On his forthcoming album “Peace With a Lion,” Guatemalan-born, cross-cultural singer-songwriter David Lindes looks deep into the meaning of healing. In doing so, he explores two essential phases: honoring wounds and healing them through creation.
With hints of Cat Stevens in his vocals and echoes of the Latin American neo-folk Trova movement of the ‘60s and ‘70s, Lindes collects folk elements from across the continent in this deeply personal album. In it, he delves into his efforts to heal three wounds: leaving his native Guatemala as a child, being abandoned by his father as a baby, and experiencing physical and emotional abuse.
LESSONS LEARNED
In an NPR post, Lindes write about how the pain of his father’s abandonment “began to teach me”:
“It taught me that when he left, I blamed myself. That I believed that, had I been cuter, had I cried less, had I slept more soundly, he would’ve stayed. It taught me that I was blaming all fathers for his choices, including myself. That the feeling of guilt I felt when I left for work, the feeling that I was abandoning my family, that I was failing them — ultimately came from how I felt towards him.”
As Lindes moves into his recovery from these wounds, he approaches themes like mental health, the healing power of nature and forgiveness, all while singing his love and heartbreak to his homeland as if it were a long-lost love. His journey from wound to healing is intimate as well as universal, speaking to the many neglected collective wounds society carries, and the need for healing there as well.
Born in Guatemala City, Lindes migrated to the United States at age 9 and spent his adolescence in the agricultural communities of California’s Central Coast.
In a recent blog post, he wrote:
“Music has so much power to heal, it feels like a god reaching into your life and making it alright. In the end, this is what drove me to write songs. As a young boy in Guatemala, living in a difficult household, each song I loved was a three-minute guarantee of safety and joy. Cat Stevens and Juan Luis Guerra were my Milagrosos, soothing me when no one else quite could. And for that, I’m grateful.”
The first two singles off the album, Te Vengo a Perdonar (I’ve Come to Forgive You) & Gold in the Ashes, deal with facing childhood trauma and finding a way to accept it and transform it into wisdom, compassion, and even beauty.
“Te Vengo a Perdonar” uses Caribbean elements to assemble a sort of post-storm celebration. The lyrics put a forceful end to a self-imposed sentence of pain that only ends with forgiveness.
Music has so much power to heal, it feels like a god reaching into your life and making it alright.
“Gold in the Ashes,” poignant and introspective, looks to the Blues and Americana for its palette, to take listeners from pain to hope. In its chorus, Lindes celebrates finding gold in the ashes of his past.
The songs will be released alongside an official video for “Te Vengo a Perdonar” (I’ve Come to Forgive You), featuring Lindes himself, who acts out, step by step, his own death and burial.
“Maybe that’s why I’m here,” contemplates Lindes. “If I can take my past, exactly as it is, and turn it into a story and a song, maybe that will bring me a little closer to not wanting a different past. And if I like the story, and I like the song, someday, I might even embrace my past,” he states hopefully.
Lindes will kick off the album launch with a concert in Mexico City on Feb 8, 2025, at Casa Florecer, a spiritual center in the woods surrounding the city. He describes the show as “an intimate affair that will be part concert and part healing circle. It’ll include songs, stories from my life, and even a ceremonial element.”
He’ll also encourage concert goers to talk about their own pain and recovery. An official album launch event will follow in Los Angeles, U.S.A. in the spring of 2025.
Check out his song “Te Vengo A Perdonar” below.
