Nashville has a reputation as a destination for country music and gaggles of bachelorettes on pedal taverns. But among the vast sea of country musicians, there are also various Latin artists trying to bring their roots and heritage to Music City. Catalina is one of those artists.
Born in Chile, the Nashville-based singer-songwriter’s music is a blend of Latin influence and indie pop, sending messages of strength, hope, empowerment and vulnerability. In a video call with the Scene, Catalina discussed going from a soloist to performing with a band, how she came to incorporate her Latin identity into her work, and her hopes for her artistic future.
Catalina
Tell me how your musical journey began. How did you get started as an artist?
I started singing when I was very little. At age 5, I did my first talent show singing the Pokémon theme song in first grade, funnily enough, but I started playing the guitar at age 12, and that's kind of when I started writing my own songs. Being in the music programs in middle school and high school, I quickly realized that I wanted to do music and nothing but music. A lot of my family members were always just like, “What about a plan B, maybe study management,” when I was getting ready to go to college. And I was like, “No, it's music or nothing else.” I got started with songwriting at a very early age. I'm originally born and raised in Chile so I was there until I was 18 and I came to college in the U.S. to major in music and sound recording. I did it more for myself than I did it to have a degree or a job in the field because I just wanted to go into the music industry with knowledge. … I went to school up in Connecticut and graduated with a music and sound recording major, minored in English, and then spent a little bit of time in the music scene up in Connecticut and the Northeast. But things didn't start kicking in until I moved to Nashville at the tail end of 2016, and from there it's been a wild ride.
I understand that you started out as a solo singer but have since been performing with a band. How different is it performing with multiple people as opposed to it just being you onstage?
It's so different, and I like both in their own ways. Doing the singer-songwriter thing, which I had done a lot back in Connecticut, it's really special because you get to really share the story and the song from a much more vulnerable place. … But I love the elements of having horns and percussion. I'm not the most well-versed guitar player, so it's nice to have songs where if there is fingerpicking or solos, those things can flourish because they all just amplify the mood and the story of the song. So playing with the band, ever since I moved down here, it's just been so freeing and such a joy, because I don’t have to worry about my guitar abilities sometimes and I really get to focus on singing and moving. I like to do a lot of dancing and moving around, and being able to also look around at my bandmates and make faces or have moments with them is super exciting. It's just a really nice cushion and support. I know that I can fall back on them and they'll catch me musically if I ever need it. They're both special in their own ways.
Now were you looking for bandmates specifically with experience in Latin music?
Not really, I've been super fortunate in terms of finding my bandmates. My bassist and dear friend Evan Pitonzo. I actually met him freshman year of college back in Connecticut, so we go way, way back, and he's pretty much the O.G. member of the band. Then thankfully through Evan, I met Justin Costello, one of our guitarists, because they grew up in the same area. … I met my husband [Jon Galvin] in Connecticut, and once we moved down here, I roped in my husband to be the other guitarist because he's also a musician. We went through a lot of drummers, I don't know what it is — shout out to all the drummers that have ever drummed for me — but it's hard to find! We finally found Megan Clarke, I think it was back in 2018-2019, and she's been drumming with us since, and Julia Meredith, who's on the sax. … They all kind of fell into place. Some of them were friends first and then we became bandmates second, and others it was just finding someone that jibes with us. … So it's been interesting because none of them have a hefty Latin background and none of them have a lot of similar backgrounds or musical influences that I do … they each have their own little sprinkle of genres that they like and grew up listening to and playing that fused into the Catalina sound.
You have a very powerful and soulful sound. What artists do you draw inspiration from?
I grew up listening to the greats like Aretha Franklin and humongous Motown vocalists. And then, of course, pop divas like Beyoncé and Christina Aguilera. I'm a huge, huge, huge Adele fan … Lady Gaga … a lot of girl power in my musical-influence repertoire. But I've also listened to a lot of other music that I feel contributes to what people can listen to through my songs … I'm a huge Aerosmith fan … a lot of Barry White and The Bee Gees, like that disco R&B pop music from back then. But Hayley Williams from Paramore, Brittany Howard, Maggie Rogers, Young the Giant, there's just so many. I … have such a long laundry list of musical influences because it always will change in terms of which ones are predominant in the music I'm writing.
You record songs in both English and Spanish, and there's also a very strong Latin influence in your music. How important is it for you to incorporate your culture and your Latinidad into your work?
