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In our Q&A characteristic collection Inform Me Más, we ask a few of our favourite Latine artists to reply the questions solely their BFFs find out about them, revealing the whole lot from their most up-to-date learn to the songs that get them hyped. This month, we sit down with Puerto Rican various indie artist Melissa Ocasio.
Because the pandemic, Puerto Rico’s indie music scene has exploded. It is as if the island births new expertise by the hour — and it could appear virtually unimaginable to maintain up. One of many artists who emerged throughout this renaissance is Melissa Ocasio. The Boricua artist has been making a reputation for herself instead indie meets electro-Caribbean artist, ever since she launched her first official single “Agárrate,” a call-to-action music in regards to the femicides taking place in Puerto Rico.
On March 6, 2020, Ocasio launched “Agárrate” to the world. However the music was really two years within the making.
“I wrote the music ‘Agárrate’ again in 2018. I used to be residing in New York, and I keep in mind I used to be studying extra about feminism and the whole lot associated to our rights as ladies. ‘Agárrate’ was born due to the femicides taking place in Puerto Rico,” Ocasio tells POPSUGAR. “The whole lot began due to Valerie Ann Almodóvar Ojeda. She was a lady that was murdered. It was a extremely large deal, and it was a case that hit me. I used to be residing in New York and enthusiastic about, what can I do?”
In 2018, Ojeda was simply one among many ladies murdered on the island. On the time, femicides have been occurring on a weekly foundation, making Puerto one of many areas with the best femicide charges within the Americas. The Ojeda case stirred Puerto Ricans on the island, motivating many ladies to hit the streets in protest. Ocasio’s intention behind “Agárrate” was to create consciousness across the situation. What she did not anticipate was that this was going to be precisely what she wanted to lastly kick-start her musical profession.
“I wrote this music, and in my thoughts, I wished it to turn out to be an anthem. ‘Agárrate’ was like a name to motion. It was a warning, like FYI: ladies are taking the streets,” Ocasio explains. “We’re not going to be silent. We’re going to discuss this. We’re going to struggle for our rights till the patriarchy se acabe.”
Ocasio launched the music a 12 months after shifting again to her native Puerto Rico from NYC, the place she had been residing for a number of years taking over media jobs to financially help her dream of turning into a music artist. Though she had written some music and had carried out at a number of NY venues right here and there, the Boricua artist felt like she wasn’t constructing the momentum she had hoped for. So in 2019, she packed her baggage and went again to dwell together with her dad and mom in Gurabo, Puerto Rico.
“It felt like one of many lowest factors of my life. I had ended an on-and-off relationship, and I used to be additionally making an attempt to take care of trauma and all this stuff that as a Latina and as a Puerto Rican, we do not discuss,” she says. “So, I began going to remedy that 12 months, and on the finish of that 12 months, the whole lot modified.”
Ocasio began to lean into her creativity and centered on writing and creating music. Her type turned extra expressive and eccentric, carrying funky classic items and getting a horny pixie haircut. She was turning into extra authentically herself. It was round this time Ocasio was additionally launched to her present producer, Rafa Rivera Rodriguez.
“I performed him my first music [“Agárrate”] ,and he was like, we will work with this. Let’s do it,” Ocasio says. “The best way he accepted me made me really feel like OK, I can do that. I used to be assured earlier than, however now, I lastly discovered the correct folks to work with.” It was with Rodriguez that Ocasio formally recorded “Agárrate” at AQ30 studio in Bayamón, Puerto Rico.
Whereas working with Rivera, Ocasio started to sharpen her sound. It is free-flowing, experimental, and but so caribeño. Her musical influences have rather a lot to do with it. Ocasio grew up with two church-going Baptist Christian dad and mom who have been additionally fairly musical. Her mother sang, her dad performed the trombone, and so they have been each main salsa followers. They have been additionally closely concerned of their church’s worship choir. Along with singing at church from a younger age, Ocasio additionally took singing lessons, musical theater lessons, and piano classes. She grew up listening to quite a lot of traditional Puerto Rican salsa and Pop en Español artists like Julieta Venegas, Natalia LaFourcade, Shakira, and Juanes. Although Ocasio’s sound does not actually examine to anything, she credit artists like La Lupe, Bomba Estero, iLe, Las Añez, Carla Morrison, and Perotá Chingó for influencing her music.
