Speaker 1: Music Saved Me.
Speaker 2: By focusing on music writing my form of meditation, I
Speaker 2: became calmer and I retrained my mind because I feel
Speaker 2: like there is all this noise, there's instant stories, there's
Speaker 2: constant there's constant noise in the world, and when you
Speaker 2: come back to music, writing, reading, creative process, whatever that
Speaker 2: means to you, you feel a.
Speaker 3: Sense of purpose and stability and happiness.
Speaker 1: I'm Lenn Hoffman, and welcome to the Music Saved Me Podcast,
Speaker 1: the podcast where we dig deep into the healing power
Speaker 1: of music with musicians who all have their own unique
Speaker 1: story to tell. Our guest today is the singer and
Speaker 1: songwriter who truly knows the healing forces of music. Antonette
Speaker 1: Costa is a singer and songwriter whose style ranges from
Speaker 1: jazz to soul, to classical and even hip hop. She
Speaker 1: has new music out called Pitpopatter and recently revealed that
Speaker 1: she's facing her own health chare challenges, and we are
Speaker 1: so fortunate that she actually wanted to share her story
Speaker 1: on our show today, and the story of immersion. I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: emotional and physical recovery. Let me give you that line again.
Speaker 1: She has new music out called Pitt Pattern and recently
Speaker 1: revealed that she's facing her own health challenges, and we're
Speaker 1: so fortunate that she wanted to share her story of
Speaker 1: emotional and physical recovery along with the healing power of music. Antonette,
Speaker 1: Welcome to Music Save Me. It's great to have you here,
Speaker 1: and thanks for wanting to be here.
Speaker 3: It's great to be here.
Speaker 2: Lynn, thank you for that kind intro, and to Buzz
Speaker 2: as well for having me on the podcast. I love
Speaker 2: the episodes and your guests and the topics that you
Speaker 2: really address on it.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. Well, let's dive right in, and
Speaker 1: first let me ask you what were your first experiences
Speaker 1: that connected you so deeply to music and how did
Speaker 1: you know that it would would be your life's calling.
Speaker 1: That's kind of two questions, no great questions.
Speaker 2: As a small child, I started writing music naturally so
Speaker 2: my dad could play guitar and sing and love doo wop,
Speaker 2: so I would harmonize with.
Speaker 3: Him on the guitar.
Speaker 2: It was my first introduction to it, and I started
Speaker 2: writing my own musicals early age, At around five years old.
Speaker 2: I'd use the fireplace as my stage and would start
Speaker 2: making up plots.
Speaker 3: So very natural songwriter.
Speaker 1: Wow, at five you're writing plays.
Speaker 2: And it's funny because my brother's daughter, so my niece,
Speaker 2: she's doing the same thing a little bit earlier than me.
Speaker 2: She's three and a half and she came to my
Speaker 2: performance at the Kimmel Center this past week and she
Speaker 2: has it in her So maybe it's a little bit genetics.
Speaker 1: Oh yes, there's a lot of that. Definitely. Can you
Speaker 1: share I kind of pinted about it a little bit upfront,
Speaker 1: but would you to share the recent challenges you've had
Speaker 1: health wise and why you decided to be so open
Speaker 1: and extremely transparent about it with your music? That's not easy,
Speaker 1: of course.
Speaker 2: I had a brain tumor and was sick for about
Speaker 2: three years, and during that process I was on medication
Speaker 2: for over a year and eventually needed surgery. During that time,
Speaker 2: music was my therapy. It was my hope. And my
Speaker 2: mom gave me the idea when I was at my
Speaker 2: worst point before surgery. She knows I love the process
Speaker 2: of writing, so to get my head in a better spot,
Speaker 2: she said, why don't you if you can sing after
Speaker 2: this surgery, why don't you record an album? And that
Speaker 2: was enough to just get me in a good place,
Speaker 2: and I started writing down the songs that I wanted
Speaker 2: to be on the album visualizing it, and after the surgery,
Speaker 2: after six months, when I could sing again, I recorded
Speaker 2: an album in eleven days.
Speaker 1: Wow. So visualization you mentioned that word. That's a powerful word,
Speaker 1: almost as powerful as music and the vibration. A lot
Speaker 1: of people don't realize that, but when you visualize things,
Speaker 1: you make them happen.
Speaker 3: It's so true. Even with performances.
Speaker 2: I was a bit afraid to perform this past week
Speaker 2: at Kimmel Center because the last time I performed was
Speaker 2: in twenty nineteen, and my voice has changed a little
Speaker 2: bit since I had the surgery and it's not as strong.
Speaker 3: I haven't been exercising it.
Speaker 2: So before I got on that stage, I thought about
Speaker 2: every possible thing that could go wrong with the sound
Speaker 2: system and how I would be calm, and that I
Speaker 2: performed for so many years that I would handle it
Speaker 2: as it would come up, and having fun with my musicians,
Speaker 2: and how blessed I was to be performing with musicians
Speaker 2: who played on the album.
