Folk singer and songwriter Malena Cadiz on unusual album ‘Hellbent and Moonbound’

Cesar OG 15 November, 2023

I ‘m a folks singer and songwriter primarily based in Los Angeles. I grew up between Kalamazoo, MI, with my mother, and Singapore with my father. My dad’s a most important-technology Filipino-American, and inspiring between these two spaces informs a range of who I am and the tales I uncover. The importance of belonging and neighborhood has been central to my work. I came all over my mother’s fable collection when I used to be in heart college — Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen. I saw images of Bob Dylan and Joan Baez performing on the Newport Folk Festival and thought, “I must fabricate that at some point.”

Repeat us about your unusual album, Hellbent & Moonbound, and the inspiration leisurely it.

The title Hellbent and Moonbound used to be inspired by Ada Limón’s poem “Waft.” The phrase “moon-stir and hell-curved on defying the identical outdated gravity of this hurry” in actuality caught with me. To me, “moonbound” means inspiring in direction of gentle, whatever lights you up, in overall thru darkness, and “hellbent” is with a deep dedication and resolution – defying the gravitational pull of the rest that would retain us again. This grew to became the backbone of the fable, and I bask in to mediate each and every tune almost bask in a rib, connecting to this central understanding from a various attitude.

What used to be the songwriting and recording course of?

I wrote these songs over the previous seven years after releasing my closing album in 2016. It used to be a long, marinating course of. Lots had changed for me; I’d uprooted my existence in Recent York and moved to California, I grew to became a mother, then the pandemic hit, and I — bask in a range of us — went inward and came all over solace in being artistic at some level of that time.

What fabricate you hope your followers/listeners take away with them after they listen in for your music?

Writing these songs helped me navigate moments of battle and self-doubt. They gave me a put to in actuality feel both my peril and pleasure and affords words to the total questions I used to be grappling with. The art work I bask in excellent lets me peek my agree with legend in a more compassionate, romantic gentle. I hope my songs would possibly well connect with of us that method. They aren’t my proprietary legend anymore; if anybody else sees themselves and connects to my words, that’s a gigantic honor. In the event that they bring anybody else pleasure and ease or accompany them on a long automobile traipse or while they cook a meal, that fills my coronary heart up.

When did you first gather the guitar, and what drew you to that instrument?

After I used to be in high college, my dad introduced a nylon string guitar dwelling from a industrial outing, and I used to be directly obsessed. He taught me some chords and gave me a songbook, and I spent day-after-day after college in my room studying songs after which started writing my agree with. It’s an ongoing bolt, and I’ve devoted the previous couple of years to going again and studying again. I’ve been taking classes with Molly Miller, who’s supreme. Having a girl trainer has been in actuality exciting. After I used to be increasing up, there weren’t many ladies around me who would possibly well shred bask in that, and I’d in no method heard of any feminine guitar lecturers in my metropolis. Now that I enjoy a daughter, I can peek so clearly how necessary that representation is, and I bask in seeing more and more ladies picking it up.

Who are a few of your musical influences?

There are the ‘70s folks classics I discussed earlier. Some contemporary artists I in actuality esteem are Damien Jurardo, Feist, Bedouine, Aldous Harding, Angel Olsen, Cassandra Jenkins, and Madison Cunningham.

What’s subsequent?

Trusty now, I’m in actuality taking part in this 2d of the fable being out on the earth; I bask in listening to how of us are connecting with it. I’m looking out to allow myself some stillness and soak that all up! We’re celebrating with a fable birth birthday party at Gold Diggers on Dec. third. Hundreds unusual visuals in the works — and I appropriate listened down to the total BBC “Witch” podcast (highly recommend) that obtained me in actuality inspired and some unusual songs brewing.

Join with Malena Cadiz

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Easy – Expert music video https://youtu.be/dHVML0jHvlY

Call It A Evening – Expert music video https://youtu.be/9i7Btf4vNFg

Hellbent and Moonbound tune listing: