Striking vocal nuances compliment caring lyrics, creating an affable pop-friendly radio sound during the single “Can’t Catch Me Now,” from Bleached Roses. Complete with synth and string section, the smooth chord changes, gentle resonant refrain and general rhythmic flow only add to a vibrant melody. At 1:38, a violin-filled instrumental break brings added variety to the sophisticated musical arrangement. But as you know, this is just the beginning of the story.
Now Hear This
“Can’t Catch Me Now” is the lead single from Bleached Roses upcoming EP, Blooms. The Austin, Texas-based indie band has the type of creative synergy that happens when everyone gets onboard a
good idea. The resulting sound is pleasant, upbeat and orchestral. Fronted by lead singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and founding member Lexi Cardenas, the soon to be released Blooms collection is a team effort and a true meeting of musical minds.
Bleached Roses are Lexi Cardenas – vocals, violin, guitar, producer; Mo Paynter – synth; Christiano Bellani – bass; and Jacob Wiviott – drums.
An Interview with Lexi Cardenas
Musicinterviewmagazine.com spoke with Lexi Cardenas about returning to play live, “Can’t Catch Me Now,” 
Blooms and more.
You recently mentioned this project started along with wanting to play live music again. What prompted the reemergence?
It comes from my insatiable need to play music. I’ve been in and out of projects for about ten years now, but I never had a band of my own. When my last project fizzled out, I set up my violin and loop pedal and started playing anywhere that would have me. Not too long after that, I had a full band behind me playing the music I wrote. A year later, what makes this album so special is that it is a collaboration of all of us. It’s my layered strings. It’s Jacob’s piano riffs and upbeat drums, Mo’s lyrics and Christiano’s sultry bass lines.
“Can’t Catch Me Now” is the lead single from Bleached Roses forthcoming EP, Blooms. When will the EP be available?
We’re releasing Blooms September 16th, available in all online stores (Spotify, iTunes, Amazon Music, Pandora, etc.) through our friends Tunecore. You can also purchase the album and our merch through Bandcamp.
You mentioned Mo wrote the lyrics to “Can’t Catch Me Now?” What about the music?”
Yes, Mo, our synth player, wrote the lyrics to “Can’t Catch Me Now.” This new EP proved to be a nice collaboration between all the members of the band. As a story teller, Mo has the ability to write lyrics a bit easier than I can, then she’ll bring those lyrics to me and I bring them to life with my music writing. When we have a working song we’re latching onto, we’ll share it with the rest of the band and from there our songs just evolve and turn into final products. It’s nice because everyone puts their own special touch on each song.
Do you perform all of the vocals?
I recorded all the vocals for this EP, but our bass player sings harmonies live. What I really want to do is put microphones in front of our synth player and drummer to really build those anthemic choruses. Now if they’ll actually sing into them is still to be determined.
Who is on the string work? Is it all violins?
I loop all the string parts live, but for the recording I wanted a more organic sound, so I enlisted the help of three amazing string players to record with us: Marisol Cardenas, Laura Plotkin and Diana Burgess. What you hear is three violins and a cello, including me. It was a really cool experience because we were able to record live, as a string quartet.
Where can fans and friends see Bleached Roses live?
We’ll be releasing the full EP September 16th with a big party at Cheer Up Charlies in Austin, TX. We’re really excited about this show because it also will be a benefit for Out Youth Austin, which serves LGBTQ youth and their allies, with programs and services to ensure these promising young people develop into happy, healthy, successful adults. We also have some exciting shows in the works that we can’t quite talk about yet that we’ll be announcing soon, so keep an eye out.
“Can’t Catch Me Now” is produced by Lexi Cardenas; Engineer – Lindsey Kappa; Music – Lexi Cardenas; and lyrics – Mo Paynter. String section is Lexi Cardenas, Laura Wood, Marisol Cardenas and Diana Burgess.
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