Nicole Nicolalde’s 'Aquella Noche': Her Soulful Journey of Developing her Sound Through Embracing her Culture

By: Jada Milazzo

April 13, 2025

Interview took placed September 2024, after Nicole and the band performed at Columbia College Chicago's Manifest festival and were working in studio on new music

Photos courtesy of Vanessa Gonzalez - @vn3sitaa @colectivodemariposas

J: Since we have so many people here, maybe we can introduce everybody and say what you do as part of this band.

Cameron:  I'm Cameron Henry. I am the conga player for Nicole's band. I also kind of help Nicole when she needs it with some planning and kind of a shoulder if she needs some support. I'm kind of that role as well when I get random texts in the middle of the night about ideas, but mostly I just hit drums really hard.

Mark: Hi, I'm Mark Cangelosi, and I am the saxophone player in the band. 

Miles: Hi, I'm Miles Pretel, I'm a piano player, and I help with some other logistical stuff, and, yeah. 

Nicole: My name's Nicole Nicolalde, I'm the lead singer and the runner of this whole shebang. Cameron and Miles help co-lead the band.

Jackson: Hello, I'm Jackson Arbogast and I’m the guitar player in the band. I also do arrangement work for us as well. 

Sam: I'm Sam Herrera. I'm a backing vocalist in the band and I also do some songwriting.

Nicole: Yes, and we're missing Paris Catura, which he's our drummer of the band…Fernando Montoya, he plays the trombone. And we have another background vocalist and she’s from Chile her name is Isa Anabalon and our bass player, Dante Nottoli.

J: Wow, that's a lot of people, but it's great to meet you all! I guess in starting if anybody can touch on this or Nicole, just you, whoever would like to, but what is your background in music and the story of how you all came together.

Cameron: Okay, I'll answer while Nicole tries to figure out her mic… I got my bachelor's degree in music performance at Indiana University, and a minor in Latin American and Caribbean music. So, I have a lot of background playing salsa music and Latin jazz; and that's kind of where I got my start.  I came to Chicago and Columbia College, Chicago to do my master's in arts management. And the first semester I met Sammy through the amp record label program. And Sammy got me into the Latin ensemble at Columbia because I wasn't a music student, so technically I couldn't be in it. I kind of snuck my way in because of my prerequisites, they were like, okay, it's cool. And that's where I met pretty much everyone else. Nicole and Sam and Miles were all in the ensemble and then Nicole recruited me for her solo project. And then we just kept going. So it was pretty recent that all of us got together. We played and won Biggest Mouth, and then we played at Manifest, and now we have an Epiphany gig coming up! So it's a lot of stuff going on. We recorded one of our songs recently in the studio, so that'll be done soon. We just kind of all met each other through circumstance and happenstance, and then we made a band out of it.

J: Yeah, I actually saw you guys perform at Manifest. I caught like the end of that set, but I was there and it was a lot of fun. You guys were great, everybody was dancing and vibing. It was awesome. In talking about that, I know you guys won the Biggest Mouth Award, and with that you got studio time and a budget towards producing a music video and other things like that, right? So are you guys done with that time that you got with that? Or is it still in the works somewhat?

Cameron: I'm just gonna be your voice, I guess (Nicole’s mic not working). I think, if you don't mind, I'll just speak for Nicole. We went to the recording session, and that's kind of one thing that we've done so far. So the music video is still  in the planning stages of that. We're kind of working on what we want our vision to be and what we want to present; so we're just in the first steps of that right now. 

J: So with the music studio time, did you guys only work on one single or more than one song? 

Cameron: Yeah, we worked on one single, and it took us about three hours to do one song. That's kind of one of the downsides of having such a huge band, most of the time it always takes a long time to record songs, but especially if you have nine people in the studio. We recorded our original song that Sammy and Nicole wrote. It's called Aquella Noche. 

Nicole: When I was writing it, it was kind of like manifesting what I wanted and it's just like a story. So in the beginning, it's the duo between the guitarist, Jackson and I. It's the idea of when you're just so excited about something happening that you have to tell the first person that comes to mind. So it’s basically saying, let me tell you the story of this awesome night that I've always dreamed about since I was little. So, it kind of just takes you on a journey of how the night happened and meeting that person and having all these emotions of like, is it just a fling? Is it the real thing? It's all the excitement that you get when in the beginning of something, and also about having doubts. 

J: So in writing that, what was the process like? And did everybody have input in the songwriting process, or just you and Sam?

Nicole:  It was just Sam and I, it was during summer break last year. Sam was in Mexico, so we wrote the song through Zoom. It was kind of like a hangout slash songwriting sesh and we were just throwing ideas; just like silly ideas and stuff. We kind of combined our favorite salsa songs; for example, the reason why it's a duo in the beginning is because I was like “Dang I really like this is, not a salsa song, but dang I really love I Will Survive by Gaynor”. I love how dramatic it is, like it's just keys and emotion. So I was like, okay, I want that. And then there's a song called Mafiosa, which starts with a cool bass line; so that's why the beginning sound is the way that it is. My professor at the time who was also the director of the Latin ensemble at Columbia College was the one who helped arrange "Aquella Noche". Sam and I wrote the song and had a demo of what we wanted the song to be. Don was the one who helped transmit that through his arrangement. Do you want to talk more about it, Sam?

