Photo by Zoe Vincenti
With her third full-length Wirewalker having been released in early 2015, the Italian singer/songwriter Caterina Barbieri AKA MISSINCAT is probably a little bit too settled already for our Introducing section, we give you that. But to be honest: To most of us she still feels like an insider tip. So we decided that’s it’s just about time to shed a little light upon the creator of such a sensational mixture of dulcet tones and powerful emotions. Read on and find out what MISSINCAT had to tell us about wild dances around the dining room table, the need to overcome isolation and the benefits of being an optimistic fool.
How would you describe your music to our readers in one sentence?
I think my music can touch people emotionally, is very authentic.
Which 6 tracks should start a mixtape to perfectly capture your musical influences?
BEATLES: Come together
LOU REED: Take a walk on the wild side
NINA SIMONE: Sinner-man
FIONA APPLE: A mistake
FEIST: Mushaboom
WOODKID: Run Boy Run
Describe your earliest musical memory
My dad playing records from his collection of 7 inches (mostly Italian 60’s rock’n’roll hits) and me and my sisters singing and dancing in circle around the dining table. That was so much fun!
Would you rather be a dragon or have a dragon?
I definitely don’t want to be a dragon, I’d rather have one, yes I think it’d suit me.
If your music would score a movie what sort of movie would that be? What actors can you imagine playing in it?
A modern Jules et Jim, a complicated weird love story between crazy dreamers. I guess it would be a road film, sunny and dusty, placed in Arizona or California…
If this whole musician thing won’t workout – what would be your alternative dream job?
Some other very creative job where I can create my own thing.
Tell us a mostly unknown artist we should definitely check out.
OFRIN, a great Berliner singer and songwriter, beats and great atmosphere, very interesting!
The music industry is changing quite heavily these days. What’s the best and what’s the worst part of these changes, in your eyes?
Best part of it: It got very democratic, compared with the past where only a handful of people in the world would record their music and release it. Nowadays everyone can do recordings and can put their music online and share it with the whole world, and if the audience like it will play it again and again and they might have a chance to get very popular.
On the other hand there is no fair financial support at the moment for those who make music. To make a record, market it, make photos/videos – it all costs plenty of money and hard work of dozens of people, much more than people think. Unfortunately streaming companies like Spotify or Pandora are being very unfair in sharing their income. Artist just don’t get any (or ridiculous little amount) of it…sad but true.
Unleash your inner Burt Bacharach and complete the following sentence… “What the world needs now is…
… people to zoom out.”
I think we’re all getting quite isolated in our virtual world and life, everyone only worrying abut his own problems. If people would become aware of being part of a bigger world where everything is connected and our actions or not-actions do have real consequences, direct or not, on other humans or on this earth, well, we’d have a better world. We need a more distant view on our life I guess. Amen.
What role play ‘hope’ and ‘passion’ in your life?
PASSION: I couldn’t do anything without passion, I´m pretty much incapable of doing things I don’t like to do, I need to force myself and in most of the cases the results are very mediocre. Thank god I love this life and I love what I am doing. I´m moved by an inner passion for music and art and creation, so I guess if I´d lose my passion I wouldn’t be able to create anymore.
HOPE: I´m an optimistic fool.
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