The Resonating Journey of Cintale: Indie Music, Unity and Beyond

Discover the inspiring musical journey of singer-songwriter Cintale as he unfolds the highs and lows of his career on this captivating episode of the R2RB Podcast. Tune in to an intimate conversation about his love for music, fostered from a young age by his mother, and his family's formidable role in supporting his journey. Venture through the trials he encountered in the industry and his dedication to his younger brother's music career during a challenging phase of his own.

As our conversation progresses, we delve into the critical issue of unity and recognition in the music community. Experience Cintale and my shared vision of embracing various music styles and the artists behind them. We shine a light upon the impactful contribution of community figures like Mark Johnston, who is known for his tremendous backing of indie artists. Cintale also gives us a sneak peek into his upcoming releases and thrilling collaborations. This conversation offers a peek into Cintale's musical journey and highlights the power of unity, positivity, and unwavering support in the indie music community. Don't miss out on this heartening episode that celebrates artistry, collaboration, and the spirit of indie music!

Transcript

Deb LaMotta: 0:00

Hi and welcome to R2RB Podcast. My guest is Cintale, a singer-songwriter from Maryland. Thank you so much for joining me tonight. How are you? I'm great how about yourself. I'm good, thanks. Well, not everybody can see, but Cintale has this hat on with Mickey Mouse. I love it, absolutely love it. All right, I'd like to ask two questions to get us warmed up. If you could visit anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?

Cintale: 0:32

Well, I've been to Hawaii before, but I would love to go back. It's just the time there goes so much slower and the weather is beautiful, the water is beautiful and then the love that the people have there on the island. They're so full of love. You don't always get that everywhere you go, so that's why I would like to go back to Hawaii.

Deb LaMotta: 0:56

Oh my gosh, I have been to Hawaii as well and I would love to go back. Oh my gosh, which part. I went to all the islands.

Cintale: 1:05

Okay, I went to Maui.

Deb LaMotta: 1:06

Did you go to Maui? Yeah, no, it's all beautiful and you're right, time's up, right, it's just a whole different world. We'll talk later.

Cintale: 1:16

Right.

Deb LaMotta: 1:18

What is your favorite app on your phone and why?

Cintale: 1:21

Oh my goodness, Right now my favorite app on my phone would be Spotify for Artists, because I'm able to see my stats and see how I'm growing with my music, see who's listening, where they're listening from, so I pretty much be on there a lot.

Deb LaMotta: 1:44

Yeah, it's a great tool for everybody in the music industry, absolutely, and then we get to listen to you all.

Cintale: 1:52

Yes.

Deb LaMotta: 1:55

All right, let's start with. Has music always been part of your life?

Cintale: 2:01

That's a yes, that is a big yes.

Deb LaMotta: 2:05

From what age?

Cintale: 2:07

Age of five.

Deb LaMotta: 2:08

Wow Okay.

Cintale: 2:11

It started off with, you know, just hearing music in the house all the time. My mother sings, my grandmother sings, so I come from a really musical family. So, yeah, music's always been there.

Deb LaMotta: 2:23

So when did you know that music would be your life, just not part of it?

Cintale: 2:30

I would say I learned that really early on because my memories, my first memories of music was, say, I'm an 80s baby, so going in the bathroom where the acoustics is good and being on a tape cassette recorder with my mother and learning to sing with my mother and harmonize, so yeah, oh my gosh Been a while.

Deb LaMotta: 3:00

I like that though. Well, that kind of leads into the next question who has had the most significant influence on your music career?

Cintale: 3:08

My mother, my mother. My mother has just been my rock and she's been my backbone and my greatest supporter. That's all I can say about that. She's had the most influence on me because she was the same to me. Well, my siblings and I, before we would go to sleep at night, she would sing to us and stuff. So it was always something you know musical coming from her.

Deb LaMotta: 3:38

Oh, that's great. That's really great. Have there been other influencers in your life musically?

Cintale: 3:46

Of course my grandmother's another one, because my grandmother she wrote music and stuff too. When she was living she wrote. And then of course the music that I grew up around, you know, michael Jackson and Beebe and CeCe Wine and Shirley Caesar and stuff like that, the Clark sisters. Like all that kind of music was playing in the background.

