July 5, 2017 • 24 mins
On the latest episode, Elvis Duran is getting real with Camila Cabello. This break out solo artist tells us her biggest fears, the almost title of her newest album, and the best advice she has ever received.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
I literally listened to demos that I was doing in
garage band when I got my first kiss, and you
actually heard the sound of you and love. Yeah, that's
so cool. For a long time, I actually thought that
was going to be the name of my album. I
have questions because I was just so deep in the hurting.
This is I Heart Radio's Label to Fires with Zico
(00:24):
Coconut Water, where we rip off labels to reveal the
size of your favorite artists and celebrities you didn't know.
We get to know the real them, which is way
more surprising and interesting than who they are secretly dating.
Label to Fires was created with our friends at Zico
Coconut Water, who encourage you to read the label to
see what's inside. Zico, what's inside is everything. I'm Elvis
(00:47):
Duran and welcome to a new episode of I Heart
Radio's Labeled de Fires with Zico Coconut Water. This week,
the amazing Camila Caballo is with us. Incredible artists, good friend,
but you go far beyond that, and that's what Label
de Fires is about. It's about that. It's about your passions,
what do you what drives you to do what you do?
(01:08):
And you can actually learn about yourself and teach people
how to look at their own labels and defy their
own labels. I love that. I love this. Let's do it.
I love it. Let's tell her one where you are
in your life, and then we got to figure out
how the passion's got you to where you are. Of course,
Cimula's new album is coming out in September. It's called
The Hurting, The Healing, the Loving. Yeah, obviously the title
(01:28):
of your album alone tells us something that's been going
on in your life. Talk about it, well, I feel
like basically how this album came about. I've always used
songwriting as just a therapeutic thing for me, and I've
always just written about what was going on in my life.
And how it started was you the song I Have Questions, um,
and I had written that a while ago, and for
(01:49):
a long time, I actually thought that was going to
be the name of my album, was I Have Questions?
Because I was just so deep in the hurting, and
I thought the whole album was going to be about
me just being confused and trying to get answers from
a situation and at the time in my life that
was just like really toxic and was just confusing for me.
(02:09):
But I felt like throughout the writing process, everything just
started to get better. Like I had been struggling with
some anxiety, and I had been it was just hard
to be you know, sometimes it's just hard to be humane. No, No,
it's not easy. You know, it doesn't come with an instruction, bucklety.
You got to figure it on your own. Yeah, And
for a long time, I felt like I was just
(02:33):
like on a treadmill and it was going really fast
and I just had to run and just keep up
with it, you know what I mean. Throughout the writing process,
like I felt like my songs were just trying to
tell me something about myself. Um, and I felt like
that pain was just coming out of me naturally because
(02:54):
I couldn't keep it in anymore. And I felt like
everything that I was feeling was just transferred into the music,
like I didn't have to carry that weight just inside
myself anymore. I think, God, you had that outlet, you know. Actually,
you know, it doesn't take a genius to figure out
Commitic Cabayo's passion music, you know, without music as your
outlet to write those songs, to be able to examine
(03:17):
your own life. Without that passion in your life, you
could still have a lot of this stuff bottled up.
You know, my vehicle is music because I feel like
even more than just an outlet, it's a way of
me taking pain and something negative and turning it into
something beautiful. But sometimes I feel like my biggest passion
is just love, Like I love connecting with people, you know,
(03:41):
And I feel like an outlet for me could also
be just talking with my mom, talking with you right now,
talking with a friend, meeting a boy, Like for me,
that is what makes me feel alive, you know what
I mean? Um, And that's what I like to write about.
And I feel like music just takes it one step
further because an outlet, but it's also a way of
(04:01):
me looking back on what I went Like I'm going
to look back on questions and on this album and
be like, Wow, that's that's what That's what I was,
That's what was going through my head at nineteen years old.
Does that make sense? And I've always thought that was
really cool because I literally listened to demos that I
was doing in garage band of literally when I got
(04:22):
my first kiss, and I was just like, did you
hear the passion in that. Yeah, and I was like
in love and you actually heard the sound of you
and love. Yeah, that's so cool. That's so cool. But
really knowing about what you were singing about when you're
saying about it, now you know what it was all about.
And I feel like it sounds strange, But even before
(04:43):
my heartbreak, even in my melodies, I felt like sounded
lighter than what my heart my most recent heartbreak was,
which means that I feel like I'm feeling stuff more deeply.
And I'll tell you what else. It's a learning phase
you can go through. Is understanding that you know, you
hate going into life when people put labels on you,
(05:03):
they put you in a box and think you are this,
you are that. What's more dangerous than that is when
you put labels on yourself. Absolutely. Self examination is something
that's the most difficult thing for people to do, but
what's the most exciting and you figured out and you
see what what benefits you get from it? You know,
because I feel like also the enemy of creativity and
the enemy of growing is just staying in the same
(05:24):
place and self examination, there's no there's no feeling like
you can always just go further into yourself, you know
what I mean. It's kind of frightening in a way. Exciting, exciting, frightening. Yeah,
and it also always changes, you know, Like my interests
have changed so much. I mean, I feel like my
personality at the core has been the same, but definitely
I've changed a lot. Like I feel like I change
(05:45):
super quickly because I feel like I'm constantly exposed to
new challenges and new things. That tests me, you know
what I mean? Of course I do. And I feel like,
don't you feel the same way to absolutely, and it
never never changes. I'm so much older than you, but
I'm still going through that. And I tell the story
all the time on our radio show. My dad, who
passed away close to ninety at eighty nine, he told
me you never stop learning. He said, you never stopped growing.
(06:08):
And at eighty nine years old, he said, you're always scared.
You'll be scared and excited for the rest of your life.
