{"id":885,"date":"2020-12-03T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-12-03T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=131363"},"modified":"2020-12-03T08:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-12-03T08:00:00","slug":"musician-and-writer-rita-indiana-on-finding-success-on-your-own-terms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2020\/12\/03\/musician-and-writer-rita-indiana-on-finding-success-on-your-own-terms\/","title":{"rendered":"Musician and writer Rita Indiana on finding success on your own terms"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n


\n Musician and writer Rita Indiana on multi-tasking, being grounded in your community, and creative work as a healing process.
\n <\/em><\/p>\n

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Where were you in your life in 2011 and 2012?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was basically a little sick of the whole music thing, the music gigs basically. Because I liked creating music, writing it, and producing it. What I didn\u2019t like was the touring and the celebrity status in my country, the Dominican Republic, so I quit. And I thought it was going to be forever, so I went back to writing, which is my main thing, writing novels.<\/span> And I got a job as a senior copywriter, which is something I did for a long time before I made music in the DR when I was still just writing books. So I got a job to support myself and to start working on the book that would become \u201cLa Mucama de Omnicunl\u00e9<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

Were you fed up with the music industry or creatively exhausted?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was fed up with different things, I just got tired of the whole celebrity status, people recognizing me everywhere, having no privacy whatsoever. And my kids were little and I didn\u2019t want to deal with the stuff that I was dealing with already. It was my choices that put me there. So that was another big reason for just going back to just writing and having a day job.<\/span><\/p>\n

How did you develop your practice of writing?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was always a storyteller. I think I got it in my genes because of my two grandmothers. I also think the Dominican people are very good storytellers. They\u2019re very funny. They\u2019re very creative with words, with the way they tell stuff with their bodies too. When I said \u201coh, I\u2019m a writer,\u2019 was when I was 14 and I started writing poems and rhyming and stuff in school. When I was a student, I used to do other people\u2019s sonnets and I was really good at it. And I\u2019ve always been really fast with rhymes. I would do the homework for my classmates and have them pay me five pesos each for stuff like this. And then I realized I liked it a lot and I started doing my own things.<\/p>\n

How does your process or practice of writing literature is different from your practice of writing music? Do they nurture or complement each other or how do they do co-exist?<\/strong><\/p>\n

They definitely feed on each other. My new album, Mandinga Times,<\/em> wouldn\u2019t be possible without me writing \u201cTentacle\u201d<\/a> and La Mucama de Omnicunl\u00e9<\/a>\u201d, my two previous novels. They\u2019re both writing practices about writing, so you\u2019re exercising the same kind of muscles, but the difference is the time you spend on it. For me, the difference is in the time I spend on these two things, usually for a novel is a lot more time, and I have to think things a lot more. This happens, for example, with writing characters, I\u2019m developing a character right now. And I think I\u2019ve been developing that character for probably five, six, seven years just in my head, it\u2019s not like I\u2019m writing or even drawing or anything. It\u2019s just this person that I get used to, I\u2019m feeding this box of who she is and where she\u2019s coming from. And then I change things. And so I\u2019ve been living with this ghost in my head, since 2012, when I was in Miami. And I wrote two novels after that, and this is another character. So this is it, sometimes there\u2019s a bunch of people that are living with you, that you\u2019re creating for different books at the same time. So that doesn\u2019t happen with songs.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now that we are talking about characters, can you walk us through your process of writing the main character of your novel \u201cPapi<\/a>\u201d? This girl that is the protagonist and the narrator.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was in Norway in 2002, and I watched the film Scarface<\/a><\/em>, and I used to go to Miami to visit my dad when I was very little in the early \u201980s when Miami was the murder capital of the United States. And I didn\u2019t see any of that, but seeing the movie, I could recognize certain aesthetics, suits, cars, and places. And then that was the first motivation to write the book.<\/p>\n

