May 20, 2025 • 56 mins
Over the past few years, Kali Uchis has released three standout albums: Red Moon in Venus, Orquídeas, and now her latest, Sincerely. Each has made a powerful contribution to the evolving legacy of R&B and Latin music—but Sincerely marks a striking leap forward in her artistic journey.
So it’s no surprise that in her conversation with Justin Richmond, Kali reveals she took a different approach this time—writing most of the album on her own before stepping into the studio. It also, heartbreakingly, makes sense that Sincerely was shaped in the shadow of a traumatic, life-altering experience involving her mother.
In today’s episode, Kali opens up about that experience, along with her reflections on parenthood, her family’s immigration story, and the challenges of her first tour.
You can hear a playlist of some of our favorite Kali Uchis songs HERE.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Pushkin. Hey, this is Justin Richmond from the Broken Record podcast.
Join me this June for a live taping of Broken
Record at the Tribeca Festival. We're all bee in conversation
with Infinity Song, a New York based soft rock band
comprised of four siblings who will also be doing a
couple of songs for us. You'll hear the artist and
a career spanning conversation about their inspirations and dynamic styles.
(00:39):
We'll be at the SVA Theater on June twelve at
eight thirty pm. Defind tickets. Visit tribecafilm dot com slash
Broken Record all lowercase. That's tribecafilm dot com slash Broken Record.
Hope to see there. Caliuccies has been busy over the
last few years. She settled down with her partner Don Tolliver,
(00:59):
had a baby, and released three great albums, Red Moon
and Venus, Orchidias and now Sincerely. And while they all
contry a lot to the amazing lineage of R and
B in Latin music, it's her latest, Sincerely, that feels
like a great leap forward for cali Ucci's as an artist.
There's something coherent in the messaging and the feel of
(01:21):
the album that make it stand out as not just
a great collection of songs, but also a great album.
So it wasn't surprising during the course of our conversation
to find that Cali, unlike her other records, wrote most
of this one on her own before bringing it into
the studio. It also, unfortunately made a lot of sense
that Callie had recently been through a traumatic life alterined
(01:41):
experience with her mother. Over the course of our conversation,
we talk about those experiences, along with parenthood, growing up
in Virginia, her family's immigration story, and her daunting first
experience on tour. This is broken record, real musicians, real conversations.
(02:02):
This episode is brought to you by Defender, a vehicle
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full Defender lineup at land ROVERUSA dot com. Here's a
conversation with Caliucis Caliucci's Hello, It's great to meet you.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Good to meet you too.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
You're you're You're way more up on what's going on
with the world than I would have imagined considering considering
the album. I just heard how good it is, I
would have thought you were you were, you were shutting
the rest of the world out.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
No, I feel like a lot of the album is
about the state of the world in a abstract way,
like obviously I don't touch on political or socioeconomic topics,
but a lot of it does kind of always lean
back on music being an escape and like escaping from
the state of the world. So in that way I
touched on it.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
It's a lot of tenderness still on the album too,
Like it's like when I like, I haven't really enjoyed
listening to it the last couple of weeks, just because
it feels so distinctly different from the world ring right now,
which is really harsh and cruel and terrible, and but
that could go on.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
But even like, I feel like a lot of people
are dropping dance music right now obviously this summer, so
I feel like it's definitely really different from other stuff
coming out at the moment.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
And this is the third album, it's a.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Third English album, it's my fifth overall album.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
The third album three years though.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Oh yeah, like.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
You've done three in a row. So I was just
like the I was just so shocked by the quality
than you. What when did this album start for you?
Like the writing and pretty.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Much towards the end of me getting together my my
last album, or I had started the writing process for
this next album.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
And coming off of Orkidias, why did this become? Like?
What was the I imagine you could have gone a
lot of different directions. What's how did you start coalescing
around this group of songs and this sound?
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Wells was a very dance heavy sound, So even though
it was a lot of different John was the main
element of everything thematically was movement and there was a
lot of different There was a lot of different dance
music involved in the project. So I was like, I
want to do a project that's just sentimental, emotional, vulnerable,
(04:27):
something that I feel that I haven't done in a
long time, and in a new way, in a fresh way.
So I'm kind of leaning back on my roots in music,
but doing it in a fresh way.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
For you, what is leaning back on your your roots? Like?
Speaker 2 (04:39):
For instance, like my first projects, I want to say
my first mixtape, which was called Brovilla Thanks a little
bit more leaning in those pockets. Even my first album, Isolation,
it's leaning a little bit more in that pocket. Not
to say that it's the same as either of those
projects at all, but it's more so what you would
expect from that artist if you were to have listened
(05:00):
to that artist, how that artist would have evolved versus
I think my Latin projects likes and like se Melo,
they kind of have took took on their own world.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
In hindsight, is like, I'm sure you got some pushback
from trying to go from isolation to Signelo BLA. Yeah, definitely,
But in hindsight it's really cool because the way you've
set your career up now is like for the audiences
and know what to expect in the best way. Like
you know, like when this got sent to me and
I was gonna put it on, I'm like, who knows?
(05:30):
Like who I got for cars? And who knows what
I'm in for?
Speaker 2 (05:33):
You know what I mean? Yeah? And I love that.
I love to be an artist is unpredictable and for
people to not know what to expect.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Where does that come from? For you? That that that
eclectic sensibility.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
I think just growing up with so many different inspirations,
being bi cultural, being that I grew up in different
places and I had that you know that sense of
like music from Columbia, music from VA, music in the
America versus South America. And then also I listened to
music from all over the world, French music, you know,
(06:06):
music from Africa, Italy, wherever it was. I've always just
been very much an avid music listener, like of your
own music nerd my whole life, so I think having
so many different influences and inspirations to the point where
I never felt restricted to keep myself into anything. I
always just felt that freedom of expression was the most
important thing for me, and yeah, not to not to
(06:28):
limit myself creatively.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Was that normal for your peer group, like for your
friend group, or like, was everyone else around you also
listening to all kinds of different sounds or was this
sort of did you somehow just no.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
I think most of my friends and people at school,
they used to make fun of that my had iPods
back then, right, you know the vibes. They used to
be like, oh that I used to always have the
most random music and whatever. That was just something that
I that I loved. But I did know a couple
of other people that were really into finding new music
(07:01):
and obscure bands and stuff like that. But yeah, I
think most people were just listening to whatever was on
the radio, so it was just diferent strokes for different folks.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
You must have also been listening to what was on
the radio, too, right, I was.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Never big on the radio personally, Like I loved to find, like,
you know, artists from different eras. I love to listen
to old school music, the music that my parents were
listening to or that older people were listening to. I
would love that when my I was playing music in
the house, you know, cleaning the house or whatever. That's
the type of stuff that used to make me interested
(07:34):
in diving into like all these and stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
So who were some of the artists at that time
that would have gotten you interested in thinking about music
or writing or listening.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
I mean I wrote music from since I could write.
I always was writing songs. I was just that kid
that was kind of like would wander off, you know,
when my family was out doing stuff. I would always
be like on my own coming up with songs, and
my parents would always be kind of like embarrassed and
start laughing because I used to be just coming up
with songs like in the grocery store or wherever, and
people used to be like, Oh, she's so cute, she's
(08:10):
so weird. I was just always like the weird little
kid that was just coming up with songs or stories
or you know, singing for the kids in the neighborhood
and doing stuff like that. So I'd never had an
artist that made me want to be like it was
just kind of like I always did it from as
long as I can remember, I always wrote music. But
(08:31):
I definitely I mean in regards to trying to like
find different music and stuff. I think because my dad
hit his job was he worked in apartment complexes, and
so when people used to leave and they would leave
all their stuff, sometimes he would just bring me home
the CDs or the vinyls or whatever. So I used
to get a lot of random different stuff from whatever whoever.
(08:53):
And that was kind of how when I was really little,
I started digging into like different types of music. And
then my friend's dad gave us a bunch of his vinyls,
and that was how I started getting into music. Like
it was just different ways that I got exposed here
and there through random things outside of my own family
that kind of just made me interested and made me
(09:14):
have that thirst for knowledge of more musicians and artists
and bands, and that there was a whole world out
there of music that I wasn't exposed to in my towns.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
That's really incredible. What how did that transition from just
being someone who would write, you know, silly songs as
a kid, or you know, age appropriate songs we could
say as a kid, to like uh to you know,
to kind of listening to all these type of eclectic music.
How did that person and how did you transition from
(09:44):
that to like making your first because you dropped a
mixtape on that PIF, which is legendary. I gotta say that.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Unfortunately, that's incredible.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
So once you finally got into like a studio making music, like, what,
what did you want to present to the world.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
I think I really just my my main goal was
I just wanted to try to actually do my best
and really learn. I was It was kind of like
a growing and public type of thing. It was like
I was learning and then I was just putting you know,
I was literally would literally make a song that night
and then just put it out onto the internet. Like
I didn't really have any intention for where the music
(10:28):
was going to go or who was going to listen
to it. I was just like, Oh, that made this
cool thing whatever. And once I realized, oh, people are
actually listening to it, it made me realize to be
more intentional, like, Okay, let me actually try, like, let
me really try to sing, because I didn't know how
to be a singer. I knew how to write songs,
but I was never like, you know, I've never been
(10:49):
vocally trained or I was never inquired. I never had
any of those type of things, so I didn't I
didn't know how to sing at all. At that point.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
You say you weren't inquired, but is it you were?
And I was in band jazz band.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Yeah, yeah, I played taxophone. Yeah, I played taxophone. I
play piano. I also did a lot of poetry competitions.
I took them really seriously. Like when you said age
appropriate songs, it made me laugh in my head because
the songs that I used to write, people used to
always be like, what the heck is this little girl
going through? Because we're always really deep. I've always been
a poetic girl, let's say that. And yeah, so I've
(11:25):
always just been artistic and that's always been my like,
that's always been my thing.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Do you remember feeling too, like there were like the
things you were expressing were maybe a little like deeper
than what a kid your age might be feeling.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Or no, I think it's just that was a comment
that I used to get a laugh from adults, like oh,
you're very mature or you're very you know, where are
you coming up with this stuff? From what's going on?
And yeah, I remember I had a poem at when
a contest. It was called another Person, and it was
I was really little, and it was about like it
was about looking at yourself younger self, and like it
(12:02):
was about the existentialism of like your life's course and
seeing your future and your past and your present like
stuff like that that I was talking about metaphysical but
it was a poem and anyway I won the contests,
but yeah, that's the type of stuff. Or like my
cat ran away from home and I wrote a song
about my cameraunn in no way, but it was like
(12:23):
this this longing and this sadness that people didn't realize
it was about my cat and they were like, are
you okay, like you know things like that.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
I don't know, were your parents concerned? No, No, like
maybe you feel too deeply, like she she, I don't.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Think No, I don't think they were concerns I did.
I was the kid that had to go to the
counselor in school for sure. But that was about you know,
as far as that went.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
Got it, got it? Why and why jazz? Like? Why
why jazz? How did you end up in jazz? Man?
Speaker 2 (12:55):
I always love jazz music. I've always been That's a
lot of my grounding as a vocalist as well. Like
when I first started singing, I had a lot of
people would be like, oh, you have such a jazzy
infliction on your voice, and I guess it just comes
from that. Like I you know, I don't think I
can read music anymore, but at the time I can
read music. I was first chair. You know, I went
(13:16):
to a lot of competitions to get very serious. Yeah,
I did it for years. Yeah. Also, yeah, I did
it for years. I took it very seriously, and I
think that definitely had some type of impact on when
I first started making music. You know, where my musical
grounding was in melodically.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
Did you ever think about picking the sacks back up?
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Like, I mean, I think that I could, but it's
not something that everyone always tells me like, oh, you
should just pick the sacs up in the middle of
a concert one I'm like, I mean, kind of fly.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Actually, could you imagine halfway through?