Speaker 3: So visualizing helped me stay in that zone.
Speaker 1: That's amazing, And it really does go down exactly how
Speaker 1: you saw that, doesn't it.
Speaker 3: It's true, and we did have when you're.
Speaker 1: In the middle of it, right and you're looking around.
Speaker 1: You're like, I saw this, I saw all of this.
Speaker 2: It's funny you said that because there was a little
Speaker 2: bit of a sound mess up in the beginning, and
Speaker 2: I didn't freak out because I'd already visualized it and
Speaker 2: knew how so hilarious.
Speaker 1: That I read that. Tracy Chapman was a big influence
Speaker 1: on you early on. Who are some of the other
Speaker 1: musicians or maybe particular songs that you listened to while
Speaker 1: you were going through these challenging times in your life.
Speaker 2: Fastcar is one of my favorite songs ever before the
Speaker 2: recent resurgence of it, which I was happy that Tracy
Speaker 2: was given the spotlight. And I think why it's so
Speaker 2: powerful is you feel her story through her voice and
Speaker 2: the lyrics, and that you know when she sings it.
Speaker 2: That song came from the songwriter.
Speaker 3: I love her. I grew up listening to a lot
Speaker 3: of Dion de Mucci.
Speaker 2: He's done some do wop, but I like his live performances,
Speaker 2: and again, he's a songwriter. I tend to gravitate towards
Speaker 2: songwriters in terms of voices. I've always loved Annita Baker
Speaker 2: just this soul, rich, smooth, like an instrument. But I've
Speaker 2: grasp pitated to just a lot of songs, and usually
Speaker 2: ones that are sung by the songwriter.
Speaker 1: Well, I read that you said, writing a song I
Speaker 1: love this is like bottling an emotion in its most
Speaker 1: potent form. It's almost like you're bottling medicine, not only
Speaker 1: for yourself but for others. Can you describe how it
Speaker 1: feels when you've moved someone with your music and you've
Speaker 1: witnessed this.
Speaker 3: It's the most powerful feeling.
Speaker 2: And I experienced that when I decided to open up
Speaker 2: about what I had gone through with my health journey.
Speaker 2: I usually don't like to say what I've written a
Speaker 2: song about or the inspiration behind it, but pitt a
Speaker 2: patter I started writing it in the MRI machine, about
Speaker 2: the machine and the sounds. I wrote, you drown out
Speaker 2: every good sound with that big, bad mouth, And People
Speaker 2: magazine did an article about that songwriting process, and I
Speaker 2: had a bunch of strangers writing on Instagram that they
Speaker 2: had similar experiences in an MRI machine that they turned
Speaker 2: to music and focusing on sounds and going to a
Speaker 2: fantasy land. So it was an incredible feeling to connect
Speaker 2: with people I've never met and they were touched by
Speaker 2: that song and the story behind it.
Speaker 1: It's pretty incredible that you were able to focus on
Speaker 1: that while going through that. Do you believe that music
Speaker 1: has this supernatural healing power that we can't quite figure
Speaker 1: out what exactly it is, which is what we try
Speaker 1: to do on the show every time, and there's so
Speaker 1: many different you.
Speaker 2: Know, absolutely, I think of music as the bridge to
Speaker 2: the spiritual world or ethereal world, and that songwriting and
Speaker 2: music is the most palpable form of storytelling. So for me,
Speaker 2: it definitely saved me because I was at a point
Speaker 2: in my life that I felt very hopeless, and once
Speaker 2: I dived into the songwriting process and started collaborating with musicians,
Speaker 2: it just lifted my spirit and I knew I'd get
Speaker 2: through it. It was music that made me know I
Speaker 2: was going to get out on the other side and
Speaker 2: enjoy the process of releasing the art to the world,
Speaker 2: even if.
Speaker 3: That was one person who listened.
Speaker 2: It was about finishing and completing the process so powerful.
Speaker 1: Can you highlight a few of the songs that might
Speaker 1: help if there was anyone in the audience listening right
Speaker 1: now going through something similar to you. That let's start
Speaker 1: with Crumbles. Oh so good Soldiers, Cry you.
Speaker 3: Crumbles was very much you keep it on the right.
Speaker 2: Song because I felt I felt that when I wrote
Speaker 2: that song that you can never put all of your
Speaker 2: hope in one person, and that you need to anchor
Speaker 2: in something deeper. And for me, even taking music that
Speaker 2: created a hope and gave me a sense of purpose,
Speaker 2: and that comes from within. You can't ever have a
Speaker 2: sense of happiness or worth outside of yourself or looking
Speaker 2: to other people. It needs to come from within, and
Speaker 2: music helped me come back to that.