And it has some autobiographical aspects too, but the book is told from the point of view of a little girl. I didn\u2019t grow up with my dad. So to make up for that I used to tell these stories to my friends, of how rich my dad was and how many girlfriends he had. And so this voice of this little girl I took it and wrote a whole novel of this girl that is bragging about her dad, which is what the novel basically is. And that the voice is developed on that, a girl that\u2019s bragging to her friends about this dad that doesn\u2019t live with her.<\/p>\n

What are your expectations or hopes when you release a novel versus when you release music?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think with the music, I\u2019m always expecting fast feedback. I\u2019m writing the song and I\u2019m thinking about it a little bit, how are people going to feel about this or what I want to do. The process of writing a novel is more of an experience of pleasure. So there\u2019s a big part of me that is not thinking about the reader when I\u2019m writing. It\u2019s thinking more about the pleasure of writing, the pleasure of creating this work. Of course, I want people to read it, I wouldn\u2019t publish it if I didn\u2019t want that, but there\u2019s a big part of me that is not worrying about that, is more worried about letting me create this beautiful thing.<\/span><\/p>\n

For me writing a novel is like a healing process, and writing music is more like a fun thing. Something that is done in the moment and that will allow me to see what people who hear it are going to feel and how I want to make people feel with this kind of sound. So it\u2019s different also in that sense, how you create it and what you expect others to get from that.<\/span><\/p>\n

Can you elaborate a little bit on what you mean, that writing a novel is more about a healing process?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I always say that my novels are ahead of me. I express things and I crystallize ideas and things that I don\u2019t as a human being in my normal relationships. My novels teach me how I was feeling in the past and how I was articulating things and ideas that I wasn\u2019t ready to understand at that moment, but the novel did that.<\/span><\/p>\n

And then a couple of years later, when I\u2019m at another place emotionally or spiritually, I realize like, \u201cWow, I expressed an idea that I\u2019m understanding now.\u201d I already expressed this five years ago, ago in a novel. And now I\u2019m understanding what I was saying there.<\/span><\/p>\n

And the other thing is of course when you\u2019re playing around with things that have happened to you, things that you\u2019ve heard, and things that you\u2019ve come up with and speculate about, it\u2019s like you\u2019re doing this magical thing too. You have a little bit of power, at least on the page, to decide what you want to happen. So I think that for me, writing gives you agency. A little control over a particular universe.<\/span><\/p>\n

What about what you said that writing music is more about fun?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I mean fun in a more ephemeral sense. I make the songs really fast and usually produce them and record them really fast and I don\u2019t really overthink my music. It\u2019s a process that is not tedious or I don\u2019t have to be disciplined is it just comes out in a very organic and fast way.<\/span><\/p>\n

Moving out to your new album Mandinga Times<\/em> and circling back about developing characters, for this album you created an alter ego. Who is this character?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, Mandinga<\/a> it\u2019s an ethnic group that came from Africa that arrived in the Americas as slaves, and t\u2019s one of the biggest groups that were brought here. And it\u2019s a word that means a lot of things in many places in Latin America. And there are speeches called Mandinga, towns, barrios, markets, places. And also it\u2019s a word that\u2019s been used usually to demonize certain marginalities like homosexuals or black people, also people who are supposed to be witches or that practice witchcraft. So that Mandinga in a way, she\u2019s like a non-binary monster. It\u2019s like a metaphor for the demonization of people of the periphery, immigrants, people from Latin American heritage, people from the LGBTQ community, or that are afro-descendant. So Mandinga is that, but she\u2019s a lot of other things. I think the monstrosity comes from a little bit of how scary queer people are to some people in the world. She\u2019s also a little bit of the ghost of patriarchy that lives in me and within all of us.<\/span><\/p>\n

Your album Mandinga Times<\/em> has been labeled as \u201ca songbook for the end of the world.\u201d How did you feel during the process of creating and writing this album?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always been interested in apocalyptic ideas and from the Bible, from science fiction to the ideas that people have of how this would happen, and if it\u2019s happened before.<\/span> It\u2019s something that interests me. was still using the Mandinga Times<\/em> thing from a kind of like a humoristic side, but then in January we had all these earthquakes here, in Puerto Rico, and we haven\u2019t still recovered from Hurricane Maria in 2017. All these things have happened like a really bad economic crisis. And then the earthquake came and then the coronavirus hit and suddenly it wasn\u2019t as funny as when we started the project in October.<\/p>\n

