Calica - 127 Hours
Oh! Pretty New Music #11
** this blog post came out on August 2, 2022 via the old website**
*accidentally haven’t released this interview earlier, apologies in all forms*
I’ve listened to a lot of catchy songs I could scream and dance to in my bedroom or while walking around my village. ‘127 hours’ is the catchiest. It’s giving me so much joy and energy that it is just perfectly what I need for my upcoming first final exams phase!
Calica’s been an artist I’ve witnessed on TikTok for almost two years now. I was immediately in love with her unique covers and interpretations of songs I dug. She has a signature she gives every song she touches and I pretty much knew I would love her original songs even more.
Feeling more than honored, I met with Calica in February and interviewed her about her new single ‘127 Hours’
Here she is: legend Calica.
Bonnie Orbison: Introduce yourself a bit : )
Calica: Sure. My name’s Calica and I was born and raised in Miami, Florida. I moved out to LA about two years ago and I was back and forth from Miami to LA a lot, working with producers that I knew out here. Then I finished college and gave myself about like a year to save up to just move back here because I fell in love with it. So yeah, I’ve been here since 2019. Around early 2020, like right at the start of the pandemic, I was back home in Miami for three months not knowing whether or not I was going to be able to come back to LA at all, because my job got shut down because of the pandemic. That was when I started making TikToks at home and it took off from there. I started reaching all these new people that I was never able to reach before with my music and I had all these cute fans being like ‘oh my god, like we’re here from the beginning, we love you so much like’. It was a great way to connect with people. I’ve been doing that for two years now and I was able to quit my coffee shop job and just work full time on music, which has been amazing. Now I work with a lot of brands and make money through TikTok, which is great.
Bonnie: What is the title of your upcoming single and when does it come on?
Calica: It’s called ‘127 hours’ and it comes out February 11.
Bonnie: Describe 127 hours in three words.
Calica: Ooh, it’s upbeat, kind of a revenge anthem and just fun, the kind of song that you listen to in your car and blast.
Bonnie: Does the title have a special meaning?
Calica: The title is one of the lyrics. It’s a metaphor for when you spend so much time trying to get over somebody. Like you’re really in the thick of it, whether that’s a breakup or anything else. You’re spending 127 hours just thinking about them, you can’t sleep, can’t do anything. And then there’s this second that you realize the day has come where you realize you haven’t thought about them at all? That’s the hook of the song with the line ‘today was the first day I didn’t think about you’. So ‘127 hours’ is a reference to all that time that you spend being sad about someone.
Bonnie: What inspired the song?
Calica: A lot of different experiences that I’ve had probably mostly with my ex that I wrote a whole album about before, like it was the first time I ever really felt in the thick of heartbreak. There was this year and a half of just constantly thinking about this person, wondering what they’re up to, just really not being able to separate myself from them. Then one day, it just came and I was like ‘oh my god, I think I’m over this’ and I literally haven’t thought about him in hours, which was a big accomplishment for me. From then on, it was like ‘Okay, I’m finally over this person’.
Bonnie: What did the process of making the song look like and how long did it take?
Calica: It actually came together pretty quickly. So I worked on it with my friend Max Frost, who’s also an artist, and I did ‘drive slow’ with him as well. I worked with another producer named Grady as well. We were all in Max’s studio, just hanging out and we went down with the guitars and came up with the whole beat of it. The words also just came organically. It was fun and it probably took about two hours to get the whole skeleton of the song going. Soon after, I just finished it up with Max on another session and it was pretty much ready to go. I think the songs that come together the quickest are usually the easiest to listen to for sure.
Bonnie: Yeah. And like the most honest ones as well.
Calica: Yeah. Because you don’t spend time or think about it too long.
Bonnie: What is your favorite lyric line from it?
Calica: Probably the second verse, it goes ‘why’d you have to go and make me think there was a chance? Now I’m not afraid to tell you that I hated all your friends’ because that was a big thing. I was dating my ex and he was like a frat boy and I really didn’t like the people in his fraternity. I also like the last lyric of the hook, which is ‘today was the first day I didn’t really think about you’ like every time it hits. It’s also probably my favorite part.
Bonnie: Where is the perfect place to be listening to the single for the first time?
Calica: I think probably in your car. That would be like my first place that I would want to blast it. But also if you don’t have a car, I would say in your room, just turn it up all the way and jump on your bed and yeah, let out the emotion.
Bonnie: Yeah, I will do the 2nd one. Is there a music video to it?
Calica: Um, there might be yes, it could be in the works. I’ve been talking to a couple of people.
Bonnie: Exciting! Any honorable mentions you want to make?
Calica: Max has been a huge help with this song in particular. So shout out to him, just for being great and really supportive. He’s a bit older, so he’s been really great with giving me advice on the industry and just being a good mentor.
Bonnie: If you’d have to put the song on a playlist with five other songs, which would they be?
Calica: Thank you for having me!
BO: Thank you for giving me the honor of meeting and interviewing you! It was a pleasure!
127 Hours is out now on all streaming platforms! Check it out :)