After releasing “Agárrate,” Ocasio not solely began feeling extra grounded in her artistry — she additionally began excavating her spiritual beliefs. Having grown up in a Christian church, she discovered herself dismantling and deconstructing the whole lot she was taught concerning spirituality and the divine.
“I began discovering myself to be like a goddess. Like, I’ve the facility in me. And I began reframing my concepts concerning faith,” she says. “The whole lot began with meditation. I began journaling and writing down the whole lot that was taking place in my thoughts and my coronary heart. I used to be combining my ideas and emotions and writing all of it. I additionally began studying about how you can join with this [higher] vitality supply.”
In 2021, she moved out to Los Angeles together with her present companion, who can also be a music artist, to make the connections she wanted within the leisure trade. Nonetheless, Ocasio felt stress to make cash, so she took one other media job that she says sucked the life out of her. However this 12 months, she realized the one manner she was going to make it as a music artist was if she put all her time and give attention to her music.
“I noticed music was my path,” she shares. “I used to be born to do that.”
So Ocasio give up her day job on March 15, and on March 21, she launched her debut EP “hola, impostora (hi there, imposter),” a group of 4 poetic tracks that contact on themes she’s skilled in her personal profession journey. One observe is named “Síndrome de la Impostura,” which interprets to impostor syndrome.
“I believe everybody in some unspecified time in the future has to take care of it,” she says of impostor syndrome. “However I believe for me since I first began writing my songs, I felt fairly assured about my singing. However not so assured about my lyrics and my music. I at all times had this worry that perhaps I am not ok.”
The EP’s first observe, “Silla Enfermiza,” which interprets to sickly chair, touches on how trapped Ocasio felt working at her final 9-to-5 job together with the worry of dropping the monetary safety it supplied. In the meantime, “La Pared” is a music about what occurs once we bottle up feelings.
The observe “Vuelo (Flight),” addresses the other of “Síndrome de la Impostura.” It represents the place you’ll be able to arrive when you’ll be able to break previous the impostor syndrome.
Since releasing her EP, Ocasios’s profession has been taking off. This month, she kicked off her first tour, “A Las Músicas,” alongside Puerto Rican singer/songwriter Andrea Cruz — they’re enjoying exhibits from Aug. 8 to Aug. 31, in cities from Mexico Metropolis to New York. She’s proof that whenever you do the exhausting work but in addition give up to the universe and belief the method, your hopes and goals can certainly manifest into realities.
“I believe I began manifesting this tour earlier. I believe I put it on the market. I had like so many notebooks with my ideas and all this manifesting stuff,” she says. “[When people listen to my music], I need them to really feel no matter they should really feel. I write with goal and intention, however it additionally has the liberty to be no matter my listeners need it to be.”
Learn on to seek out out whose album Ocasio has on repeat lately, her dream collaboration, and the wonder product she will’t dwell with out.
POPSUGAR: How has music healed you?
Ocasio: I’ve healed in some ways, however I can say that it has allowed me to heal my inside baby.
POPSUGAR: Who’re your high three favourite artists proper now?
Ocasio: Phony PPL, MARO, and Japanese Breakfast.
POPSUGAR: What album do you at present have on repeat?
Ocasio: “Casa” From Natalia Lafourcade.
POPSUGAR: Should you might collaborate with any artist in your subsequent observe, who wouldn’t it be?
Ocasio: Las Áñez.
POPSUGAR: What magnificence product are you able to not dwell with out?
Ocasio: SPF — I am obsessed.
POPSUGAR: What’s your favourite Puerto Rican snack?
Ocasio: Sorullitos con mayoketchup.
POPSUGAR: What’s your most up-to-date TV binge?
Ocasio: Simply completed “Intercourse and the Metropolis.” I lastly was capable of watch all of the seasons so as.
POPSUGAR: What is the final ebook you learn and what did you’re keen on about it?
Ocasio: “La Hija Olvidada,” a novel by Armando Lucas Correa. I liked the story and the way the themes of faith and language have been approached from just a little lady’s perspective.
POPSUGAR: Should you had one final day to dwell, how would you spend it?
Ocasio: With all my family members gathering collectively, dancing, speaking, and consuming at some campo in Puerto Rico.
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