Deb LaMotta: 4:10

Oh my gosh yeah. What Talk about influencers.

Cintale: 4:14

Oh yeah.

Deb LaMotta: 4:16

And you have a big family right.

Cintale: 4:18

Well, my immediate family is small, but my family is huge. My grandmother had eight kids.

Deb LaMotta: 4:27

And have they all supported you through your journey as well.

Cintale: 4:31

I would say some of them have and some of them haven't. I mean, that's just that comes with the territory. Everyone's not going to be in your corner.

Deb LaMotta: 4:40

And so did you have people kind of buzzing in your ear saying you know why are you doing this? What's this music all about? You're never going to go anywhere with it.

Cintale: 4:51

I didn't have anyone saying that particularly, but I've had people you know say well, you know, not a lot of people make it and things that sort and what makes you special. I've even I've had some really painful stuff that I'm not going to repeat. But to it all, I mean, I always had my own mind and my own heart about what I wanted to do, and so this was something that I wanted to pursue and no one was going to stop me from going there.

Deb LaMotta: 5:21

And that's that's the greatest part is that you, like you just said, you pushed yourself through because so many there are a lot that get that buzz in their air telling them you know you can't do this, why are you doing this, you shouldn't be doing this. But you also had a good support system behind you, too, that said, yeah, you can do it. Yeah, you being first and then your mother, absolutely, did you have mentors at that point?

Cintale: 5:45

No, I really didn't at the time. I just pretty much I was just going through, just you know, like a regular child, just you know, seeing what their parents and stuff. So I guess you want, if you want, to say that my mother and my grandmother were big mentors to me yes, as far as you know, trying to keep me on the right path, trying to keep me out of trouble, things that sort.

Deb LaMotta: 6:05

So what are some of your favorite moments growing up that were grooming you for your career, that you probably didn't even realize it at that time?

Cintale: 6:12

Like I said, all the practices that I had with my mom singing. You know she had a lot of recordings but unfortunately someone broken through her vehicle one year 96 and stole all of her tape. That and singing on the choir at my church is where you know, where I learned vocally how to use my voice sister Violet, which was our music director there and also our pastor's daughter, oh, well.

Cintale: 6:46

And I mean she would push us so much vocally, she would push us to the brink, and I mean we were just like enough. But it just built up a discipline in me as well.

Deb LaMotta: 7:06

Yeah, exactly. So all the things that you were learning then vocally, like you said, was grooming you for where you are now you record gospel music, but that's not where you began.

Cintale: 7:19

No, it's actually not where I began, because, of course, I grew up in church and everything you know. When you get older, you become an adult, a fresh, new adult. I say, you know, you're 18, 19, 20. You want to live your own life. So, you know, I went out and, just, you know, try to be a normal, you know, young man, and I started singing. Of course, r&b was always there too, not just gospel, but I grew up with all the types of music, but I did start off singing R&B.

Deb LaMotta: 7:51

And then and then, what led you into the gospel?

Cintale: 7:53

Funny story is that my grandmother and my mother always wanted me to sing a gospel, like make a gospel album. My grandmother was like you do good with your R&B, but I would love to hear a gospel song from you. So I was like, all right, all right, I'll do a gospel song for you. So I did my first gospel song, which is called you Could Do Better. My grandmother loved it, and so did my mother, and I was like, all right, well, if I'm getting this kind of response for that song, so let me go here and try to throw some other songs together. So I really started to go to work and that's when I came up with my first gospel album called A Gospel Vibe, which is on Spotify and all streaming places. Boom, there it was. The gospel album came out.

Deb LaMotta: 8:39

It's amazing how those things work.

Cintale: 8:41

Oh yeah.

Deb LaMotta: 8:42

Was there ever a time, though, that you kind of lost hope and or lost, you know that feeling with the music? Did you ever want to like stop?

Cintale: 8:50

Yeah, I actually did. I did. I did lose myself musically. This was back in like I want to say 2012, 13, 14. I just, I mean, I just lost my passion for music. I mean I could listen to it and I could sing along with the radio, but as far as like making it and writing it, I completely lost that. And then one day I went to visit my mother, who live in Richmond, virginia, and my baby brother. He had some recording stuff and he was like hey, big bro, I want you to. Uh, can you sing a hook on this song for me? And I'm just like really you want me to sing?

