Italian-born and naturalized British, Casablanca is a London-based singer-songwriter. Her ’90s-influenced indie-rock delves into the deepest parts of the queer experience: open relationships, shame, promiscuity, anonymous sex, and the specter of HIV.
With her raw, dialogue-driven approach, Casablanca’s songs explore through her personal lens what it means to be queer and vulnerable in an uncertain world.
We have had the pleasure of interviewing her and this has been her result.
How was your last job born?
It was the beginning of the pandemic and I decided I’d be creative to keep sane. Something nice came out of it!
What did you want to convey?
I wanted to talk about my life, and my personal experience. IWIWBS is about realising that there’s little to no room for monogamy in the gay world. It’s about the new open-relationship format that works for someone, but has to be applied to everyone. It’s about feeling an outsider in the gay community and thinking what the title says – out of frustration. I know many gay men have felt or still feel like that.
How was “I Wish I Was Born Straight” born?
I wrote most of the lyrics back in 2019, when I was on holiday in Tel Aviv. I was having an rough time back then. I wrote the melody years ago and never really used it. So I kind of combined these materials when I started writing music properly in 2020.
How was your creative process?
Very fast. The song was ready in a couple of hours. It was sort of writing itself.
How has your sound evolved? And where do you walk now? What artists interest you?
Well, it’s my first release as casablanca so my sound is just at the beginning of its own path. But I used to do acoustic rock years ago, then moved to electronica, then got back to a more ’90s rock vibe. Feels like full circle to me. I’m ready for new developments. I love a lot of artists: the ’90s Britpop scene, as well as grunge, R.E.M, The Smashing Pumpkins. Love Bowie, Depeche Mode, The Cure, and more recently Wolf Alice and Fontaines DC. The list goes on…
How do you see the music industry? Do you have hope?
Of course I do! Things change, create issues, and then take a different shape. It happens all the time
What other projects are you working on?
None. But I’m also a graphic designer so that’s another thing I do.
What makes you happy?
Love and gratitude, in the broader sense.
ALL SOCIAL MEDIA / WEB LINKS:
INSTA: @casablancaukSPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4qzhhsT0nGMkgiWQkKZMmH
ORDER LINK:
https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/casablanca5/i-wish-i-was-born-straight
