Valentina CY is a Los Angeles-bred singer-songwriter-producer whose soulful pop sensibility won the hearts of tastemakers when it surfaced on her Unmanageable debut EP and breakout track “Powerful” last year releases new song and music video “Postmates.” The mellow but powerful track, which highlights various emotional points in her relationship, was written and produced by Valentina and is the first release of the year with more music to follow.
I wanted to start off the interview with your name because I found it very interesting. But your name is Valentina, of course. But for your artist name, you added cy to it. What kind of inspired you to add like the cy, for your artist name?
My last name is Cytrynowicz. Which is, of course, I had to cut that a little short, but it’s Polish, my grandparents are Polish.
Talk about the creative process behind your song “Postmates”
Yeah. So all of the songs I write are about something that I’ve gone through in life. From the exact words that I’ve spoken to a person and actions. So, this song is about a guy that I dated a while back and we broke up and then he kept sending me. Putting my number in his postmates orders. So, every time he got a post mate after we broke up, I would have to call him and be like, your postmates is at your house because they would call me. Then it was just a back and forth thing. And I was like, this is too strange and funny to not make a song out of it. And so I just, you know, started with some guitar chords. I kept ordering postmates to my house. If you want to man up then call me and tell me you want to be with me, just do that instead. Yeah, it’s like a sly way to just get back with me.
Your sister directed the music video. What was that like working with your sister, like creatively making the music video?
It’s so fun. I mean, so this video especially is special because it’s part of a larger project of four more songs that we shot that same day. It’s just so fun working with Marcella because I will give her songs and I just trust her 100 percent. And then we just the day of week, I mean, there’s no one that I could be more comfortable with also. So it’s just great. And we had our boyfriends on set PAing.
How does this song kind of introduce us to your new music for the rest of the year for 2021?
So it’s all music that I’ve made in my room that is sitting at this desk and it’s just the rawest. Form of communication I can give to the world, and it is the most. Me that I’ve put out in music and it’s all exactly what I want my sound to be, it is this organic soul pop and, I mean, I want my music to sometimes make people a little uncomfortable to say, like, oh, that’s a little too honest. But I feel like that’s what I achieved with this next batch of songs that I’m going to release.
If you could set up a fan of your music to listen to your upcoming music in a setting like any type of setting, what setting would that be?
A giant festival on the beach in Brazil. What’s that rock in Rio? Something like that.
Did you do any concerts before the pandemic? What was your most recent concert before the pandemic started.
I was playing the Peppermint Club, which I love. The venue, it’s so cute, and I just played some songs and then had a friend play guitar for me while I sang. It was so. I mean, performing is my absolute favorite thing. And I’ve been doing some lives and I want to set more of those apps and Zoom’s and, you know, it’s very nice to still be able to have one on one time with fans.
I know your boyfriend is also into music and a little he’s done some music in the background on the side. Have you two written songs together at all?
We actually just wrote a song together for the first time like a month ago. That’s when you ask that. And I’m so excited about that and I haven’t even shown it to my team yet.
Are you planning to maybe release it in the future or?
I would love to. We worked super well together and he’s great at lyrics and melodies and yeah, it felt like a real session which was cool. But yeah, I definitely want to show that to the world.
What’s one quote that you’ve heard in life that you’d want to echo out to fans?
Sometimes you just have to throw paint at the wall and is the best advice I’ve gotten.
Finally, last question. It’s the beginning of a new year. What’s your main goal that you want to focus on for 2021?
Main goal. The main goal for 2021 is to just continue releasing songs that come straight from my soul.
Make sure to steam her new single “Postmates” now and tune into the full interview on our podcast episode with Valentine CY on February 11.