Jazz music student who is a singer/songwriter talks about her feelings on creating music and success in the industry

Analiz Castillo picks up her dark brown acoustic guitar and begins lightly strumming the strings as she explains the background behind the original song that she is about to record.

“’Everything I’ve Got’ is a soulful song about a relationship gone sour,” Analiz says. “I didn’t want to face the fact that it was the end, so I wrote those lyrics instead.”

Her raw emotion while singing incites vulnerable feelings in the listener. Analiz’s sultry vocals, calming guitar chords and emotional lyrics transport the listener to the place in time where Analiz realized that her relationship was over as if they themselves were in her shoes.

Analiz Castillo is a singer/songwriter and a 22-year-old jazz music major at El Camino College, who writes and records music, which she shares through SoundCloud and YouTube accounts. She plans to soon release her first fulllength album, called “Sentimental Mood” on iTunes and Spotify.

Despite her strong voice and lyric-writing abilities, Analiz wonders whether this is enough for her to gain success in the music industry today; a music industry that seems to heavily place value on physical appearance. Analiz’s powerful voice and vulnerable, yet thought-provoking lyrics are talents that take many years to perfect. So when she begins to sing her songs, it’s hard to imagine that Analiz wasn’t born with the ability to create music that makes listeners feel Analiz’s pain, anguish and vulnerability.

Lyric writing and songwriting is very important to Analiz and crafting her songs is a balance of skill and allowing herself to feel.

“We’ve taught ourselves to have calluses, to build thick skin, rather than to just shed that skin and show the world who you truly are: to let it hurt,” Analiz says.

Her empathetic nature and her ability to feel deeply about things and people fuel the words and melody that make her music raw and real.

“When I sing my songs, it’s the only time I truly show people what my soul looks like,” Analiz says.

When she’s out on stage singing to an audience, especially an audience she doesn’t know, she says, “it’s a very take-it-or-leave-it situation.”

“Like here’s a piece of my soul, you either like it or not,” Analiz says. Analiz takes inspiration also from many artists and musicians. Amy Winehouse, Lauren Hill, Corinne Bailey Rae and Fleetwood Mac to name a few.

She also enjoys listening to jazz singers. But songwriters are the ones who draw her in and lyricists who can captivate their audience with the words they put together.

“Not all singers are songwriters and not all songwriters are singers. Like, you’re not gonna find Johnny Cash next to Adele, because Adele will fuckin’ sing Cash out of the water. But Johnny Cash will write one of the most amazing and thought-provoking country songs you’ve ever heard,” Analiz says.

As an artist struggling to make ends meet, Analiz works seasonal jobs at retail stores and at Camp Awesome, a summer camp in Marina del Rey, and lives with her parents in Hawthorne.

Analiz explains that she has a scholarship to help pay for school, and that she hopes to move out of her parents’ house once she receives her masters’s degree in music at USC.

Analiz performs her original songs at coffee shops and open mic nights around the South Bay and Los Angeles area. Her SoundCloud and YouTube accounts have hundreds of listeners and views.

Her desire to start a YouTube channel became a reality when her boyfriend, Srimal de Mel, and her best friend, John Quimbayo, decided to make something to show off their musical talents, as well as their friends.

When explaining the desire to create a YouTube channel, Analiz says that “we wanted to start a YouTube channel to release new music. make music videos, and most importantly, showcase our friends who are also up-andcoming musicians in the area.”

Along with a YouTube channel and SoundCloud account, Analiz started the Black Cat Collective, a Facebook page that serves a community of artists allowing them to use the page to throw fundraisers, plan jam sessions, and bounce ideas and new music off of each other, along with sharing future musical endeavors.

Despite the strong group of supportive musicians in her corner, Analiz still has fears about her uncertain future in music.

“You have to have this certain look, to adhere to this certain sound. I’m not always sure about my future. It’s pretty scary. It’s intimidating,” Analiz says.

However, music producer and composer for Skidoo Records, Craig Hartley, says that “the only way to break into the music industry is to stay in the race,” and that one’s looks do not necessarily help or hinder one’s success in the industry.

