Brynn Cartelli Begins Her New Era With Dreamy-Pop Single, “Gemini”
She's starting her new era, Gemini season, witch girl summer, and making her directorial debut – all at the same time.
Brynn Cartelli by Elinor Kry
When singer-songwriter Brynn Cartelli, released her highly-acclaimed EP, Based on a True Story, in 2021, it was her first time learning what it meant to be a singer-songwriter in the studio, taking everything she learned from winning Season 14 of NBC’s The Voice and pouring her soul into a project. Today, Cartelli begins a new era for her career – one that’s aimed to keep her connected to both her hometown, her identity, and her inner strength. With her dreamy new single, “Gemini,” released today via Elektra Records, the artist is not only building a new, vibrant world of music to live in, but this time around, she’s more in control.
What first started off as a joke ironically turned into the lead single for this new chapter in Cartelli’s career. “I thought it would be funny to play into the dual-natured stereotype [of Geminis] in a song,” she explains of the song’s inspiration, but when the line “I’ve had bad luck with boys I’ve tried to love who were born in May, June, or July,” popped into her head on the way to the gym, she found it as the perfect excuse to drive home and immediately wrote out the song on her piano. After flying to London and working with songwriters Sophia Brenan and Henrik Michelson, Cartelli drew inspiration from Stevie Nicks, Florence Welch, and the witchy energy from her native East Coast to create a track that not only toys with emotion and energy but also builds it up in a new way the singer-songwriter never has before.
Written two years ago, Cartelli opened up to Amplify Her Voice about “Gemini,” astrology, and what this new era means for both her connection to herself and to her art. “It feels like yesterday and forever ago at the same time when I wrote it. It has meant everything to me. This new era is celebrating womanhood in a way I’ve never had in music. It feels really personal to me because it feels really connected to where I’m from in Massachusetts, so I feel really rooted in my home and with the woman in my life, and I’m just really excited about this next chapter.”
Dreamy, edgy, and laced with haunting energy, “Gemini” leans into the sound of darker pop and touches upon the frustrations that can come out of typical astrological sign behavior. “I was just really frustrated with this one specific person that was being very typical to the sign, but even though the song and story are a bit mysterious, a lot of my music comes from a real place, experiences I’ve had with people, or traits that I’ve noticed,” she says. “This song in particular taps into the world of fantasy even though it came from a real place. I play with a lot of different ideas and it can come from experiences that either I’ve had, or my friends have had, or things that I’ve just observed. I think that’s a beautiful part of songwriting – just observing the world around us and reporting back what we see and what we find beautiful, exciting, worth commenting on.”
Something that excited Cartelli from a young age was the world of astrology. After reading through her mom’s Astrology Birthday Book as a child, the artist has been fascinated by the role it plays in people’s personalities ever since. “I love that the song is called ‘Gemini’ because I actually have been obsessed with astrology since I was really young. I’ve always been interested in analyzing it and understanding people based on their birthdays. I found it to be such a beautiful thing.”
Born April 16, Cartelli’s astrological chart is undoubtedly a reflection of herself - something she’s proud of and wears on her sleeve. With an Aries sun, Libra moon, and Pisces rising, much of the singer’s creative, musical energy, emotional releases, and need to perfect projects can be linked to the stars. “I feel very connected to my Libra moon in that I really love seeing both sides, looking at things, and feeling balanced in a lot of my relationships. I’m also just a lover of romance, but I am an Aries and my Aries sun definitely kicks in through my really excited, passionate side, like I had this ‘Gemini’ idea and immediately drove way too fast home. I can be very impulsive when I’m feeling creative, and I think that’s when my Aries side comes out. I love to lead and I like to feel in control. I have a lot of Pisces placements as well which kind of like brings me to this outer world that I love to tap into while I’m creating.”
Whether you’re a believer in astrology or not, Cartelli’s outer world now actually exists, and you can see it in real-time in the “Gemini” music video out today. In her directorial debut, Cartelli got together with a team of creatives to shoot a completely women-led music video for her new single. Filmed in upstate New York, the video’s inspiration comes from the East Coast’s ties to witchcraft, their sisterhood, community, and free energy.