Cintale: 9:31

And so he was like yeah, yeah, yeah, I want you to hear the song because I just started it. And so I listened to the song and I was just like this is you. I was like, oh my God, like you've really grown. You know from the nine year old that I was writing raps for and writing songs for, and how old was he at that point? I want to say 1617. Okay, he had really grown so much.

Cintale: 9:57

And I was just like, wow. So I mean, I sat down okay, give me a pen and paper. And I sat down and I listened to a song and I wrote this little hook up plan and then I sang it and then I, you know, put a little harmony zone and analyze and I left and my mother calls me and said your brother played that song to death. He said he played it over and over and over. And I mean that that was. That was like my spark, because I saw his passion for it and it just like ignited my passion again. I was like, wow, I really need to. I missed this and I really need to get back into it.

Deb LaMotta: 10:42

So that hook hooked you back in.

Cintale: 10:44

Yeah, that's when I came up with my album and I was like I'm ambitious back in 2014, 15, I believe.

Deb LaMotta: 10:58

Yeah, well, thank God for the little brother. What's his name?

Cintale: 11:01

Zach Zach.

Deb LaMotta: 11:04

Thank you, zach. Right, you just never know where the inspiration is going to come back from. I've spoken to others, too, where they've lost interest or something has happened and they've lost that feeling. And there's always that one person or that one moment, that that's all it takes to reignite that passion for what you have for, for your music and your songwriting as well.

Cintale: 11:25

Yeah, I mean, it's just crazy, because it was like once I got that spark, a floodgate of music just came out of me, like I was writing almost every day again, and I was like, oh my God, like, oh, these songs coming to me, I just I can't get them out of my head. And so I was like I got to get some equipment. I got to get some equipment to record this stuff. I got to get it out. Eventually they did come up and they were staying with me and I had a like a little studio apartment and they were staying up here, my mom and my brother. They moved back to Maryland and so I was like, all right, cool. And so I said I'm going to make an album this year. And he was like, really, I was like, yeah, I don't know how I'm going to get it out here, but some sort of way I'm going to get it out to the world because it's, I believe, it's just time. Oh, wow. So oh my gosh.

Deb LaMotta: 12:14

So just backtrack a little bit. So what is your writing process like beside it, just jumping and bouncing in your head?

Cintale: 12:21

I hum a lot. I hum a lot and sing little. I guess little lines, anything could spark it. Like I could hear just like a couple of notes from another song and boom, I could hear a melody or a beat Music. Just the words just come so naturally and I'm just like, okay, let me write this down real quick. And if I can't write it down, I get my cell phone and I start recording myself on the video singing the words.

Deb LaMotta: 12:51

I was just gonna ask do you carry a notebook? Do you use your phone? What instruments do you have when everything comes flooding, and do you just have that? You know you need to write.

Cintale: 13:02

Uh, my phone, my phone. I do have notebooks, though I do have notebooks. I don't always carry them with me, but I always have my phone, so I can always sing myself you know, oh my God, in the video and then go back and sometimes all the words are not always great, but I can rewrite those words. But at least I have the base, what I want to say.

Deb LaMotta: 13:24

Right? I ask this question quite often because everybody's process is different and there's always something unique to it. So you know, going forward with your recordings, you do your own recordings and you record at home. And why did you choose to do it yourself?

Cintale: 13:38

Well, believe it or not, I was once signed to the record label Back when AOL was the internet service for everybody.

Cintale: 13:47

Yeah, I got discovered online and this producer kept emailing me and I was just like I don't know who this dude is, but I'm not, I'm not giving him my number or anything. He was like well, if you don't trust me, I'll give you my number, you can call. So I called him and I called him blocked. He was like you really called me blocked. I said yes, because I don't know you and I don't trust you. He, you know. He talked to me and he was like well, let me hear you sing something. So I sang something for him and he was like yeah, yeah. He was like you have a really nice voice. And he said so, can you give me a call within a couple of days, cause I want some other people to hear you? And I was like okay. So I called him back and by this time he gave me my trust. So I gave him my number.

