Meet Anamaria De La Cruz of Los Angeles, CA

Today we’d like to introduce you to Anamaria De La Cruz

Hi Anamaria, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I had studied and performed music from the time I was a small child, but I didn’t start writing my own music until about seven years ago. I had started a graduate program for Music with an infant and a 4-year-old, and my mother was diagnosed for cancer shortly thereafter. It was a perfect storm of pressure and stress, but it was also during that time that I began to write my own music for the first time.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Becoming a working artist had always been a dream of mine, but it hasn’t always been an easy road. When I finished my undergraduate degree I couldn’t see how I could purse my dream of working as a performing artist and pay my bills (including college loans), and so I pursued other passions – union organizing and teaching.

During my years organizing and teaching, however, I had this nagging feeling that I was taking a detour, and really wanted to find a way to center Music again. I had a ‘day job’ and would perform Music outside of my work hours, and direct student musical groups outside of the classroom, but I knew it wasn’t enough.

It wasn’t until I became a mother that I finally gave myself permission to fully pursue my dream and enrolled in a graduate program for Music, and the graduate program propelled me into writing music and working in the field full-time.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am a singer, songwriter, producer, actor and educator. I write and sing indie-folk-rock-pop in English and Spanish.

This year I released my debut album ‘Gone’, on digital and vinyl, which I wrote during and after losing both of my parents unexpectedly to complications from a cancer surgery and heart failure. ‘Gone’ is a meditation on loss and love, and was made possible by a great deal of community support from a successful Kickstarter. ‘Gone’ also features lush instrumentation from a group of really talented artists I have been playing with since graduate school (Evren Edler, Ioannis Markoulakis, Emilio Corrales) and masterful engineering (Chris Sorem) and mastering (Jett Galindo).

When I was in the process of fundraising for and recording the album, someone told me that I would remember the process more than the outcome, and that insight was absolutely true for me. I love the music on this album but what I am really grateful is everything that I learned in the process of making the album – how to write, how to edit, how to produce, how to fundraise, how to successfully collaborate, how to ask for help, how to release music, how to promote music, and how to take music from digital to vinyl. Some of these lessons, of course, I had learned before making the album, and I certainly worked with an incredibly talented group of people who supported me in all of this work, but the particular way I led this project from start to finish, and all of the experience it gave me, has been some of the most gratifying work of my professional career so far.

What matters most to you?
I am particularly sensitive to the needs of women and children, and am passionate advocate for equity in the Music industry and in the classroom. Working on and releasing ‘Gone’ fast-tracked me into the business of the Music industry and I noticed quite quickly the absence of women and particularly women of color in this industry, particularly in positions of power.

Going further back, my parents were union organizers with the United Farm Workers (UFW), and my father was a farm worker, and so I think those early experiences certainly helped to shape my world view about justice and inequality. As an undergraduate at Yale, I majored in History and Ethnicity, Race and Migration, and had the opportunity to pair research with these very real lived experiences.

I’m interested in equity through access, and at this stage in my life, also enjoy teaching and mentoring young girls and women who may be interested in pursuing careers in Music. This summer I partnered with a local organization to offer songwriting camps to girls ages 7-12, and I was amazed both by the interest in the camps and by the campers enthusiasm for and interest in songwriting and performing.

Pricing:

• $50 ‘Gone’ Limited Edition Vinyl @https://www.anamariadelacruz.com/product-page/gone-limited-edition-vinyl
• Private Lessons https://www.anamariadelacruz.com/shop

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.anamariadelacruz.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/anamariadelacruz
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/anamariadelacruz
• Youtube: https://music.youtube.com/channel/UCoScFkXRVBjDlrLZP75QvQQ
• Soundcloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/7BHZBZpn1gWeYMe29

Image Credits
Erika Carillo Lozano