karleen bubblegum: Ma?a Vidal, singer-songwriter

She was born in upstate New York to a French father and American mother, she went to study in Montreal and she is living now in Barcelona. Singer-songwriter Ma?a Vidal has one of the most beautiful female voices actually and recently she has released her album God Is My Bike, full of sensitive songs like The Alphabet Of My Phobias. So her perfect pop-folk is the best reason to discover Ma?a?s work through our DONTCALLMEICON Q&A.

What are you working on actually? I?m sitting up in a hotel room, working on a song about a recurring flying dream I?ve been for the last couple years.
Which kind of clothes and accesories are you wearing right now? Leggings, always black leggings, and my mum?s brown leather dancing shoes that I nicked from her while I was in NYC, and a big baggy cardigan and a million cheap rings and watches that I picked up at antique stores.
Which is your favourite song actually? This second? Rhapsody in Blue by Gershwin.
And the book that you are reading now? F. Scott Fitzgerald The Beautiful and the Damned.
Which was the last film you see at cinema? The Artist, but the other night we set up a projection of Disney?s Fantasia at a friend?s house and that was a much more powerful experience somehow.
Do you like any tv series? Mad Men? but my guilty pleasure is the show Bones.
What would you like to invent? A garbage and carbon monoxide powered car that consumes green houses gases and poops out puppies and polar ice caps, simultaneous cleaning up the environment and creating a nicer happier world.
What?s the last weirdest thing you?ve seen? A garbage and carbon monoxide powered car zooming down the highway pooping out puppies.
Do you like animals? What kind? Have you a pet? I have 2 dogs but they?re in the States! My whole life I?ve had all kinds of pets; birds, fish, gerbils, cats, once even a pet rat that used to crawl around inside in my clothes. I love wolves and cats and owls and foxes and sugar gliders.

What?s under your bed? A bright blue vintage suitcase filled with all my strange and weird treasures.
How do you help defending environment? I don?t drive and I don?t ask for plastic bags at the grocery store, and I conserve water but showering very infrequently. I used to be a crusader for the environment but oddly my career choice makes it more difficult; I have to fly in planes a lot, for example, and that makes me sad.
What do you think about politics? And banks? I?m not very up to speed on European politics and neither on American politics, come to think of it. I kind of live in a bubble. I did go down to Plaza Catalunya to protest at the end of May though. I think the world is in a lot of trouble and I can?t see the politicians being the ones getting us out of it, the system is too broken for that. And I would have loved to be in New York during the Occupy Wall Street movement.
Which is your most creative moment the day? My most creative moment actually depends on the weather? I can?t get anything done when it?s bright and sunny. But generally whenever the sun isn?t high in the sky, like in the late afternoon.
Who is your favourite celebrity? Is there anyone that you detest? Charlotte Gainsbourg. She?s my favorite. I think she?s brilliant. But there?s no room for hate in my life so no, no celebrities that I detest.
Which is your next professional challenge? Trying to find a time to write and record a new album while constantly being on tour and playing shows. It?s a fun challenge because I really do like performing but also finding a gray late afternoon to myself where I can be creative is difficult when I?m always moving. I?m learning? to stay up late in hotel rooms and play around on garageband though!
Is there any urgent dream to come true? No! That?s this really weird development of 2012 is that if I have to make a wish, I?m totally at a loss. This has never happened to me before, so either it means that my life is perfect or that the world is ending or both. But really, I couldn?t think of a single thing to wish on New Years Eve!
Anything to regret? Not one thing. I feel like having regrets is sadder than actually regretting something so I avoid it. I don?t know if that makes sense, but i mean that the idea of regretting something is so fundamentally unchangeably sad that I chose to never look back.
What or who is an icon for you? Amy Winehouse, totally an icon both stylistically and musically. She?s beautiful, tragically flawed, fiercely talented, and dead. Does it get any better than that?