Her long brown hair, warm brown eyes, and comforting smile, however, are not things that individuals would say would hinder Analiz’s success in the music industry.

Her insecurities are warranted, with “these people online with thousands of followers…who are posting half-naked photos or aren’t even writing the music that they’re performing,” she says.

“I can’t help but think that maybe I don’t have the looks for it. It’s a lot of insecurities that come along with being an artist. There’s no way to hide behind your music when you’re performing. It’s all so vulnerable.”

Craig says that as long as “you keep honing your skills, creating your art, keep inspired, and stay motivated you will break through (the music industry).”

“You should never feel content or like you have arrived. Always strive and grow. That in itself is breaking through,” Craig says.

Although Analiz says that her insecurities prevent her from reaching her full potential as an artist, her soulful vocals seem to make her insecurities disappear.

At her best friend’s Palos Verdes mansion, Analiz sets up her guitar and recording equipment in his makeshift recording studio.

As a camera begins recording, Analizintroduces herself, why she makes music and what the song she is about to play is about.

“I just want to write music that people can relate to, I was to create music that people can feel the same way that I felt when writing the song,” she says to the camera.

She begins to belt out her original song, “Everything I’ve Got,” and her musical influences are clear; her voice is as soulful, strong, and jazz-like as Amy Winehouse, and her skillful lyric writing and guitar playing would make Joni Mitchell proud.

Analiz is a perfectionist. As she finishes the song, however, she lets out a grunt of anger.

“Crap. We have to start over. I was off-key and played the wrong chord before the bridge. This recording has to be perfect. I don’t care if people can’t tell that I messed up. I know I did, and that’s gonna bug me.”

After re-recording the song, Analiz trots across the tile floor, her long, black skirt flowing around her, and explains her excitement for upcoming shows and planned album recordings.

Analiz explains that “the hardest song for me to write is the one that I haven’t written yet. Between the last song I’ve written and the one that I haven’t written yet, there is always this fear of failure. I’m scared that I can’t do it and that it won’t be so possible for me to write another song that’ll be just as good as my last one.”

“Analiz is willing to share (her experiences) with her listeners and has already had a wealth of personal experiences that she is able to put into music,” William Doyle, Analiz’s mentor and current music studies professor at El Camino says. “She has a very charming way of singing that is both very disarming and very genuine.”

Analiz worries that the music industry is too difficult to break into, and that she may not find success as a musician. However, Doyle defines “success” as something different than the typical definition.

Doyle says that being a successful musician simply means making your music heard. Being a part of the music world is worth the struggle, alone. He says that her music easily resonates with listeners, and that he is excited to see where her music will take her.

“Both her words and her music have power — time will tell which direction she wants to go in music,” Doyle says.

Despite her fears of not making it in the industry, Analiz is taking a step forward with plans to release her first full-length album.

“I am thinking about releasing it on June 21st, the summer solstice, because I love astronomy and because that’s the longest day of the year,” Analiz says.

Analiz says that the album follows her previous breakup and all of the emotions, happy or sad, that she felt through the relationship and breakup.

“All of the people on and involved with creating the album are El Camino students and alumni,”Analiz says. “(The album) is very much a product of the music building at El Camino.”

If Analiz can’t make it in the industry as a songwriter, she says that she “would want to write about music or be in the music field.”

She says that she could see herself working at a music venue, teaching music or curating music books. Whatever it is she may be doing, it is apparent that it will be in the world of music.

“Being creative is just a way of life for me,” Analiz says as she walks up the stairs to the foyer.

Analiz moves to her friend’s grand piano, sits down and casually taps a few keys, explaining that she recently wrote a love song with Srimal, her current boyfriend.

“The song is called ‘I Could Be the One’,” she says. “It’s about the growth of our relationship and the love that we share for each other.”

Analiz beckons Srimal over to the piano to play and record the song. Even if the relationship doesn’t work out, she says she wants to be able to look back on the song and their relationship and reminisce about the memories that they shared together.

“Music wakes me up in the mornings. I love music and that love keeps me alive, new and refreshed every day,” Analiz says.