Speaker 2 (13:50):
I don't know, kind of random, but I mean it's cool.
I like, you know, it's part of part of you
know who I am, and it's part of you know,
what got me into into music in a sense.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
So that's cool. Well, it's nice. It's nice to hear though,
because when I was reading through interview, it's nice to
hear you prefer to yourself kind of as a vocalist,
because as I kind of going through listening to some
old interviews and reading small stuff like, it seemed like
maybe there's at least an era of time or a
period of time where we wouldn't say you put yourself down,
but you definitely refer to yourself as a certain kind
(14:24):
of vocalist.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Well, I really consider myself more just an artist than anything.
I feel like everyone has their fortes. I feel like
art is just mine. But I think I definitely have
learned a lot about my voice, and I taught myself
a lot about how to use it, and I've grown
a lot as a vocalist. You know, if you heard
those first those first you know, little songs that I
(14:49):
put out there, I definitely have grown a lot, So
I'm proud of that.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Yeah, Like the opening line is incredible, That whole first
verse is like vocally that was like it's stunning.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Oh thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Yeah, like just the way I want to tempt it,
but the way I think.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Once I realized my range, I started playing with it
a lot more, and I think in this album I
definitely lean more into the higher ranges because it just
became something that was fun for me to do. But yeah,
I think it's just it's all a learning process, and
I think with every album, I'm just learning more about
my voice and the things that I can do with it.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Yeah, but it wasn't even like on that first cut
in particular, it wasn't even like also just that higher register.
It's just the way you were sliding between that. It
just was really dynamic, and yeah, it sounded like it
was lyrically really impressive. And also just like the way
you phrased it and saying it, I think the.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Most important thing to me is kind of how we
were saying earlier, like I've never been inspired by one
artist or one like, I'm not trying to follow anybody's
path sonically or with anything that I do as an artist.
So I have really found my own way and my
own footing in regards to my sound.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Do you have certain do you have certain influences in
different eras of your life? Like would you say like nat, like,
are there a handful of artists that you're listening to
that you feel like are particularly inspiring to you when
you hear them?
Speaker 2 (16:12):
I think I knew. I think I knew for the
album in general, the type of inspirations I was going for.
I don't think people might not actually hear those inspirations
when they listen to the music, but I was. I
love female vocalists in general. I really don't listen to
male music, which is it's funny because so many people
(16:33):
are the opposite, like a lot of people. I remember
the first time that someone ever told me that one
of my cousins we were sharing music. I was showing
her some songs that I liked when I was really young,
and she's like, I showed her be York and she's like,
I don't listen to girl singers, Like I only listen
to I like guy both voices, because I guess it's
more soothing to people the low tones or I don't
know what it might be the internalized misogyny. Who knows.
(16:55):
And I was like, that's so strange because I started
looking at my own Cadillac and I was like, I
only listen to girls singers. I really don't have that
many male artists in my personal like day to day
music that I be that. It's just like classics like
you know, Marvin Get, you know, like legends, you know,
(17:19):
so full. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't listen to too
much guy music. I've never been like a fan over
any guy or had that type of I don't really
understand that that lifestyle. I don't understand people that are like,
oh this guy, Like I just never been that person.
I'll be like, oh my gosh, this woman. She's so
many you know, like I always you know, like Shad
(17:40):
or Selena, like, you know, so many amazing women, like
that's just always been my thing.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
So Selena, Yeah, okay, yeah for this album, Okay, shot
is Selena, Ammy whine House, the Cranberryes, uh cocktoo.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Twins, who else? Who else? Who else? The Sundays a
lot of more. I was more listening to a lot
more angsty, you know, nineties music, and I think in
general just ohfion A Apple, she's a huge inspiration. Yeah,
(18:20):
just music that's a little bit and like I said,
you wouldn't listen to this music and think that that's
inspired by them, But it's more so in regards to
women that are really able to like bear their soul
and their emotion and dig a little bit deeper into
their vocabulary and the things that they want to say
and get poetic with it.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
Yeah, that does make sense to me though, because like
the album is emotionally, like really poignant. Like like when
I was saying earlier, like I wasn't sure what I
was one hundred percent going to get from this album,
Like I do love that. It's like, you know, if
I want to party, there's there's great Caliuci tracks I
can you know, and the last album is one of
those if I want to, like just like the vibe
(18:59):
out at home by myself, Like there's great songs I
can put on for that. But uh, like why I
put this on? It was like it made that album
did make me very very emotional, Okay, and you know
the background knowing you know, you just had a kid.
Part of me, it did sound very firmly to me.
(19:20):
And you know this, This was my feeling when I
was listening as it sounded like an album of of
like it sounded like an album just rapped in love,
you know what I mean. And it made sense to
me that you both that you had a kid, that
you that you uh sort of had this long term
partnership and it's it. And it felt to me like
(19:42):
it could have been maybe about either one of those
things or both of those things.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Yeah, I mean there's even songs that touch on because
I try to. I know a lot of music is
very mail centered or relationship focused, and so I really
tried to make sure that I touch other topics because
I don't ever want my music to just be like
about so. Yeah, I have songs for my son. I
have songs even dedicated to like friendships. Like Daggers is like,
(20:07):
you know, about another girl. You know it's about it's
about a homegirl.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
What was that like? But what's the Daggers makes you think?
Is it? Was it not trying to think what the
lyrics Todgers was betrayal?
Speaker 2 (20:19):
No, no Doggers. Daggers wasn't about betrayal. Sugar Honey Love
was about betrayal really, which nobody would expect from the title.
But Sugar Honey Love is about betrayal. Daggers is about
a girl, a friend of mine. Daggers was they shoot
Diggers from their eyes. So it's about you know, she
gets a lot of, you know, people that are envious
(20:39):
of her or people that look her some type of way,
and she might not really know exactly what her worth
is and she doesn't see herself the way that I
see her, and she doesn't she doesn't necessarily have the
things that I wish that she had, which is real
love and you know, valuable and meaningful relationship connections in
(21:01):
her piece, things that really matter. And I think it
was really important for me to have songs that are,
you know, about different things that matter to me outside
of just a relationship, you.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Know, And Sugar, Sugar Honey Love, that's about a betrayal.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Yeah, Well, the beginning of the verse starts whoop, does
another one? Who could I ever trust? And then goes, whoop,
There's another one? Who tell me? Who could I trust?
So it's about it's about trust. And it's about it's
about you know, but later on it goes swear. At
(21:40):
this point, I've seen it. I've seen it all, so
nothing scares me anymore. Sick and tired of betrayal, tell
me who can I trust? So it literally says it's
about betrayal. Right. Then I started listening for the lyrics more,
I know, and a lot of people say like that,
I don't enunciate well enough, so maybe it's my fault.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
I don't think it's your fault. I just I'm really
not usually listening.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
I gotta get you a lyric so you can really
like listen and read the lyrics at the same time,
and then you can fully grasp it.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
And sometimes I gotta do that. Someone even told me
that the day, like something about someone was talking about
what's not Riah Carrey's.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Song, Oh we got some we got some lambs in
the building. They might be able to help you.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
Got we got Mariah Carey fan in the building. She's
one of my all time favorites. But legend, legend, legend. H
but what's that? What's that song that Jermaine Dupre did
with Mariah Carey in the nineties, big hit Now it's
gonna but some basically one of her big hits, and
someone was telling about the lyrics of the day about
how they're like they're kind of like a bit darker
(22:38):
if you if you listen to them, and I was like,
you gotta be lying to me, and I listened to
the song. I was like, Okay, yeah, I've been missing
this the entire time.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Happens like me, I have to watch the movies with subtitles,
so I get it. That might be what you need.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
Thank you for diagnosis. Yeah, we'll be back with more
from Kylie Ucci's After the break. I was wondering how
many songs recorded for the album versus how many made it,
because these songs are so good, but there's also so
many various styles you stitched together. That just sounded to
(23:15):
me like you must have been having some really fruitful
writing sessions lately.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
I made a lot of music. Yeah, I made a
lot of music. It was very hard to pick a
track list. I know a lot of people are doing
the you know, fifty songs in one album thing these days,
but it's not really.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Mike, but I didn't do it so beautifully.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
I was like I needed to be like around fourteen songs,
and I think I'm going to save some other ones
for the deluxe and that's just what I'm going to
do there. But yeah, I definitely made a lot a
lot of music.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
A couple of days ago, you posted about your mom
passed away to I, you know, I wanted to say,
you know, my condolences for that. That's that's really tough.
What did that have any bearing on what you wrote
for the album. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Yeah, I mean that was the headspace that I was in. Yeah. Yeah,
my mom was diagnosed with stage four when I was pregnant,
so that was like something that was ongoing pretty much
during the whole writing process, kind of you know, having
to you know, see her and out of the hospital
and stuff like that. So that was something definitely that
(24:27):
impacted the album. And then on the delex I have
a song that was written like right after her passing
for her, So that's on the Delexe though.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
That must have just been like a really hard headspace
to navigating pregnant your mom's getting diagnosed.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
Yeah, like becoming a mom for the first time and
losing my mom at the same time. It was definitely
it's still you know, That's why I'm kind of taking
my time. Before and I had got right back into
the studio just because I felt that I needed to.
But now I'm just I'm just giving myself time to
take it easy and not trying to do too much
(25:03):
on myself right now because I am still grieving and
I am still mourning. It is relatively recent, so yeah,
just taking it day by day.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Yeah. Did did you guys get to connect about motherhood
much before?
Speaker 2 (25:17):
Yeah? Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
She loved my son and she you know, she had
a great, a great bomb with him, and she was
obsessed with him, and you know, obviously I wish we
had more time two, you know, to talk about motherhood
and for her to see my son grow up and
all of that. But but she got to meet him,
and I'm happy about that.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
That's that's really great. Is that her voice on the album.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Yeah, Sunshine and rain that's my mom's voice in Sunshine
and Rainy. I'm actually dedicating the album to her, and
so that I put that that voice note. It was
a voice note she sent me for my son, and
it just so happened that she that she said sunshine,
and so I said, let me put this in Sunshine
and Rain.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
Wow, that was a really touching moment for the I
thought it was you to be honest for you guys
kind of did I don't know if I don't know
if you guys sounded similar to my because I had
a similar tambre. Maybe maybe, but that was a really
touching moment.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
Man, Thank you, Thank you. And I also have some
of my my son's voice on the end of Love
You So Much I Hurt, So that was really that
was really nice to get some voice recordings to him
and be able to include him in the album as well.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
It was great, you know, like it reminded me of like,
isn't she lovely? You know, like how like Stevie gets
his kid on there, like it's just a you know love,
That's what I love too. It's like again, and I
just appreciated it as a parent myself, Like when I
put this album on, it felt like if I don't
want to say, like, you know, like a grown up album,
(26:48):
but it just felt like, you know what I mean, Sure, yeah,
it's a mature album. It's just something it's like and
it's like I can, really from my perspective in life,
like appreciate it. And having things like that that I
can play around my kids that make them think about
our relationship, you know what I mean, Like what it
is to you know what I mean. It's just like
that's just such a cool touch to add to your
(27:10):
your your your catalog, you know.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
I love a lot of times people come to my
shows with their parents, and I think it's just so
sweet that they're able to like, it'll be a girl
and she'll be like me and my mom both love you,
and so it's nice to be able to touch different
generations and then be able to share that experience of
you know, having an artist that they both love in common.
It's really cool. That's like one of my favorite things
to see at my shows.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
Yeah, it's amazing. Who who would you consider as being
some of your like important collaborators on this album who
helped it come into like focus. I guess in a way, that's.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
A difficult question because I made the album in my
house by myself, never mind even majority of the songs
they were written without music, and I would just send
them to different people and I would work on, you know,
getting all the production together and stuff.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
So the studio, say Calie Cali's headquarters.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
I was going to ask, Yeah, so yeah, it's it's
my least collaborative album that I've ever made. I would say, yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
That makes sense. Maybe why it sounds so kind of
like sober and just sort of like direct in a sense.
