We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Tatiana Crespo. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Tatiana below.

Tatiana, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

My mission with my music and artistic career is to help others connect with their inner child and experience joy. One of my biggest passions is to make people smile–children and adults alike. I like to create an environment where people feel safe enough to express their emotions. Whether it is laughter, pain, sadness, or joy, I hope people feel free and safe enough at my performances to express what is in their hearts.

In this modern world, we are constantly exposed to an endless sea of concerning news. It is easy to fall into bouts of fear, doubt, sadness and helplessness. It is important to feel these things because it means we are compassionate people. But I also think that it is an act of bravery and rebelion to choose joy, hope, compassion and kindness for ourselves and others despite the tragedies happening around us. And not in a way that negates the conflicts of the world and in our personal lives, but rather to also carve out time for the things that make us feel happy.

Balance comes from feeling the full spectrum of emotions, and we must make time for joy.

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?

I am an singer-songwriter from Costa Rica, currently living in Arizona. My love of songwriting and music making starter when I met the love of my life–my main squeeze as I like to call him… Lindo, the accordion. In my early adulthood, when I was taking guitar lessons, singing choirs, and taking voice lessons, I randomly saw an accordion at a music shop and new I had to get it. I had no idea that getting this accordion would change my life the way that it did.

I was determined to learn how to play it. And though I didn’t sound very good for a while,the hard work eventually paid off. After a year or so, I even figured out how to play it and sing at the same time! I wrote my first song on it, and my creativity took off. Yet I had a feeling that moving from Michigan to a state with more Spanish speaking migrants like myself, would propel me to grow as an artist and activist.

So that brought me to Arizona, where I have developed my sound. I have fallen in love with the desert and all of it’s inhabitants, human, plant and animal. There is something enchanting about the desert that has taken over my heart and inspired me to write many songs, including the song “Saguaro” that I wrote with a project called “Las Chollas Peligrosas.”

Like the desert, the accordion also has something very magical, mesmerizing and enchanting that is hard to describe. This sense of magic is what inspires me to create work that feels fun and heartwarming while still giving a voice to the migrant experience. There is magic in joy, and in connecting with our inner child and tremendous healing that happens when we let our guards down and dare to laughter and dance through our struggles.

I am excited to share that I am currently working on my first EP as a solo artist. Earlier this year I released a song called “Sacrificio De Amor,” which is about the sacrifices that we make for our loved ones, for our passions, and many times, to simply stay afloat in this day and age. It reminds us that even though we might be struggling, we must also make time for our loved ones.

It is easy to fall into hopeless despair, it is brave to choose moments of radical joy.

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

My favorite thing about being a creative is when I get to connect with the audience during my performances. It’s truly a privilege to be a conduit of music; I feel really lucky to bring music into people’s lives, and to get to see them smile when I play a song they recognize, or to see them dance or sway to the music. It fills my soul in a way no other thing does.

I also love improvising songs with the audience, picking a subject, and going on an unknown journey together. For example, this fall I played a show at the Phoenix Library and asked 2 girls what they were going to be for Halloween. We then wrote a song about the wicked witch of the west and Glinda’s mission to go to the mystical springs of Tonopah. It was unexpectedly hilarious and sparked the imagination of both the young kids, and the inner children within the adults present.

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

Playing music and doing voice acting have pivoted from side hustles to full time jobs, and back to side hustles depending on the seasons of my life. During the pandemic, I really leaned into Voice acting, freelancing through websites like Fiverr, and working one on one with customers seeking a voice for their voicemail systems. But as the pandemic eased, I fully stepped back into music as my full time gig and did voice work on the side when I decided to drive across the country from Arizona back to Michigan.
This was the first time that I put all my eggs in one basket and figure it out as I went.
I booked enough shows to survive the summer and in turn, successfully completed my first tour!

When I returned to Arizona, I got together a backing band, some new graphics to make merch with, and started booking more shows. This past summer I attended the Latin Alternative Music Conference in NYC and learned so much more about music business and the steps that I can continue to take in order to be the entrepreneur that it takes to be successful in the music industry.

Being open to learning more about business inspired me to apply for opportunities that I never thought imaginable, like booking festivals like Lightning in a Bottle, Unison Fest, and Tribal Vision, and shows at prestigious venues like Tempe Center For The Arts, ASU Gammage, and Phoenix Art Museum. I am currently running my first Kickstarter campaign to finish my first EP, and am learning about grant applications and event planning.

Success in music is directly correlated with the connections we make with our community, and the amount of effort that we put into our project. We also can’t forget an incredible amount of confidence in getting back up after falling, and choosing to believe in ourselves and in our project through and through.

Contact Info:

• Website: taticrespoarte.com
• Instagram: @taticrespoarte
• Facebook: @taticrespoarte
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Taticrespoarte
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/18fnKXGj3T10A3tvQFCwxb?si=oBwBz5bCTSaPHMPcwBqrqw

Image Credits
Orlando Acosta, Matty Steinkemp, Rachel Smith