Cintale: 14:31

They actually sent for me. Well, they sent me a package. First. They sent me a package of, like the contract and all those papers. I had my mom looking over them as well, because, you know, I was only like 19 at the time.

Deb LaMotta: 14:48

Oh, okay. So I'm like mom.

Cintale: 14:50

I said, mom, I need you to look over this because I don't understand these words in here, what does this mean? And she was like, okay, so she went through them. And you know what we didn't understand. We got legal advice and acts about it and everything turned out to be legit. Oh cool, good, very good. They sent for me to come to Chicago. My mother was like my baby's, going clear across the United States. She was crying. Oh my goodness, it was so dramatic. She was crying when I was in the airport. She drove me to Raleigh Durham because I picked the international airport there.

Deb LaMotta: 15:25

Yeah.

Cintale: 15:27

You know, once you get past the point where your guests can't follow you, you got to go through the checking gates and all that stuff. She was in tears and my grandmother was like Lord, have mercy, Deborah, I was nervous, I was nervous my first five was in the plane.

Cintale: 15:43

I was there and I had this other lady sit me down. She says your first time. I said yeah. She said you scared. I said uh-huh, but I got through it and everything was okay. And then I went back home and then next day sent for me and I went to go live in Chicago and I lived there for a year and a half, okay, and I was doing shows and I was recording, but things did not turn out the way they were supposed to. There was some family members on the label and I think they were a little bit more interested in pushing family members than others who had just joined. I kind of got like pushed on the back burner and was like I'm not gonna deal with this. So I left. I couldn't release any music for about three years until my contract ended.

Deb LaMotta: 16:35

That's a long time.

Cintale: 16:37

Yeah, I mean I was still writing, but I couldn't record with anybody. I couldn't release anything because I was still in that contract and if I had released anything they would have rights to it.

Deb LaMotta: 16:49

Right, right, right. So how did you keep yourself motivated during that time that you came back and you weren't doing anything in Chicago, because that must have been a pretty deep area also.

Cintale: 17:02

That's when I started working on my little brother, because my little brother, he had told me that he wanted to do some music. And I'm like what you wanna do music? You're into your Xbox and your PlayStation, you wanna do music. So I mean that gave me something to work with, because I just started like shooting little music videos with him with the cameras that we had, which weren't all that great, and I had bought this little large tech microphone for my HP Pavilion.

Deb LaMotta: 17:37

And we were recording on that you do what you gotta do, and he made.

Cintale: 17:44

My brother, Zach, did about four different albums and I wrote all the songs for at least three of those albums and in the fourth one he wrote all of his songs.

Deb LaMotta: 17:54

Wow.

Cintale: 17:55

And because by that time I think he had gotten the confidence enough to be able to write for himself. Oh wow, so, yeah. So that's what kept me busy during those three years.

Deb LaMotta: 18:07

And then, once those three years were up and you got back to being able to record, what did you record?

Cintale: 18:14

What was your Okay, so I recorded one of my albums called Strange Moments, which was on my space, going to my space days. Now, strange Moments, it was 14 songs on that. Then I did another one called the Usual Concept and that had eight songs. And then I did another one like a few years that I was, they were rolling out like so quick, but then eventually I stopped again. And then that's when well before that 2007, I had recorded some music when I was on the label that wasn't theirs. It was not theirs, they had no rights to it. So I put those five songs together and I made my first album to release, called my Voice Demo, and it had five songs on it. And then I did a bonus song, me singing a song that I wrote. I went to the store and I bought the Memorex CD covers and all that stuff and printed all this stuff up and I got the jewel case, the empty ones, and I made my own CDs and I packaged them up.

Deb LaMotta: 19:28

You did the holes in.

Cintale: 19:30

Yes, and I sold them. I sold them. My mom helped me. I gave her a stack of them and she went to work and she was telling all her girlfriends and they was like, oh my god, yeah, that's your sign. Of course we're going to support, we're going to support and it did really well.

Deb LaMotta: 19:44

That's how everybody was doing it at that time. Yes, you didn't have everything you have now. So I mean, that was down true grit, getting your music.

Cintale: 19:56

Oh yeah, definitely. I don't think anybody knows about that. The Memorex getting the Memorex CD covers for Blink Disk and you print up your CD on there and then you put it in the pool. Dang it. You glued down the CD plate on top.