You know. That's really what I was picking up from,
is just the songs are so direct, so that that
does make sense. Is that a way you would work? Again?
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Absolutely? I loved it. Yeah, yeah, I loved it.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
What's what was it? Tell me? Someone? Why? What? What?
Speaker 2 (28:36):
I guess just the that rawness of just being in
your own house and just being able to go upstairs
and pick up the mic. It's nice, I mean I do.
I did a few songs traveling like it's just us.
I've recorded that in Houston because I also have a
house in Houston, so I did that there. And then
(28:58):
all I can say I wrote that one while I
was in Miami. So there's a few songs that I
wrote while, you know, being out of the house. But
everything else I did in my house and I loved it.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
Wow. It's kind of cool how you a lot of
people and you have being you. I feel like you
have the poll you could just go to like any
number of like really big producers and just like do
a record with them. But it never seems. It seems
like you've always been very open to collaborate with a
variety of people, and not necessarily even people that are
(29:30):
like I mean, quote unquote hot, you know what I mean.
Like think about like you work with the girls so much, not.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
Too much of my producers.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
No, no, no, no, I'm just saying no. But like
think about like you collaborating with someone like like Damn
an album with Gorillas, Like it wasn't like you know
what I mean, It's not like he's not really like
in the pop space, you.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
Know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
I think attack.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
No. I I like to work with people that I trust,
and I think when I first moved to this city,
I was doing a lot of sessions with a lot
of you know, producers the moment and whatever, and I
don't know, I was just getting a lot of like
leaks like music like demo leagues and or them playing
(30:17):
my songs for other artists that they might get in
with because they're trying to get placements. And if I'm
not using it, they're like, well maybe they maybe, And
I don't I don't write songs for the artists like
my music is too personal to do that, and they
would just do it, you know, on their own without
asking consent first, Like, oh, I played this song for
so and so and they wanted for the album. Who
told you that you could play my music for you know?
(30:38):
I don't like that type of stuff, So yeah, I
just learned to. I have uh, trusted people that I've
worked with, Like Josh Crocker worked on a lot of this.
I've worked with him since Isolation.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
I know him.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
He's really cool, normal dude. He has a family, he
has kids, he lives all the way in England, and
I just go back and forth with him, Hey, what
about this? Add this list to this, da da da da,
and we just get it done. Dylan Wigan's another person
who worked a lot on this album, who I've also
worked with on other projects.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
Is like people part Who's I think rath Faeld, benterview
rothfel Ones. Is that Raphael's nephew Dylan.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
Yeah, I think he is, Yeah, because I think.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
He told me he's like, yeah, my nephew Dylan is
really good someone.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
I think someone did mention it to me the Yeah,
I think that that rings a bell. Yeah, but yeah, Dylan,
he's another person who worked a lot on the production
of this album and the transitions, and but yeah, it's
just people that I can trust because at the end
of the day, it's really personal music, and like I said,
I'm literally sending voice notes of myself with like sometimes
(31:42):
maybe a couple of chords, sometimes just completely raw to
you know, these people that I trust, and I'm like, hey,
can you build something like this around it? He's do
something like this, I'm thinking maybe something. So it's like
the process of making the songs is a lot more
raw and a lot more personal than just how people
just like might just get in a studio together and
be like play some beats and I'll jump on you know,
(32:05):
it's not it's not like that.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
That's not the way you make stuff.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
Yeah, personally, so so yeah, I just kind of learned
to to go with what works, and you know, maybe
for the next project I'll work differently. But that was
the process on this one.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
When you announced the new album, you put out a
statement and part of that statement was essentially you said
you were so grateful for everyone who was a part
of you, Like this is a quote everyone part of
your silent assent, and I was just curious what that
meant to you, Your viewed, your your rise in your
(32:47):
career is silent.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
It's so funny when when y'all quote me in these
interviews and tell me stuff that I posted, because I
don't ever remember when I posted. I'm always like I
said that.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
Okay, I would be the same way to quoting things
back to me. Like you said my producers were hot.
I did not say that.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
I just I just write stuff on there and just
I'm just like in the moment with my feelings and
then yeah, I think, I mean, I think silent a sent.
It's really just I've never had like a year that
was like a breakout year. I was like best new
artists to watch out for, but or whatever. It's like
I've just grown every year and I've always done better
(33:24):
than the year before, and I've always like I'm still
here and a lot of people can't say that. So
I like that type of trajectory for me, and I
think it's okay for the artists to also have those
type of ambitions rather than I think a lot of
people just want overnight success. And I think that my
journey's been really beautiful, and I'm really grateful for the
people that's still here that have been like watching me
(33:46):
grow literally from day one. It's cool.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Is there somewhere along did you, like, did that strike
you somewhere along the line that that's maybe a better
way to grow your career or did it?
Speaker 2 (33:58):
Like I think everyone, you know, everybody's journey is different,
everyone's path is different. For me, I never like this,
that's just personally what I want to for myself. And
I have a very strong understanding of the type of
career that I want and how far I want things
to get, how big I want things to get, and
(34:18):
I know, like you know, my boundaries would work. And
I'm just already very solidified. And you know it's not
it's not my first rodeo, it's not my first day
out here, so I already know like what I want
out of things, and yeah, I just that's for me.
But everybody's like I said, everybody wants different things for themselves.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
But it's a really refreshing perspective. Like we talked about
how you kind of can't hang anything on in terms
of stylistically, like it's like you're able to hold a
lot of what could be contradictory positions or or you
know at once, which is really hard for people to do.
Like you were able to be like no, I'm like,
I'm an artist who sings in English and Spanish and
(34:57):
you can't tell me otherwise, and you can't put me
in that kind of a box. And I'm going to
make an album that has like a countryish feel to
it and a do woppy feel to it and like
a very modern fel to it, and it's all going
to sound like me. You can't tell me otherwise. And
and similarly, it's like the idea that like you don't
(35:20):
you also seem to be like a very private person.
But at the same time, I've managed to like grow
a career that is like you know, where you're like
insanely popular and like have like a legion of fans,
and like you, it's it's a really refreshing kind of position,
and it's not something that you know, I don't feel
(35:40):
like we see a lot, you know.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
Thank you. I want to say I'm insanely popular, but
I definitely love my fan base because they know, you know,
they know what it is, and they know they know
that I'm just going to keep doing what I want
to do and not to put any type of expectations
on me beyond that. And I love that.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
I appreciate that you would say you don't feel like
you're insanely popular, but that it's like, you know, like
you really, I mean like you. It is wild, like
you say, like when you said silence sent it made
me think about it, and it's like you really have
climb to like from the start of where you before
we started rolling, you were talking about how you came
(36:22):
to la like right after high school, and then you
just sort of start to think about the directory of
your career and how you've kind of really done it
in this really unique organic fashion. But you really have
like grown your creator like this incredible consciously or not
like this, Like you're like one of the great young
singers and one of the great young artists. And that's
(36:44):
like that's not I don't know, it's not up for question.
I don't think you. I appreciate you. What your first
tour was with Leon Bridges about about a decade ago.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
Was that my first tour? Yeah, actually it was my
first tour.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
Yeah, sure, I could be wrong.
Speaker 2 (37:05):
I think it was my first time being on the road. Yes,
in a Yeah, it was I had done like little festivals,
but that was my first actual tour.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
Yeah, after one last break, we'll be back with the
rest of my conversation with cali Ucciese. Tell me about
your evolution in terms of your live performance and how
you approach performing now than you did ten years ago,
opening up or touring with Leon.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
I mean, I just I think that I think that
a lot, especially back then, like a lot of my
work was just me never being prepared for what I
was doing. I'd just be just speaking honestly. So the
same way I told you, like, I just put music
out like on that piit or whatever, and I didn't
actually realize so many people are gonna listen to it,
and then I took it down. It's the same way
(37:56):
with the toying, where it was like I was just told, like,
this is really important, you have to do it, and
I was like, okay, because I felt it was my
obligation to do so. But I didn't shouldn't have I've
really been doing that at the time. I probably should
have been preparing myself as an artist to like learn,
you know, I just kind of did things that was
(38:19):
just the time in my life where I was just
like I was just doing things. I just threw myself
out there, and I just had a lot of experiences
and I just I learned from experience. And when I
realized later, like, oh, artists actually go through artists development,
and they actually developed themselves first before they just go
on the road all willy nilly, or before they just
(38:41):
put out a project all willy nilly, or you know,
like I didn't know those type of things. I was
very naive. I was young, and I didn't know any better.
So essentially, I will say I wasted a lot of time,
Like I feel like that was a waste of time, but.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
It was, you know, I learned waste of time because
you just weren't It wasn't I wasn't actually put yourself
into it.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
I was actually prepared for it. Yeah, and and yeah,
I mean it's really hard. You know, being an opener
is really really hard. It's really it's really emotionally and
physically training, especially as a girl. You're not in the
type of city it's not glamorous whatsoever, Like it's not
even decent. So it was just it's not so Yeah,
(39:28):
I would say I would say that you know, it
was a time in my life. I was young, and
I was just I've always been very much learn from
experience type.
Speaker 1 (39:42):
Of person, So how do you approach it now differently now,
like a decade later, Like if that was less less
than decent, I was.
Speaker 2 (39:50):
A hands on learner, So I would just call that
a learning experience. But if I could, if I could
give a young artist advice and to learn from my
mistakes in my career, I would say to really take
your time cultivating yourself as an artist first, cultivating your music,
(40:10):
learning more about yourself the type of performer you want
to be. I don't know. I think I would have
maybe taken that route. Who knows, But who knows. What's
done is done.
Speaker 1 (40:23):
And it's cool you figured it, like you you've kind
of figured it out.
Speaker 2 (40:27):
I went to where I needed to be in the
end regardless, but I definitely there was a lot of
bumps in the road.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
I mean, you've cultivated a really cool, really great like
stage presence and persona, and like I feel like your shows,
your live performances are the exact opposite of what you
were describing that as, like you not being prepared, Like
I feel like everything's pretty intentional now in terms of
the way you perform, and.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
Yeah, no, things are way different now. Things are way
way different now. But I mean I had to learn
through the experiences, so I won't say it was all,
you know, terrible, but what I have done things differently
with and knowledge you have now.
Speaker 1 (41:08):
Yes, when did you finally get comfortable on stage?
Speaker 2 (41:12):
I never was nervous to go on stage. I never
had like nerves to get on stage. So I won't
say that it was necessarily about me getting comfortable on stage.
I will say it was more so me learning about
the type of show that I wanted to put on,
and get in touch with myself as a performer, and
(41:35):
just all of those regular growing pains of an artist.
Speaker 1 (41:38):
What have been some of your favorite moments performing live?
Speaker 2 (41:43):
My favorite moments performing live? Well, I actually think it
was really cool that I did get to do shows pregnant,
because my baby can say that he was on stage,
which is fun, and it was fun. He used to
be kicking. He used to be kicking, and he loves music,
so I feel like, you know, maybe that had some
(42:03):
type of influence on him that he loves music, because
he was definitely always around music when he was in
my belly. That was really fun. And what else has
been really fun?
Speaker 1 (42:18):
There have been any places where you feel like the
audience with the crowd is particularly I.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
Always have a really great audience in Texas. Texas always
has had a lot of love for me. Austin, Dallas, Houston,
They've always had a lot of love, I believe it.
Chicago they always show a lot of love. Florida, but
obviously La is always like they go the craziest and Yeah,
(42:47):
I would say those are the ones that stand out
the most to me when I'm on tour. I'm always
excited to hit those cities.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
Yeah, Texas, I'm late and it's great, so cool. You
have a house in Houston too, because I feel like
Houston is one of the most underappreciated cities. Anytime I
go to Houston, it is the greatest time of my life.