If you're not, that's wrong. It's something you're never over. Camilla,
what have you recently learned about yourself in your self examination?
Do you ever stopped here and go, wait, you know what,
this is something kind of cool I like about me?
That maybe you didn't know. A year ago, I realized
that I really get a lot of joy in making
(06:29):
people feel good, if that makes sense. Talk about it,
like a lot of the times, I feel like, you know,
when I come here, that people are like, oh my god,
like she's so nice whatever, whatever. And you know a
lot of the times when when people talk about being nice,
they talk about like the benefits are that you have
a good reputation and that you know, you know, you're
so nice to people, that's why people want you to
win whatever, whatever. And I feel like I never think
(06:50):
about that stuff because I just realized that for me,
whether it's like fans or whatever, I really like I
like making people feel good, like I like complimenting people,
like I like giving people advice, Like I like that
look in their eyes when they're like, oh this person
cares about me, or like things you know is making
(07:10):
me feel important, Like I just I just enjoy that.
It goes back to what you said earlier, you love
interacting with people, And I think that is the ultimate interaction,
is when you both walk away from a conversation with
each other feeling pretty good about what you just talked about.
And I guess in music. Another another parallel would be
collaborating with other artists. I mean, communaly, You've collaborated and
(07:32):
will continue to collaborate with some of the biggest in
the business. And I'm sure it's impossible to say which
are your favorites because they're all superstars. But think about
those collaborations versus the songs you do by yourself in
a dark studio, which are important as well. I mean
you get that energy when you work with other people,
which you love people. Yeah, well, I actually think both
are equally fun, but they're very different because actually, like
(07:55):
my way of writing in a studio is I like
to be away from every Like I've actually talking about
self examination, whatever and learning about stuff in the creative process.
I've learned a lot through this album too, and I
realized that before how I would write songs would be
I would be like, I would have my garage man
and I would loop a verse or I would loop
(08:17):
a chorus and I would just write like physically right
until I got certain parts down. What I learned through
this album process was basically, you know how rappers like
freestyle and they get on the mic and they just
kind of spit stuff. They make it look so easy.
I basically did that with my melodies this time around,
and so I would do like eight passes of a song,
and I would I feel like I would have to
(08:38):
be in the booth away from people, because when I'm
doing that stuff, I kind of do just weird stuff
with my hands, or I do weird stuff with my face.
And I've realized that because I'm actually a really introverted
person by nature, that I don't like being like next
to people when I have to like go into the
booth and do it and be away from people. So
actually I love connecting with people, but in the studio
(09:02):
I actually prefer to be like in my own world
because I feel like that's how I can be the
most vulnerable. You know. The difficulty to make people understand
is if you're such an outgoing, bubbly, wonderful, smart, genuine
person when you're around people, then you say, well, I'm
labeling myself an introvert. People don't understand that. I mean,
(09:22):
it's so not black and white. Like the best, the
best explanation I've ever heard for introverts versus extroverts were extroverts.
You actually have your battery recharged when you're with other people.
If you're an introvert, you actually charge your battery when
you're by yourself, and then you can go be with
other people. I also feel like there's a there's there's
different kinds of interaction though. For example, for me going
(09:44):
to a party and just talking to fifty like just
like random people being hi, how are you? In the
small talk that drains me, not even not only drains me,
it just makes me nervous. I can't explain it. So
I feel like that's where kind of the introverted part
comes from. But I love like one to one conversations.
I love connecting with people that I know, like it's
(10:05):
a real conversation. If that makes sense. It does make sense,
and I'll tell you why, because that recharges me. You
love interacting with a soul, with a real person, just
the hey, how's the weather. That's not a conversation, and
so you're really just kind of cruising by someone not
really knowing who that is. You're like, what was that?
But if you sit down and have a mean, meaningful
(10:27):
conversation with someone, you actually learn something about them and
you learn something about yourself. There's something that it's it's
not a wasted moment, and so wasted moments must bother
you a lot. Yeah, I feel like it's all about
how you feel in a comment, like if I feel
like I can be completely myself, if I feel like
I can cry at any point or laugh or say
(10:47):
something dumb or whatever, then I feel safe. I feel
like it's all about just feeling safe and like you
can be yourself. Does that make sense when you can't
feel safe with someone, you just Yeah. So if you're
in a room credit room and you go hi, Hi, Hi,
how are you? How are you great? You've received nothing.
There's no energy there. Your energy is from actually digging
(11:08):
in and getting to know someone exactly that. So I
don't even know if I'm an introvert or extrovert. I
think we need a break. So we came up with
a little game from our friends at Zenico called the
What's Inside Game where we actually shoot rapid fire questions
at the guest and get to know all sorts of
things about them. Let's play the Last Thing You Ate? Tacos,
(11:32):
your favorite person to follow on social media, anyone you
followed it. They just make you laugh for they entertain you. Yeah,
the fat Jewish Oh yeah, Yeah, he's hilarious. He's hilarious.
That's actually my favorite part about the Internet is the
funny stuff, right, That is the important stuff of the internet. Funny,
it's the most important Yeah. Absolutely. What is your spirit animal? Hummingbird?
(11:55):
Why is that? My grandma always calls me a hummingbird
because my personality is very like that. I'm like you
just zoom left, zoom right. Yes. Do you have a
morning ritual that you have to hit every day? What
is a morning thing you've got to do? I really don't.
I'm not a morning person. You hate waking up? Oh
my god, today it was difficult. I think I know
the answer to this, but I may be surprised. Who
is your go to person if you need advice? Immediately?