So it got more serious as we went on. And I wasn\u2019t expecting to finish the album in lockdown, which we did and to present it, to put it out and during the lockdown either. It\u2019s been tough for everybody, but what a better moment to put it out. It\u2019s been a little bit absurd at times, I think to be an artist at this moment in time. You think, oh no, what are priorities for people? Food and medicine and a house and all that. But it\u2019s the only thing I know how to do so I\u2019m going to keep on doing it.<\/span><\/p>\n

You experienced \u201csuccess\u201d with your album \u201cEl Juidero\u201d in the sense that you were mentioning that it gave you fame, recognition, big reach, but somehow you were not comfortable and happy. How would you describe success in a way that you own it and that you feel not only comfortable but also proud of it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, success is a very complicated concept, right? Because there\u2019s a biographical essay in The New Yorker <\/a>that came out recently about my life. But I\u2019m living a very normal lower-middle-class life. I\u2019m broke most of the time, spending most of my money on my kids\u2019 education and just living a very normal life and struggling economically because I\u2019m an independent artist. I\u2019m not like a mainstream super pop star. I\u2019m a writer of novels and I make albums that a few people listen to.<\/span><\/p>\n

I feel successful because I have this community of listeners and readers that consume what I make in a very respectful way and who I consider smart people. And I share most of these people\u2019s values. But in another way, it\u2019s still tough. It\u2019s still tough to be an artist and to be compromised with the way you want to make your art and what you want to put out in the world and to make a living out of it.<\/span><\/p>\n

You surround yourself with a talented community of creative people that work across different disciplines. For the kind of work that you do, what are the most valuable resources?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think my biggest resources are people. For my practice as a writer and storyteller, music, also composer, conductor, and all that, because I feed and my work feeds from their stories and who they are and what they\u2019ve been, and who we\u2019ve been as the human race in this earth. And the other is because you have to work with people anyways, even if I just wrote novels and didn\u2019t do music, I would still need someone to help me publish it or someone to look at my text and edit it a little bit or fix things, or just I\u2019m always collaborating with people in their work or in mine and I think that\u2019s beautiful.<\/span><\/p>\n

Is there anything that you wish somebody told you before you began making art and music or writing?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It would have been cool to have someone who could teach me about the business side of things, of publishing, of making music. Someone who had spelled out for me how things work. And I would have made smarter decisions on that side of everything.<\/p>\n

Would you recommend for young musicians or writers to do that, to do some literacy?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Definitely. I think it\u2019s very important because you\u2019re going to get ripped off if you don\u2019t, that\u2019s what\u2019s going to happen. You\u2019ve got to learn how things work, how people who are going to distribute or edit, or whatever your work is about. And this for all kinds of artists, not just literature and music.<\/p>\n

When something doesn\u2019t work or flow properly, do you have a ritual or practice that centers you back and gives you the confidence to keep going?<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is going to sound really weird, but I pray the rosary every once in a while. I try to do it every day. I was raised a Catholic and I\u2019m not a practicing Catholic, but there are certain things that work because I link these prayers to the energy of my grandmothers. And I feel like I get close to their spirits and who they were. And all the women on both sides of my family, and I kind of reach out to their energy through that. And it works. It gives me focus. It gives me strength. It grounds me.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n

Rita Indiana Recommends:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Books:
Paul B. Preciado\u2019s An Apartment in Uranus<\/em>
The Unnatural History of the Sea<\/em> by Callum M. Roberts<\/p>\n

TV Shows:
Bloodline<\/em>
Atlanta<\/em>
Russian Doll<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

This post was originally published on Radio Free<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Musician and writer Rita Indiana on multi-tasking, being grounded in your community, and creative work as a healing process. Where were you in your life in 2011 and\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[346,4,270],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/121"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=885"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":886,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885\/revisions\/886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}