© Jenny Rose Gialketsis
CASANDRA is a Miami-born, Los Angeles-based artist creating cinematic, immersive music that blends alt-pop, R&B, and indie-electronica. Her new album ISLA TRANQUILITA expands on the world first introduced in the EP of the same name, further immersing listeners in a dreamlike universe of intimate storytelling and richly textured production. We caught up with CASANDRA to discuss the world of ISLA TRANQUILITA, finding peace through music, and the evolution of her artistry.
The B-Side Hour: You're releasing the full-length version of ISLA TRANQUILITA after first introducing the project as an EP. Did you always envision it as one larger body of work, or did the story continue to unfold as you kept writing?
CASANDRA: I had always planned for ISLA TRANQUILITA to be a full-length album. I released the EP as an introduction to the ISLA TRANQUILITA world.
The B-Side Hour: The project was inspired by your late great-aunt Teresa and her reminder to stay 'tranquilita'. How do you find calm for yourself, and was making this album part of that process?
CASANDRA: This album is how I found calm, through writing it, learning it, and creating a paradise within where all my precious memories live.
"I always feel like my next creation is expressing something that the previous one couldn't"
The B-Side Hour: ISLA TRANQUILITA feels like a real cinematic escape. What did you want that world to feel like, and how did you shape the music to create that atmosphere?
CASANDRA: It was shaped with pure feeling, navigating the tides I had within. The sounds were already there, they just had to surface for me and I had to trust them.
The B-Side Hour: You have a very distinctive and creative visual identity alongside your music. How do you approach shaping the visual and sonic worlds together, so they feel like one cohesive experience?
CASANDRA: The visual and sonic arrive together for me. I very seldom have control over it. I prefer to let it unfold naturally and lean into what it shows me.
The B-Side Hour: You sing in both English and Spanish throughout the record. How do you decide which language best carries a particular emotion or story?
CASANDRA: I don't decide. The emotion or lyrics I'm trying to convey will appear to me in either English or Spanish, and I let that guide me.
The B-Side Hour: Your music often feels both cinematic and deeply intimate at the same time. How do you strike that balance between creating something expansive while keeping the emotions so personal?
CASANDRA: For me, those two things aren't at odds with each other. For me, the intimacy of it is precisely what makes it feel expansive.
The B-Side Hour: Throughout the album, joy, grief, longing and healing all coexist. Was it important for you to embrace those emotional contradictions rather than trying to resolve them?
CASANDRA: Yes, it was important. But I also didn't really have another choice. Honoring those contradictions is part of the healing process.
"This album is how I found calm, through writing it, learning it"
The B-Side Hour: Having released music since your teenage years, what do you feel this album says about who you are as an artist today that your earlier work couldn't yet express?
CASANDRA: I see it more like my earlier days of releasing music were me learning how to do this in a way that worked for me. I always feel like my next creation is expressing something that the previous one couldn't, and I definitely feel that way this album.
The B-Side Hour: If listeners could leave ISLA TRANQUILITA holding onto just one feeling or message, what would you hope it is?
CASANDRA: To keep going.
Purchase/ stream ISLA TRANQUILITA