Los Angeles-based Indie-Pop songstress, Cait Fairbanks, who performs under the name Ginesse, released her single “Gatorade” on June 4 as an ode to Mercury going into retrograde and the spiritual and energetic shifts she has experienced.
With her irresistible, dreamy bedroom-pop sound, Ginesse’s singles have adopted support from PAPER, NYLON and Billboard, which led to her acclaimed breakout debut EP, “Somewhere to Die.” “Gatorade” is the first single from Ginesse since her EP.
In a love letter to those she spent time with where the doors have remained open without resolution, Ginesse delivers tranquil vocals that puts listeners in a dreamlike state, despite the downhearted lyrics that tie into her personal journey with spirituality and reflections of past relationships, wondering why that certain person reappears in her life during the Mercury retrograde phenomenon.
Her nonchalant attitude, blended with pulsating synth beats create the perfect nod to the planet’s forward and backward motion.
[Serenity]: With your latest release of “Gatorade,” what is the one thing you want your listeners to take away from the song?
[Ginesse:] It's all about nostalgia, and I think all of us are experiencing a lot of that, and it's kind of just forgiving the process of healing and getting over things and having some fun with it instead of always just sitting on things and wondering ‘what could I have done differently?’ It's more like ‘wow, this is just something I want to carry with me and in a good way,’ more like romanticizing it in a fun way.
[Serenity:] If you had to describe “Gatorade” in three words, what would they be?
[Ginesse:] I feel like a romantic computer game. When we were writing it, it's about Mercury and retrograde and whenever Mercury’s in retrograde comes along for me personally, a lot of people with unfinished business come back to my life. And also during quarantine I played a lot of video games. So it's just the combo of everything I was doing last year, which is kind of going back and thinking about things from a different perspective and then also kind of playing way too many video games, looking at way too many screens, so it kind of felt very subversive in a way.
[Serenity:] I read your press release and it said that you play around with the astrological phenomenon of Mercury retrograde and it was a nod to your personal interest in astrology where you said, ‘Mercury going into retrograde has always put me in a very nostalgic place.’ I was wondering if you can elaborate more on that?
[Ginesse:] For me personally, I always have people come back into my life and kind of put me into those mental perspectives that I was there kind of brings you back in a way. I'm a very emotional person and very introspective. So a lot of the times when a situation is happening, I'm so focused on what's going on inside that I'm not just looking out and appreciating what's going on, and I think it's hard not to. It's hard not to because there's also so much unspoken because communication is always an issue with everybody, no one communicates perfectly what they're feeling and why. So I think it ends up kind of thinking about that more than just having fun in the moment.
[Serenity:] And that's the main reason you had the release date as June 4 because it was during Mercury retrograde season.
[Ginesse:] Yeah, totally. The song's called ''Gatorade'' because, a friend of mine, whenever Mercury retrograde was about to happen, they would make the joke, ‘I don't know Mercury's in gatorade.’
[Serenity:] Does astrology and spirituality play a part in your music and songwriting?
[Ginesse:] I mean definitely I'm a very spiritual person, I kind of always have been. I think most of us grew up with some kind of religious background and I grew up going to mass, I was Catholic and I am definitely not anymore. But spirituality definitely still plays a pretty big role in my life, and I was when it comes to astrology, it's still kind of new to me. One of my closest friends, she's really, really into it so she'll guide me through things when I'm going through something and tries to put it in a different perspective for me.
[Serenity:] I have to ask, what’s your big three?
[Ginesse:] Leo sun, Sagittarius moon and Libra rising. Both of my parents are Libras, it’s fun because they never know what they want and are very indecisive.
[Serenity:] Can you tell me a bit about your creative process? You kind of touched on what it was like writing “Gatorade,” but can you go more into that?
[Ginesse:] I meet with Matia Mora, who's my producer, and at the time, our writing partner, her name is Mia Minichiello. We would get together and really hash out a lot of stuff and then kind of build from there. It's like therapy.
[Serenity:] Where did your love for music come from, do you have any artists or emotions you take major inspiration from?
[Ginesse:] I think I just started singing really young, so I really have to thank and blame Christina Aguilera for singing along to her CDs was like the first thing that really got me into music.
[Serenity:] If you were any song in the world, which one would you be?
[Ginesse:] I just absolutely love one of my favorite songs and a female writer who I love, obviously everyone does, is Joni Mitchell. I love “Both Sides Now,” I think it's a really amazing song because it's true you just never figure it out.
[Serenity:] Have you used any of Joni Mitchell's songs as inspiration before?
[Ginesse:] I think it's more about lyrics for me. Because sound-wise, I've kind of been a little all over the place because this has been like a huge experimental time for me and like trying to find where I like to sit.
[Serenity:] What's your best advice for someone who wants to start producing their own music, or just keep improving upon it?
[Ginesse:] It's pretty boring, but you just have to keep working at it and knowing that it's going to suck at first, so it's gonna be really hard and really frustrating. Patience is key, it’s really a marathon not a sprint.
[Serenity:] Everyone obviously has been feeling less creative and productive during this isolated time. What did you do in your personal time to sort of re-spark your creativity and inspiration?
[Ginesse:] I started acting as a kid, so I really just started focusing on healing a lot of the wounds that were still there and admitting they were there. It's been a lot of self care and self reflection in order to be a kinder, more understanding person because I think a lot of us have had been experiencing the intensity of starting over now where it's like, ‘Oh God, we’re going back to normal life,’ and I think I'm just trying to drag the things that I learned before back into normal life. I think everyone's changed pretty intensely and I think that's good and I think it's supposed to happen, but it can be really intimidating, but it's a good change.
[Serenity:] Lastly, what's your wildest dream as an artist, like if you could have one thing happen to you or like a milestone you want to accomplish in your career?
[Ginesse:] I think for me, it's so tough because I just really want to keep going. I wanted to see how far I can get, and have as much fun as I can. I've been doing this for 17 years now, and I'm still really young, so I just want to see what else we can do. I think my biggest goal is just to keep an open mind.
You can stream “Gatorade” via Spotify here and Apple Music here. Be sure to keep up with Ginesse on Instagram and Twitter for upcoming releases and projects.
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