Pastele

Pastele an edgy hybrid of reggae pop and indie art, draws her inspiration from disparate influences such as Gwen Stefani and Andy Warhol, Bruno Mars and Keith Herring. She prefers the term, “Hip-Pop”. The net result of her undoubted talents are wonderfully infectious songs, unique concepts and a finely tuned melodic voice that is as equally at home over speaker speaker shaking hip-hop beats as guitar driven melodic chords. “The tracks are my canvas and my voice paints the picture,” she says fittingly. Born and raised in Livingston, New Jersey to a music family Pastele performed throughout her childhood and by the time she was 16 her songs (which she sang as part of the group Candy Coated Chaos) were being used by MTV on their wildly popular shows “The Hills”, The City” and “Jersey Shore”. However, while suburban teens were hearing her music on TV, Pastele was also drawing inspiration from the art scene at the highly regarded Fashion Institute Of Technology in Manhattan. “My grandmother and uncle were artists so I was always inspired to draw like them” she says. “I realized my talent in preschool when everyone was drawing stick figures and I already had the anatomy of a figure down. I then was put in a gifted and talented art class through elementary and middle school then AP and Honors art in high school. I would hang out in the art wing during lunch or study hall and just work. I only applied to one college which was F.I.T. I was accepted and graduated as a fashion/general illustration major.” With creativity raging through her veins, Pastele graduated college with a vision to mesh high fashion, art and music. “Musical artists such as David Bowie and Prince who have matched their ever evolving music with a great visual image have always spoken to me. Of course on the art side Keith Haring, Basquiat, Salvador Dali have been inspiring and then the pure feel good pop of Madonna, Britney Spears and Gwen Stefani that I love. Somehow I try to throw it all into what I do.” Helping Pastele bring her vision to life are a string of cutting edge up and coming producers from New York, New Jersey, and Los Angeles.. “The general rule is that there are no rules!” laughs Pastele. “The producers are so talented that we’re constantly skipping around genres and not trying to sound like anyone person or style in particular.” A perfect example of Pastele’s free form writing style is the playful, infectious “Art Attack” which as the title suggests, fuses her love of art (in the video she is seen accompanying an Andy Warhol lookalike around art galleries in New York as well as being a struggling singer shopping her demo and painter in a Brooklyn Brownstone). Adds Pastele: “I love pop culture but yet I love the indie art world. I hope to bring that world into the masses and create an awareness. It's all art and I want to show how great it can be co-existing together." Follow @CityOfPastele on Instagram & Twitter <3