5.5 Questions with Nehedar’s Emilia Cataldo
According to Nehedar’s website, Emilia Cataldo’s music as “various combinations of anti-folk pop, indie-rock, and electronica, delivered with the subtle jazz influences from Cataldo’s father. But it has always been her clear, contralto voice and often sarcastic, mysterious and poignant lyrics that are the true glue that binds her songs together.”
While we’re all about the music, we wanted to learn a little more about Emilia. Someone, should ask her about that homemade egg cream recipe.
Tell us about the first time you heard yourself on radio.
The first time I heard myself on the radio, let’s say terrestrial radio. It was last year, this great show found me on Twitter called: Hey You Kids Get Off My Lawn on WPNR in Utica NY, they had me do a bumper. I’ll admit I did a lot of dancing that night.
As a performer, what’s been your coolest day ever?
My friends hooked me up with a gig playing at a George Romero Double Feature screening, he was there, and we were dressed up as zombies and playing for the line waiting to get signatures. It was in Huntington Long Island, I had to take a train with my friend David Keesey who was my bandmate at the time. We didn’t get paid anything and it turned out that George Romero had some hearing problems so we got unplugged. David got really pissed, stormed off, and we missed our train back. Still pretty cool.
Emilia Cataldo of Nehedar
Who’s your musical role model and why?
That’s gotta be a tie between Tracy Bonham and my dad. Tracy Bonham because she burst out on the radio and on MTV when I was in high school playing this raw, complex, honest music and continued putting out quality material. I’m sure I don’t have the timeline in order, but she sang Baba O’Reilly with Blue Man Group, married the editor of Rolling Stone who shares initials and a last name with my husband, and now I think she’s a music educator in Brooklyn in a neighborhood that I could see myself in. I’m not stalking her or anything, but I’d consider that a beautifully developed career. My dad, because even though he lives in a broken down house in the Midwest (he’s from NYC), he prefers it because he can play his horns for 3 hours every single day and no neighbors complain. He’s got his priorities straight. He plays his music for himself.
When you’re onstage, what’s different about you from the every day person?
Everyday me doesn’t want everyone to look at me. I’m the introverted type. I don’t walk around singing. Even though people tell me I have a “pretty voice” I don’t feel like subjecting people to it unless they specifically made a decision to come out and hear me sing.
What’s on your ideal sandwich and what would you wash it down with?
Might sound weird but my ideal sandwich is a tuna melt. I’d wash it down with a homemade egg cream.
Tell us 3 songs from your current playlist
I’ve been curating a playlist on Spotify called “super 90’s playlist & more” maybe you can find it if you look. I love every song on there. Three random songs from that list are: Dead Disco by the Metric, You’ve Got Time by Regina Spektor, and This Year by the Mountain Goats, but I’d recommend checking out the whole thing because I worked really hard on it and am pretty proud of it!
The Nehedar website