Sam: I remember we had talked about writing a song over FaceTime, before we were like “How are we even gonna do this? Like how do you write a song over FaceTime?” But then it was pretty easy and we wrote it in three sessions. I would write some chords on my own time and, it was a very vague chord progression, and then we would make a melody over it. Just brainstorming everything. We had a cute little Google Docs, with very silly ideas but it all worked out. 

J: I can't wait to hear it! I know me and Nicole were talking about it and there's not a set release date yet? That's super exciting and awesome that you guys had that studio time to be able to record. I know it's only one song so far, but what are your kind of hopes and goals within what you want to create in the next, let's say, year or so?  What things do you find inspiration from within song making and writing and creating?

Nicole: I've been working on my own and coming up with concepts and stuff for new material. I really want to mix a song that's salsa infused with funk. I think that would be really cool because that's the idea that I really wanted from this band, and it’s sticking with the traditional roots of salsa and Latin music but also bringing something new to the table and not just stuck in one box. That's the beauty of music you can do whatever you want with it and combine things. That's all creating art is about, just having fun with it. For example, during rehearsal, that's really the time where we experiment, even if we're doing a cover, we sometimes we get sidetracked and then we start jamming and then that's where the fun starts. 

Cameron: I feel like, yeah, I agree with what Nicole said. I'm definitely more into the older roots of salsa. There was a huge salsa craze throughout the seventies and into the eighties, but what happened was people couldn't have big bands anymore because the bigger your band is, the less people are getting paid individually. It just got to a point where the bands just get smaller and smaller until you just have a DJ playing, you know, the greatest hits because that's how you get the most money if you're a one man show. I think what you're missing by not having these large bands is the energy on stage. Like you cannot replicate having so many musicians playing together. You can feel the connection between everyone and that connection bleeds out into the audience where we're creating music for ourselves because we enjoy it, but also to present it to an audience to kind of promote this music and let people have a shared experience that you can't really get anywhere else. Live music is something I believe that we should be doing more of all the time. Everyone should be experiencing live music because that sort of connection that you have through music is something that cannot be replicated anywhere else, and that's what I want to do with this band is just make music with my friends and have those projects be appreciated in some way. I just think we can do whatever we want, but I'm happy to play with these guys and I want to do it as long as we can. 

J: Yeah, that's awesome. I really like what you said about needing more live music and just live events. I think it is really important as a creative, in general. Even with the music artists I've met through this magazine and just people that are my friends in everyday life that make music, it's so hard to actually find gigs to play at and just the time to even create an event to showcase your own stuff. So, it’s  awesome that you guys were able to perform at Manifest and the show you have coming up which is great for you all to showcase your talents. Is there anything else we should be on the lookout for coming from you and your band? 

Nicole: In things we’re looking forward to, we have the single and also the music video. I've been working with Daisy, who’s helping me co direct and that’s been really fun. Hopefully, many more gigs to come; there's nothing really set in stone, but everything with the band has been manifesting itself. We actually have rehearsal tomorrow and I'm so excited to hear one of the arrangements that he (Jackson) made of a song that I was like, “We gotta do this one, man”. 

Jackson: Yeah, I finally delivered on it. Took me a little while, but we're here. It's gonna be good and I'm excited to perform that as well! I wanted to mention about our performances, especially with this new concert we have to kind of spoil; we're playing some more modern Latin artists as well for some other arrangements and that's one thing that I think has been something that is really cool that we're doing. We’ve been incorporating both the traditional element of salsa; that Nicole and Cameron are familiar with, but also embracing this contemporary fusion approach to it. We’re able to come from a bunch of different backgrounds and combine it with this classic latin style. As a young guitarist I grew up on rock metal and then eventually jazz when I joined the latin ensemble in my last year of Columbia and I didn't know anything about salsa music. I knew a little bit of Latin music and that was about it, but it's been cool to just learn both the tradition and see what can be brought to it. That's one thing that I'm looking forward to a lot as we continue. 

J: I think a lot of modern musicians and rising artists that are gaining more speed and following are people that are creating more music that’s not one dimensional and in one genre. I think it's important to kind of blend the lines between everything because otherwise everything sounds the same. It's so important to see and hear people that are making music and just art that is a fusion of cultures and sounds; so I'm glad you brought that up.

Nicole: I think that’s what the cool thing is, everybody comes from such different backgrounds in music and it just brings some flavor. I joke around, I'm like “Nicole y Los Gringos”, but it's true. We’re all from different places even if it's Mexico, or it's freaking Minnesota, Chicago, you name it, the suburbs, we're from everywhere. That's what makes us special and cool. I think we all get along really well and we have a special connection and you can clearly see it when we perform, we just have fun. I'm grateful for everybody that goes along with my shenanigans.