The people are incredible.
Speaker 2 (43:04):
Yeah, people show a lot of love there. I have
a lot of fans there and they always show, you know,
genuine and genuine love and it's a nice it's a
nice you know, just different pace from from out here.
Speaker 1 (43:15):
Yeah. Yeah, what are you going to? Uh? Are you
going to tour this album? Or are you gonna yeah, yeah, okay,
what it was the one of you going out.
Speaker 2 (43:26):
It's gonna be a summer tour. Yeah, cool, Yes, it's
gonna be really fun because I didn't get to I
didn't get to do anis tour because literally right after
my album, I gave birth, So I wasn't I had
to sit that one out, and I just, you know,
so much other stuff is going on. I'm glad I said.
(43:47):
I wouldn't have been able obviously, but now I'm planning
to basically just have another part of the show that's
dedicated to so that I'm able to do that as well.
Speaker 1 (44:01):
You're you're talking about how you performed when you were
pregnant and how your kid loves music. What I was
just curious, what music do you play around the house
for you for your kid?
Speaker 2 (44:13):
A lot of I want to say, a lot of eighties,
a lot of nineties. He loves uh. He loves Forget
Me Not by Petries. It's like one of his favorite.
He loves that song. I played Funky Town for him
all the time. I seen him that one all the time.
He loves that one. So yeah, we listen to a
(44:34):
lot of you know that in that world type of music,
do you. But he loves all types of music. He's
he's an avid music He's just obsessed with music.
Speaker 1 (44:46):
Are you introducing him to like to Latin music too?
Speaker 2 (44:49):
Oh yeah, Oh yeah. I played him like Vagenatos. It's
something that we have from specifically from Colombia, and he
loves Vagenatos. He loves it.
Speaker 1 (44:58):
How was going down to Columbia by the way, as
the artist you are now like versus you know what
I mean?
Speaker 2 (45:04):
It's beautiful. It's beautiful because there's really nobody who's come
out of my hometown. So I get a lot of
love when I'm there, and it's a really humbling experience.
To just be back home and get shown that type
of love is amazing.
Speaker 1 (45:18):
And you're still able to be there and sort of live,
Uh are you able to? Are you able to enjoy
the country still? Like it's not like.
Speaker 2 (45:27):
People are really respectful. And my town is a small town,
so it's like people will know and they'll just be respectful.
You know, we take pictures, we sign stuff whatever, but
people are respectful.
Speaker 1 (45:38):
Yeah. Noticing the tattoo on your arm, that's your that's
your dad signature, right.
Speaker 2 (45:44):
That's that'sport yeah, signature coming to America.
Speaker 1 (45:47):
From coming to America. Right, how much does you like
your your family's immigration story playing to how you you
you view yourself. I guess you know how much of
that feels like it's a part of your story.
Speaker 2 (46:05):
I think just growing up in a household that was
full of genuinely hardworking people that always taught me that
in life, you know, nothing comes easy and you don't
just get handed anything. And also just learning to be resourceful,
like you know, when I was going to school in Columbia,
like having to heat up our own water and having
(46:27):
to get resourceful when it came to washing clothes. You know,
we didn't have dishwasher. We didn't have sorry, not dishwasher,
a laundry washer whatever it's called, clo washer washer, we
didn't have those type of things. We had to get
resourceful with everything that we did. And I think just
growing up with the mentality of having to figure things out,
(46:48):
it makes you a lot more creative as a kid
as well. You find creative alternatives to everything, and it
definitely gives you that backbone that you need in the
world of just always having to row with the punches
in life because you never know what's gonna happen?
Speaker 1 (47:07):
And then you. I found it interesting that you grew
up in a very Salvadorian, very Salvadorian part of Virginia
that I also realized. I also found out I was
looking at stuff. Dave Grohl from The Food Fighters grew
up there, recorded like a Food Fighters album out of
his house that I don't even know. He's not Latino,
(47:29):
but she is. I don't want to take that away
from him, maybe as he did. He grew up in Chiliagua. Yeah,
and Alexander Alexandria Alexandria in Chiliagua.
Speaker 2 (47:39):
I didn't even know that they were from v A.
Speaker 1 (47:42):
Yeah, he's They recorded like one of their big albums there,
the third album, I think. But like like having your
Columbia roots grown up around Salvadorians, coming to La so
young and having that, you know, the Mexican influence that's here,
did you It has did that impact like at all,
(48:05):
the way you view your your your your the way
you relate to like Latin America, because it feels like
you've had a really broad upbringing in terms of your
you know, people tend to think of Latinos as like
one group y but like Columbias are very different than
the South of Dorians.
Speaker 2 (48:22):
Yeah, for sure, but I mean we all have underlying
like we all have similar cultures in a sense. And
I think for me that my uncle, he's Mexican, he
also raised me, and he also exposed me to a
lot of like oh these and a lot of the
Mexican La culture because it's actually from out here, not
(48:43):
from specifically LA, but he's from California, so he's like,
you know, I think that definitely played a role as well.
So before I even moved out here, a lot of
people back home would always ask me, you're not from here.
You're from the You're from the West Coast, aren't you
You're not East Coast? And I would be like, no,
I am from here, and they will always tell me like, no,
you're from You're from LA. You're probably from like random
(49:04):
people who if I was at the mall, if I
was out somewhere like getting the train or whatever, wherever
I would people used to always say that I seemed
like I was from LA, like since I was young.
So I think I've just always had different influences because
of Yeah, all the different people that raised me and
different things that I got exposed.
Speaker 1 (49:22):
To really in Angelina. I can't believe you.
Speaker 2 (49:26):
But now, yeah, well, now, now you know, I've lived
here for so long that it really does feel like home,
my second home. But but yeah, I don't know. People
always thought that I was from here. That's why I
was like, I might as well move there, because clearly
something's going on over there that is connecting with me.
Everybody wants to work with me from out there, and
(49:46):
I got so much love and support out there versus
you know, where I was living. It was really hard
to break out of like the DMV area. With the
type of music that I was doing, I would get love,
but it wasn't the same as out here. It wasn't
not at all. I mean even now even now, you know,
(50:06):
the love isn't the same there. Like if I do
show there as it is here and technically like that's
a hometown show, but out here feels like a hometown show.
It's weird. I don't know why. I just glad we
can provide that you guys. Thank you guys.
Speaker 1 (50:23):
Before we wrap up, just because I love that song
so much. Can you talk about the genesis of I
Love you so much it hurts?
Speaker 2 (50:29):
Yeah? Well, what was the first lines? Yeah, I love
my baby. Nothing else compares. When I look into his
brown eyes, it leaves me full of tears, crying so
pretty much the whole first month of me giving birth
to my baby, every time that we would make eye contact,
it would make me cry. I really felt like I
(50:52):
could see into his soul and like he was seeing
into my soul, and it was just, you know, a
connection that I had never ever felt before. I felt
like fully seen for what felt like the first time
I ever Like I felt like somebody really really saw
me and that I finally had, you know, this family
that I always wanted and that was really always my dream.
(51:13):
And I just immediately got inspired to write the song
because of that. I feel like music is subjective, and
a lot of people have had a discourse about whether
or not it's appropriate for people to dedicate the song
to a partner or you know, to other people. That's
for me, I just want to say, that's perfectly fine
with me. You know, I can be interpreted however you
(51:35):
want to interpret it. You know, I even had people
on my team that didn't really want me to lean
into the real you know, talking about my son too much.
Because they're like, oh, it's not going to be as
relatable to people who aren't parents, and I'm like, but
everybody has a mom. But I don't know. I guess
(51:55):
I feel like that's just the truth of how the
song came to be and what inspired me was just
my son and that beautiful feeling that I had never
ever felt before in my life.
Speaker 1 (52:07):
Were surprised by that feeling and that connection and that
amount of love was it?
Speaker 2 (52:13):
Yeah, I think, you know, I even know people who
I've heard stories about people giving birth and not having
a connection with their child and you know, feeling not
understanding why they maybe didn't have. And I was I'm
not gonna lie. I was scared. I was like what if.
I was like, what if I give birth and I
don't have this connection like this motherly intuition or this
(52:35):
you know. I was scared. I didn't know what was
going to happen or what I was going to feel.
And it was just such an overwhelming I mean, we both,
you know, me and Don both as soon as I
gave birth to him becaue. He helped me the whole time.
He helped me give birth, and he assisted me the
entire time and then as soon as he was out,
we just held him and we cried together. So I
(52:56):
know that he felt it too, like it was a
very overwhelmingly emotional moment. But it continued on for me
at least for weeks where any time I looked into
his eyes, it was just an undescribable feeling of emotion.
Speaker 1 (53:13):
And you always knew it's interesting, so you always knew
you wanted to be a parent.
Speaker 2 (53:18):
I had different faces when I was really little. I
was definitely that little girl that used to come up
with a bunch of names in my little journal. I
was like, this is what I'm gonna name my kids
one day, and I thought, you know, I always used
to carry my little doll around and I wanted to,
you know, when I was really little. And then you know,
you get in that teenage era and you're like, I
will never bring kids into this fucked up world and whatever.
(53:41):
And I even got a tattooed right here. That was
my first tattoo. I was like sixteen when I got
this tiger tattoo I have here, and I had friends
that were like, but what if you get pregnant, You're
gonna stretch the tattoo. I did it, and I was like,
I will never get pregnant. I'm not gonna do that
to myself. I'm not gonna have a baby. That's crazy.
And then I got pregnant, and luckily my tattoo is
just fine. Is fine, It's perfectly fine. It was just
(54:07):
funny when I was pregnant because it's like all lopsided.
The title was like, we're going to the opposite seration.
But I went right back into place somehow, So everything
is fine. We're all good. Me and the tiger. My
son loves the tattoo. He loves tigers, so every time
he makes me show him the tiger and he's like raves.
He lives that tattoo.
Speaker 1 (54:26):
That's adorable.
Speaker 2 (54:27):
It all worked out well.
Speaker 1 (54:30):
Do you want to have more kids?
Speaker 2 (54:31):
Do you feel like that's like, yeah, maybe like two
or three more.
Speaker 1 (54:36):
It's encouraging to meet. I feel like I talked to
so many people don't want to have kids or don't
have and I'm like, man, I feel like sometimes I'm like,
you know, it's it's it's it sometimes, you know, and
especially when you have a kid and you work in
an industry that's less than traditional, you know, it can
be like, and it can also be like a really
hard balance between you know, like wow, am I Am
(54:57):
I doing this right? And am I doing my career right?
Speaker 2 (54:59):
And it's something not easy. It's not easy at all,
but for me, it's very much worth it. It's very
worth it.
Speaker 1 (55:06):
How are you navigating that part of it now?
Speaker 2 (55:10):
It's just still learning to navigate it, you know, Like
I said, the boundaries with work and being able to understand,
you know, not to necessarily take every opportunity and to
do what means most to me and to always prioritize
him and always prioritize you know, my relationship, my family.
And as long as I keep doing that, I feel
(55:31):
like I'll be fine.
Speaker 1 (55:33):
Amazing. Yeah, cal Is you thanks so much for thank
you for having me.
Speaker 2 (55:37):
It's a great talk. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (55:42):
In the episode description, you'll find a link to a
playlist to some of our favorite Caliu Chiese songs. Be
sure to check out our video episodes at YouTube dot
com slash Broken Record Podcast and see all of our
video interviews, and be sure to follow us on Instagram
at the Broken Record Pod. You can follow us on
Twitter at Broken Records. Broken Record is produced and edited
(56:02):
by Leah Rose, with marketing help from Eric Sandler and
Jordan McMillan. Our engineer is Ben Holliday. Broken Record is
a production of Pushkin Industries. If you love this show
and others from Pushkin, consider subscribing to Pushkin Plus. Pushkin
Plus is a podcast subscription that offers bonus content and
ad free listening for four ninety nine a month. Look
(56:23):
for Pushkin Plus on Apple podcast subscriptions. And if you
like this show, please remember to share rake and review
us on your podcast app. Our theme music's by Kenny Beats.