(12:17):
My mom? Yeah, of course. Now think about this. It's
okay to crow about yourself. What are you most proud
of that? I know that I'm a good friend. I
know I'm a good person. There you go. How many
people know the real you? That's a difficult question because
I feel like there's only so much that people can
know about me in my public life, you know what
(12:38):
I mean. I really make it a point though, to
be myself, right, Do you know you? That's a weird
question to answer. Do you think you know you? I
think so. I think I change all the time. But
I feel like, at least right now, I know me.
I don't know it's to be in yeah exactly. Every
once in a while you'll wake up and I just
don't know me. Yeah, but I did. But why did
I say that to that person? But I feel like
(12:58):
I don't always like I'm not always confident. I have
moments where I crumble, you know what I mean, And
then I'm like, yeah, none of the mysteries, aren't we
If you have to fill out your tax forms, they
ask you what is your occupation? You have your accountant
right down, what what is your occupation? That's the artists, artists, singer.
(13:20):
I just feel like I don't know like singer. He
was this girl? Yeah, yeah, it is truly because if
they don't know who you are, what you're singing like
a singer? We got a singer. There's so many things
that I want to do in life that are even
beyond music, right. I would love to write movies one day,
So you're an artist. I just want to do as
many things as possible in one lifetime and to be
(13:41):
creatively all have to be about love. If you had
to label yourself, you can give it words whatever, Like
give me two or three words that label who you
think you are today on this journey. Okay, can you
do one and then I do the next one? Yeah? Okay,
go you first. Okay, words about me on my journey
where I am now anxious about the few chuir, which
is more than one word. But I'm anxious to move
(14:02):
on to see what's next. I'm you do another one,
You do another one. I'm still thinking, do another one. Blessed,
very blessed. Okay, I'm anxious. It makes me anxious to
be away from home and see my sister grow up
and me not be there. Yeah. I missed her a lot.
And just in general, I try to keep a balance
(14:24):
of working and also living. My biggest fear is looking
back and being like I didn't experience enough. Wow, so
you got to experience it all. Yeah, So let me
throw some words at you. You You tell me if they
apply to you. Brave? Yeah, See how come it took
me saying it to you? How come you couldn't look
at me and say I'm brave Because everything you've been
through recently, going out on your own doing your own thing. Well,
(14:48):
you started off with something vulnerable, so I wanted to
start up with something vulnerable. Took. Okay, Now you do
a positive one about yourself, brave and blessed. Okay, cheat
on my test. Okay, I'm going to say kind and
that you are. Thanks, And it's good to recognize you
are because a lot of people can't look in the
mirror and go, you know what you're Okay, You're nice
to people, and I just feel like that's the most
important thing. Well, I find that to be very true
(15:10):
about you. Thanks. I want to say one about you really, Okay,
say one about me. I was ending this, but now
I'm going to go on because I'm gonna say real
because I feel like you're the same on and off
this Mike. You're the same person. You cared just as
much about people. Is what makes you so special and
that's the ultimate compliment. Thank you. Label Defiers just the
name of this podcast thanks to our friends at Zico
(15:31):
Coconut Water, which I've been swigging on pineapple coconut water.
I love it. Zico is fantastic. Where'd you get all
this from? Your mom? Your dad, where are you walking
around with on board that you got from your parents?
From my mom, she obviously wants me to be happy.
She loves that I'm doing what I love. But she
always says it if at any point I got out
of line, or if I treated somebody bad, or if whatever.
(15:52):
She's like Miami, like by the hair, she would pull
me back to Miami. She really just knows what's real
and important life. That's actually one of the reasons that
I haven't moved out of Miami is because I just
like to live as a normal life as possible. And
sometimes being in the industry, everything can get so competitive
and it can be so about being number one and
this and that that you can get lost in that.
(16:14):
And that's really my biggest fear, Like I want to
live a life full of love and family and friends
and experiences. She just always reminds me what's important. My
parents have been through so much in their lives, you know,
And I feel like my mom is a Cuban, my
dad is Mexican, and basically my mom and I when
I was six years old, we made the trip from
(16:35):
Cuba to Mexico to then Miami, and she had no
money and she didn't speak the language. And remember, I
feel like I have photographic flashbacks, if that makes sense.
Like I wrote this essay about immigration and about my story,
and it was the first paragraph. I just talked about
all of the different visuals that I see. I remember
I was on a train. Remember I had to Winnie
(16:57):
the poo journal. Remember I had a backpack. I remember
my mom carrying me over her shoulder, her going to
the gas station and speaking in broken English to get milk.
She didn't really know how to really speak the language.
You remember having the feeling that maybe your mom was struggling.
I honestly don't know. I don't think that I knew,
because they say that kids know that there was something wrong.
(17:18):
But my mom did tell me that when we went
into this immigration office where they tell you if you're
going to pass ahead to the US or not, that
I was just super quiet. I was just standing in
the corner with my little doll. And I do feel
like kids know because they're so pure of heart that
you can perceive all of the energy that's going out
around the road better than adults. Absolutely. Um, So she
(17:40):
did tell me that. But I'm a pisces, so I
feel like I always have my head in the clouds.
My parents also did a really good job. We were
going through financial problems, and they never stressed me out
about that stuff. It was always we'll take care of everything.
You just focus on school, focus on your education. I'm
assuming also there was a lot of love in the house. Yeah.
My dad came over like a year and a half later,
and I had a Disney calender and I would mark
(18:01):
at X's and so the day that he came back.
It's funny because as I'm getting older, I actually learned
more about the story. Every day, little pieces are revealed
to me. I just came from Miami yesterday and my
dad was like, I remember when I came back for
a week, you were like super shy and you couldn't
talk to me or whatever. And then a week after
then I got back to normal. I haven't seen him
for like a year and a half. My parents weren't
(18:22):
a part or anything. It was just because you couldn't
get back to the States. It took a while. But
look at you now. Did you ever in a million
years think after traveling those roads that you would end
up where you are today? No? Absolutely not. I never
even sang for my family. Was never a vision, you know,
absolutely not, no, because in Miami it's not like l
A or New York where you're surrounded a little bit more.
(18:45):
I feel like by the industry, like Miami is so isolated,
especially my mom started working in marshals and then my
parents were in construction. Like I had no connection. It's
not like I had money to pay for a flight
to l A to go to a meeting, you know
what I mean. I didn't have the opportunity. I actually
think those shows are really great, like X Factor and
The Voice and America's about talent is because they really
(19:07):
give normal people a shot. It's a difficult road, but
at least they give you a shot. In my mind,
I was just going to be a doctor, and I
was just going to get good grades in school because
my mom always told me, you have to get a
scholarship because we don't have money for college, so you
have to study really hard. So that was always what
I had in mind. But music was always my way
of just like breaking down the barriers and connecting with people.
It's always been like that, right. You feel more confident
(19:28):
with music, Yeah, absolutely, because I feel like that's just
my heart right. It's almost impossible to explain, but you
can if you try. What is it about music that
just is your everything? You could be a poet, you
could just write things. You could be a scriptwriter, you
could just scream these thoughts. I feel like there's just
something about emotion. There are some things in life that
you can't explain. It's not tangible. It's like it's a feeling,
(19:52):
it's an energy. It's ah, words are failing me right now.
I just well, the thing is, I guess this is
the example. And you know, I'm not gonna ask you
to do this, but if you could actually write a
song and seeing what music was about, then you could
tell like, there's something about for example, Okay, so for example,
chord progressions that's scientifically proven. You can just hear a
series of core progressions and they make you feel a
certain way exactly. A core progression could make you feel
(20:13):
dark and brooding. One could make you feel hopeful. If
you have like a lot of minor chords, that can
make you feel nostalgic. And I feel like that's the
thing about music, And who knows why chord progressions make
you feel like that? Who freaking knows but didn't add
words to them. Yeah, and and a melody. I feel
like I've discovered that a lot in my writing processes. That,
especially when I go and I like free sound melodies,
(20:34):
I have this like desperation in my voice sometimes, and
I can't explain. I think it's just because I'm just
a really emotional person. It just gives me the chance
to be open and vulnerable and weird and uninhibited. Music
is like your launchpad and your words of the rocket.
I mean, without the music, your words still always express
what your music is. The magic. Look how it's saving
(20:56):
your life. Basically, go out on a limb and think
if the name of your album is the hurting, the healing,
the loving. Obviously you had some dark days and absolutely
music is what keeps you going, absolutely passion. What other
passions do you have? I love poetry, speaking of poetry,
talk about it. I love poetry. That's actually what I
do in my spare time. I have Pinterest and I
just look up poetry. I love love. So I'm reading
(21:16):
Love and Time of column. It's like a classic romantic
by who is this Spanish author? Very failiar with him?
Absolutely um and so I'm reading that right now, the
most incredible deep writers writing is so soa to brilliant,
and you're like, god, I feel so stupid when I
read how he writes. It's so magical and actually with words.
(21:38):
And I actually think a lot of where I get
that passion for love is because growing up in my
house they always played Latin music and Latin boleros, and
the lyrics to those songs are really like poetry. There's
this artist who name is Hands, and if you wrote
his lyrics down, it's literally the most beautiful poetry. And
(21:58):
I just love words and I love the ability of
combining them to describe a feeling that's sublime. Um So
I love poetry, I love romantic comedies, I love books.
I love I love Disney. Are you passionate about Disney?
I love Disney? About Disney that you find so fascinating.
I just always want to be a kid. That's actually
my biggest fear is growing up. I never want to
grow never rule at Disney World, no foul language allowed.
(22:21):
You cannot use foul language because Mickey may hear you remember,
as a grown man, we went to Disney and when
Mickey came out to Main Street, USA, whatever I started crying.
I'm a grown man, like it's Mickey because Disney or
like anything you're passionate about it life. It hits that
nerve you can't control. It makes you feel good. Those
are the things in life we need to know more about.
Can you cook? Hell you burn water? Because I know
(22:43):
your mom and your grandmother those are the cooks in
the family. Yeah, no, I can't. I can't. But what
can you sit down and eat and you close your
eyes and you taste something and it makes you go,
oh god, this is well. I just came from Miami
a few hours ago, so I'm gonna say fried plantains.
They have really good human spots here in New York.
Yeah we do. Okay, Yeah it covered. Yeah. Finally, what
(23:04):
is the best advice you ever received? Okay, I'm not
going to say that the best because I feel like
that's a difficult question. But that's something that I say
to myself before I do promo or before I do
like interviews. Is I actually saw this on Oprah, But
she says that everybody that she's interviewed, from like Beyonce
(23:24):
to murderers, like everybody at the end of an interview
always asked her did I do okay, And she basically
says that no matter who it is, everybody has this
desire to connect, you know. Yeah, And I always say
that to myself because I feel like I used to
get really nervous before interviews for some reason, I just
got super nervous, and I feel like that's what I
(23:44):
just keep reminding myself is that everybody just wants to
be seen. Everybody just wants to be heard, Like everybody
in this room wants to feel a connection. Yeah, exactly.
What I love about moments like this is we get
to kind of lift the hood and see how the
engines humming. Yeah, totally, totally. Thank you for being part
of the podcast. Yeah, thank you for having me by
her album. Please support our Commula Capello. The journey is
(24:05):
just beginning. To keep an eye on her, and thank
you for listening. Label to Fires. Thank you Zico Nicole.
If you like what you've heard, joined the conversation on
Twitter with hashtag Label to Fires. Thanks to our friends
at Zico Coconut Water for supporting this amazing new fund podcast.
