INTERVIEW: Carmen DeLeon and new single 'Cafécito': "I love singing. I need to make people happy, I need to make people know that everything’s possible."
Interview: Jett Tattersall
Image: Pipe Jaramillo
Venezuelan born, Miami based singer-songwriter Carmen DeLeon is steadily earning a reputation as one of the next big things in music. Named one of the ‘20 Latina Artists to Discover Before 2020 Ends’ by Billboard last year, her first two singles ‘Volverás’ and ‘Juegas’ are polished, R&B-reggae-pop delights and have attracted critical acclaim as well as racking up over 1.5 million global streams.
Earlier this year she released her third single ‘Cafécito' (little coffee), a gentle, heartfelt song that starts off with an acoustic guitar vibe before morphing into smooth, mellow beats. Written in memory of her grandfathers, the lyrics capture how life’s daily routines can unleash a flood of memories. “This song is an anthem for anyone who has experienced loss,” DeLeon says. “My hope is that you sense the common emotion and know that we’re all grieving together.”
At just 19 years of age, and with the ability to produce authentic, high quality pop, DeLeon is clearly one to watch and alongside praise from Billboard, Wonderland and Idolator, in December last year she was also chosen by Puma to feature in their Finish Line Women campaign. We recently caught up with Carmen to find out more.
Hello Carmen! I am so very pleased to steal some of your time today, so thank you for talking to me.
No thank you. Thank you so much.
There are so many cool things going on, but just tell me... how are you keeping these days?You know, I'm good. I'm working a lot. I'm working a lot on myself, working out. I've been eating healthy. I've been trying to find that sound, you know, that is going to be the sound... the Carmen sound. That's hard, but it's just going to the studio a lot and being there for hours!
Well you've already got quite a solid sound which I'm going to dissect in further songs, but I want to quickly talk about your recently released single the beautiful ‘Cafécito’ which is a song whose opening, stripped back verse makes the listener immediately stop whatever they're doing and turn their ear to the radio or the speaker or whatever it is playing from. There is so much heart. Then, upon pulling the lyrics apart we learn that it is about the loss of a loved one, written for your grandfathers. Can you talk me through that a bit?
Yeah, I wrote that song with my best friends. There was a hurricane last year here in Miami and we stayed at my house. We couldn't go out. Both of them are musicians. So the three of us did the song, it was 4am so it was really late and we just had that muse that we need to write something that people connect with every day. which is the loss of someone important. It doesn't have to be death, it can be a breakup or whatever. For me it was my grandparents. They inspire me, you know? I had to generalise a little bit with the song so people could interpret it the way they wanted to, but it's a very special song for sure.
You mentioned you had to generalise it so people could interpret it for them. Is that something that when you're listening to other people's music, sometimes it can set you off? You're like ‘oh hold on, that's too personal for them’. Is that something you set out to do when writing?
I do, I personally like doing that just because sometimes I go to the studio and I go ‘I’m going to write about myself’. Sometimes I make up stories, but I do like to generalise it.
It starts with a song of longing and loss but then there's some solid dancing as well that I can't help getting into which again is rare for a song about loss. Did writing that memory into a beautiful heart soothing and then quite danceable song help alleviate any of the pain?
It did. 100 per cent, because you know when someone's gone the only thing you have to remember is the good moments, not the bad moments. You have to remember that person in the good state. So I did have fun writing it.
Beautiful. Your debut single ‘Volverás’ is about heartbreak and toxic friends and really kind of standing up to appreciate yourself, which is amazing. Like a self-love it is okay not to be okay. Again, there's this colourful dance track with this beautiful accompanying video. How did you feel when that one released and really kind of threw you out there into the English pop market?
It was crazy because it was in the middle of the pandemic and I didn't know if i wanted to release it but then it was like people are listening to music right now and it's what they need is music. So I released it and at first we did a video in my garage because we didn't have anywhere to do it because everything was closed. But then, we were like let's do it outdoors and we did this video where it was safe. But at first it was in my garage. It was horrible, I hated it. I was like ‘I can't go out like this, my first song and video’, so my team helped me. But it definitely is a great song. If someone breaks up with you or if you don't have a friend anymore because that friend's toxic. That's happened to me before, [the song is] actually a true story.
