going to be there, I’m just wrestling or dancing with them.”
Canal’s inability to sugarcoat anything is particularly apparent on “Black Swan,” a companion piece to “Swan Song” from last year’s Elegy EP, which Coldplay’s Chris Martin dubbed “one of the best songs ever written.” “It’s the resentful older sister of ‘Swan Song,’” she explains. “I don’t think anybody would call that a ‘happy, cheerful’ song, but it’s still hopeful.” “Black Swan,” on the other hand, is about being mired in misery and not knowing how to find a way out. “For me it’s the reckoning of, ‘God, I wish I could change,’ and, ‘This is what I am,’” she says. “It’s not a super positive message, but it gives me a feeling of profound catharsis.”
Victoria Canal, music, elektra,portrait, music, katherine sheehan los angeles photographer
Despite its preoccupation with existential matters, WELL WELL boasts a number of surprisingly breezy moments, such as the folk-leaning “Company” and “Braver.” The former began as a stream of consciousness. “It’s one of the very, very, very few songs that I just didn’t overthink,” Canal says. “I just kept the original lyrics because I was like, ‘You know what? I don’t always have to be so fucking deep.’” The challenge is showing different facets of her artistry without confusing her audience. “I don’t want people to think, ‘Oh, the old Victoria is gone, but I do want to start making music that I have fun playing onstage, so it’s not this deep emotional reckoning every single time I perform. I’m trying to find the version of ‘upbeat’ that works for me.”
Collaboration has also helped expand her sonic horizons, and the new EP contains several notable guests: Madison Cunningham lends her voice to “Braver,” while Bon Iver drummer S. Carey features on “Yes Man.” Both artists were only too happy to get in the studio with Canal. She even spent time with Carey in Eau Claire, the Wisconsin town where Bon Iver records their music. “It was just so beautiful and cold and comforting,” she says of the visit.
“Even if Chris Martin told me I had the best song ever written—that was a year ago, and now I’m like, ‘How the fuck do I write songs?’”
But if collaborating with one of your idols sounds validating, the feeling was only temporary. “It wears off really quickly,” Canal sighs. “The thing that’s surprising about some of my dreams coming true is that they expire immediately.” She puts this down to self-perception being based on recent events. “We don’t take into account our entire lives, all of our lessons, and the unlimited potential of the future. So even if Chris Martin told me I had the best song ever written—that was a year ago, and now I’m like, ‘How the fuck do I write songs?’”
While validation might be fleeting, representation is not. Canal understands the power of being a prominent artist with a disability. “I have a small community of people who reach out and let me know that I’m really inspiring to them,” she says. “I would love to be a voice for everyone who feels different.” After all, artists who break new ground also inspire her. “I wish I’d grown up with artists like Remi Wolf, Lil Nas X, and Sam Smith. I feel like I was born in the right generation because now I feel so much more empowered to just get on stage and do my thing. They’ll just get used to my arm the way that they’ve gotten used to every artist in the past that has been different.”
victoria canal,portrait, music, katherine sheehan los angeles photographer
For now, the next step is releasing an album. “I’ve been thinking about it my whole life,” she says. “It’s mostly just been a question of how and when and why. I’m just trying to be as thoughtful about it as possible. I just want to make sure that when I do put out an album, I really know who I am as an artist—and putting out EPs like WELL WELL has really helped me find what it is that I’m looking for in my artistry.”
While Canal’s sound is ever-evolving, it’s highly unlikely that her unflinching honesty and willingness to pick at emotional scabs will ever change. It’s just who she is. FL
