By Deaglan Howlett | Posted Wednesday, January 8, 2019
Cara Introcaso is a 23-year-old singer/songwriter based out of Middletown, New Jersey. Her first EP, Post Grad, was released late 2019 featuring seven original tracks. Self-described as “all over the place” when it comes to having a definitive genre, Post Grad has something for every type of music fan. Since the release of Post Grad, Cara has been performing throughout Monmouth County, both solo and with a band. I recently reached out to Cara to ask her about writing and recording her first release. Thanks again, Cara!
When did you first start releasing music?
I started recording music on my own when I was 17—putting out covers. The first cover I recorded was a piss-poor version of "An Illustration of Loneliness" by Courtney Barnett. I wrote and recorded my first original song called "Apples" when I was 18, which I did in my college dorm room. I hated that song, and promptly set it to private on my SoundCloud, and continued on to write a few more originals that I posted. Some are still up there, what have I got to hide? We all start somewhere.
Who were your influences for this release?
This is a difficult question for me… every artist has a "sound" and I'm not too sure that I've found mine yet. I like writing songs that are jazzy, like Amy Winehouse and Norah Jones, just as much as I like writing indie songs, like Pavement and Built to Spill, just as much as I’d LIKE to write intricate musical arrangements seen in the stylings of my favorite artists, Radiohead and Wilco. I even enjoy toying with synth-y stuff and making beats. Gun to my head, I probably (definitely) could not come up with a genre that I’m going for, which is mirrored in the songs that I released, and the reception that I received in that all of my friends had a different “favorite.” It’s kind of all over the place, but then so is my taste, so I suppose the short answer is “I’m really not sure.”
What was the writing process like for Post Grad?
As the name suggests, all of these songs were written in the one year following my graduation from college. Anyone can attest to the fact that it is a tumultuous, confusing, sometimes disheartening time, getting out there and assuming your responsibilities as an adult. I really hated my first job in New York City, with a burning passion, and became all existential about the confines of the working world and the whole rat-race rigamarole, and had about one hour each day after my commute to do something that I enjoyed until I quit that job. Many times I took my frustrations out by writing songs, and 4 out of the 7 I wrote and recorded all in one night.
Some are reflective of that – I wrote “Modern Thing” on the bus ride home, observing people’s reactions to our bus being broken down for 2 hours. I wrote “Conversation starter” in the midst of my unemployment, after driving to a parking lot alone with a keyboard and my mic and recorded it right then and there – I mostly did this because I read that Will Toledo from Car Seat Headrest used to do the same for his first few solo albums. In “Devandra” (I was listening to a lot of Devandra Banhart at the time) it’s kind of a nihilistic, sarcastic ode to being in a rut, and “Pull me in” was really just me fucking around when I was wine drunk and really emotional one night (I didn’t even write down those lyrics, I just made the track and sang whatever I felt like over it). And of course, you gotta have the love songs, which are seen in “Cool jazz,” “UDKB” and “Mindspace.” I write lyrics first, like a poem, and then figure out how I want it conveyed in the music.
How did you record this release? Advantages/disadvantages?
Hah. I recorded all of it on GarageBand, with a microphone that my friend Baha got for me (he also lent me his keyboard), a Scarlett USB recording interface, and my guitars. I did all of the mixing and editing myself, and the majority of the instrumentation myself. It has its ups and downs – I know how to play guitar, piano, bass, drums, and sing, so it’s cool to release something that was wholly my own. But, if I had the opportunity to record in a studio with other people, I’m sure it could’ve sounded more finished. It’s my first EP, so I guess it’s fitting that it has that bedroom-DIY imperfection to it. That being said, the reason it took me so long to release any of these songs is that I was never (and still am not) totally happy with how they sound, so I’ll probably seek out studio time for the next one.
Who else played on Post Grad?
I wrote “UDKB” with three of my best friends—Jack Killilea played the drum track on an electric drum kit, which was really fun to watch if you know the kid at all. He also came up with the chord structure for the guitar part, and Justin (Clappsy) did guitar fills in the background which, in my opinion, makes the song. I didn’t feel like writing a second verse, so I had Nick Mitwasi rap over it—everyone who took the time to listen to his lyrics let me know that they thought it was hilarious, on top of the fact that the kid can rap. The song is a bit fluffy for my taste in terms of the lyrics, but it was just fun to write and record with my pals so it’s still one of my favorites. Jack also came up with the chord structure on the verse of “Cool jazz,” and other than that it was all me.
What does this project mean to you?
Oh we’re gonna dig deep now, huh? I have been playing, performing and studying music and musicians since I was in elementary school, and it’s an integral part of who I am. I always wanted to do more than I was doing because I never had my own band… I always played with different people and would take any opportunity to perform throughout high school and college (remember that time I filled in for 2 gigs on bass with your first band, Deaglan?). I never even entertained the idea of going to school for something music-related, because my left-brain is just as decisive as my right-brain, so in my adult life music has been my hobby, my passion, and a creative outlet, but not my career. The benefit of working full time is that my own stability is not contingent upon the music that I make, so it never has to become stressful, even if I do get jealous of those whose main gig is… playing gigs. So first and foremost, this project means a lot to me in terms of having something to share with people who may not get to see me play, or have only heard me play covers, and to have had something to work on so that I didn’t fall victim to complacency and stop creating my own music.
For me personally, this was like one long diary entry for the most transitional phase of my life this far. Shit’s hard! I spend a lot of time contemplating and had a series of existential crises and fell out of love then in love and considered about 18 different career paths and a lot of the time I wanted to rip my hair out—and I’m a pretty optimistic person! I watched people I love go through the same thing, and all of it was just very real and I love that I could create something out of all those feelings I felt. Listening to it now brings me back to the moment in time when I wrote them, and now that I’m out of that rut it’s nice to go back and recall those memories.
Favorite song you have written so far?
My favorite song on this project is “Conversation starter.” Though I mainly perform on the guitar, I love the piano, and that song came out of me like a brain dump. I hate songs with fluffy lyrics, with cliché idioms all angsty and whatnot, and the lyrics on this song are probably the only ones I’m completely satisfied with on Post Grad.