If you haven't tried Zico yet, grab one today. Audiation
I literally listened to demos that I was doing in
garage band when I got my first kiss, and you
actually heard the sound of you and love. Yeah, that's
so cool. For a long time, I actually thought that
was going to be the name of my album. I
have questions because I was just so deep in the hurting.
This is I Heart Radio's Label to Fires with Zico
(00:24):
Coconut Water, where we rip off labels to reveal the
size of your favorite artists and celebrities you didn't know.
We get to know the real them, which is way
more surprising and interesting than who they are secretly dating.
Label to Fires was created with our friends at Zico
Coconut Water, who encourage you to read the label to
see what's inside. Zico, what's inside is everything. I'm Elvis
(00:47):
Duran and welcome to a new episode of I Heart
Radio's Labeled de Fires with Zico Coconut Water. This week,
the amazing Camila Caballo is with us. Incredible artists, good friend,
but you go far beyond that, and that's what Label
de Fires is about. It's about that. It's about your passions,
what do you what drives you to do what you do?
(01:08):
And you can actually learn about yourself and teach people
how to look at their own labels and defy their
own labels. I love that. I love this. Let's do it.
I love it. Let's tell her one where you are
in your life, and then we got to figure out
how the passion's got you to where you are. Of course,
Cimula's new album is coming out in September. It's called
The Hurting, The Healing, the Loving. Yeah, obviously the title
(01:28):
of your album alone tells us something that's been going
on in your life. Talk about it, well, I feel
like basically how this album came about. I've always used
songwriting as just a therapeutic thing for me, and I've
always just written about what was going on in my life.
And how it started was you the song I Have Questions, um,
and I had written that a while ago, and for
(01:49):
a long time, I actually thought that was going to
be the name of my album, was I Have Questions?
Because I was just so deep in the hurting, and
I thought the whole album was going to be about
me just being confused and trying to get answers from
a situation and at the time in my life that
was just like really toxic and was just confusing for me.
(02:09):
But I felt like throughout the writing process, everything just
started to get better. Like I had been struggling with
some anxiety, and I had been it was just hard
to be you know, sometimes it's just hard to be humane. No, No,
it's not easy. You know, it doesn't come with an instruction, bucklety.
You got to figure it on your own. Yeah, And
for a long time, I felt like I was just
(02:33):
like on a treadmill and it was going really fast
and I just had to run and just keep up
with it, you know what I mean. Throughout the writing process,
like I felt like my songs were just trying to
tell me something about myself. Um, and I felt like
that pain was just coming out of me naturally because
(02:54):
I couldn't keep it in anymore. And I felt like
everything that I was feeling was just transferred into the music,
like I didn't have to carry that weight just inside
myself anymore. I think, God, you had that outlet, you know. Actually,
you know, it doesn't take a genius to figure out
Commitic Cabayo's passion music, you know, without music as your
outlet to write those songs, to be able to examine
(03:17):
your own life. Without that passion in your life, you
could still have a lot of this stuff bottled up.
You know, my vehicle is music because I feel like
even more than just an outlet, it's a way of
me taking pain and something negative and turning it into
something beautiful. But sometimes I feel like my biggest passion
is just love, Like I love connecting with people, you know,
(03:41):
And I feel like an outlet for me could also
be just talking with my mom, talking with you right now,
talking with a friend, meeting a boy, Like for me,
that is what makes me feel alive, you know what
I mean? Um, And that's what I like to write about.
And I feel like music just takes it one step
further because an outlet, but it's also a way of
(04:01):
me looking back on what I went Like I'm going
to look back on questions and on this album and
be like, Wow, that's that's what That's what I was,
That's what was going through my head at nineteen years old.
Does that make sense? And I've always thought that was
really cool because I literally listened to demos that I
was doing in garage band of literally when I got
(04:22):
my first kiss, and I was just like, did you
hear the passion in that. Yeah, and I was like
in love and you actually heard the sound of you
and love. Yeah, that's so cool. That's so cool. But
really knowing about what you were singing about when you're
saying about it, now you know what it was all about.
And I feel like it sounds strange, But even before
(04:43):
my heartbreak, even in my melodies, I felt like sounded
lighter than what my heart my most recent heartbreak was,
which means that I feel like I'm feeling stuff more deeply.
And I'll tell you what else. It's a learning phase
you can go through. Is understanding that you know, you
hate going into life when people put labels on you,
(05:03):
they put you in a box and think you are this,
you are that. What's more dangerous than that is when
you put labels on yourself. Absolutely. Self examination is something
that's the most difficult thing for people to do, but
what's the most exciting and you figured out and you
see what what benefits you get from it? You know,
because I feel like also the enemy of creativity and
the enemy of growing is just staying in the same
(05:24):
place and self examination, there's no there's no feeling like
you can always just go further into yourself, you know
what I mean. It's kind of frightening in a way. Exciting, exciting, frightening. Yeah,
and it also always changes, you know, Like my interests
have changed so much. I mean, I feel like my
personality at the core has been the same, but definitely
I've changed a lot. Like I feel like I change
(05:45):
super quickly because I feel like I'm constantly exposed to
new challenges and new things. That tests me, you know
what I mean? Of course I do. And I feel like,
don't you feel the same way to absolutely, and it
never never changes. I'm so much older than you, but
I'm still going through that. And I tell the story
all the time on our radio show. My dad, who
passed away close to ninety at eighty nine, he told
me you never stop learning. He said, you never stopped growing.
(06:08):
And at eighty nine years old, he said, you're always scared.
You'll be scared and excited for the rest of your life.
If you're not, that's wrong. It's something you're never over. Camilla,
what have you recently learned about yourself in your self examination?
