Isa Marina Lopez is a classically-trained vocalist from the Bronx, New York. Her aspirations stem from her rich musical background and she’s ready to take on the world with her latest single, “Take It Slow.” Check out her interview with rolling out. –andre ellington
Take us back to the origins of how you became a singer.
So, I’m originally from the Bronx, New York and in the Bronx I became a classically-trained vocalist. Me learning how to sing classical music happened towards the end of middle school in the 8th grade. At the time, I had just moved to the Dominican Republic and one of my aunt’s who lived over there had a patient who was a vocalist and I don’t know how I came up in the conversation, but she recommended her vocal coach to me and her name is Marianela Sanchez. I had to audition in order to take classes with Marianela and I just remember being so nervous because I knew she was famous and I knew nothing about technique so I just did my best and she said that I could stay at her school. To this day, I still talk to her. She just taught me so much about breathing correctly, how to handle myself on stage, and the hard work that goes into singing.
“Take It Slow” was curated amid a breakup that you were going through. Do you always leave a little room for real-life to come through in your music?
Yes! I tried to go the whole route where it’s like, you work with a producer and they give you songs or beats and through that process I realized that it didn’t really work for me. I started songwriting at a young age, but I never really put it out there so I feel like with TIS and every song on the upcoming EP, I wrote and helped produce all of the music so there are specific things that are related to my life. Honestly, if you want people to feel you, you have to be real and you have to be an open book. While writing this song I was going through a break-up and it was the first time that I had the chance to just sit and breathe. Usually when I’m going through something, I do a lot in order to make myself busier so that I don’t have to think about it but I’m so happy that TIS was born out of it.
I know “TIS” just premiered on SoulBounce TV. Talk about that experience and what listener’s can anticipate from your upcoming EP, Mirrors | Volume 1.
Mirrors is going to be a mixture of different sounds for sure. I love my ballads and slow songs but I also love the art of songwriting and I like doing up-tempo, as well. There’s an up-tempo track on the EP called, “Money,” which should be the second single and it’s completely different from “TIS.” With me, the foundation is always going to be the lyrical content and utilizing my voice through my music.
