Acacia Carr

take a trip into Synth City this Summer

Artist Bio

Acacia Carr is a full-time Music Producer, Visual Artist, and Digital Strategist. Coding for the web since 1998, she got her start as a web developer 3 months before Google Search first went live and has spent many years since that time helping people around the world build their online presence through web development, SEO, content development, graphic design, animation, video editing, and brand identity services.

As a self-employed entrepreneur for 20 years, Acacia has worked with clients in a wide variety of industries including healthcare, education, B2B, travel, hospitality, journalism, entertainment, construction, fine art, education, the non-profit sector, and of course, music. She has been a Keynote Speaker with the AIGA at the Albuquerque Design Summit in 2019, Lead Organizer and Speaker with WordPress Albuquerque, and was the first author to ever present at Meow Wolf in her sold out book launch in 2019 for her book Uncommon Creative: The Handbook for Unicorns.

Despite her mainly technical and communications-based career background, Acacia is a lifelong bedroom musician through and through. She has been singing since the age of 3, playing guitar since the age of 8, and messing around in DAWs since 1996. Though she has been in a few bands and musical projects over the years including a Progressive Surf/Metal band and an Alt-Country band, it wasn’t until 2020 when the pure isolation of the pandemic kicked in that she decided to go out on a limb and create a solo electronic music project.

To be sure, her background in tech and design is an ever present element in her music as well, bringing a unique depth to her compositions.

The Interface

Since 2019, Acacia has released 4 albums, 2 remixes, and 1 single. Her first album—The Interface—was a simple ambient electronic instrumental album she created for her book launch party at Meow Wolf in 2019. This album features 6 songs and is mostly composed of sampling.

The Lavender Mouse Trilogy

Her next release was The Lavender Mouse, a Trilogy of concept albums with a Sci Fi storyline behind it. Each album features 11 tracks and was written, recorded, and produced by Acacia in her home studio in New Mexico, USA. The albums include The Simulation (June 2021), Lunaversal (October 2021), and The Pretty Key (February, 2022). This project was the first ever recorded project to feature Acacia on vocals, electric guitar, and synthesizer.

Oblivion Daze – A NEW SINGLE (Friday, June 17th, 2022)

With her latest upcoming release–the cinematic synth-driven Oblivion Daze–Acacia creates a dynamic panorama of unending love in a dystopian world which is just 100 seconds to midnight, a reference to the Doomsday Clock in use by atomic scientists since 1947 to predict how long humanity has left on Earth based on the contending threats of nuclear warfare and other global catastrophes. For fans of Sci Fi, Synthwave, and Retrowave influenced music and with elements of New Wave, New Ro, and Avant-garde electronic music, Acacia strikes a compelling emotional tone with her musical vision. It could be straight from the Top of the Pops in 1984 or beamed directly from a distant star in the far out future. In any case, Oblivion Daze is sure to delight Acacia’s fans, both old and new alike.

Finding Peace in Art and Music

“I was a shy kid and sometimes had a hard time fitting in with the other kids. My family also traveled a lot so I spent a lot of time either alone in my room or on the road working on various creative projects. Drawing, sewing, painting, playing music…”

“I have very fond memories of my Casio as a kid in the 80s. One of the first songs I chose to learn for myself was the intro to Star Trek. Thinking back, that makes a lot of sense considering my obsession with cinematic and especially Sci Fi sound design as an adult.”

“Ironically, I actually got banned for life from piano lessons by the neighborhood piano teacher when I was a little kid because I could never seem to get the paint stains off of my fingers completely and would show up to piano class that way, much to my piano teacher’s horror! lol Getting kicked out of piano lessons meant I stopped playing piano completely for over 30 years. It wasn’t until after I started my electronic music project that I started playing piano again. I didn’t realize just how much I missed it until I started up again, so it’s been a lot of fun rediscovering that passion.”

What artists have influenced your music?

“Far too many to count! As a child of the 80s, Michael Jackson and Madonna reigned supreme. I was (and still am) also into bands like The Cure, Joy Division, Pixies, Prince, Depeche Mode, Talking Heads, Talk Talk, Hall and Oates, New Order, Elvis Costello, XTC, and The B-52s. Honestly, the list from that era just goes on and on because it was such an epic time for music.”

“As a high school kid in the 90s, I got into The Prodigy, Orbital, The Orb, Underworld, Stereo MCs, The Chemical Brothers, Massive Attack, The Future Sound of London, etc etc. I was also super into bands like The Deftones who I saw a few times and even got to party with after a show in Albuquerque.”

“As a vocalist, I would be remiss if I did not mention Billie Holiday and Amy Winehouse, both of whom were hugely influential to me in terms of finding my own voice through singing.”

“For the last 20 years I have been more and more mostly listening to Hip Hop and Rap. I had always loved these styles of music growing up and have only grown deeper in love with these art forms in the several years.”