Do you ever stopped here and go, wait, you know what,
this is something kind of cool I like about me?
That maybe you didn't know. A year ago, I realized
that I really get a lot of joy in making
(06:29):
people feel good, if that makes sense. Talk about it,
like a lot of the times, I feel like, you know,
when I come here, that people are like, oh my god,
like she's so nice whatever, whatever. And you know a
lot of the times when when people talk about being nice,
they talk about like the benefits are that you have
a good reputation and that you know, you know, you're
so nice to people, that's why people want you to
win whatever, whatever. And I feel like I never think
(06:50):
about that stuff because I just realized that for me,
whether it's like fans or whatever, I really like I
like making people feel good, like I like complimenting people,
like I like giving people advice, Like I like that
look in their eyes when they're like, oh this person
cares about me, or like things you know is making
(07:10):
me feel important, Like I just I just enjoy that.
It goes back to what you said earlier, you love
interacting with people, And I think that is the ultimate interaction,
is when you both walk away from a conversation with
each other feeling pretty good about what you just talked about.
And I guess in music. Another another parallel would be
collaborating with other artists. I mean, communaly, You've collaborated and
(07:32):
will continue to collaborate with some of the biggest in
the business. And I'm sure it's impossible to say which
are your favorites because they're all superstars. But think about
those collaborations versus the songs you do by yourself in
a dark studio, which are important as well. I mean
you get that energy when you work with other people,
which you love people. Yeah, well, I actually think both
are equally fun, but they're very different because actually, like
(07:55):
my way of writing in a studio is I like
to be away from every Like I've actually talking about
self examination, whatever and learning about stuff in the creative process.
I've learned a lot through this album too, and I
realized that before how I would write songs would be
I would be like, I would have my garage man
and I would loop a verse or I would loop
(08:17):
a chorus and I would just write like physically right
until I got certain parts down. What I learned through
this album process was basically, you know how rappers like
freestyle and they get on the mic and they just
kind of spit stuff. They make it look so easy.
I basically did that with my melodies this time around,
and so I would do like eight passes of a song,
and I would I feel like I would have to
(08:38):
be in the booth away from people, because when I'm
doing that stuff, I kind of do just weird stuff
with my hands, or I do weird stuff with my face.
And I've realized that because I'm actually a really introverted
person by nature, that I don't like being like next
to people when I have to like go into the
booth and do it and be away from people. So
actually I love connecting with people, but in the studio
(09:02):
I actually prefer to be like in my own world
because I feel like that's how I can be the
most vulnerable. You know. The difficulty to make people understand
is if you're such an outgoing, bubbly, wonderful, smart, genuine
person when you're around people, then you say, well, I'm
labeling myself an introvert. People don't understand that. I mean,
(09:22):
it's so not black and white. Like the best, the
best explanation I've ever heard for introverts versus extroverts were extroverts.
You actually have your battery recharged when you're with other people.
If you're an introvert, you actually charge your battery when
you're by yourself, and then you can go be with
other people. I also feel like there's a there's there's
different kinds of interaction though. For example, for me going
(09:44):
to a party and just talking to fifty like just
like random people being hi, how are you? In the
small talk that drains me, not even not only drains me,
it just makes me nervous. I can't explain it. So
I feel like that's where kind of the introverted part
comes from. But I love like one to one conversations.
I love connecting with people that I know, like it's
(10:05):
a real conversation. If that makes sense. It does make sense,
and I'll tell you why, because that recharges me. You
love interacting with a soul, with a real person, just
the hey, how's the weather. That's not a conversation, and
so you're really just kind of cruising by someone not
really knowing who that is. You're like, what was that?
But if you sit down and have a mean, meaningful
(10:27):
conversation with someone, you actually learn something about them and
you learn something about yourself. There's something that it's it's
not a wasted moment, and so wasted moments must bother
you a lot. Yeah, I feel like it's all about
how you feel in a comment, like if I feel
like I can be completely myself, if I feel like
I can cry at any point or laugh or say
(10:47):
something dumb or whatever, then I feel safe. I feel
like it's all about just feeling safe and like you
can be yourself. Does that make sense when you can't
feel safe with someone, you just Yeah. So if you're
in a room credit room and you go hi, Hi, Hi,
how are you? How are you great? You've received nothing.
There's no energy there. Your energy is from actually digging
(11:08):
in and getting to know someone exactly that. So I
don't even know if I'm an introvert or extrovert. I
think we need a break. So we came up with
a little game from our friends at Zenico called the
What's Inside Game where we actually shoot rapid fire questions
at the guest and get to know all sorts of
things about them. Let's play the Last Thing You Ate? Tacos,
(11:32):
your favorite person to follow on social media, anyone you
followed it. They just make you laugh for they entertain you. Yeah,
the fat Jewish Oh yeah, Yeah, he's hilarious. He's hilarious.
That's actually my favorite part about the Internet is the
funny stuff, right, That is the important stuff of the internet. Funny,
it's the most important Yeah. Absolutely. What is your spirit animal? Hummingbird?
(11:55):
Why is that? My grandma always calls me a hummingbird
because my personality is very like that. I'm like you
just zoom left, zoom right. Yes. Do you have a
morning ritual that you have to hit every day? What
is a morning thing you've got to do? I really don't.
I'm not a morning person. You hate waking up? Oh
my god, today it was difficult. I think I know
the answer to this, but I may be surprised. Who
is your go to person if you need advice? Immediately?
(12:17):
My mom? Yeah, of course. Now think about this. It's
okay to crow about yourself. What are you most proud
of that? I know that I'm a good friend. I
know I'm a good person. There you go. How many
people know the real you? That's a difficult question because
I feel like there's only so much that people can
know about me in my public life, you know what
(12:38):
I mean. I really make it a point though, to
be myself, right, Do you know you? That's a weird
question to answer. Do you think you know you? I
think so. I think I change all the time. But
I feel like, at least right now, I know me.