You’re throwing some amazing shakes in the video, dancing like a gun and it's clear that music charges you in a number of ways. Growing up, particularly your exposure to music, how has that affected you as the artist you are today?
You know, I've sung since I was really little. So music for me has always been a medicine kind of thing. Growing up, listening to, soul, jazz, blues…it's so different from what it is right now. Growing up, my parents always supported me in everything, it’s always been a motivation to keep going and chase my dreams.
You're an amazing song writer but I heard as well as singing, you're starting to write in English now which, as good as one language can be, it must be quite daunting because song writing is daunting in your own language let alone getting the poetry?
Yeah, lowkey it's hard and in Spanish it's hard. In Spanish it's easier just because of the rhymes. In English for me it's harder to write, 100% harder. I have so many songs in English that I want to release.
I think it's incredible and I actually love how well it's cleaning up in Spanish and I think that's a very solid part of your voice. It's very rare for a song or an artist to cross over in their native language and it to be appreciated as much. For you to be doing that right out of the gate it's a testament to you and your sounds.
Thank you. Thank you so much.
Keep doing that. You recently covered the Crystals ‘He Hit Me (And it Felt Like a Kiss)’. It featured on the Promising Young Woman soundtrack. Your voice knocks it out of the park. There is so much power there and of course, that's a huge song. It's Carole King and it's been covered and performed by gargantuan talents. I just want to know, talking about your sound, how did you approach putting your spin on it?
You know, when they showed me the song, I was like that's 100% my sound. I've been singing soul and jazz and blues since I was really little. That's like the main thing that I sing. For me it's really easy to sing it. I literally did it in two takes. It just was born for me. It was really easy and i really love it. I listen to it a lot. I don't know if people listen to it, but I listen to it and it's a very amazing song and an amazing movie.
With regards to your music and also your life, you travelled a lot and were relocating a lot as a kid which can be wonderful but also really tough. But you’re clearly one for just powering on in the face of any kind of trouble which is an incredible role model for anyone dealing with any kind of knock down, particularly young women. I just want to know as a young soloist, have you ever felt you needed to push even harder to be taken seriously in the industry?
Of course. Moving a lot did a lot of good things to me just because of experience and cultures and stuff, but it was definitely hard because there is a lot of competition. But I don't see it as competition, I just see myself as competition. I was hospitalised for 3 months because of a severe surgery. I almost died. It made me change my whole perspective and it was like, ‘God gave you a second chance. This is what you have to do for your life. He gave you a second chance for you to make your dreams come true because if you weren't enough for this earth, you would die’. Because it was horrible, it was severe. I was like, ‘how am I going to get away from this?’ Doctors were like it's a miracle. I knew that I had to fight for my life in that moment. I have to. I can't leave my parents alone. I love singing. I need to make people happy. I need to make people know that everything’s possible.
Well that's what your music inspires. It's kind of like fight and stand together and clap. It’s beautiful. Lastly, before I leave you, what's coming up for you now that we're over 2020. 2021 is looking nicer. What have you got coming on?
It is. I always see things positive so I know that everything soon is going to be fine. People are just too negative which drives me fucking crazy. They're just like ‘no it's going to be so long’. Just live your fucking life. It's going to be fucking long but you just have to live one day at a time. I feel like everything's going to be fine. People are just too negative and we have to see life in a positive way and everything's going to come positive your way. I'm making a lot of music for this year. There's a lot of collaborations which are awesome. There's the one that's coming out with Ne-Yo which was really fun to do. It was an amazing experience. He's such a talented human being. A wonderful soul. But yeah… just more music and more projects!
‘Cafécito’ is out now via Capitol Records/Universal Music. You can download and stream here.
To keep up with all things Carmen DeLeon you can follow her on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
