We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Casandra Rodriguez. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Casandra below.
Casandra, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Are you happier as a creative? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job? Can you talk to us about how you think through these emotions?
I am happy being a creative and expressing myself through music because it’s helped me with my self esteem as well as my outlook on things. I’ve never been able to properly express myself through conversation but for whatever reason that’s not the case when I write to beats. Being artistic has allowed me to feel more confident within myself because i’ve gotten to know myself more compared to when I have a regular job, I don’t get to be myself, not physically nor emotionally. I rather take the chance to be true to what I want right now than to regret it in the future.
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 Casandra Estephani Rodriguez, better known as my artist name, Estephani. I’m a Latina Singer from Denver, Colorado, that makes music in both English and Spanish. I got into singing when I was a little girl, my dad would perform at restaurants and parties growing up so I feel like the aspiration of wanting to be a singer came from that. We would bond by singing together and even then I didn’t have many friends or relatives growing up so I spent a lot of my childhood singing and dancing by myself. I didn’t ever think I would pursue being an artist until I was 17, I got into songwriting with some friends and for fun and I released a song on Soundcloud that “blew” up for me in which then I got encouraged to release more music. I make music about my personal experiences as well as experiences that have happened in my dreams. I don’t set an expectation of how people may perceive me or my music, I just hope people enjoy the music for what it is to them. I want people to know that life is full of so many experiences whether it’s good or bad and that they can feel empowered/seen/ or comforted by my music.
Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
Networking and putting yourself out there is a major attribution to the creative journey. I used to find it really hard to get gigs or live performing opportunities until I started going to open mics that focused on small artists or was built off of a community that wanted to connect creatives (no matter what avenue they perused ex: djs, singers, graphic designers ,etc..) . So take it from me, no matter how intimidating or how doubtful you feel an open mic will actually do for you, doing something will take you further than living in your head. Also being 21 helped a lot with making these gigs happen. It’s not always a requirement to be 21 to perform live but in most cases (for me) I felt that I missed out on a lot of opportunities before because I was under the age of 21.
Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?
As I start to release more music, I believe people will judge me a lot more and think I’m crazy for the art I’ll make because they’ll think everything I sing about is a situation about me or my personal experiences. It’s not to say I don’t sing about my personal experiences but not every song and visual is going to be about me. I like making stories through music, it adds a lot more fun to my creativity in music videos.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/estephani?fbclid=IwAR0jA1AA0P9w1UmptVy8oH_ABIorR4k1bxd3XEMDBI3gcLu6Rm5-02jsxFk
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/estephani._/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Estephanixo/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/ESTEPHANI__
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@estephanixo
- Other: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2Zf2FPThbyAvZ24GfvJGUP