Art is meant to be experienced, and its presentation is deeply personal—shaped by how each artist processes, feels, and expresses what’s on their heart.
For Swiss-Guatemalan artist Baby Volcano, aka Lorena Stadelmann, that expression comes through performance art and music that radiates intensity from the moment you press play.
As her stage name suggests, with a small but powerful intensity, there’s purpose behind calling herself Baby Volcano.
In conversation, it becomes clear how she marries her roots to create a folkloric figure—one that embodies both her heritage and her artistry.
Performing at Festival De Musique Émergente (FME) for the first time this year, I sat down with her outdoors at an old music school on the edge of Rouyn-Noranda, Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Québec, to talk about her journey as an artist and where she’s at right now.
Photo Credit: Augustin Rebetez
What inspired your stage name, Baby Volcano?
Well, I'm very fascinated by volcanoes in general. In Guatemala, there are a lot, a lot, a lot of volcanoes, and they're still active, so you can feel and hear them. You can see them with the lava inside and everything.
So they're very powerful and mysterious somehow, because you don't really know when they're going to erupt, and I kind of like that tension.
For me, volcanoes are similar to emotions. They can erupt and be destructive to the world around them, but after an eruption, the soil is renewed with nutrients. I like that.
How do your Swiss and Guatemalan roots shape your music, language, and visual style?
They influence everything because I grew up with two very different cultures, and I was and still am looking for this identity of who I am in general.
For me, making music and art is like creating my very own folklore that mixes my Swiss and Guatemalan background into something new.
I feel like doing this very craft is a practice of everything. I’m doing music, I’m making my own costumes, doing my own rituals—somehow all on stage.
How would you describe your musical identity and the sound you're exploring right now?
Right now, I would call it Latin Experimental. I would say maybe also hybrid-pop, something like that, but I think Latin Experimental is it.
I use my body a lot when I perform, because I come from a performing arts and contemporary dance background, and the relationship I have with music is very physical.
I have a very visceral and organic way of creating music, I'm always thinking of how I'm going to perform it on the stage.
Can you tell me a bit about your background in the performing arts?
I studied in Buenos Aires. I lived there for four years—working with choreographers, learning from other artists, and doing workshops. So it was really rooted in reality, somehow, not in an academic format or university, but in real life.
Then I came back to Switzerland just before COVID, and I started to do my own EP.
The world stopped. That’s when I started my music project.
Your music carries intensity and vulnerability while weaving in performance art. How do you find the balance between raw emotion and musical structure?
Using a classic music structure helps me explore the in-between. It’s like performing arts, you know?
You can express yourself however you want in the theater because the material is concrete.
People know that when they go to a theater, there are certain conventions and rules, but within that structure, you can do whatever you want on stage.
When you’re writing music, where do you find your inspiration?
I think it’s a mix of not only my own life experiences, but also my family and ancestors—what I received as a child when I came into this world, what was passed down to me through my family and cultural identities, and the influence of the world around me.
For me, doing music is the same—if I use an AB AB structure of a song, then whatever happens in between is mine.
So rules help me explore somehow.
What music influences have deeply shaped how you create and perform?
There was this musician I was listening to a lot when I was a teenager, Chavela Vargas.
She's from Mexico, and she passed away a long time ago, but she has this connection with her voice, which is very deep and very visceral, where she’s almost screaming when she sings.
It was so charged somehow. This was very interesting to me. I was very curious about the connection she had with her voice and her inner self.
How has your creative process evolved since you started?
I really fell in love with music while I was making it and discovering it.
I think at first, the focus was really on the stage and how I was going to perform shows.
Now, I feel like I can notice more in the music around me, like somehow my senses have opened. I really fell in love with music in general, and I think I've just opened the door.
Yeah, I don't know. I'm discovering a lot of new frequencies, melodies, and sounds.
At the beginning, it was very raw and very physical. Now I think I’m discovering another level.
Do you have any dream collaborators, in music or other fields, you’d like to work with?
Yeah, I would love to work with Arca. I really love her, her art, and everything they do. I think we share similar inspirations and some raw energy.
What impact do you hope your music has on both new listeners and long-time fans? Are you aiming to inspire, challenge, empower, or something else?
At the moment, I’m still a bit surprised that people are listening to it. I'm not quite there. What I know is that I love to be generous with anything I do.
What I hope is that people can feel this generosity, and that if I do anything, I hope to share something deep and something personal, and something about myself.
I don't listen to my music.
Yeah, it’s quite a beautiful sensation to know that people are really listening to it. But I don’t listen to it myself, so I think I’m somewhere in between—some kind of universe.
FME is known for its eclectic and adventurous lineup. What are you most excited for the audience to experience in your set tonight?
Well, it’s my first time and I'm super happy to be here. First time visiting, and it's so beautiful, and so was the drive here to come. It was so, so, so nice. So I’m super happy. I'm really excited to play tonight.
When I visit a new place, I try to be present in my work.
I know people may be surprised by it, so I’m always happy when the public encounters my art for the first time.
After a live performance, what do you hope the audience takes away from the experience? How do you want them to feel while listening to you on stage?
Alive. I hope they feel alive.
Lastly, what advice would you share with artists who feel hesitant or afraid to release their music into the world?
I mean, yeah, it can be scary. Going on stage is super vulnerable somehow, so it takes courage.
But I think, yeah, just go for it, and also search for good people around you who can share in those moments with you.
Also, if you don’t know how to produce, you can look for collaborators, and you can grow a team around you to be able to make your ideas come alive.
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