I'm justin Richmond.
Pushkin. Hey, this is Justin Richmond from the Broken Record podcast.
Join me this June for a live taping of Broken
Record at the Tribeca Festival. We're all bee in conversation
with Infinity Song, a New York based soft rock band
comprised of four siblings who will also be doing a
couple of songs for us. You'll hear the artist and
a career spanning conversation about their inspirations and dynamic styles.
(00:39):
We'll be at the SVA Theater on June twelve at
eight thirty pm. Defind tickets. Visit tribecafilm dot com slash
Broken Record all lowercase. That's tribecafilm dot com slash Broken Record.
Hope to see there. Caliuccies has been busy over the
last few years. She settled down with her partner Don Tolliver,
(00:59):
had a baby, and released three great albums, Red Moon
and Venus, Orchidias and now Sincerely. And while they all
contry a lot to the amazing lineage of R and
B in Latin music, it's her latest, Sincerely, that feels
like a great leap forward for cali Ucci's as an artist.
There's something coherent in the messaging and the feel of
(01:21):
the album that make it stand out as not just
a great collection of songs, but also a great album.
So it wasn't surprising during the course of our conversation
to find that Cali, unlike her other records, wrote most
of this one on her own before bringing it into
the studio. It also, unfortunately made a lot of sense
that Callie had recently been through a traumatic life alterined
(01:41):
experience with her mother. Over the course of our conversation,
we talk about those experiences, along with parenthood, growing up
in Virginia, her family's immigration story, and her daunting first
experience on tour. This is broken record, real musicians, real conversations.
(02:02):
This episode is brought to you by Defender, a vehicle
engineered to meet challenges head on, so you can explore
with confidence. Adventure seekers and risk takers can explore the
full Defender lineup at land ROVERUSA dot com. Here's a
conversation with Caliucis Caliucci's Hello, It's great to meet you.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Good to meet you too.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
You're you're You're way more up on what's going on
with the world than I would have imagined considering considering
the album. I just heard how good it is, I
would have thought you were you were, you were shutting
the rest of the world out.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
No, I feel like a lot of the album is
about the state of the world in a abstract way,
like obviously I don't touch on political or socioeconomic topics,
but a lot of it does kind of always lean
back on music being an escape and like escaping from
the state of the world. So in that way I
touched on it.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
It's a lot of tenderness still on the album too,
Like it's like when I like, I haven't really enjoyed
listening to it the last couple of weeks, just because
it feels so distinctly different from the world ring right now,
which is really harsh and cruel and terrible, and but
that could go on.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
But even like, I feel like a lot of people
are dropping dance music right now obviously this summer, so
I feel like it's definitely really different from other stuff
coming out at the moment.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
And this is the third album, it's a.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Third English album, it's my fifth overall album.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
The third album three years though.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Oh yeah, like.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
You've done three in a row. So I was just
like the I was just so shocked by the quality
than you. What when did this album start for you?
Like the writing and pretty.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Much towards the end of me getting together my my
last album, or I had started the writing process for
this next album.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
And coming off of Orkidias, why did this become? Like?
What was the I imagine you could have gone a
lot of different directions. What's how did you start coalescing
around this group of songs and this sound?
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Wells was a very dance heavy sound, So even though
it was a lot of different John was the main
element of everything thematically was movement and there was a
lot of different There was a lot of different dance
music involved in the project. So I was like, I
want to do a project that's just sentimental, emotional, vulnerable,
(04:27):
something that I feel that I haven't done in a
long time, and in a new way, in a fresh way.
So I'm kind of leaning back on my roots in music,
but doing it in a fresh way.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
For you, what is leaning back on your your roots? Like?
Speaker 2 (04:39):
For instance, like my first projects, I want to say
my first mixtape, which was called Brovilla Thanks a little
bit more leaning in those pockets. Even my first album, Isolation,
it's leaning a little bit more in that pocket. Not
to say that it's the same as either of those
projects at all, but it's more so what you would
expect from that artist if you were to have listened
(05:00):
to that artist, how that artist would have evolved versus
I think my Latin projects likes and like se Melo,
they kind of have took took on their own world.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
In hindsight, is like, I'm sure you got some pushback
from trying to go from isolation to Signelo BLA. Yeah, definitely,
But in hindsight it's really cool because the way you've
set your career up now is like for the audiences
and know what to expect in the best way. Like
you know, like when this got sent to me and
I was gonna put it on, I'm like, who knows?
(05:30):
Like who I got for cars? And who knows what
I'm in for?
Speaker 2 (05:33):
You know what I mean? Yeah? And I love that.
I love to be an artist is unpredictable and for
people to not know what to expect.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Where does that come from? For you? That that that
eclectic sensibility.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
I think just growing up with so many different inspirations,
being bi cultural, being that I grew up in different
places and I had that you know that sense of
like music from Columbia, music from VA, music in the
America versus South America. And then also I listened to
music from all over the world, French music, you know,
(06:06):
music from Africa, Italy, wherever it was. I've always just
been very much an avid music listener, like of your
own music nerd my whole life, so I think having
so many different influences and inspirations to the point where
I never felt restricted to keep myself into anything. I
always just felt that freedom of expression was the most
important thing for me, and yeah, not to not to
(06:28):
limit myself creatively.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Was that normal for your peer group, like for your
friend group, or like, was everyone else around you also
listening to all kinds of different sounds or was this
sort of did you somehow just no.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
I think most of my friends and people at school,
they used to make fun of that my had iPods
back then, right, you know the vibes. They used to
be like, oh that I used to always have the
most random music and whatever. That was just something that
I that I loved. But I did know a couple
of other people that were really into finding new music
(07:01):
and obscure bands and stuff like that. But yeah, I
think most people were just listening to whatever was on
the radio, so it was just diferent strokes for different folks.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
You must have also been listening to what was on
the radio, too, right, I was.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Never big on the radio personally, Like I loved to find, like,
you know, artists from different eras. I love to listen
to old school music, the music that my parents were
listening to or that older people were listening to. I
would love that when my I was playing music in
the house, you know, cleaning the house or whatever. That's
the type of stuff that used to make me interested
(07:34):
in diving into like all these and stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
So who were some of the artists at that time
that would have gotten you interested in thinking about music
or writing or listening.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
I mean I wrote music from since I could write.
I always was writing songs. I was just that kid
that was kind of like would wander off, you know,
when my family was out doing stuff. I would always
be like on my own coming up with songs, and
my parents would always be kind of like embarrassed and
start laughing because I used to be just coming up
with songs like in the grocery store or wherever, and
people used to be like, Oh, she's so cute, she's
(08:10):
so weird. I was just always like the weird little
kid that was just coming up with songs or stories
or you know, singing for the kids in the neighborhood
and doing stuff like that. So I'd never had an
artist that made me want to be like it was
just kind of like I always did it from as
long as I can remember, I always wrote music. But
(08:31):
I definitely I mean in regards to trying to like
find different music and stuff. I think because my dad
hit his job was he worked in apartment complexes, and
so when people used to leave and they would leave
all their stuff, sometimes he would just bring me home
the CDs or the vinyls or whatever. So I used
to get a lot of random different stuff from whatever whoever.
(08:53):
And that was kind of how when I was really little,
I started digging into like different types of music. And
then my friend's dad gave us a bunch of his vinyls,
and that was how I started getting into music. Like
it was just different ways that I got exposed here
and there through random things outside of my own family
that kind of just made me interested and made me
(09:14):
have that thirst for knowledge of more musicians and artists
and bands, and that there was a whole world out
there of music that I wasn't exposed to in my towns.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
That's really incredible. What how did that transition from just
being someone who would write, you know, silly songs as
a kid, or you know, age appropriate songs we could
say as a kid, to like uh to you know,
to kind of listening to all these type of eclectic music.
How did that person and how did you transition from
(09:44):
that to like making your first because you dropped a
mixtape on that PIF, which is legendary. I gotta say that.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Unfortunately, that's incredible.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
So once you finally got into like a studio making music, like, what,
what did you want to present to the world.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
I think I really just my my main goal was
I just wanted to try to actually do my best
and really learn. I was It was kind of like
a growing and public type of thing. It was like
I was learning and then I was just putting you know,
I was literally would literally make a song that night
and then just put it out onto the internet. Like
I didn't really have any intention for where the music
(10:28):
was going to go or who was going to listen
to it. I was just like, Oh, that made this
cool thing whatever. And once I realized, oh, people are
actually listening to it, it made me realize to be
more intentional, like, Okay, let me actually try, like, let
me really try to sing, because I didn't know how
to be a singer. I knew how to write songs,
but I was never like, you know, I've never been
(10:49):
vocally trained or I was never inquired. I never had
any of those type of things, so I didn't I
didn't know how to sing at all. At that point.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
You say you weren't inquired, but is it you were?
And I was in band jazz band.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Yeah, yeah, I played taxophone. Yeah, I played taxophone. I
play piano. I also did a lot of poetry competitions.
I took them really seriously. Like when you said age
appropriate songs, it made me laugh in my head because
the songs that I used to write, people used to
always be like, what the heck is this little girl
going through? Because we're always really deep. I've always been
a poetic girl, let's say that. And yeah, so I've
(11:25):
always just been artistic and that's always been my like,
that's always been my thing.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Do you remember feeling too, like there were like the
things you were expressing were maybe a little like deeper
than what a kid your age might be feeling.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Or no, I think it's just that was a comment
that I used to get a laugh from adults, like oh,
you're very mature or you're very you know, where are
you coming up with this stuff? From what's going on?
And yeah, I remember I had a poem at when
a contest. It was called another Person, and it was
I was really little, and it was about like it
was about looking at yourself younger self, and like it
(12:02):
was about the existentialism of like your life's course and
seeing your future and your past and your present like
stuff like that that I was talking about metaphysical but
it was a poem and anyway I won the contests,
but yeah, that's the type of stuff. Or like my
cat ran away from home and I wrote a song
about my cameraunn in no way, but it was like
(12:23):
this this longing and this sadness that people didn't realize
it was about my cat and they were like, are
you okay, like you know things like that.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
I don't know, were your parents concerned? No, No, like
maybe you feel too deeply, like she she, I don't.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Think No, I don't think they were concerns I did.
I was the kid that had to go to the
counselor in school for sure. But that was about you know,
as far as that went.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
Got it, got it? Why and why jazz? Like? Why
why jazz? How did you end up in jazz? Man?
Speaker 2 (12:55):
I always love jazz music. I've always been That's a
lot of my grounding as a vocalist as well. Like
when I first started singing, I had a lot of
people would be like, oh, you have such a jazzy
infliction on your voice, and I guess it just comes
from that. Like I you know, I don't think I
can read music anymore, but at the time I can
read music. I was first chair. You know, I went
(13:16):
to a lot of competitions to get very serious. Yeah,
I did it for years. Yeah. Also, yeah, I did
it for years. I took it very seriously, and I
think that definitely had some type of impact on when
I first started making music. You know, where my musical
grounding was in melodically.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
Did you ever think about picking the sacks back up?
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Like, I mean, I think that I could, but it's
not something that everyone always tells me like, oh, you
should just pick the sacs up in the middle of
a concert one I'm like, I mean, kind of fly.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Actually, could you imagine halfway through?
Speaker 2 (13:50):
I don't know, kind of random, but I mean it's cool.
