Love Music: Tell us a little bit about yourself. Your background, education, music passion etc. ??I started singing at 9 months old. My mom let me know that I would frequently claim to have a past-life as an Italian opera singer. Instead of first words, I had a first song, "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star." I reference the "Twinkle, Twinkle" part of the song in one of my latest releases, "Rich & Beautiful." My "Rich & Beautiful" lyrics list some of my early inspirations, such as Madonna, as a way to pay homage to them. Back to the point, the road from changing from the natural 9 month old singer into a recording artist, is a story that I am turning into a book. I was inspired to follow the footsteps of Mikel Jollett, of the indie-rock band "The Toxic Airborne Event," whose amazing memoir I just finished reading. (I highly recommend to musicians looking for inspiration.) Hopefully, in the next couple of years, my own book will be out with the long and detailed story. For now I'll summarize, I was a good little choir girl, until bullying and cattiness over my voice took me on a different path. I opted to take one-on-one voice lessons with a chair of "The San Antonio Company" in order to regain confidence in my voice. The lessons eventually led to a music scholarship in college, where I ran into someone studying to be a producer. I wrote and recorded a first song, "Run." It was a haphazard student production for a student-film project. Although my song was just a school project, it was seriously reviewed by a popular local pop-culture newspaper in town, "The Current." From there, I steadily started recording and songwriting. Here I am now...
Love Music: We have been hearing a lot about you, so we notice your starting to gain a lot of attention how does it feel?
Like coming out of a cocoon. For the majority of my experimental songwriting, I was the ugly caterpillar wobbling my way around. I'm not quite "the butterfly," but I feel like I am close. I've gotten past the "invisible phase." I want to address the "invisible phase" because it is an FAQ message I have been asked by people starting their own creative journeys. This "invisible phase" occurs when an artist just gets started and no one has heard of them. It is nothing to worry about. Most likely, feeling invisible is due to not having much work in terms of music, art, or preforming. The "invisible phase" is a blessing in disguise. It allows for major creative freedom without the pressure of an audience. Attracting a big audience to unpolished work could result in pure cringe for the audience and artist. I remember feeling buzzed about my first recorded songs like "this needs a Grammy," and now I can't hear my early music with a straight face.
Love Music: Can you please tell our readers more about your latest release?
I have two popular releases right now, "Rich & Beautiful" and "Too Little, Too Late."
Rich & Beautiful is meant to be a modern rendition of Madonna's "Material Girl." It is the reason I placed her as the top lyric. It is meant to be "pop" and fashion-centric because I wrote it for the catwalk. I was in the studio, doing my own catwalk strut in order to come up with the perfect staccato beat for the song.
"Too Little, Too Late" is a country song, that goes much deeper in terms of the lyrics. I was inspired by something Garth Brooks said about meeting Trisha Yearwood. There is something gloriously agonizing about meeting the perfect person and realizing that it can't happen. Sadly, this scenario happens to a bunch of people. Those strong connections or impressions may never go away. Garth ended up with Trisha in the end, so there is always hope. A lot of people out there end up more like Adele's "Someone Like You." Especially when the lyrics say, "...never mind, I'll find someone like you..." Either way, "the one that got away" was a concept I wanted to explore in songwriting because of its complexity.
Love Music: Any upcoming project?
I am scheduled for Fashion Week New York next year. I will launching my own fashion line. People that follow me learn I am always working on something and I jump around creatively. For example, my next two songs coming up are jazz songs that have a good coffee-shop vibe to them...and yes...they came out of left field for me too!
Love Music: What has been one of the most exciting achievements of your career so far ?
Being able to perform in Los Angeles, Hollywood, and also internationally in Mexico. In Mexico, soap opera stars hosted the show. I heard they were pretty famous. At that point I could let myself think, "okay, maybe you are actually pretty good." My "humble beginnings" keep me pretty humble as an artist. It takes a lot for me to think like, "you are the best, you are the greatest...you can be a diva." In a way, my attitude keeps me grounded and focused on what's important to the music.
Love Music: What’s your goal in life you want to achieve next?
My goal, since I've started recording, is to create a spectacular music video. "Run," the first music recording I mentioned earlier, was created rapidly for a student music video project. It was a classic first-attempt; and ultra-failure as music video. As a class project, I got an "A." Although, as soon as I posted it on YouTube, it quickly got popular at school for being bad...very bad. With a team that consisted of only me and another project partner, we didn't have much going for us succeeding. The student-music-producer didn't deliver the music until the day-off needing to turn in our final project. We couldn't exactly change course at that point, since it was part of the assignment to stick to what we proposed to do. While, I am sure even Steven Spielberg would have said, "Listen, we don't have the music yet, and this is a music video...so we have no choice but to change course." I felt I had no choice but to stick to the assignment. The time crunch led to a ridiculous music video, with me dressed in a Hillary Clinton business suit because I was straight out of a marketing business course final. I seemed to be trying to dance...to a folk song...but the suit limited my movement to robot arms. In order to make it look like more dancers I placed myself against a reflective corner of the business school building, so I was "robot arms" at all angles! To top this off, once I was editing the footage I placed a rainbow filter on top so that it could look better. At the end, my choices made me famous on campus for "the rainbow robot dance." (Remember earlier, when I addressed the "invisible phase." This video is exactly why that phase is so important.) My first music video was a complete disaster. Since, I've taken advanced university-level video classes. I actually graduated with a third degree in exploring digital media, fueled by my need to get my music videos right! I invite people to check out my music videos on YouTube now to see how far I have come! Find me online by searching "Zita Barbara." Like, subscribe, and leave a hello!
Love Music: What motivates you to do your best work as singer/songwriter?
Other songwriters...I often find myself listening to the work of people I admire in order to get inspiration for my own work, life, or to feel motivated.
Love Music: How can people find you and your work online?
My Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/ZBarbiDoll
Instagram: @zitabarbara
