AN INTERVIEW with ROBIN CASTALDI

How would you describe your music?

I would call it mostly “Adult Contemporary Pop", although that can be kind of a vague term. People have compared my music to Celine Dion’s … big, highly energetic up-tempo tunes and very emotional ballads with lots of violins and orchestration. Also to Martina McBride and Faith Hill, when they do cross-over pop songs. To me, the most important thing about my stuff is that it’s very “melodic” with what people will hopefully feel are very beautiful, memorable melodies.

How would you describe YOURSELF?

Well, let’s see … First I would have to say that I’m a once-professional singer who is currently living in disguise as a loosely-domesticated suburban mom in Charlotte, NC. For almost a decade, I traveled with my band, singing in clubs around the country, and I really loved it. However, it’s particularly difficult for a “chick singer” to be on the road if you want to have a family, so eventually I made the tough decision to go home and try to fit into “real” life. Computer technology, though, has made it possible for me to continue doing music. In fact, I think songwriting is my strongest gift, so being able to focus on it has been a blessing.

Did you really play all the instruments on this CD?

Well, yes and no. I did play every NOTE … however, I did it all with a keyboard and a small computer-based office studio. For example, I would record a countermelody line on keyboard and then arrange it to play back as violins. Same thing with guitars, horns, drums, etc. And with the huge size of computer hard drives now, it’s totally possible to record an entire album’s worth of instruments and voices onto the computer. It’s a bit time-consuming, but really worth all the trouble in the end.

Speaking of voices, who are the background singers?

I call the girls Bambi, Shaniqua and Tequila; however, they’re really all just me. The good thing about it is that there weren’t any personality clashes or “diva moments” during the recording sessions… well, hardly any, anyway ...

And you did all the CD artwork yourself, too?

Yeah, all except for the photo of me, which was a candid snapshot taken by my brother-in-law a couple of years ago (Thanks, Tom!). The cover beach art is actually a combination of two photos that I took at different times. The riders on the beach are my daughter Kristen and her friend Amanda on their horses at Myrtle Beach, SC … I took that picture from a hotel balcony. And I merged it with a sunset photo that I took in Aruba when I sang there several years ago. Everything else is just stuff I came up with by doodling on the computer ...

Can you talk about what’s behind some of your songs?

Well, I should first put a disclaimer on “Dreams” by saying that I wrote that a few years ago when I was still very young and naïve! And I thought that you could make anything happen in your life pretty much by positive thinking. Now that I’m a bit older and wiser, I still believe that it’s good and necessary to hang onto your dreams … but I also realize that you need to be willing to “temper” them sometimes to fit into your real life circumstances. For me, that’s been concentrating on writing and recording while my daughter is in school during the day rather than trying to sing with a band at night or on weekends when I need to be available for her.

Perhaps the flip-side of “Dreams” would be “How Long The Road Has Been” … I have always loved a quote by Dag Hammerskjold that goes, “How long the road is. But for all the time the journey has already taken, how you have needed every second of it in order to learn what the road passes by.” I always wanted to write a song based on that, and I finally did. The sentiment of it fits with another thing I heard someone say once ... that God takes all the great things and all the terrible things that happen in our lives and weaves them into a beautiful "life" tapestry. And that the tapestry wouldn’t be nearly as beautiful without ALL the pieces that went into it, good and bad.

And I have always been a lover of a beautiful, moving ballads, whether about tortured unrequited love or happier topics.  Don't Say Another Word is my tribute to the former, while Eyes Of Love is more of a sweet turn on everyday family life. 

Any final thoughts?

First, that I truly hope that people love my music … I’d love to hear from anyone as to their thoughts on it. (They can feel free to e-mail me through my website). Also, it would be nice to think that my lengthy solo effort to get this album done (it took about 1½ yrs.) might encourage someone else to keep hacking away at his or her dreams, one small step at a time. One of my favorite (and totally TRUE) stories on this subject is from an awards banquet I attended a long time ago where an older woman (who had a terrible life-long problem with stuttering) was being recognized for her accomplishments. When asked to explain into the microphone why she had been so successful in her field, she said, “P-p-p-p-p-p-p-perseverance!”

And that, I believe, that sums up this album perfectly!