The Artist Explains: Cristina Hart - 'I'm A Mess'
Cristina Hart talks us through the inspirations for her latest track ‘I’m A Mess’.
Hey, so how are you?
I'm very good, thank you! Looking forward to things slowly starting up again!
Where is Cristina Hart from? And what does she like to do for fun?
I was born and raised in Geneva, Switzerland but I'm actually half Spanish and half Brazilian and came to the UK about 4 years ago for music. I love going to gigs to discover new artists through live shows and exploring bookshops on the hunt for a new book. If I could afford it, I'd also go to theme parks way more than I do!
Your track ‘I’m A Mess’ is out now, can you tell us what the track is about?
'I'm a Mess' started out as a hook idea back in January 2019 when I was super ill and couldn't even sing or speak. I'd spent most of 2018 on antibiotics because I kept getting ill and I wanted to start the new year healthy. Then I got ill again in January and felt like such a mess. It's easy to think that everyone's got it together when you look online and I wanted to talk about the times where things don't go as planned and you feel like an absolute mess but no one's there to witness it. The chorus - even though self-depreciating - really has a liberating and empowering tone to me.
This was written while you were antibiotics and were unable to speak, how did that creative process work?
After trying to sing in my voice memos on my phone, I finished writing and producing it with my producer Takooree. We had a few sessions to finish the writing and did a couple of re-drafts. We then went to the studio and only had a couple of hours to demo it, and what we did that day is pretty much the exact arrangement as the final production. It was the first song of mine where the production came so quickly and naturally - and it helped me find my sound.
This track is a small taste of your debut EP, how is that coming along?
The EP is done! I'm actually releasing my next single 'Bad Girlfriend' soon - and the rest of the EP will follow closely this autumn. I've been waiting to release it for so long, I'm so excited for people to hear it!
Who would you say are your key musical influences?
When I was younger, big vocal pop divas got me into singing in the first place, like Christina Aguilera, Beyoncé, Mariah Carey. But as I grew up I got more attached to songwriting and storytelling and really loved Carole King, Joni Mitchell and Taylor Swift. I'm also loving Maisie Peters and Alec Benjamin at the moment, their songwriting skills are on point. Sonically I would say that I'm a bit more pop leaning towards Lauv, Taylor Swift and Emily Burns.
What next?
I'm really hoping to get a publishing deal and go on tour to support acts I love once venues open up again. Other than that, I've already started working on songs to follow the EP, it's so exciting!