I like, you know, it's part of part of you
know who I am, and it's part of you know,
what got me into into music in a sense.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
So that's cool. Well, it's nice. It's nice to hear though,
because when I was reading through interview, it's nice to
hear you prefer to yourself kind of as a vocalist,
because as I kind of going through listening to some
old interviews and reading small stuff like, it seemed like
maybe there's at least an era of time or a
period of time where we wouldn't say you put yourself down,
but you definitely refer to yourself as a certain kind
(14:24):
of vocalist.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Well, I really consider myself more just an artist than anything.
I feel like everyone has their fortes. I feel like
art is just mine. But I think I definitely have
learned a lot about my voice, and I taught myself
a lot about how to use it, and I've grown
a lot as a vocalist. You know, if you heard
those first those first you know, little songs that I
(14:49):
put out there, I definitely have grown a lot, So
I'm proud of that.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Yeah, Like the opening line is incredible, That whole first
verse is like vocally that was like it's stunning.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Oh thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Yeah, like just the way I want to tempt it,
but the way I think.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Once I realized my range, I started playing with it
a lot more, and I think in this album I
definitely lean more into the higher ranges because it just
became something that was fun for me to do. But yeah,
I think it's just it's all a learning process, and
I think with every album, I'm just learning more about
my voice and the things that I can do with it.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Yeah, but it wasn't even like on that first cut
in particular, it wasn't even like also just that higher register.
It's just the way you were sliding between that. It
just was really dynamic, and yeah, it sounded like it
was lyrically really impressive. And also just like the way
you phrased it and saying it, I think the.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Most important thing to me is kind of how we
were saying earlier, like I've never been inspired by one
artist or one like, I'm not trying to follow anybody's
path sonically or with anything that I do as an artist.
So I have really found my own way and my
own footing in regards to my sound.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Do you have certain do you have certain influences in
different eras of your life? Like would you say like nat, like,
are there a handful of artists that you're listening to
that you feel like are particularly inspiring to you when
you hear them?
Speaker 2 (16:12):
I think I knew. I think I knew for the
album in general, the type of inspirations I was going for.
I don't think people might not actually hear those inspirations
when they listen to the music, but I was. I
love female vocalists in general. I really don't listen to
male music, which is it's funny because so many people
(16:33):
are the opposite, like a lot of people. I remember
the first time that someone ever told me that one
of my cousins we were sharing music. I was showing
her some songs that I liked when I was really young,
and she's like, I showed her be York and she's like,
I don't listen to girl singers, Like I only listen
to I like guy both voices, because I guess it's
more soothing to people the low tones or I don't
know what it might be the internalized misogyny. Who knows.
(16:55):
And I was like, that's so strange because I started
looking at my own Cadillac and I was like, I
only listen to girls singers. I really don't have that
many male artists in my personal like day to day
music that I be that. It's just like classics like
you know, Marvin Get, you know, like legends, you know,
(17:19):
so full. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't listen to too
much guy music. I've never been like a fan over
any guy or had that type of I don't really
understand that that lifestyle. I don't understand people that are like,
oh this guy, Like I just never been that person.
I'll be like, oh my gosh, this woman. She's so
many you know, like I always you know, like Shad
(17:40):
or Selena, like, you know, so many amazing women, like
that's just always been my thing.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
So Selena, Yeah, okay, yeah for this album, Okay, shot
is Selena, Ammy whine House, the Cranberryes, uh cocktoo.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Twins, who else? Who else? Who else? The Sundays a
lot of more. I was more listening to a lot
more angsty, you know, nineties music, and I think in
general just ohfion A Apple, she's a huge inspiration. Yeah,
(18:20):
just music that's a little bit and like I said,
you wouldn't listen to this music and think that that's
inspired by them, But it's more so in regards to
women that are really able to like bear their soul
and their emotion and dig a little bit deeper into
their vocabulary and the things that they want to say
and get poetic with it.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
Yeah, that does make sense to me though, because like
the album is emotionally, like really poignant. Like like when
I was saying earlier, like I wasn't sure what I
was one hundred percent going to get from this album,
Like I do love that. It's like, you know, if
I want to party, there's there's great Caliuci tracks I
can you know, and the last album is one of
those if I want to, like just like the vibe
(18:59):
out at home by myself, Like there's great songs I
can put on for that. But uh, like why I
put this on? It was like it made that album
did make me very very emotional, Okay, and you know
the background knowing you know, you just had a kid.
Part of me, it did sound very firmly to me.
(19:20):
And you know this, This was my feeling when I
was listening as it sounded like an album of of
like it sounded like an album just rapped in love,
you know what I mean. And it made sense to
me that you both that you had a kid, that
you that you uh sort of had this long term
partnership and it's it. And it felt to me like
(19:42):
it could have been maybe about either one of those
things or both of those things.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Yeah, I mean there's even songs that touch on because
I try to. I know a lot of music is
very mail centered or relationship focused, and so I really
tried to make sure that I touch other topics because
I don't ever want my music to just be like
about so. Yeah, I have songs for my son. I
have songs even dedicated to like friendships. Like Daggers is like,
(20:07):
you know, about another girl. You know it's about it's
about a homegirl.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
What was that like? But what's the Daggers makes you think?
Is it? Was it not trying to think what the
lyrics Todgers was betrayal?
Speaker 2 (20:19):
No, no Doggers. Daggers wasn't about betrayal. Sugar Honey Love
was about betrayal really, which nobody would expect from the title.
But Sugar Honey Love is about betrayal. Daggers is about
a girl, a friend of mine. Daggers was they shoot
Diggers from their eyes. So it's about you know, she
gets a lot of, you know, people that are envious
(20:39):
of her or people that look her some type of way,
and she might not really know exactly what her worth
is and she doesn't see herself the way that I
see her, and she doesn't she doesn't necessarily have the
things that I wish that she had, which is real
love and you know, valuable and meaningful relationship connections in
(21:01):
her piece, things that really matter. And I think it
was really important for me to have songs that are,
you know, about different things that matter to me outside
of just a relationship, you.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Know, And Sugar, Sugar Honey Love, that's about a betrayal.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Yeah, Well, the beginning of the verse starts whoop, does
another one? Who could I ever trust? And then goes, whoop,
There's another one? Who tell me? Who could I trust?
So it's about it's about trust. And it's about it's
about you know, but later on it goes swear. At
(21:40):
this point, I've seen it. I've seen it all, so
nothing scares me anymore. Sick and tired of betrayal, tell
me who can I trust? So it literally says it's
about betrayal. Right. Then I started listening for the lyrics more,
I know, and a lot of people say like that,
I don't enunciate well enough, so maybe it's my fault.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
I don't think it's your fault. I just I'm really
not usually listening.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
I gotta get you a lyric so you can really
like listen and read the lyrics at the same time,
and then you can fully grasp it.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
And sometimes I gotta do that. Someone even told me
that the day, like something about someone was talking about
what's not Riah Carrey's.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Song, Oh we got some we got some lambs in
the building. They might be able to help you.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
Got we got Mariah Carey fan in the building. She's
one of my all time favorites. But legend, legend, legend. H
but what's that? What's that song that Jermaine Dupre did
with Mariah Carey in the nineties, big hit Now it's
gonna but some basically one of her big hits, and
someone was telling about the lyrics of the day about
how they're like they're kind of like a bit darker
(22:38):
if you if you listen to them, and I was like,
you gotta be lying to me, and I listened to
the song. I was like, Okay, yeah, I've been missing
this the entire time.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Happens like me, I have to watch the movies with subtitles,
so I get it. That might be what you need.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
Thank you for diagnosis. Yeah, we'll be back with more
from Kylie Ucci's After the break. I was wondering how
many songs recorded for the album versus how many made it,
because these songs are so good, but there's also so
many various styles you stitched together. That just sounded to
(23:15):
me like you must have been having some really fruitful
writing sessions lately.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
I made a lot of music. Yeah, I made a
lot of music. It was very hard to pick a
track list. I know a lot of people are doing
the you know, fifty songs in one album thing these days,
but it's not really.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Mike, but I didn't do it so beautifully.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
I was like I needed to be like around fourteen songs,
and I think I'm going to save some other ones
for the deluxe and that's just what I'm going to
do there. But yeah, I definitely made a lot a
lot of music.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
A couple of days ago, you posted about your mom
passed away to I, you know, I wanted to say,
you know, my condolences for that. That's that's really tough.
What did that have any bearing on what you wrote
for the album. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Yeah, I mean that was the headspace that I was in. Yeah. Yeah,
my mom was diagnosed with stage four when I was pregnant,
so that was like something that was ongoing pretty much
during the whole writing process, kind of you know, having
to you know, see her and out of the hospital
and stuff like that. So that was something definitely that
(24:27):
impacted the album. And then on the delex I have
a song that was written like right after her passing
for her, So that's on the Delexe though.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
That must have just been like a really hard headspace
to navigating pregnant your mom's getting diagnosed.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
Yeah, like becoming a mom for the first time and
losing my mom at the same time. It was definitely
it's still you know, That's why I'm kind of taking
my time. Before and I had got right back into
the studio just because I felt that I needed to.
But now I'm just I'm just giving myself time to
take it easy and not trying to do too much
(25:03):
on myself right now because I am still grieving and
I am still mourning. It is relatively recent, so yeah,
just taking it day by day.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Yeah. Did did you guys get to connect about motherhood
much before?
Speaker 2 (25:17):
Yeah? Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
She loved my son and she you know, she had
a great, a great bomb with him, and she was
obsessed with him, and you know, obviously I wish we
had more time two, you know, to talk about motherhood
and for her to see my son grow up and
all of that. But but she got to meet him,
and I'm happy about that.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
That's that's really great. Is that her voice on the album.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Yeah, Sunshine and rain that's my mom's voice in Sunshine
and Rainy. I'm actually dedicating the album to her, and
so that I put that that voice note. It was
a voice note she sent me for my son, and
it just so happened that she that she said sunshine,
and so I said, let me put this in Sunshine
and Rain.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
Wow, that was a really touching moment for the I
thought it was you to be honest for you guys
kind of did I don't know if I don't know
if you guys sounded similar to my because I had
a similar tambre. Maybe maybe, but that was a really
touching moment.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
Man, Thank you, Thank you. And I also have some
of my my son's voice on the end of Love
You So Much I Hurt, So that was really that
was really nice to get some voice recordings to him
and be able to include him in the album as well.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
It was great, you know, like it reminded me of like,
isn't she lovely? You know, like how like Stevie gets
his kid on there, like it's just a you know love,
That's what I love too. It's like again, and I
just appreciated it as a parent myself, Like when I
put this album on, it felt like if I don't
want to say, like, you know, like a grown up album,
(26:48):
but it just felt like, you know what I mean, Sure, yeah,
it's a mature album. It's just something it's like and
it's like I can, really from my perspective in life,
like appreciate it. And having things like that that I
can play around my kids that make them think about
our relationship, you know what I mean, Like what it
is to you know what I mean. It's just like
that's just such a cool touch to add to your
(27:10):
your your your catalog, you know.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
I love a lot of times people come to my
shows with their parents, and I think it's just so
sweet that they're able to like, it'll be a girl
and she'll be like me and my mom both love you,
and so it's nice to be able to touch different
generations and then be able to share that experience of
you know, having an artist that they both love in common.
It's really cool. That's like one of my favorite things
to see at my shows.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
Yeah, it's amazing. Who who would you consider as being
some of your like important collaborators on this album who
helped it come into like focus. I guess in a way, that's.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
A difficult question because I made the album in my
house by myself, never mind even majority of the songs
they were written without music, and I would just send
them to different people and I would work on, you know,
getting all the production together and stuff.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
So the studio, say Calie Cali's headquarters.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
I was going to ask, Yeah, so yeah, it's it's
my least collaborative album that I've ever made. I would say, yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
That makes sense. Maybe why it sounds so kind of
like sober and just sort of like direct in a sense.
You know. That's really what I was picking up from,
is just the songs are so direct, so that that
does make sense. Is that a way you would work? Again?
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Absolutely? I loved it. Yeah, yeah, I loved it.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
What's what was it? Tell me? Someone? Why? What? What?
Speaker 2 (28:36):
I guess just the that rawness of just being in
your own house and just being able to go upstairs
and pick up the mic. It's nice, I mean I do.
I did a few songs traveling like it's just us.
I've recorded that in Houston because I also have a
house in Houston, so I did that there. And then
(28:58):
all I can say I wrote that one while I
was in Miami. So there's a few songs that I
wrote while, you know, being out of the house. But
everything else I did in my house and I loved it.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
Wow. It's kind of cool how you a lot of
people and you have being you. I feel like you
have the poll you could just go to like any
number of like really big producers and just like do
a record with them. But it never seems. It seems
like you've always been very open to collaborate with a
variety of people, and not necessarily even people that are
(29:30):
like I mean, quote unquote hot, you know what I mean.
Like think about like you work with the girls so much, not.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
Too much of my producers.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
No, no, no, no, I'm just saying no. But like
think about like you collaborating with someone like like Damn
an album with Gorillas, Like it wasn't like you know
what I mean, It's not like he's not really like
in the pop space, you.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
Know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
I think attack.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
No. I I like to work with people that I trust,
and I think when I first moved to this city,
I was doing a lot of sessions with a lot
of you know, producers the moment and whatever, and I
don't know, I was just getting a lot of like
leaks like music like demo leagues and or them playing
(30:17):
my songs for other artists that they might get in
with because they're trying to get placements. And if I'm
not using it, they're like, well maybe they maybe, And
I don't I don't write songs for the artists like
my music is too personal to do that, and they
would just do it, you know, on their own without
asking consent first, Like, oh, I played this song for
so and so and they wanted for the album. Who
told you that you could play my music for you know?
(30:38):
I don't like that type of stuff, So yeah, I
just learned to. I have uh, trusted people that I've
worked with, Like Josh Crocker worked on a lot of this.
I've worked with him since Isolation.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
I know him.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
He's really cool, normal dude. He has a family, he
has kids, he lives all the way in England, and
I just go back and forth with him, Hey, what
about this? Add this list to this, da da da da,
and we just get it done. Dylan Wigan's another person
who worked a lot on this album, who I've also
worked with on other projects.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
Is like people part Who's I think rath Faeld, benterview
rothfel Ones. Is that Raphael's nephew Dylan.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
Yeah, I think he is, Yeah, because I think.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
He told me he's like, yeah, my nephew Dylan is
really good someone.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
I think someone did mention it to me the Yeah,
I think that that rings a bell. Yeah, but yeah, Dylan,
he's another person who worked a lot on the production
of this album and the transitions, and but yeah, it's
just people that I can trust because at the end
of the day, it's really personal music, and like I said,
I'm literally sending voice notes of myself with like sometimes
(31:42):
maybe a couple of chords, sometimes just completely raw to
you know, these people that I trust, and I'm like, hey,
can you build something like this around it? He's do
something like this, I'm thinking maybe something. So it's like
the process of making the songs is a lot more
raw and a lot more personal than just how people
just like might just get in a studio together and
be like play some beats and I'll jump on you know,
(32:05):
it's not it's not like that.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
That's not the way you make stuff.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
Yeah, personally, so so yeah, I just kind of learned
to to go with what works, and you know, maybe
for the next project I'll work differently. But that was
the process on this one.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
When you announced the new album, you put out a
statement and part of that statement was essentially you said
you were so grateful for everyone who was a part
of you, Like this is a quote everyone part of
your silent assent, and I was just curious what that
meant to you, Your viewed, your your rise in your
(32:47):
career is silent.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
It's so funny when when y'all quote me in these
interviews and tell me stuff that I posted, because I
don't ever remember when I posted. I'm always like I
said that.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
Okay, I would be the same way to quoting things
back to me. Like you said my producers were hot.
I did not say that.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
I just I just write stuff on there and just
I'm just like in the moment with my feelings and
then yeah, I think, I mean, I think silent a sent.
It's really just I've never had like a year that
was like a breakout year. I was like best new
artists to watch out for, but or whatever. It's like
I've just grown every year and I've always done better
(33:24):
than the year before, and I've always like I'm still
here and a lot of people can't say that. So
I like that type of trajectory for me, and I
think it's okay for the artists to also have those
type of ambitions rather than I think a lot of
people just want overnight success. And I think that my
journey's been really beautiful, and I'm really grateful for the
people that's still here that have been like watching me
(33:46):
grow literally from day one. It's cool.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Is there somewhere along did you, like, did that strike
you somewhere along the line that that's maybe a better
way to grow your career or did it?
Speaker 2 (33:58):
Like I think everyone, you know, everybody's journey is different,
everyone's path is different. For me, I never like this,
that's just personally what I want to for myself. And
I have a very strong understanding of the type of
career that I want and how far I want things
to get, how big I want things to get, and
(34:18):
I know, like you know, my boundaries would work. And
I'm just already very solidified. And you know it's not
it's not my first rodeo, it's not my first day
out here, so I already know like what I want
out of things, and yeah, I just that's for me.
But everybody's like I said, everybody wants different things for themselves.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
But it's a really refreshing perspective. Like we talked about
how you kind of can't hang anything on in terms
of stylistically, like it's like you're able to hold a
lot of what could be contradictory positions or or you
know at once, which is really hard for people to do.
Like you were able to be like no, I'm like,
I'm an artist who sings in English and Spanish and
(34:57):
you can't tell me otherwise, and you can't put me
in that kind of a box. And I'm going to
make an album that has like a countryish feel to
it and a do woppy feel to it and like
a very modern fel to it, and it's all going
to sound like me. You can't tell me otherwise. And
and similarly, it's like the idea that like you don't
(35:20):
you also seem to be like a very private person.
But at the same time, I've managed to like grow
a career that is like you know, where you're like
insanely popular and like have like a legion of fans,
and like you, it's it's a really refreshing kind of position,
and it's not something that you know, I don't feel
(35:40):
like we see a lot, you know.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
Thank you. I want to say I'm insanely popular, but
I definitely love my fan base because they know, you know,
they know what it is, and they know they know
that I'm just going to keep doing what I want
to do and not to put any type of expectations
on me beyond that. And I love that.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
I appreciate that you would say you don't feel like
you're insanely popular, but that it's like, you know, like
you really, I mean like you. It is wild, like
you say, like when you said silence sent it made
me think about it, and it's like you really have
climb to like from the start of where you before
we started rolling, you were talking about how you came
(36:22):
to la like right after high school, and then you
just sort of start to think about the directory of
your career and how you've kind of really done it
in this really unique organic fashion. But you really have
like grown your creator like this incredible consciously or not
like this, Like you're like one of the great young
singers and one of the great young artists. And that's
(36:44):
like that's not I don't know, it's not up for question.
I don't think you. I appreciate you. What your first
tour was with Leon Bridges about about a decade ago.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
Was that my first tour? Yeah, actually it was my
first tour.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
Yeah, sure, I could be wrong.
Speaker 2 (37:05):
I think it was my first time being on the road. Yes,
in a Yeah, it was I had done like little festivals,
but that was my first actual tour.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
Yeah, after one last break, we'll be back with the
rest of my conversation with cali Ucciese. Tell me about
your evolution in terms of your live performance and how
you approach performing now than you did ten years ago,
opening up or touring with Leon.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
I mean, I just I think that I think that
a lot, especially back then, like a lot of my
work was just me never being prepared for what I
was doing. I'd just be just speaking honestly. So the
same way I told you, like, I just put music
out like on that piit or whatever, and I didn't
actually realize so many people are gonna listen to it,
and then I took it down. It's the same way
(37:56):
with the toying, where it was like I was just told, like,
this is really important, you have to do it, and
I was like, okay, because I felt it was my
obligation to do so. But I didn't shouldn't have I've
really been doing that at the time. I probably should
have been preparing myself as an artist to like learn,
you know, I just kind of did things that was
(38:19):
just the time in my life where I was just
like I was just doing things. I just threw myself
out there, and I just had a lot of experiences
and I just I learned from experience. And when I
realized later, like, oh, artists actually go through artists development,
and they actually developed themselves first before they just go
on the road all willy nilly, or before they just
(38:41):
put out a project all willy nilly, or you know,
like I didn't know those type of things. I was
very naive. I was young, and I didn't know any better.
So essentially, I will say I wasted a lot of time,
Like I feel like that was a waste of time, but.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
It was, you know, I learned waste of time because
you just weren't It wasn't I wasn't actually put yourself
into it.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
I was actually prepared for it. Yeah, and and yeah,
I mean it's really hard. You know, being an opener
is really really hard. It's really it's really emotionally and
physically training, especially as a girl. You're not in the
type of city it's not glamorous whatsoever, Like it's not
even decent. So it was just it's not so Yeah,
(39:28):
I would say I would say that you know, it
was a time in my life. I was young, and
I was just I've always been very much learn from
experience type.
Speaker 1 (39:42):
Of person, So how do you approach it now differently now,
like a decade later, Like if that was less less
than decent, I was.
Speaker 2 (39:50):
A hands on learner, So I would just call that
a learning experience. But if I could, if I could
give a young artist advice and to learn from my
mistakes in my career, I would say to really take
your time cultivating yourself as an artist first, cultivating your music,
(40:10):
learning more about yourself the type of performer you want
to be. I don't know. I think I would have
maybe taken that route. Who knows, But who knows. What's
done is done.
Speaker 1 (40:23):
And it's cool you figured it, like you you've kind
of figured it out.
Speaker 2 (40:27):
I went to where I needed to be in the
end regardless, but I definitely there was a lot of
bumps in the road.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
I mean, you've cultivated a really cool, really great like
stage presence and persona, and like I feel like your shows,
your live performances are the exact opposite of what you
were describing that as, like you not being prepared, Like
I feel like everything's pretty intentional now in terms of
the way you perform, and.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
Yeah, no, things are way different now. Things are way
way different now. But I mean I had to learn
through the experiences, so I won't say it was all,
you know, terrible, but what I have done things differently
with and knowledge you have now.
Speaker 1 (41:08):
Yes, when did you finally get comfortable on stage?
Speaker 2 (41:12):
I never was nervous to go on stage. I never
had like nerves to get on stage. So I won't
say that it was necessarily about me getting comfortable on stage.
I will say it was more so me learning about
the type of show that I wanted to put on,
and get in touch with myself as a performer, and
(41:35):
just all of those regular growing pains of an artist.
Speaker 1 (41:38):
What have been some of your favorite moments performing live?
Speaker 2 (41:43):
My favorite moments performing live? Well, I actually think it
was really cool that I did get to do shows pregnant,
because my baby can say that he was on stage,
which is fun, and it was fun. He used to
be kicking. He used to be kicking, and he loves music,
so I feel like, you know, maybe that had some
(42:03):
type of influence on him that he loves music, because
he was definitely always around music when he was in
my belly. That was really fun. And what else has
been really fun?
Speaker 1 (42:18):
There have been any places where you feel like the
audience with the crowd is particularly I.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
Always have a really great audience in Texas. Texas always
has had a lot of love for me. Austin, Dallas, Houston,
They've always had a lot of love, I believe it.
Chicago they always show a lot of love. Florida, but
obviously La is always like they go the craziest and Yeah,
(42:47):
I would say those are the ones that stand out
the most to me when I'm on tour. I'm always
excited to hit those cities.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
Yeah, Texas, I'm late and it's great, so cool. You
have a house in Houston too, because I feel like
Houston is one of the most underappreciated cities. Anytime I
go to Houston, it is the greatest time of my life.
The people are incredible.
Speaker 2 (43:04):
Yeah, people show a lot of love there. I have
a lot of fans there and they always show, you know,
genuine and genuine love and it's a nice it's a
nice you know, just different pace from from out here.
