Calica Interview: TikTok & Tame Impala & Two Cats, OH MY!

Calica is blooming into a talented and creative artist, who knows how to capitalize off of trends and highlight uniqueness. While listening to the young artist, it is always apparent how much she cares about her craft and emotions consistently seep through the cracks.

Her 2019 album ‘Yes, It’s About You’ was a solid debut album, highlighting her emotionally-charged writing and catchy themes. This 10-song project really allows the listener to get to know Calica as an artist and could be described as introspective, reminiscent, and clear. Although this album will not define Calica as an artist, it is nonetheless a good start.

Calica may not be a familiar name, although the Miami-native is beginning to pick up some speed with her booming TikTok presence and recent collaboration with indie-pop group, Magdalena Bay. I had the opportunity to chat with the up-and-coming bedroom-pop singer about life during the pandemic, her recent bop “Superficial Love”, her two adorable cats, and more. Get to know the singer/songwriter a bit better through this interview and keep an eye out for upcoming releases, as she just announced new music coming July 24th.

What have you been up to during COVID?

I was just hanging out at home in Miami bored, wishing I was back in LA and I started a TikTok because I was bored and it just kinda popped off. I wasn’t expecting anything of it, but it popped off, which was cool because everyone is just kinda at home bored, sitting on TikTok, so it was the perfect time to do it. That has kind of been my life up until now, making videos, I’ve gotten some really cool business opportunities, and my song releases just happened to come out at the exact moment that my TikTok was blowing up. So, it's all been spiraling from there which has been awesome and it's been a really creative time as a whole.

What was your collaboration with Magdalena Bay like?

Mica and I have been acquaintances for a while, we both grew up in Miami and we would always have mutual friends and we would go to the same parties, but we never actually hung out. Then we both moved to LA, one of our mutual friends put us in a group chat and was like “Hey! I know you are both in LA and you are both musicians, so you should totally collaborate. Then we met up and hit it off and we wrote “Superficial Love”, I think like two years ago. Its just been sitting there and we were finally like “we should probably release this.”

I am so glad that you finally decided to release it because it is pretty awesome.

Yeah, I love it. We tried to make it like City Pop, which is Asian Music from the 80s, that was our big inspiration for that track. Mica and Matt are my good friends now and we hangout all the time.

I’ve listened to your 2019 Album ‘Yes, It’s About You’ a few times and I like it a lot. What is your favorite song off of that project?

I wrote that album about three years ago now and it didn’t come out until last September. It will always have a place in my heart and I try not to talk shit about my own album, I probably shouldn’t, but I wrote it when I was going through a really bad breakup. I was in such a specific head space when I wrote all the songs that I’m totally out of now, so it's weird to listen to, but also a cool snapshot of how I was feeling. At the time, my favorites were probably “Cold Heart'', “Bitch", and “Give and Take”, but I feel like I’ve grown so much as a songwriter since then. All my unreleased stuff and the stuff I’m releasing now it's just like I’m so much more in love with that, than I am with my album. Which is a good thing, you are always so much more excited about the stuff you are writing.

You are definitely missing playing shows...

Oh my gosh, yeah. I mean I’ve only played two since I moved to LA but they were both really fun!

Where did you play?

The first one I played was at this small venue and I actually opened for Magdalena bay. The venue was called “Gold-Diggers”, just a small place in Hollywood. The second was at another small bar, called “Adults Only”. They were both really cool.

You did a cover of "Supalonely" are you a big fan of Benee? Why did you choose that cover?

It actually started out as a TikTok thing, I wanted to see if I could flip a song into a completely different style than it was written in and I really liked “Supalonely” and it was also trending, so I was like huh…let me do this. I actually wasn’t even planning on releasing it, but TikTok really wanted me to, so I kinda just threw it on Spotify last minute without any marketing or promotion and it's doing pretty well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2IYZkS2-l4

I don't know a lot about TikTok, so how has that worked for you?

When you watch a video you can just click on the sound and then it’ll show you all the videos with the same sound as that one. It is how songs will blow up and I am reaching a completely different fan base and I’m so happy. A lot of teens and they are all so cute, and they are all like “we are with you from day one, you are going to be famous!”

Do you have a dream venue that you would like to play?

Honestly, some kind of arena or festival. Obviously Coachella or Lollapalooza would be awesome. Maybe the American Airlines Arena because it is in Miami and I’ve seen a lot of giant artists there. The LA Forum would also be really cool, I saw Tame Impala there before everything closed.

Who is your dream artist to tour with?

Tame Impala. Kevin Parker is a freaking genius and I think Clairo opened for him when I saw him and I just want to be that person.

Top 3 artists right now?

Lianne La Havas. She is amazing you should check her out. She is a British singer/songwriter, her voice is incredible and she is always my number one baby girl forever. Obviously, Tame Impala. I’ve also been really liking Tommy Newport recently, he’s cool and we are probably going to write together when he comes back to LA.

What is your favorite album of all-time?

Don't want to say Tame Impala again, but it's ‘Currents’.

I have to ask you about your cats, what are their names?

I don't think you are prepared for me to talk for the next two hours. Their names are Tigger and Hershey and I miss them so much. They live with my parents in Miami, but they are my baby boys and I love them.

Do you not like dogs then?

No! It’s not one or the other, I love dogs, I love both! It's just that my cats are my children.

Go to sneaker for shows?

Probably my white AF1s, which is a pretty boring answer. They are good shoes though!

What are your goals for the rest of this year and your long-term goals?

Goals for this year: One was to play more shows but that's not happening anytime soon. I actually have them written down on the white board in front of me, uh, reach 10k on Insta, reach 100k streams on a song, which I’m super close to with “Superficial Love” and “Supalonely”, and just release more music in general. I have a ton of releases lined up for the next couple of months, which I’m really excited about, it took me so long to release my album, so now I have so much music ready to go, and just figuring out how to release it all at the moment, which Is really fun!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8f6AVQt0lY

Instagram: @calicamusic

Spotify: Calica

TikTok: @itscalica