Cat Calabrese: "I Can't Stay Silent and I Won't. I'm a Songwriter"
Cat Calabrese shares the story of one fateful phone call that changed everything for her, and talks openly about her journey as an indie musician, from overcoming insecurities as a singer to facing the enormous challenge of trying to beat the Spotify algorithm.
“I spent most of my life wanting to be a musician but most of my life too afraid to do anything about it.”
A year ago, singer-songwriter Cat Calabrese was planning to move from Cleveland to Los Angeles to start a new chapter in her life with her boyfriend at the time. That move never took place. What came next instead was Cat’s second single, “Scared of Me,” released six months later.
Like many love songs, it started with a relationship that ended abruptly. Her ex-boyfriend had called just one week before their move to L.A. to break up with her. “My universe flipped in an instant,” says Cat during the interview. “Everything kind of came crashing down. I felt like I lost obviously my relationship but I felt like I lost music as well and my plan for the rest of my life. It was definitely something completely unexpected.”
But unlike many breakup songs, Cat’s response to her heartbreak was not a song full of sorrow and distress. She wrote “Scared of Me” to show strength in bouncing back from being wronged, and her voice projects a promise to take charge and live better than ever before.
Cat Calabrese featured on the Offstage Tunes Live show
When the relationship ended, her role as the lead vocalist with her ex in the band also came to a stop. What she thought was a devastating turn of events pushed her to becoming a solo artist and making music on her own terms.
“I spent most of my life wanting to be a musician but most of my life too afraid to do anything about it. So as I was a part of this band, I was starting out for the first time with everything and I kind of deferred to other members in my group. I didn't really know to even ask myself the questions:
‘What do I want my sound to sound like?’ ‘What do I want my image to be?’ These were questions I wasn't asking myself and and we were not asking as a group.”
This process of finding her voice and her own direction as a musician only began after her days with the band fell apart. “Being forced into the driver's seat it forced me to ask myself those questions that I had never asked when I was with the band,” Cat recalls. “It was just very humbling and very life affirming to see those questions be asked and answered so quickly and to get such a great response.”
“Maybe I was on the path that I was supposed to be so maybe it was never supposed to be Los Angeles with that relationship, you know, maybe it was leading me here all along.”
Interview conducted and written by Louise Lau. Connect with her on social media @offstagetunes
The interview was from episode #8 of the Offstage Tunes Live – The Brunch Series.
Visit Cat Calabrese on Spotify, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter