Barbara Teresa

18-year-old singer-songwriter Barbara Teresa has released her second single ‘Saturday night’, which will be featured in her upcoming EP ‘texts I never sent’, due for release later this year, likely Spring 2021! Barbara is currently taking a gap year to pursue music. Since graduating from high school in summer 2020, she has decided to take one year off to fully focus on her musical endeavors before starting as a freshman at Duke University in fall 2021. Originally from Caracas, Venezuela, Barbara is splitting her time between her hometown and Los Angeles for the sake of her fledgling career. Over the summer, Barbara hopes to prepare many projects before she starts university as she is still dedicated to being a college student. Gen Z: We Are the Future had the opportunity to hear from her as she talked about her journey as a musician, her upcoming projects and more in her first face-to-face interview.

Barbara has always loved music, before she could even remember. She was born in a musical household and followed the footsteps of her father, who enjoyed playing music around the house. As such, her parents have fully supported her and helped her get better at music, for example by enrolling her in classes and helping her generate interest. As well as being a singer, Barbara also plays violin. She first seriously thought about performing when she was in second grade and she heard her cousin sing on her family’s karaoke machine. In spring of that year, Barbara decided to perform at her school’s talent show and fell in love with performing.

Being a singer is a dream that Barbara always had, but she saw it as unattainable until last year, when she decided to take a gap year. Barbara admits to second guessing herself and her music, but she has gotten better at not doing so and becoming more secure. It is easier to doubt oneself as seeing success is harder when being realistic. Barbara was inspired to go into music to help people be “seen” and “identified” – she aims to tell stories via her music as her career. Writing songs is what keeps Barbara going and she sees it as her own kind of therapy.

Barbara’s biggest role model is Taylor Swift and has been her inspiration since she was young. She is inspired by everything she has done and yearns to reach Taylor’s level. Inspiration for Barbara’s music comes from her own experiences and feelings. Whenever she feels a strong emotion, she will sit down and write about whatever she is feeling or going through at the moment. Nowadays, Barbara is engaging more with literature, TV shows and movies, so she is taking inspiration from the characters and plotlines, although it is more challenging.

Barbara’s most recent single is ‘Saturday night.’ The music video was filmed a few weeks before in LA and she enlisted the help of her cousin, who is interested in directing for film. Making the music video was a collaborative process, including developing the storyline, looking for references (one of them was ‘Green Light’ by Lorde) and assembling a team together. Shooting the music video took around 12 hours but was a rewarding and fun experience for everyone involved. The EP has five tracks and Barbara is planning to work on one music video for each – the entire EP will tell a story. Barbara thinks of herself as a storyteller before a musician and enjoys telling stories through different art forms.

During quarantine, Barbara started experimenting more with songwriting with the extra free time she had, especially since she was involved less with extracurricular activities. At her peak, Barbara wrote two to three songs a day. Lockdown and quarantine helped Barbara’s songwriting process as she could reflect on the last few years of her life and translate it into her music. Hence, the pandemic helped Barbara grow as a musician. As a lover of many music genres like jazz, rock and folk, she tries to bring in different genres into her own music, describing her own music as genre-blended pop. Barbara writes about teenage struggles in her songs like love, heartbreak, friendship, etc with her own perspective.

Barbara loves how interconnected Gen Z is and is excited to see the positive direction that they are steering themselves in. Aimed at Gen Z who might be hesitant to pursue a career in a creative field, Barbara advises to let go of fears of rejection and just take the leap. Even though it may be scary and daunting to be creative, it’s best to not think about what other people think of you and pursue your passion. Your opinion should matter the most to you and not someone else’s.

Saturday Night Spotify Link: https://open.spotify.com/album/4U4nfZRB5TAfBJioFKV4QA?highlight=spotify:track:6360zqBWM2p2cxWqPigK8V

Music Video Link: https://youtu.be/onxYU4LEOvE

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