“To me, Hip Hop is poetry. It gives me more freedom to express myself verbally than a traditional verse or chorus might. That being said, I’m not a fan of a lot of the Rap and Hip Hop that is popular in the mainstream these days because I think it lacks Hip Hop’s original core values of community and consciousness. There are a lot of awesome underground rappers and Hip Hop artists out there whose message isn’t being heard above all the noise because it goes against the message of hate and violence so popular in the mass media machine. I truly believe that music is one of our best weapons against hate and that’s why I work hard every day to do what I can to support a better, more peaceful world through the magic of music. Whether that’s in my thought provoking lyrics or in my efforts to help elevate other independent artists, that energy and intent to help uplift others is always there in everything I do.”

What challenges have you faced as an Artist?

“My biggest challenges are mostly the monsters in my head. For most of my adult life, I held myself back from pursuing music professionally out of fear and also because I was so focused on other areas of my life. During the pandemic I finally decided it was now or never to do what I wanted to do with music, so I got to it and stat with no looking back.”

Diving into the music industry has been a similar experience to learning how to program in some ways (lots of pain and time invested up front), but it’s been well worth the leap so far and I’m only just getting started.”

“One of the hardest parts has been convincing myself (and the people around me) that leaving full time web development to pursue a career and life in music makes sense, as a career in music is something that almost seems intangible at times and definitely lacks the stability of my former field.”

“That being said, I launched Mythic Rhythmic earlier this year as a hybrid platform for indie artists and myself. This site includes a full list of services as provided by me and my preferred partners Alarke and Marc Matthews as well as the Blog which features anywhere from 4-8 indie electronic artists every month. The Blog was designed to help indie artists find their fans. I also enjoy it because it connects me to the greater electronic community in a way that feels really meaningful to me.”

“My next challenge is trying to figure out how to monetize the Blog in an unobtrusive fashion which is something I will be working on this Summer. I will likely utilize a combination of sponsored posts from awesome music industry partners and site member support because I want to continue to keep the site clean and distraction free rather than cluttering it up with a ton of ads everywhere so that the focus stays where it needs to be: on the music.”

Tell us about your studio setup

“I tend to move often, making a lot of analog synths impractical for the time being so my go to keyboard is my Arturia Keylab49 Essential which I use with a wide variety of VSTS including the Presonus family of sounds like Analog Lab as well as Pigments.

“I recently switched from Studio One 4 to Studio One 5 and now I tell everyone who makes music how awesome it is. I do everything in the Studio One 5 DAW from lay down my initial track ideas, to record final arrangements and vocals, to mixing/mastering and now with the release of 5, I can add my songs directly to their Show panel and play directly from the DAW. It’s the most seamless music software experience I have had yet and I have tried Ableton Live, Logic Pro, GarageBand, FL Studio, Fruit Loops, and Cakewalk over the years.”

“I use an AKG P220 mic, a Scarlett Focusrite Solo interface, and Audio Technica headphones. I also have a black Fernandez guitar and a black Ibanez, both electric.”

“The next items I want to add to my setup are a new stage mic and a drum machine for live shows. I plan to get a controller later this year, too, so I can do some hybrid performances.”

Do you have any upcoming projects, shows, etc?

“Last year was all about making and releasing music. This year is all about getting that music heard and sharing it live. I had planned to start my tour for The Lavender Mouse in late May, but I was suddenly hit with several unexpected challenges this Spring including a massive allergic reaction that lasted for several months and put me in the hospital, so I had to postpone my tour.”

“Now that I’m doing better, I’m slowly getting back into planning my tour and hope to have some show dates for this Summer available soon. I’m planning to start small with some local shows here in Santa Fe and Albuquerque in July and build from there. My set list is ready to go, my keyboard is programmed, and I can’t wait to jam out with my fans soon!”

How can your fans best help support you?

“You can follow me on Instagram (this helps me find fans), stream my music on Spotify (this helps me get booked for shows), and/or purchase items from my Shop or my music catalogue (this helps me pay the bills). Feeling fancy? Ask your local radio station to play my songs. I truly appreciate every listen, follow, purchase and kind word that comes my way.”

“You can also hire me to work on your creative project as a Creative Director, Graphic Designer, Product Developer, Web Consultant, and/or Music Producer.”

“Be sure to follow along with us on the Mythic Rhythmic Blog to learn more about other indie electronic artists from around the world.”

Support Acacia Carr

Independent artists rely on the support of the music community. You can actually make a difference in an artist’s life and career by showing your support in these ways.

Instagram
Acacia’s Site
Mythic Rhythmic Studio and Blog
Shop
Spotify
Apple Music
Beatport
iHeart Radio
YouTube

For more cool new music and artists from around the world, stay tuned to this Blog!