I don't know it's to be in yeah exactly. Every
once in a while you'll wake up and I just
don't know me. Yeah, but I did. But why did
I say that to that person? But I feel like
(12:58):
I don't always like I'm not always confident. I have
moments where I crumble, you know what I mean, And
then I'm like, yeah, none of the mysteries, aren't we
If you have to fill out your tax forms, they
ask you what is your occupation? You have your accountant
right down, what what is your occupation? That's the artists, artists, singer.
(13:20):
I just feel like I don't know like singer. He
was this girl? Yeah, yeah, it is truly because if
they don't know who you are, what you're singing like
a singer? We got a singer. There's so many things
that I want to do in life that are even
beyond music, right. I would love to write movies one day,
So you're an artist. I just want to do as
many things as possible in one lifetime and to be
(13:41):
creatively all have to be about love. If you had
to label yourself, you can give it words whatever, Like
give me two or three words that label who you
think you are today on this journey. Okay, can you
do one and then I do the next one? Yeah? Okay,
go you first. Okay, words about me on my journey
where I am now anxious about the few chuir, which
is more than one word. But I'm anxious to move
(14:02):
on to see what's next. I'm you do another one,
You do another one. I'm still thinking, do another one. Blessed,
very blessed. Okay, I'm anxious. It makes me anxious to
be away from home and see my sister grow up
and me not be there. Yeah. I missed her a lot.
And just in general, I try to keep a balance
(14:24):
of working and also living. My biggest fear is looking
back and being like I didn't experience enough. Wow, so
you got to experience it all. Yeah, So let me
throw some words at you. You You tell me if they
apply to you. Brave? Yeah, See how come it took
me saying it to you? How come you couldn't look
at me and say I'm brave Because everything you've been
through recently, going out on your own doing your own thing. Well,
(14:48):
you started off with something vulnerable, so I wanted to
start up with something vulnerable. Took. Okay, Now you do
a positive one about yourself, brave and blessed. Okay, cheat
on my test. Okay, I'm going to say kind and
that you are. Thanks, And it's good to recognize you
are because a lot of people can't look in the
mirror and go, you know what you're Okay, You're nice
to people, and I just feel like that's the most
important thing. Well, I find that to be very true
(15:10):
about you. Thanks. I want to say one about you really, Okay,
say one about me. I was ending this, but now
I'm going to go on because I'm gonna say real
because I feel like you're the same on and off
this Mike. You're the same person. You cared just as
much about people. Is what makes you so special and
that's the ultimate compliment. Thank you. Label Defiers just the
name of this podcast thanks to our friends at Zico
(15:31):
Coconut Water, which I've been swigging on pineapple coconut water.
I love it. Zico is fantastic. Where'd you get all
this from? Your mom? Your dad, where are you walking
around with on board that you got from your parents?
From my mom, she obviously wants me to be happy.
She loves that I'm doing what I love. But she
always says it if at any point I got out
of line, or if I treated somebody bad, or if whatever.
(15:52):
She's like Miami, like by the hair, she would pull
me back to Miami. She really just knows what's real
and important life. That's actually one of the reasons that
I haven't moved out of Miami is because I just
like to live as a normal life as possible. And
sometimes being in the industry, everything can get so competitive
and it can be so about being number one and
this and that that you can get lost in that.
(16:14):
And that's really my biggest fear, Like I want to
live a life full of love and family and friends
and experiences. She just always reminds me what's important. My
parents have been through so much in their lives, you know,
And I feel like my mom is a Cuban, my
dad is Mexican, and basically my mom and I when
I was six years old, we made the trip from
(16:35):
Cuba to Mexico to then Miami, and she had no
money and she didn't speak the language. And remember, I
feel like I have photographic flashbacks, if that makes sense.
Like I wrote this essay about immigration and about my story,
and it was the first paragraph. I just talked about
all of the different visuals that I see. I remember
I was on a train. Remember I had to Winnie
(16:57):
the poo journal. Remember I had a backpack. I remember
my mom carrying me over her shoulder, her going to
the gas station and speaking in broken English to get milk.
She didn't really know how to really speak the language.
You remember having the feeling that maybe your mom was struggling.
I honestly don't know. I don't think that I knew,
because they say that kids know that there was something wrong.
(17:18):
But my mom did tell me that when we went
into this immigration office where they tell you if you're
going to pass ahead to the US or not, that
I was just super quiet. I was just standing in
the corner with my little doll. And I do feel
like kids know because they're so pure of heart that
you can perceive all of the energy that's going out
around the road better than adults. Absolutely. Um, So she
(17:40):
did tell me that. But I'm a pisces, so I
feel like I always have my head in the clouds.
My parents also did a really good job. We were
going through financial problems, and they never stressed me out
about that stuff. It was always we'll take care of everything.
You just focus on school, focus on your education. I'm
assuming also there was a lot of love in the house. Yeah.
My dad came over like a year and a half later,
and I had a Disney calender and I would mark
(18:01):
at X's and so the day that he came back.
It's funny because as I'm getting older, I actually learned
more about the story. Every day, little pieces are revealed
to me. I just came from Miami yesterday and my
dad was like, I remember when I came back for
a week, you were like super shy and you couldn't
talk to me or whatever. And then a week after
then I got back to normal. I haven't seen him
for like a year and a half. My parents weren't
(18:22):
a part or anything. It was just because you couldn't
get back to the States. It took a while. But
look at you now. Did you ever in a million
years think after traveling those roads that you would end
up where you are today? No? Absolutely not. I never
even sang for my family. Was never a vision, you know,
absolutely not, no, because in Miami it's not like l
A or New York where you're surrounded a little bit more.
