Calista Garcia On the Making Of ‘Animal Magnifique!’
Can you talk about any specific themes or motifs that run throughout ‘Animal Magnifique!?’
This album is very much about breaking out of mental shackles, coming out of our cages, so to speak. As an artist and someone who's been publicly facing since a very young age, as well as just someone who's developed so much during the rise of social media, I pictured that cage to be sort of like a sideshow one, that keeps lions or beasts, or so-called "beastly" humans, like geeks. What we're breaking out of is the need to perform to be loved, the lack of mentalities, the shrinking of our true feelings and expression.
Another recurring metaphor is "spinning", and what I picture is a spinning top. I think what resonated with me about this idea of -being- a spinning top is how it captures the feeling that the only way to keep from falling is to keep spinning and spinning - knowing that no matter how tired you are, the second the motion stops, you're done. I think that's a lot of how it can feel living with chronic illness, as well as living under capitalism - trained on the belief that we're not enough inherently, we have to earn our enoughness. When I ask at the end of "Ghost", "will you catch me if I fall?" - what I'm asking is, "Will you still love me if I'm not constantly proving my lovability?"
Were there any challenges or breakthrough moments during the songwriting process for this album?
Absolutely, I think the album is so heavily autobiographical, that any "breakthroughs" I was having in the song were very much my way of processing breakthroughs I was having in life. "Spookshow" was a particularly special moment, kind of exactly what I outlined in the first verse. I was feeling really lost and low one morning, and I got off the train home, and there was a whole carnival right in my neighborhood. It was Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Feast, thrown by the church where the priest later got demoted for filming a Sabrina Carpenter video (which subsequently led to Eric Adams being charged, excellent NYC lore). Anyway, because it was a night carnival, it was almost completely abandoned during the day, and I remember walking through this carnival on my own, feeling like it was this beautiful spiritual gift. And it served as a reminder that no matter what hurts and feels heavy, life is still full of strange surprising delights to pull us out of our internal haunted houses, and always will be if we just look up.
Can you talk about any standout tracks on 'Animal Magnifique!' and what makes them special to you?
It's hard to pick any favorites, they all feel like different colors of my psyche and individual pieces, but also puzzle pieces. "Carnival" was my favorite for a while, probably because it was the one I wrote last, but also because it felt so freeing and cathartic. In terms of listening, I'm really liking "Clara de Lune" right now, it feels like such a nice world of a song to spend time in. The one I'm probably most proud of though is "Tilt" because I think I was scared for so long that it was too insane to be performed or recorded, and to have been able to find the players and talent to finally bring it to life both on recordings and live is something I didn't know if I'd ever get to experience. And it was so much work.
What has been the most memorable experience or achievement in your music career so far?
I genuinely, genuinely just feel like it's making this album, hands down. There's no magic venue, award, or analytic that could give me the feeling that pouring all of ourselves into something and having it be all we dreamed does. The night of the album release, Henry and I just laid down on the living room carpet and listened through with headphones, and all I kept thinking was, "it's real! It exists!" It's like Dr. Frankenstein shouting, "It's Alive!" The album release show was also incredible, my favorite show I've ever played, and just felt really synchronous and cathartic - and was just the most beautiful closing to a chapter.
Where do you find inspiration for your songs or musical ideas?
It's always been how I process and make sense of my own life, so my own lore, for sure. I tend to write about the things that spark the biggest emotions. My environment, too, a lot of it was looking to channel the music I leaned on during different phases. Whether it was when I lived in Alphabet City and got really tough-edged, vs. chilling out and moving out to Brooklyn, I was trying to capture a lot of the playlists that were reflecting those changes. And then musically, thematically, I'm kind of also a huge film kid, with a theatrical streak. So in the more aesthetic, metaphorical sense, films like "Nightmare Alley" and even "Modern Times," (I was so jazzed about it I added the "Smile" theme to the end of Clara) had a huge impact.
