NYC native, Cuesta Loeb, comes from a family of musicians. Born to world-renowned jazz guitarist, Chuck Loeb, and Spanish singer-songwriter/actress, Carmen Cuesta, she grew up between the US and Spain, studying classical flute and bassoon. While she really enjoyed performing and playing in orchestras, Cuesta Loeb wanted to expand beyond the traditional venues of classical music. In 2015, she moved to Los Angeles and began experimenting in her own songwriting and production.
After releasing a string of singles, she joined forces with producer Grey Goon in 2019. Together, they combined her love of dark, haunting melodies with dreamy, ethereal instrumentation and harmonies. They wrote and recorded a 4 song EP Plug into Me leaning heavily into a mutual love of catchy hooks and 90’s industrial grunge. The EP is a raw, unapologetic conversation of full expression released on Make More Records.
We had a chat with Carmen all about Plug Into Me and what's next for the project. Read the Q&A below.
You recently joined forces with producer Grey Goon to record your new EP Plug Into Me. How did the collaboration come about and what inspired the record thematically/lyrically?
"I connected with Grey Goon because I was a huge fan of another project he produces, Oddnesse. I reached out to express how much I loved their music and how I would love to set up a Cuesta Loeb/Oddnesse show together in Los Angeles or just go tour the world together, and Grey Goon and I ended up making music together. We met every Wednesday for a while and crossed paths during a time when we were both feeling a certain unapologetic mood. While sometimes I find it hard to be fully expressed for fear of stepping on any toes or being too blunt, this record is saying “whatever, this is how I feel.”
Plug Into Me has quite a dark and industrial sound. Very Nine Inch Nails! Which bands or artist's had the biggest influence you both when writing for the EP?
"Awesome. Yeah, I think we were drawn to a dark, moody and raw tone for this project. It’s such an unsettling time in general, politically and socially. While recording, we would stop and kind of go down a rabbit hole with certain topics and artists. We were drawn to people who were badass in a way of living fully expressed and embodying that “you only live life once” mentality. I think this is something that I really strive to do in my life, because I am a big believer that keeping things inside, unexpressed, unfulfilled is what kills you and leads to dis-ease. I think one extreme example of this is Courtney Love. I love her intensity and rawness. We started listening to Hole one day, watching some live clips and ended up reading her entire Wikipedia page together. So badass. So raw. Definitely tried to capture some of that intensity for this project."
What was your favourite part recording Plug Into Me and what new things have you learned during the creative process?
"I really loved working with Grey Goon and I definitely think we’ll do more tunes together. He was so open minded and down for trying anything. It was a free, safe and open space for creativity. I loved the collaboration of it all, too. We would both bring in ideas and just go with whatever we were inspired by that particular Wednesday. It was a flow. I also really enjoyed the philosophical discussions. By the end we narrowed down the four things that will make life the absolute best when blended in the correct proportions:
1. not giving a f*ck
2. dream big
3. work hard
4. acceptance
"We are still working on the graphics of all of this. We were thinking some kind of venn diagram."
What do you hope listeners will take away from Plug Into Me?
"I feel like everything is moving towards a vortex in technology. We’re so dependent on technology that it’s almost like life has become completely virtual. I just heard the other day that they are working on a little chip that can eventually be implanted in our brains to make us know things faster and it all scares the sh*t out of me. I hope this is a little conversation about the “simpler” less “virtual” things in life, continuing to write things by hand, sending letters by mail, hand-drawn calendar, printed photos, going outside in nature, physical human connections and verbal conversations in person. I want so badly to hang onto those physical, tangible things."
Finally, what's next for Cuesta Loeb?
"Right now we are working on a music video project with the amazingly talented cinematographer, Steven Soria, which will be out later this year. We have a couple shows lined up in Los Angeles (hopefully one with Oddnesse soon or maybe we'll do that worldwide tour I'm manifesting). And maybe Doug and I will chose a different day to meet each week and see what happens? See what is created on Tuesdays?"