“This is the first video I’ve ever directed,” Cartelli says. “It’s been a dream of mine since I was little to be a director, and it’s something that I’ve really invested so much time in. I’ve never worked harder on one thing in my life, and I think this video has been crafted exactly how I envisioned it.” She also ties the video’s setting into the locations of her own life. “This song keeps me connected to my East Coast, Massachusetts roots. I’ve moved to New York in the process of making this record so there’s also a really beautiful transition you can see and hear in a coming-of-age type way that I’m really proud of.”
Brynn Cartelli by Elinor Kry
Working with a team of all-women for the music video didn’t just bring out Cartelli’s artistic side in a new way, but it was also something that meant a lot to the artist. In the midst of a song detailing the frustrations of relationships, Cartelli found a sense of power in her ability to frame a woman’s perspective through the song. “Centering women’s voices and women’s perspectives in the creative space, and especially for the ‘Gemini’ music video has been such a really important thing for me,” she says. “I can sing about whatever I want, but to do it through the lens of a woman has just been really powerful.”
While there have been doorways slowly opening for women-centered stories in music, the industry still has a long way to go, and Cartelli’s path to music, which was a bit different than most artists, reflects that. While becoming an artist on national TV, she was always bracing herself for any kind of doubt and rejection she would run into as a woman in music. “I think that it’s kind of unfair because we have to prepare ourselves as women to be met with this force of an industry. Starting out, your eyes are wide you’re excited about the future, but I just kind of had my guard up from the beginning, and there have been times where I have met with men on certain occasions in the creative space and in the business space where you just feel completely devalued or very one-sided to them based on how they perceive you in a certain way because of how you look or because they feel superior and smarter than you. They also like to use their power and their success against you as a way to leverage themselves, but the way I stick through it is meeting that with the mindset of knowing that I understand my power and I know who I am. I started out writing songs on my piano in my bedroom and I can always go back to that. You really don’t need anybody else other than yourself in this kind of industry. As much fun as it is, to collaborate with people and to meet people that might have really exciting careers, at the end of the day, you’re the person who's going to be connecting with your audience.
Women are powerful, emotional beings and any kind of limitation that’s met by men in this industry – I don’t think it’s really worked. We continue to rise. It’s 2022, and there are just so many powerful women out there who are paving a way for a new generation of women in power. I’ve also seen so many more women in business positions in the music industry which has been really great, like Julie Greenwald of Atlantic Records who introduced me to the team at Elektra where I’m now signed. She’s the epitome of a badass music woman. Seeing people like that and seeing people on my team who are women is just so incredible. Men can try but I just refuse to let them take me down personally, and for anyone out there who has worries like this or has been in contact with people like this, I just urge you to trust yourself and know that you have the power within you to be successful. There are so many good people out there who will completely weed out the bad.”
Cartelli is stepping into her new era with excitement, hope, and self-awareness. The singer-songwriter is now working on new music in a way that has never been more personal. On what she has in store for the future, she says, “My next project comes from me questioning, ‘Who am I in this world as a girl from the East Coast, a girl who loves rock ‘n’ roll, who likes to feel like a witch in the woods?’” For starters, Brynn Cartelli is a rising star destined to inspire her audience if not through her music, then through the sole fact that she is creating art based simply on being her most truthful, complete self.
To celebrate the release of “Gemini,” Cartelli will be headlining Rockwood Music Hall in New York City on June 11, 2022. “I think everyone is going to really love the show if they want to escape to this coming-of-age witchy-fairytale I’m creating that also feels like a rock ‘n’ roll story!” she shares with a laugh. “The music I’m working on now feels the most like me, and I’m more connected to it than ever. I’m so proud of it, and I feel like as women, we’re not allowed to be proud of things and a lot of times your work gets pressed down and you’re sort of forced to be humble, but this is something I’m really proud of. I’ve written so many songs these past two years that are forming this really beautiful world that I’m really excited to share, and ‘Gemini’ is just the perfect way to kick it all off for me.”