(18:45):
I feel like by the industry, like Miami is so isolated,
especially my mom started working in marshals and then my
parents were in construction. Like I had no connection. It's
not like I had money to pay for a flight
to l A to go to a meeting, you know
what I mean. I didn't have the opportunity. I actually
think those shows are really great, like X Factor and
The Voice and America's about talent is because they really
(19:07):
give normal people a shot. It's a difficult road, but
at least they give you a shot. In my mind,
I was just going to be a doctor, and I
was just going to get good grades in school because
my mom always told me, you have to get a
scholarship because we don't have money for college, so you
have to study really hard. So that was always what
I had in mind. But music was always my way
of just like breaking down the barriers and connecting with people.
It's always been like that, right. You feel more confident
(19:28):
with music, Yeah, absolutely, because I feel like that's just
my heart right. It's almost impossible to explain, but you
can if you try. What is it about music that
just is your everything? You could be a poet, you
could just write things. You could be a scriptwriter, you
could just scream these thoughts. I feel like there's just
something about emotion. There are some things in life that
you can't explain. It's not tangible. It's like it's a feeling,
(19:52):
it's an energy. It's ah, words are failing me right now.
I just well, the thing is, I guess this is
the example. And you know, I'm not gonna ask you
to do this, but if you could actually write a
song and seeing what music was about, then you could
tell like, there's something about for example, Okay, so for example,
chord progressions that's scientifically proven. You can just hear a
series of core progressions and they make you feel a
certain way exactly. A core progression could make you feel
(20:13):
dark and brooding. One could make you feel hopeful. If
you have like a lot of minor chords, that can
make you feel nostalgic. And I feel like that's the
thing about music, And who knows why chord progressions make
you feel like that? Who freaking knows but didn't add
words to them. Yeah, and and a melody. I feel
like I've discovered that a lot in my writing processes. That,
especially when I go and I like free sound melodies,
(20:34):
I have this like desperation in my voice sometimes, and
I can't explain. I think it's just because I'm just
a really emotional person. It just gives me the chance
to be open and vulnerable and weird and uninhibited. Music
is like your launchpad and your words of the rocket.
I mean, without the music, your words still always express
what your music is. The magic. Look how it's saving
(20:56):
your life. Basically, go out on a limb and think
if the name of your album is the hurting, the healing,
the loving. Obviously you had some dark days and absolutely
music is what keeps you going, absolutely passion. What other
passions do you have? I love poetry, speaking of poetry,
talk about it. I love poetry. That's actually what I
do in my spare time. I have Pinterest and I
just look up poetry. I love love. So I'm reading
(21:16):
Love and Time of column. It's like a classic romantic
by who is this Spanish author? Very failiar with him?
Absolutely um and so I'm reading that right now, the
most incredible deep writers writing is so soa to brilliant,
and you're like, god, I feel so stupid when I
read how he writes. It's so magical and actually with words.
(21:38):
And I actually think a lot of where I get
that passion for love is because growing up in my
house they always played Latin music and Latin boleros, and
the lyrics to those songs are really like poetry. There's
this artist who name is Hands, and if you wrote
his lyrics down, it's literally the most beautiful poetry. And
(21:58):
I just love words and I love the ability of
combining them to describe a feeling that's sublime. Um So
I love poetry, I love romantic comedies, I love books.
I love I love Disney. Are you passionate about Disney?
I love Disney? About Disney that you find so fascinating.
I just always want to be a kid. That's actually
my biggest fear is growing up. I never want to
grow never rule at Disney World, no foul language allowed.
(22:21):
You cannot use foul language because Mickey may hear you remember,
as a grown man, we went to Disney and when
Mickey came out to Main Street, USA, whatever I started crying.
I'm a grown man, like it's Mickey because Disney or
like anything you're passionate about it life. It hits that
nerve you can't control. It makes you feel good. Those
are the things in life we need to know more about.
Can you cook? Hell you burn water? Because I know
(22:43):
your mom and your grandmother those are the cooks in
the family. Yeah, no, I can't. I can't. But what
can you sit down and eat and you close your
eyes and you taste something and it makes you go,
oh god, this is well. I just came from Miami
a few hours ago, so I'm gonna say fried plantains.
They have really good human spots here in New York.
Yeah we do. Okay, Yeah it covered. Yeah. Finally, what
(23:04):
is the best advice you ever received? Okay, I'm not
going to say that the best because I feel like
that's a difficult question. But that's something that I say
to myself before I do promo or before I do
like interviews. Is I actually saw this on Oprah, But
she says that everybody that she's interviewed, from like Beyonce
(23:24):
to murderers, like everybody at the end of an interview
always asked her did I do okay, And she basically
says that no matter who it is, everybody has this
desire to connect, you know. Yeah, And I always say
that to myself because I feel like I used to
get really nervous before interviews for some reason, I just
got super nervous, and I feel like that's what I
(23:44):
just keep reminding myself is that everybody just wants to
be seen. Everybody just wants to be heard, Like everybody
in this room wants to feel a connection. Yeah, exactly.
What I love about moments like this is we get
to kind of lift the hood and see how the
engines humming. Yeah, totally, totally. Thank you for being part
of the podcast. Yeah, thank you for having me by
her album. Please support our Commula Capello. The journey is
(24:05):
just beginning. To keep an eye on her, and thank
you for listening. Label to Fires. Thank you Zico Nicole.
If you like what you've heard, joined the conversation on
Twitter with hashtag Label to Fires. Thanks to our friends
at Zico Coconut Water for supporting this amazing new fund podcast.
If you haven't tried Zico yet, grab one today. Audiation
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