A personal and beautifully vivid single from Cata Vazquez brings a warming and perfectly pictured recount of an experience that affected her on a deeper level and the artist has no problem with laying it all out there and letting her emotionally driven songwriting and performance shine.
"Still Makes Me Cry" is incredibly impactful, cinematic and you can feel the pain in the music itself alongside her passionate performance and engulfing approach to songwriting.
Her vocals soar and haunt with winding melodies that bend and sway as they grab hold of you and pull you into her world. Her memories.
It's a gorgeous and truthful single that lets you just get washed away with the sound. And it feels good to let it happen. To just let go and feel the song as if it were written for you.
It's relatable and orchestrated with great attention to detail as she creates sounds that swim around you and keep you afloat right alongside her.
We love songs that are so honest. Artists that wear their hearts on their sleeves like this are always impactful and moving to listen to.
I'm sure it's not easy to do. I'm sure that this was the way she was able to let it out and making music like this is somewhat cathartic. It would be for me.
With the release such a graceful song, we wanted to have a chat with Cata to find out where this song came from and what may be next for her.
Here's what happened.
RAG: Okay so let's start with " Still Makes Me Cry". This single has a great cinematic feel to it! Where did this song come from?
In October last year, I went through a pretty tough breakup, and I lost myself for a bit of time. I felt really sad all the time ,and overall, began to feel really insecure about myself. Considering this had been my first real breakup, I really took it to heart. Before writing Still Makes Me Cry, I had never written about such a personal topic, which made releasing it so scary to me; but in the end, it was truly so rewarding because I was able to connect with so many people who were going through a similar experience at a similar time and got to hear their stories as well as sharing mine.
RAG: I'm hearing some great styles on this release. Who are some of your biggest musical influences?
Some of my biggest musical influences are uprising artists in the industry such as Gracie Abrams and Griff. I am so obsessed with the songs that artists as such write, and I genuinely love how they express themselves with such originality. In terms of songwriting, I get a lot of my inspiration from the one and only Taylor Swift, because I feel like the way she articulates real life experiences and turns them into unique pieces of music is truly so inspiring as a singer and songwriter.
RAG: So how did this all begin for you really? When did you fall in love with making music?
I’ve been into music from a very young age. Around the age of 3, I would listen to artists like Madonna and sing her songs in front of the TV with a plastic microphone my parents had gifted me. When I was around 8 years old, I decided it was truly what I wanted to pursue in my life, and so my parents took me to singing classes at a Yamaha Studio ever since. At the age of 13, I was invited by Paramount Studios in Hollywood to record my first ever original, called Life. Growing up I felt this need to be able to emphasize the way I felt about the things that happened to me, and music became like a safe space for me to be able to open up about the things that were somewhat hard for me to open up about.
RAG: What's next for you as an artist?
Recently Ive taken some time off releasing songs because I truly wanted to decide what my sound was as an artist. As I’m growing up and evolving into the person I will become, my music is too. I will be exploring new genres of music in the near future. As I live in China , but am originally from Argentina, I want to explore writing in Spanish as well as Chinese (but my next song releases are definitely more inspired by my latin roots).
RAG: What inspires you to write a song?
If I’m being honest I write songs everyday. Some people love to play football, and others like to paint or cook etc, for me songwriting is an everyday thing. I feel like as a teenager you can feel lost and out of place in certain circumstances because you’re still trying to find your place in the world, so I truly love to make emphasis of that in my songs. I write about experiences that I go through daily, and sometimes about people that I feel like should know how I feel about certain things.
RAG: What are you doing when you're NOT working on music?
When I’m not working on music, I’m stressed about not working on my music. I feel the need to be writing music constantly and having the dedication that allows me to stay focused on the things I want to accomplish. Besides stress, I do love to hang out with my friends and the people I love, because they also inspire myself and my music in the best ways.
RAG: Who are you listening to right now?
Right now I’ve been listening to a lot of Phoebe Bridgers because I feel like she’s an exceptional artist. As a songwriter, I feel like her music is comforting in the sense that it makes me feel like I can really be myself and be as genuine as possible with the lyrics that I write. However, I have also been listening to a lot of latin music, artists such as Becky G and Nathy Peluso are currently my personal favorites. As Latinas, they really encourage me to explore my native roots and culture and to be able to explore songwriting in such a beautiful language ; but also to explore confidence as a woman, as their music encourages women to feel empowered and relentless.
RAG: Are you doing live performances?
I live in Shanghai and we just got out of a 2 month lockdown, which truly made me miss doing live performances so much. I will be having a lot more live performances these next couple months as its also a personal goal for myself and something that brings me so much joy. Being able to connect with my fans and hearing them sing the words to songs that I write on my bedroom floor is so rewarding and I wouldn’t change it for anything in the world.
RAG: This single seems like a big undertaking. What kind of advice might you have for other up and coming artists out there?
I feel like as I’m a young emerging artist, I should be getting advice instead of giving it haha ; but one thing that I feel like is particularly important is for artists to be passionate about the music they are making. From personal experience, if you’re feeling insecure about the music that you’re releasing or you feel like you can do better, take the time you need to figure out everything you want to convey as an artist and don’t pressure yourself.
RAG: Before we go, what would you like to say to fans of the music?
I'd love to say a huge thank you for your constant support with everything I do. I cannot express how much it means to me that you listen to my music and support me whatsoever. Putting myself out there is so nerve-wracking sometimes, but my fans have only shown me support and love, and I just want you to know that as much as you are there for me, I promise to be there for you just the same.