It's super important, and I didn't realize how important it was until three years ago. I came, in all honesty and transparency, to the U.S. because I wanted to be a big pop star. The music industry in Chile for indie artists just wasn't there. So I was like, “Oh, all the artists that I love are making it in the U.S. That's where I got to be.” And I wanted to be this humongous pop diva and make all the records as they do. I actually released an album back in 2015. … It shows just how much I've changed when I listen back to it. That year, the 2015 version of me, was so in that mindset of, “I need to be like everybody else.” I was trying to mold into something that I really was not, and you can hear it in my voice and my songwriting. It really didn't hit me until 2018, a sense of nostalgia really took over me. I've been in the U.S. for nine years, and it's financially hard to travel back to Chile to see family and just be within the places and everything that raised me. That nostalgia just prompted me to include a little bit more of my Latinidad, my culture and heritage in my music.
It happened almost organically — in the past I had never written in Spanish because I felt super corny writing it, and it just didn't feel natural. But I would always try and force it. … But then I think I was naturally yearning for that connection so much that it just started happening, little by little. The song “Multifacética” that I released in 2019 broke that spell for me. It came from the heart, it revealed so much of myself and of that disconnect that I had felt for the longest time. That also prompted me to dive into my heritage and do it a little bit more proudly. I've always been proud of it, but it just didn't reflect in the music because I was trying to adjust to everybody else's standards of what popular music should be. I also have a lot to attribute to the huge boom of Latin music, of all genres that we've seen. With urban you see J Balvin and Bad Bunny, but you also see Natalia Lafourcade, Rosalía, Mon Laferte … that in the last three years helped me a lot to have that confidence of, “I can do it in Spanish and I can do it in English. I can be a crossover and people are going to like it.” I think I was fearing that people would not receive it well here in the U.S., especially in the South.
“Multifacética” explores being a confident, self-empowered, very unapologetic woman. Was that the main message that you were trying to convey in that song?
To be completely honest, I couldn't even tell you what I began writing it about, because the meaning of it has changed to become exactly what you just said. It’s a message of power, of confidence, of being a woman. But I think it also applies to everyone else. After playing it night after night, the message that I was imparting to everybody when they came to see the shows was, “After you listen to this song and after you leave this room tonight, I want you to live as freely and as unapologetically and as multifacética-ly as possible. Because you're going to grow, you're going to go through so many stages, you're going to like things and then dislike them. You will change friends, places of work. You will move, maybe you'll stay, and none of that change is bad. Sometimes people are afraid of change because they're like, “Oh my God, it's going to turn my world upside-down, or I will become a different person. People won't recognize me.” You can be all those things. Just because you're changing into someone new doesn’t mean you have to completely scrap what's in the past. I think that message revealed itself once I listened back to the song weeks after writing, recording it and putting it out. When I was first writing it, it just came from the heart. I wanted to write about the dualities of life, and how you can go through different facets of your life. … I'm glad that it became such an empowering anthem, because I never meant it to be — that was just the magical thing of how people interpreted it and how I ended up interpreting it.
I understand you have a new song coming out. Can you tell me more about it and what inspired it?
So “Control” [embedded above] is a very special song. You can pronounce it control, or control — that's a little bit of the beauty of it. People won't know if it's in English or in Spanish when they read the title, but it is a song in Spanish. I wrote the song for my mom. My mom is a huge inspiration in my life. My mom and other moms out there have gone through so much in their lives. And my mom has been a true resilient fighter. Throughout it all, she's had a lot of great highs, but she's also had a lot of lows, like I know that a lot of people have had in their lives. But also in this last year, it felt fitting to come out with an anthem. It's a really vulnerable song, so it will meet people in perhaps a very dark space, or a very vulnerable beginning. You can hear some of the pain, hesitation and vulnerability in the music and the lyrics, but the song progressively grows to a triumphant return. The message is all about losing control and regaining, it's all very cyclical. I have seen my mom and other people in my life lose control of situations, perhaps lose control of themselves and feel lost, but you're always going to find your North again, your why, and that's going to keep you moving forward. I am hoping that this song really resonates with people. … The line in the chorus is “Dale pa’ delante hoy.” I want people to keep going, cry, let it all out, just stand up and make your triumphant return. You will make a comeback, whether it be for the people around you to see or whether it is for yourself.
Is this song a preview for an upcoming album?
It is not. I have a couple of other songs under my belt, so there will be a lot more new music and singles coming out this year, but I'm finally at a space where I'm confident with where I'm at. I feel like a lot of times I've been playing catch up … and even though I do have a plan, it's not the most perfect plan, it's not as methodical as I have been in the past. 2020 gave me a good opportunity to take a step back and take a breather, and 2021 for me is about continuing to create and spreading the music. I'm going at it more for myself than for industry or business goals. I need to refuel my love for music and my love for creating so a lot of the music that's going to be coming out is just a melting pot of tunes. Perhaps they will lead to a bigger something, but I don't even know myself yet. I hope that it does. But everyone will have to stay tuned to see, including me.
“Control” is out now and you can listen at the top of this post. Stream Catalina’s music on both Spotify and Apple Music and keep up with her on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and her website.