Speaker 1: Well, if there was anyone going through a similar challenge
Speaker 1: right now, musically or otherwise, what advice could you give
Speaker 1: someone going through that.
Speaker 2: To surround yourself with positive forces and people. My world
Speaker 2: got very small, and I would be lying to say
Speaker 2: I didn't feel a sense.
Speaker 3: Of fomo for a bit.
Speaker 2: But then as I trained my mind by focusing on
Speaker 2: music writing my form of meditation, I became calmer and
Speaker 2: I retrained my mind because I feel like there was
Speaker 2: all this noise, there's instant stories, there's constant there's constant
Speaker 2: noise in the world.
Speaker 3: And when you come back.
Speaker 2: To music, writing, reading, creative process, whatever, that means to
Speaker 2: you you feel a sense.
Speaker 3: Of purpose and stability and happiness.
Speaker 1: Tell me about collaborating with other artists. I know you've
Speaker 1: collaborated with quite a few that we know and maybe
Speaker 1: we haven't heard of before. But is there a magic
Speaker 1: there that helps?
Speaker 3: There is definitely a magic and on this album pit
Speaker 3: a pattern. More so than about me, it was about
Speaker 3: the team effort.
Speaker 2: So there are incredible musicians that dropped so much to
Speaker 2: be a part of it during the holidays. It was
Speaker 2: in December that we recorded this ray Angry of the Roots,
Speaker 2: James Poyser of the Roots, Spanky McCurdy, Karie Matteen, Steve McKee,
Speaker 2: TK Wonder Dice Raw.
Speaker 3: I'm mentioning these names.
Speaker 2: Because everyone put the heart and soul into the album,
Speaker 2: and it's not just about the vocalist.
Speaker 3: It's about the team.
Speaker 2: And that also motivated me to release it and finish
Speaker 2: it because I wanted everyone's work to be heard.
Speaker 1: And the musicians on call you also worked with them
Speaker 1: as well.
Speaker 3: I'm trying to right.
Speaker 2: Now, Lynn, It's hilarious the timing of this because Sam Hollander,
Speaker 2: who you interviewed, Yes, I'm an incredible songwriter, producer, he's
Speaker 2: done it all in the industry. I heard that he
Speaker 2: was going to be on the board and I wanted
Speaker 2: to be involved after my health journey and realizing how
Speaker 2: therapeutic music is, and I reached out to him and
Speaker 2: were in talks and how I could be involved, and.
Speaker 3: He's on this podcast.
Speaker 2: So it's just this timing of everything falling into place
Speaker 2: when you surrender to the music and that energy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, when you just kind of let yourself be guided.
Speaker 1: It's amazing the places that you can go.
Speaker 2: And here you are.
Speaker 3: And I remember watching the VH one and seeing you.
Speaker 2: It's it's crazy to me because I would never think
Speaker 2: one day i'd be I'd be in front.
Speaker 3: Of you, Oh my looking interviewed by you.
Speaker 1: Funny you should say that I was reading you were
Speaker 1: you worked at MTV.
Speaker 3: I did, I did, I would blog, I would blog.
Speaker 2: That was my first internship through the whole to fifteen
Speaker 2: fifteen Broadway. But I wish that I could speak like you,
Speaker 2: because you have this calm, assertive voice. And I remember,
Speaker 2: actually I had heard your voice before I saw your
Speaker 2: your image, and I had been I like YouTube, looking
Speaker 2: up old clips and it's just very surreal to be
Speaker 2: interviewed by you.
Speaker 1: Well, I'll tell you it's just equally as surreal for
Speaker 1: you to say that to me, because I don't place
Speaker 1: a lot of stock in myself in that aspect. It's
Speaker 1: always like you're talking to somebody else next to me,
Speaker 1: because when I guess maybe people are people, and I guess,
Speaker 1: it gets me a little. As you can see, I
Speaker 1: don't even know what to say.
Speaker 2: We'll be on again because it's like Benjamin Button in
Speaker 2: front of me, because you look younger then back then,
Speaker 2: and your presence on screen and of course your voice.
Speaker 2: I'm just very excited to be on here and that
Speaker 2: you're still you're still doing what you love and you're
Speaker 2: so great at well.
Speaker 1: Thanks and Tonet Well just a beautiful woman, a beautiful
Speaker 1: heart full of music, and I can't thank you enough
Speaker 1: for coming on the show today and sharing some of
Speaker 1: your story. Hopefully it's helped lift some up. Like you say,
Speaker 1: just one is enough, Yes, one is enough, One's enough.
Speaker 1: Antonette Costa, thank you for sharing your remarkable journey with
Speaker 1: us and your story on music saved me. And keep
Speaker 1: fighting a good fight and please keep in touch and
Speaker 1: thanks for coming on the show.
Speaker 3: Welyn thank you so much for having me as an honor,