Deb LaMotta: 20:13

Yeah, I'm originally from Connecticut and going into New York City they were on every corner.

Cintale: 20:19

Okay, oh my gosh.

Deb LaMotta: 20:24

yeah, absolutely, I love that. So what are you working on now? We're at 2020, we are almost at the end of 2023 and I know you have been working on a lot.

Cintale: 20:37

Yes, I have. If everyone's been following me on Facebook, they'll see that. Well, twitter and all that stuff too. I have a new song that's going to be coming out next month with my brother, elijah Gray. I call him my brother because he's from my home church. He's a young guy and he sings too, and he plays instruments. He plays the guitar, he plays the piano, the drums, and I'm just like you're multi-talented.

Cintale: 21:06

I want you and so him and I we were always when we had solos and church and stuff him and I would always go to each other and we're like oh, I love your voice.

Cintale: 21:14

Blah, blah, blah. We're going to have to do a song one day, one day, one day, one day. And then one day I had gotten this beat and I listened to it and I was just like this sound like this will be good for his voice, and so I was like maybe we can work on this together. So I called him up and I asked him and he said, sure, sure, yeah, yeah, when you want me to come? And I was like, can you make it down here on Saturday? And he's like, yeah, yeah. I said two o'clock. So he came here and I let him hear it. I had already wrote a hook. I said, yeah, so we can go around this. Sure enough, we worked on it, and we worked on it for six months.

Cintale: 21:53

That's how it took us to work on this song and it finally got finished. I think in a few video posts that I posted I said we're finally finished and then I had to edit it.

Deb LaMotta: 22:04

I've been following the posts on it and I'm like, come on, I need to hear it. So yeah, we just revealed today is coming out the 15th.

Cintale: 22:12

That is so great.

Deb LaMotta: 22:13

That is so great. I'm so happy for you guys because I know you've been working hard at that. Yes, and what did?

Cintale: 22:20

you just release.

Deb LaMotta: 22:21

I'm going to be releasing tomorrow, december 4th, christmas song.

Cintale: 22:26

Do you hear what I hear? Everybody's classic. Yeah, I love it.

Deb LaMotta: 22:32

I've been asking on Facebook everybody's either the Indies what they've recorded recently or their favorite song, so I'm looking forward to that also. I'm still working on other material.

Cintale: 22:43

I mean, I put little teases of me working on different stuff sometimes on Facebook and get people kind of riled up like, oh, what's that? But yeah, I'm actually. I'm working on another album too. Oh cool, when's that one? You think?

Deb LaMotta: 22:57

you'll be releasing that one Next year sometime.

Cintale: 23:02

I haven't gotten that date.

Deb LaMotta: 23:03

It's next year I'm going to go to the next year, though, for sure, and you do all your marketing yourself, as you were saying Facebook, instagram and anything, every other way that you possibly can think of. So, and that alone is a full-time job.

Cintale: 23:21

I have graphic arts and communications certificate from my high school. I had to take it four years to get state approved. Yeah, I've been working with that for a long time, so I know how to make my own little promotions and pictures and things that sort. And then I went to college for art and I took up photography and ceramics and oils and murals, sketching and all that stuff. So I got kind of like a good foot in.

Deb LaMotta: 23:52

Yeah, you're out to market Very well rounded, but you need that. I mean, in this day and age, it's exactly what you need to be able to do everything that you know Facebook and all the social media and all the digitized what have you out there?

Cintale: 24:09

Oh yeah.

Deb LaMotta: 24:10

Right, absolutely. So, before I forget, please let everybody know how to find you.

Cintale: 24:18

Oh well, everyone can find me on Facebook, instagram, Twitter, soundcloud is all the same thing. Send, tell gospel music. That's C-I-N-T-A-L-E gospel music.

Deb LaMotta: 24:34

I am so glad that community the gospel community, the Christian community, the contemporary Christian music has you in their lineup. You bring something different. I love your voice, your passion, your drive. I look forward to seeing your posts. You are always so positive. I think everybody that comes across you feels that it's funny how those feelings can come through, even though we're so socialized on Facebook and Instagram. You make it a little bit extra and that feeling comes through. I know a lot of people love that, especially me.

