- Music
- 21 May 21
The American singer-songwriter – formerly of Saucy Monky – cut her teeth singing in the clubs and pubs around New Jersey and NYC.
Prolific singer-songwriter Cynthia Catania has had a long career in the music industry, from dropping off cassette tapes to record labels in New York to plunking out songs at Los Angeles open mic nights.
When she met Dublin-born Annmarie Cullen, the two hit it off straight away and formed the band Saucy Monky. Every part of their collective energy was spent working on new material, and things tracked on a quick upward trajectory when TodayFM DJ Tom Dunne played their debut EP. After going on to chart in Ireland, the band imploded with the breakup of their romantic relationship. Catania and Annmarie have both risen from the ashes of that group to have successful solo careers.
After kicking off 2021 with the release of her latest single, 'Last Beer', and the accompanying video, Cynthia has shared an extended remix of 'Forever For Goodbye'.
A song originally written for a film pitch, Annmarie Cullen and Catania were so inspired by their collaborators, they started a new project with them. Steve Sidelynk (of Massive Attack) and Thomas Ross Johanssen produced the original version.
"Especially as a solo artist, I was grabbing those unpublished samples for live loops. Those parts became the base of this arrangement. It's been an experiment delving into soundscapes, attempting to figure out how to keep someone's attention for so long - the track plays down in just under six minutes. It was an awesome experience, getting lost in the process," Cynthia tells Hot Press.
"The songwriting is lovelorn on the surface, but to me, it's always been about expansion. Taking that idea of having "forever to say goodbye" - well knowing we all have our own interpretations of timelessness, endings, death, break-ups. Someone near and dear to my heart was a part of the MarsOne project - a contest for off-planet habitation of planet Mars," the US musician adds.
Advertisement
"At the time this was written, I was immersed in thinking about losing someone to space - it was unimaginable. I took it seriously - maybe more than I should have. The remix is an offshoot of all those ideas taking it one step further into space travel. Literal, existential, death, near-death experiences, that's what we were trying to invoke with the video images and the sound design."
Accompanied by a hypnotic, futuristic video by Aly Whitman, Catania's latest remix is full of ambient instrumental and contains her trademark fierce vocals.
Listen to 'Forever For Goodbye (Near Death Remix)' below: