The Fem Issue

The first time I heard of Yungatita was through a collaboration with el rey del valle, Alex Andre--an awesome musician of the SFV area that had just dropped a song titled, “We Could Be Cool” in early 2021. I was in the middle of crafting a Valentine’s Day playlist (El Valle del Amor) and in my search for more songs I decided to check out some of Yungatita’s music on Spotify.

A fairly recent release popped on my screen. It’s cover featured a photo of Yungatita holding a synth in one hand as she stood on a giant octopus sculpture--the same sculptures made by Mexican artist Benjamin Dominguez, located in Legg Lake, San Gabriel Valley. The words “Over You,” were written in white bubbly letters against a purple sky, which made me begin listening to the tracks, and before I knew it, I had gone through all six songs of a short and sweet 20 minute bedroom-pop EP. Full of playful synths and mid-tempo songs of love and heartbreak, I had just listened to the magic of Yungatita, the music project of multidisciplinary artist Valentina Zapata.

Reppin all of east L.A., Yungatita has shared the stage with indie artists like Katzu Oso as a keyboard player in his band. In fact, it is where she met her band members that have accompanied her both in the studio and on tours--except for her friend Ernie, who she’s known since high school.

In early 2020, Yungatita played alongside Michael Sayre, at her last show in Oakland, at the Noise Pop Festival, before the covid-19 pandemic. In spite of this set-back, she has continued to release singles (latest being Sigh Guy) and has met up with her bandmates in the studio, ready to hit the stage the moment venues start to re-open, all while being enrolled at Cal State Long Beach for a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts.

With the help of her bandmates and released under Counter Culture Records, all six songs demonstrate an amazingly well-produced EP that will have you dancing in your bedroom, fantasizing of your favorite indie dream crush, or counting-down the days and weeks it’s taken to get over your toxic boo.

This Q&A (slightly-edited for clarity) is part of a conversation we had over zoom. From Yungatita’s upbringing as a musician to funny anecdotes at DIY venues, you can listen to the full conversation on our website!

Tell me a little bit about your love for music and how you began producing some of your own?

My dad was in a band in the 80s, they would actually get gigs withpretty well-known bands. My mom was a tour manager for many mexican musicians like Pepe Aguilar and Alejandro Fernandez. That actually kind of influenced me, both my dad and my mom, to really enjoy music and want to be a part of it. I first started playing the piano. My parents put me in piano classes when I was six or seven. I got taken out of classes and got pushed to play sports instead, but as I was kind of growing up, I picked up instruments here and there. I picked up guitar for a little bit when I was a preteen and I kept playing piano, learning Beatles songs. It wasn’t until high school and my early 20s that I had a lot of little toy synths. And I would just carry them around everywhere. As I got older, I joined more serious projects, and actually ended up getting into Katzu Oso’s band.

Is that when Yungatita got started?

My friend had told me Katzu Oso was looking for a keyboard player on Twitter. And I was just like, okay, whatever. But she commented on his tweet, “get my friend to play in your band.” And then he actually hit me up. I told him I don’t have a keyboard or anything, but he’s like, “whatever, just come through.” When I met his band members they were like, “Oh, you make your own music? We should make another band!” Prior to that, I was in a bunch of bands, but they were never working out. They would always break up. People always had other priorities. You know, they had kids or they’re getting married or something. And so I released my first song, “Bedroom.” I think it was in 2017. I released a version of it with my friend, Dane. He helped me produce it and we put it out and somehow it hit. It got reposted by a few famous blogs on Soundcloud and YouTube. And it took off, it got a bunch of plays in like one night. Since then I have been dropping the song here or there.

How’d you land on the name Yungatita?

I had no intention of it becoming a band name. But, back in 2013, I spent almost two months in Mexico (San Miguel Allende) by myself studying silversmithing. I had a different Instagram handle at the time. And I was like, you know what, I need to reamp like, I need a whole new start. I was just sitting on the bed and I had my computer with me. I was living in this little house at the time, and then, I don’t know, the name yungatita came up, and I was like, Oh, I’m just gonna make that my Instagram handle. I went on everything, my tumblr, my Twitter, etc., and I changed it all together. And so it ended up sticking because I was releasing things under that name, so when we started the band, there was no reason for me to change it. People already kniw it’s me, so I kind of just went with it.

What was the last venue/show that you played before the pandemic?

It was with Michael Sayre, up in Oakland, at the Noise Pop festival [Starline Social Club]. After that, we had an entire tour lined up with Harmless, you should look them up! He makes really cool music. We had a tour lined up with him. But it got cancelled because it was kind of towards the end of March. And by that time they had already announced the lockdown.

I like both, obviously. But it’s so much easier to have something completely finished. And then you get to go to a performance. You know, it’s so much easier because it’s already there. Definitely, like performing way more than I like actually sitting down. I’m kind of a perfectionist, so if I don’t like it I’ll scrap an entire thing, like, my band members will be helping me lay down a riff or something, and I’ll be like, “Oh, yeah, all that work you did, I threw it all away because I just didn’t like it.” So it’s kind of harder because I’m just set on it sounding a certain way, but that’s part of the process.

You confessed that the songs in your EP were written while you were in love and heartbroken, but, at the same time, it’s kind of a personification of the past. The “Over You” concept of the album is also the “Over You”of everything that you’ve been struggling with, or that has set you back creatively or personally. Was that the headspace you were in while you were putting together the EP?

All of the songs that I wrote for the EP, I had written them over a long period of time, I want to say like, maybe, four years. Each one that I wrote, I was at a different point in a terrible relationship that lasted about that much time. When I put that EP together, the intention was to get this out of the way so that I could just move on. I want to be free from all of this stuff I’ve been through in my past and be free of getting tied down by relationships, by material things, by my own insecurities or traumas. And I’m just over it. I guess the order of the songs as well, they tell a little story.

My favorite song in the EP is “Seven Weeks and Three Days,” how did that tune come about? Was it a collaborative process with your band or something you produced on your own?

I wrote completely by myself in my bedroom. It took me two hours to write the whole song. That time, I don’t think I had a band yet. So it was literally just me in my room, crying. I wrote this entire song and recorded it completely in a matter of like two to three hours. And it was pretty late. And the only thing is,

a few days later, I went to my friend’s house, and he helped me kind of like, you know, lay it down and mixed it and all that I he added that little synth solo at the end, because we’re kind of working on it together. But the entire song I just wrote by myself a few nights before.

What part of LA are you based in?

I rep anything East of LA.

For your EP cover, you’re standing on top of this giant Octopus, where is that?!

I took that picture at Legg Lake, aka Whittier Narrows. The sculpture I’m standing on, there’s actually a bunch of them around the park, they’re made by Mexican sculptor Benjamin Dominguez. I grew up in that area, at a certain point in my life, and I used to run cross country, that’s where we would practice sometimes and have our races. When I knew I was gonna drop an EP, I was like, well, I kind of do want it to come off playful and it has a lot to do with my past. So my friend Chica who’s a cool photographer, she was like, “oh, yeah, I’m down. Let’s go. I have new gear I want to try out.” So, she took that photo of me there at Legg Lake.

Earlier this year you dropped ‘Sigh Guy,’ which also has a really cool art cover! What’s the story behind your latest single?

Originally I wrote “sigh guy” about myself. There was a point, maybe last year, even a little bit before that, where I felt like I was wasting a lot of time, so I wrote it about myself. I’m like, okay, like, you’re being annoying. I saw myself as a different person. As if I was watching you, like, at my best, and you were like, at your worst, I would be like, “Come on, bro. Get it together!” It was more about being in that and being in that space of like, I’m not really doing anything beneficial for myself. But you know, I wanted to get out of it. But now I’m just gonna waste time instead, you know, it’s kind of like that. So I was just writing about that, that space that you get into sometimes, you know, a rut type of thing.

What have you been listening to lately?

I’ll constantly be listening to Modest Mouse. It doesn’t even matter. Like if I’m happy or sad, or that they’re an older band at this point. I love Modest Mouse like they’re my favorite band of all time. But if we’re talking like new stuff that comes out, I listen to a lot more of my friends’ music, like Rudy Mora, Alex Andre, Cola boy. A bunch of cool people that are in the scene that are just dropping fire right now.

What is Yungatita currently working on? Are we expecting any releases in the near future?

I’m actually working on a bunch of stuff right now. I’m trying to drop to two singles. By like, early summer, or like, midsummer--not the movie midsummer. But, hopefully, either an EP or an album by the end of the year.

Lastly, what is your zodiac sign?

Cancer.