Cintale: 25:21

You have to be. You have to be because so many of us go through so many different things. The saying goes, a smile can hide a thousand stories. Even though a person is smiling, you would never know what they're going through. I smile and I think I've told you before in our previous conversation that my mom and I was in a car accident. A lot of people didn't know that. I had an uncle pass away last year in December. I've had friends pass away this year and everything you can't let life. Life is going to be like life happens. You got to just trust God and keep moving. That's what I was taught growing up is that you trust God and you keep moving. You pray and you keep moving because things are going to happen that's out of your control and there's nothing you can do about it.

Deb LaMotta: 26:26

Absolutely Just keep moving. That's how I feel for myself too. I don't like to stop, not that I'm always in a hurry, but I just keep moving. Is there anything else that I haven't touched on that you'd like to share with everybody?

Cintale: 26:42

I just want to thank everybody for just sticking with me and seeing my growth and this music journey and this music ministry, because even though the music is a different type of music and you can groove with it, of course, absolutely but if you listen to the lyrics it really has really deep meaning. I never want to stray that part away from that. I believe in God and God is real. To me, the music helps somebody if they're feeling down or just need to pick me up. I just hope that the music can really just suffice to that.

Deb LaMotta: 27:20

That is what music is all about the word you just hit it on the nail right there. It's like every song, be it by you or any other artist. It depends on the day, your mood, how you're feeling and when you listen to as I have your music and if you listen to those words it's like oh, I didn't think I didn't hear. Now I hear it and now it's going to be okay.

Cintale: 27:47

Yes.

Deb LaMotta: 27:49

Yes, music and God are two very powerful things in this world. I thank you very much for being here on our 2RB podcast series. I appreciate you and everybody. You can find Centelle on Facebook. On Instagram, please find him, like him, comment, share iTunes and Bandcamp.

Cintale: 28:09

No, not Bandcamp, Spotify, Amazon Music, Amazon Music, Shazam, Tidal.

Deb LaMotta: 28:19

Go find him and follow him, because that's so important for the indie artist. You don't have a big label behind you. Like I said, you do everything, so everything that we can do for the indie artist helps you.

Cintale: 28:33

But you know what I do have a lot of support from the indie artists, because I did not know the community was going to be like that, learning who they were through Facebook. They have been so supportive, they are, they're extra supportive.

Deb LaMotta: 28:48

It is the biggest support group I have ever run into, ever met. For myself, I never thought I was going to be in this area a line of work, but even for me, I mean to watch everybody on Facebook support you, support the other indies. It's not, oh, I can't support you, you're this or I can't support you. Know you're that? You know everybody and everybody that I've spoken to say the same thing.

Cintale: 29:15

Yeah, and I mean everyone's, everyone's, everyone's. Music is not going to be everyone's cup of tea, because there's some things it's not my cup of tea. But you know what? I still give it a listen, just to support the person and say, hey, I did listen to it. There was some things I did like and there's some things that I'll be like a kind of cringe, but it's good to know that we all can shine together instead of just everyone trying to bash one another.

Deb LaMotta: 29:43

I hear, because there's so much of that that we don't need that in the indie industry Also. That is for sure definitely, I agree 100%.

Cintale: 29:51

I have to shout out my brother, martin Johnson. That is my brother that I mean. He's been, he's been really close, like I've gone so close to him Just talking to him on Facebook and seeing him on tiktok live and things that sort. So, yeah, I had to shout him out.

Deb LaMotta: 30:10

Absolutely, because I'll shout him out with you, because that's actually how I Started. Following you was through. Oh yeah, absolutely through Mark. I had started following mark through Cal toner and Interview Cal. I've interviewed mark and it's like and then I started listening to and to you and it's like, oh yes, we have to. He's such a great supporter of everybody. He and his wife.

Cintale: 30:37

Yes, so yeah, I know I love both of them.

Deb LaMotta: 30:41

Absolutely, mark Johnston. We both love you.

Cintale: 30:44

Yes, mark, we love you.

Deb LaMotta: 30:45

All right, Cintale, thank you so much and I look forward to the releases. I wish you well.

Cintale: 30:52

Thank you. Thank you for having me.

Deb LaMotta: 30:54

Love you all I.