Speaker 1 (43:15):
Yeah. Yeah, what are you going to? Uh? Are you
going to tour this album? Or are you gonna yeah, yeah, okay,
what it was the one of you going out.
Speaker 2 (43:26):
It's gonna be a summer tour. Yeah, cool, Yes, it's
gonna be really fun because I didn't get to I
didn't get to do anis tour because literally right after
my album, I gave birth, So I wasn't I had
to sit that one out, and I just, you know,
so much other stuff is going on. I'm glad I said.
(43:47):
I wouldn't have been able obviously, but now I'm planning
to basically just have another part of the show that's
dedicated to so that I'm able to do that as well.
Speaker 1 (44:01):
You're you're talking about how you performed when you were
pregnant and how your kid loves music. What I was
just curious, what music do you play around the house
for you for your kid?
Speaker 2 (44:13):
A lot of I want to say, a lot of eighties,
a lot of nineties. He loves uh. He loves Forget
Me Not by Petries. It's like one of his favorite.
He loves that song. I played Funky Town for him
all the time. I seen him that one all the time.
He loves that one. So yeah, we listen to a
(44:34):
lot of you know that in that world type of music,
do you. But he loves all types of music. He's
he's an avid music He's just obsessed with music.
Speaker 1 (44:46):
Are you introducing him to like to Latin music too?
Speaker 2 (44:49):
Oh yeah, Oh yeah. I played him like Vagenatos. It's
something that we have from specifically from Colombia, and he
loves Vagenatos. He loves it.
Speaker 1 (44:58):
How was going down to Columbia by the way, as
the artist you are now like versus you know what
I mean?
Speaker 2 (45:04):
It's beautiful. It's beautiful because there's really nobody who's come
out of my hometown. So I get a lot of
love when I'm there, and it's a really humbling experience.
To just be back home and get shown that type
of love is amazing.
Speaker 1 (45:18):
And you're still able to be there and sort of live,
Uh are you able to? Are you able to enjoy
the country still? Like it's not like.
Speaker 2 (45:27):
People are really respectful. And my town is a small town,
so it's like people will know and they'll just be respectful.
You know, we take pictures, we sign stuff whatever, but
people are respectful.
Speaker 1 (45:38):
Yeah. Noticing the tattoo on your arm, that's your that's
your dad signature, right.
Speaker 2 (45:44):
That's that'sport yeah, signature coming to America.
Speaker 1 (45:47):
From coming to America. Right, how much does you like
your your family's immigration story playing to how you you
you view yourself. I guess you know how much of
that feels like it's a part of your story.
Speaker 2 (46:05):
I think just growing up in a household that was
full of genuinely hardworking people that always taught me that
in life, you know, nothing comes easy and you don't
just get handed anything. And also just learning to be resourceful,
like you know, when I was going to school in Columbia,
like having to heat up our own water and having
(46:27):
to get resourceful when it came to washing clothes. You know,
we didn't have dishwasher. We didn't have sorry, not dishwasher,
a laundry washer whatever it's called, clo washer washer, we
didn't have those type of things. We had to get
resourceful with everything that we did. And I think just
growing up with the mentality of having to figure things out,
(46:48):
it makes you a lot more creative as a kid
as well. You find creative alternatives to everything, and it
definitely gives you that backbone that you need in the
world of just always having to row with the punches
in life because you never know what's gonna happen?
Speaker 1 (47:07):
And then you. I found it interesting that you grew
up in a very Salvadorian, very Salvadorian part of Virginia
that I also realized. I also found out I was
looking at stuff. Dave Grohl from The Food Fighters grew
up there, recorded like a Food Fighters album out of
his house that I don't even know. He's not Latino,
(47:29):
but she is. I don't want to take that away
from him, maybe as he did. He grew up in Chiliagua. Yeah,
and Alexander Alexandria Alexandria in Chiliagua.
Speaker 2 (47:39):
I didn't even know that they were from v A.
Speaker 1 (47:42):
Yeah, he's They recorded like one of their big albums there,
the third album, I think. But like like having your
Columbia roots grown up around Salvadorians, coming to La so
young and having that, you know, the Mexican influence that's here,
did you It has did that impact like at all,
(48:05):
the way you view your your your your the way
you relate to like Latin America, because it feels like
you've had a really broad upbringing in terms of your
you know, people tend to think of Latinos as like
one group y but like Columbias are very different than
the South of Dorians.
Speaker 2 (48:22):
Yeah, for sure, but I mean we all have underlying
like we all have similar cultures in a sense. And
I think for me that my uncle, he's Mexican, he
also raised me, and he also exposed me to a
lot of like oh these and a lot of the
Mexican La culture because it's actually from out here, not
(48:43):
from specifically LA, but he's from California, so he's like,
you know, I think that definitely played a role as well.
So before I even moved out here, a lot of
people back home would always ask me, you're not from here.
You're from the You're from the West Coast, aren't you
You're not East Coast? And I would be like, no,
I am from here, and they will always tell me like, no,
you're from You're from LA. You're probably from like random
(49:04):
people who if I was at the mall, if I
was out somewhere like getting the train or whatever, wherever
I would people used to always say that I seemed
like I was from LA, like since I was young.
So I think I've just always had different influences because
of Yeah, all the different people that raised me and
different things that I got exposed.
Speaker 1 (49:22):
To really in Angelina. I can't believe you.
Speaker 2 (49:26):
But now, yeah, well, now, now you know, I've lived
here for so long that it really does feel like home,
my second home. But but yeah, I don't know. People
always thought that I was from here. That's why I
was like, I might as well move there, because clearly
something's going on over there that is connecting with me.
Everybody wants to work with me from out there, and
(49:46):
I got so much love and support out there versus
you know, where I was living. It was really hard
to break out of like the DMV area. With the
type of music that I was doing, I would get love,
but it wasn't the same as out here. It wasn't
not at all. I mean even now even now, you know,
(50:06):
the love isn't the same there. Like if I do
show there as it is here and technically like that's
a hometown show, but out here feels like a hometown show.
It's weird. I don't know why. I just glad we
can provide that you guys. Thank you guys.
Speaker 1 (50:23):
Before we wrap up, just because I love that song
so much. Can you talk about the genesis of I
Love you so much it hurts?
Speaker 2 (50:29):
Yeah? Well, what was the first lines? Yeah, I love
my baby. Nothing else compares. When I look into his
brown eyes, it leaves me full of tears, crying so
pretty much the whole first month of me giving birth
to my baby, every time that we would make eye contact,
it would make me cry. I really felt like I
(50:52):
could see into his soul and like he was seeing
into my soul, and it was just, you know, a
connection that I had never ever felt before. I felt
like fully seen for what felt like the first time
I ever Like I felt like somebody really really saw
me and that I finally had, you know, this family
that I always wanted and that was really always my dream.
(51:13):
And I just immediately got inspired to write the song
because of that. I feel like music is subjective, and
a lot of people have had a discourse about whether
or not it's appropriate for people to dedicate the song
to a partner or you know, to other people. That's
for me, I just want to say, that's perfectly fine
with me. You know, I can be interpreted however you
(51:35):
want to interpret it. You know, I even had people
on my team that didn't really want me to lean
into the real you know, talking about my son too much.
Because they're like, oh, it's not going to be as
relatable to people who aren't parents, and I'm like, but
everybody has a mom. But I don't know. I guess
(51:55):
I feel like that's just the truth of how the
song came to be and what inspired me was just
my son and that beautiful feeling that I had never
ever felt before in my life.
Speaker 1 (52:07):
Were surprised by that feeling and that connection and that
amount of love was it?
Speaker 2 (52:13):
Yeah, I think, you know, I even know people who
I've heard stories about people giving birth and not having
a connection with their child and you know, feeling not
understanding why they maybe didn't have. And I was I'm
not gonna lie. I was scared. I was like what if.
I was like, what if I give birth and I
don't have this connection like this motherly intuition or this
(52:35):
you know. I was scared. I didn't know what was
going to happen or what I was going to feel.
And it was just such an overwhelming I mean, we both,
you know, me and Don both as soon as I
gave birth to him becaue. He helped me the whole time.
He helped me give birth, and he assisted me the
entire time and then as soon as he was out,
we just held him and we cried together. So I
(52:56):
know that he felt it too, like it was a
very overwhelmingly emotional moment. But it continued on for me
at least for weeks where any time I looked into
his eyes, it was just an undescribable feeling of emotion.
Speaker 1 (53:13):
And you always knew it's interesting, so you always knew
you wanted to be a parent.
Speaker 2 (53:18):
I had different faces when I was really little. I
was definitely that little girl that used to come up
with a bunch of names in my little journal. I
was like, this is what I'm gonna name my kids
one day, and I thought, you know, I always used
to carry my little doll around and I wanted to,
you know, when I was really little. And then you know,
you get in that teenage era and you're like, I
will never bring kids into this fucked up world and whatever.
(53:41):
And I even got a tattooed right here. That was
my first tattoo. I was like sixteen when I got
this tiger tattoo I have here, and I had friends
that were like, but what if you get pregnant, You're
gonna stretch the tattoo. I did it, and I was like,
I will never get pregnant. I'm not gonna do that
to myself. I'm not gonna have a baby. That's crazy.
And then I got pregnant, and luckily my tattoo is
just fine. Is fine, It's perfectly fine. It was just
(54:07):
funny when I was pregnant because it's like all lopsided.
The title was like, we're going to the opposite seration.
But I went right back into place somehow, So everything
is fine. We're all good. Me and the tiger. My
son loves the tattoo. He loves tigers, so every time
he makes me show him the tiger and he's like raves.
He lives that tattoo.
Speaker 1 (54:26):
That's adorable.
Speaker 2 (54:27):
It all worked out well.
Speaker 1 (54:30):
Do you want to have more kids?
Speaker 2 (54:31):
Do you feel like that's like, yeah, maybe like two
or three more.
Speaker 1 (54:36):
It's encouraging to meet. I feel like I talked to
so many people don't want to have kids or don't
have and I'm like, man, I feel like sometimes I'm like,
you know, it's it's it's it sometimes, you know, and
especially when you have a kid and you work in
an industry that's less than traditional, you know, it can
be like, and it can also be like a really
hard balance between you know, like wow, am I Am
(54:57):
I doing this right? And am I doing my career right?
Speaker 2 (54:59):
And it's something not easy. It's not easy at all,
but for me, it's very much worth it. It's very
worth it.
Speaker 1 (55:06):
How are you navigating that part of it now?
Speaker 2 (55:10):
It's just still learning to navigate it, you know, Like
I said, the boundaries with work and being able to understand,
you know, not to necessarily take every opportunity and to
do what means most to me and to always prioritize
him and always prioritize you know, my relationship, my family.
And as long as I keep doing that, I feel
(55:31):
like I'll be fine.
Speaker 1 (55:33):
Amazing. Yeah, cal Is you thanks so much for thank
you for having me.
Speaker 2 (55:37):
It's a great talk. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (55:42):
In the episode description, you'll find a link to a
playlist to some of our favorite Caliu Chiese songs. Be
sure to check out our video episodes at YouTube dot
com slash Broken Record Podcast and see all of our
video interviews, and be sure to follow us on Instagram
at the Broken Record Pod. You can follow us on
Twitter at Broken Records. Broken Record is produced and edited
(56:02):
by Leah Rose, with marketing help from Eric Sandler and
Jordan McMillan. Our engineer is Ben Holliday. Broken Record is
a production of Pushkin Industries. If you love this show
and others from Pushkin, consider subscribing to Pushkin Plus. Pushkin
Plus is a podcast subscription that offers bonus content and
ad free listening for four ninety nine a month. Look
(56:23):
for Pushkin Plus on Apple podcast subscriptions. And if you
like this show, please remember to share rake and review
us on your podcast app. Our theme music's by Kenny Beats.
I'm justin Richmond.
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