We were lucky to catch up with Ericca Latza recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Ericca, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

The most meaningful project I have ever worked on has to be my Debut Album that was released in February of 2022.

The idea was brought to life during a co-write with my friends Andi Renfree and Bill DiLuigi. They came over to my house for a morning writing session, and I had been feeling more home-sick than ever. Before they showed up, I had pulled out a picture book my mom had made for me to keep in Nashville so that in the times I felt lost, my entire family was just a page turn away.

That photo album was left open on my kitchen table when Andi and Bill came in, and the next thing I knew we were passing my favorite pictures around the kitchen table and writing about them! The wheels didn’t stop turning there, because a week later I was sitting with Andi and her husband, Ren Renfree, mapping out a plan to write and record an album all based on the people and places in that picture book I love so much.

What’s even more special is that every collaborator on the project are people in my Nashville family. All of my co-writers heard exactly what I was trying to accomplish, and during the writing process I finally started to grow into the artist I wanted to be, rather than the artist people in the past have told me to be. Having all of the people I love put their mark on my very first project from the writing room to the recording booth, and watching Ren pull it all together as a producer was hands down my favorite accomplishment since moving to Nashville!

The project meant the world to me from the start, but I had no idea the weight it would carry a year later.

The opening line to the album is “there’s grandpa on the dock chewing on that old cigar”.

A lot of people might not know this, but behind the disc in the CD case is the picture that the first line was inspired by. I wanted everyone to know how real this project was for me by inviting them into my personal family pictures.

My grandpa led the charge on my source of inspiration, and many of the songs on the album were centered around him in many ways.

Then, a month after the record was out, he passed away. All of the sudden, the highest point of my career and the most heartbreaking loss were all rolled into one month.

This project has changed so much in its meaning to me. Now it is so much more than a Debut Album I wrote about growing up in a little town in North Carolina. It’s a shared legacy.

While I’ve moved on to work on a new projects that I am excited to roll out over the next year, I will always hold my first album close to my heart. In many ways it feels exactly like that photo album my mom made. Whenever I need a reminder of who I am and where I came from, I just have to press play.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Ericca Latza, and I am a 26 year old songwriter and recording artist living in Nashville, TN.

I grew up in Mount Airy, NC, so naturally my favorite way to introduce myself is “I’m Ericca Latza and I’m from Mayberry”!

Growing up I spent my time riding horses, chasing chickens, and trying to be better than all of the boys in my dad’s Karate School.

I also spent the majority of my teenage years working on farms and in a local vet clinic because I was sure I was going to be a large animal Veterinarian. If I wasn’t taking care of my horses, I was looking after someone else’s. I volunteered to be the tech doctors would call in the middle of the night for emergency surgeries. I lived and breathed Veterinary Medicine and nothing was going to stop me from being a doctor.

What nobody, including myself, ever considered was that my love for the arts far outweighed anything else. Since I can remember I would shut myself in my upstairs bedroom and write stories and draw the pictures to go with them. My mom and dad put me in piano and classical voice lessons at a very young age, and my little elementary school heart soared whenever I stood by my teacher’s piano and sang.

In high school while I was trying to be an A+ student and vet tech, I was also staying up all night learning to play guitar and writing songs about boys.. (Because who wasn’t crushing on number 80 something on the football team?)

I somehow never realized my pull to the Arts until college when I didn’t get into my first school of choice. Or the second. For no good reason. I had good grades. I had all of the volunteer hours in the world. I had great letters of recommendation, and still. got two hard “no’s”.

More disappointed than ever, I packed up my dog and cat and moved to Holden Beach, NC to see what else the world had to offer. It was there that I took one American Literature class at the local college and never looked back. I still graduated with a degree in science, but knew that wasn’t what I was meant to do anymore.

I started making friends on the coast that I still believe are some of the best musicians out there, and somehow convinced them to let me play a few songs before sets or on their breaks. (Go check out The Hatch Brothers and Pistol Hill and flood their inboxes with “thank you’s” for me while you stream their music!)

Two years later, I knew I had to go to Nashville. It was such a strong pull that I couldn’t ignore any longer, so the day after Christmas 2018 I counted the cash I had gotten from family members, pointed my wheels west, and told everyone I would be back when I found a job and a place to live.

And I did! I’m working on my 5th year in a 10 year town. Every day feels like waking up and going to college because I get to learn something new from a co-writer. Every gig feels like I’m one step closer to the Opry, and every song feels like I’m one step closer to being the writer I wanted to be when I was the new kid in town.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

For me, creativity has always just come naturally. It was my escape from reality for the longest time, and now that it’s my full time job, sometimes I just have to pinch myself. Do I really get to do this every day? Nothing is more rewarding than writing a song that means something to me, showing it to someone, and watching them find their own story in it. That kind of connection with people is priceless.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

As a creative, I feel like I’m constantly competing with myself to create better music than what I released last, and also learning to keep my blinders on enough that I don’t compare what I do to anybody else and their journey.

We live in a time where artists go viral one day on TikTok and sign a record deal the next. I find myself juggling the pressure of “I have to keep up” with the thought of “what a time to be alive!”. We have so many tools at our disposal to put our work out there to be heard. This is a whole new age for the music industry, and it is really incredible to watch.

What I always remind myself and encourage others to remember is this: if you create music you love and believe in, there will always be people out there to love and believe in it, and you, as well.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.ericcalatza.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ericcalatza/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ericcalatzamusic
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ericcalatza3282/videos
• Other: Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ericcalatza

Image Credits
Adam Anderson