Please introduce yourself, what you do, why you do it, and what you want people to know about you.
My name is Analisa Lorenna Corral. I am an indie-pop artist and songwriter from the San Francisco Bay area currently living in Los Angeles. I go by my middle name, Lorenna for my artist project. I write songs mostly for myself that I release independently but I also write freelance for other artists and companies such as Vanacore Music which licenses to shows on MTV, VH1 etc.
I write songs because it’s the way that I make sense of my thoughts and emotions along with the rest of the world. My family and I have gone through a lot with mental illness struggles and besides therapy, writing songs is the one coping skill I have to organize my traumatic experiences into little three-minute snippets of time I can digest at a later time when I am ready.
What qualities makes you different and unique from everyone else in the industry?
I would say the fact that I wrote only about mental illness for a while and produced my own music is what set me apart in the past. But now thankfully, mental illness is becoming less stigmatized because more artists are speaking up and writing about their mental illness struggles. I wrote an album called Sugar Pills that I released on my own in 2019. I was about to release the follow-up album, Sugar Pills 2 when the pandemic hit, but now that album is a bit on the back burner.
I am currently about to release an indie-pop EP, Checklist Love, in January 2022, that I wrote during quarantine. It’s my first body of work where I write about love and relationships instead of only mental illness. Traumatic experiences can really freeze a person’s natural emotional development. I felt like I was on pause for most of my young life trying to make sense of my family members’ attempted suicides, brain shock therapy, and 5150’s (which is where someone is involuntarily detained and evaluated at a mental hospital for 72 hours if they are in danger of harming themselves).
I was excited to realize during quarantine that I wasn’t constantly dissociating (which is a subconscious coping mechanism where your body and brain seem to float away from reality) to escape emotional pain. I was really starting to heal and wake up enough to experience real emotions and relationships. Checklist Love is me finally writing about love but within an indie-pop world. Pop music is my favorite genre of all because it can completely change my mental state. I don’t want to make sad-sounding music because I have been sad for so long! I don’t mind writing about sad topics as long as I have an indie-pop element to it.
Describe THAT moment when you realized you wanted to do what you do now. Who did you tell first? What has it been like since that moment?
I remember singing to Selena Quintanilla as a small Mexican girl (I’m half Mexican on my Dad’s side and European Jewish on my mom’s). I just knew I wanted to be her when I grew up the moment I heard her sing and that feeling just never changed. But the first time I realized I wanted to songwriter was when a producer came to my career day in High School. I got his business card because I had a burning desire to get in the studio even though I wasn’t sure how anything worked.
I remember going there with my parents, and the producer started playing the piano. He asked me to stand up in front of everyone in the room and start making up words and melodies on the spot. I remember loving the feeling of creating a story out of nothing. After that, I began studying artists such as Nat King Cole, Billie Holiday, Marvin Gaye, The Beach Boys, Frankie Vallie and the Four Seasons etc. All of the artists that my Dad would play as I was growing up. I studied their song structure and began writing on my own. I was obsessed with creating a 3-minute world of my own. Little by little I found my way to other genres.
What has been the biggest challenge you’ve had to face and how did you overcome it?
The biggest challenge I personally had to face was developing Tardive Dyskinesia, a neurological muscle movement disorder that was triggered by the medication I was taking for my mental health issues at the time. It is painful and debilitating. I had painful muscle spasms constantly and daily activities were very painful for years. I was already doing music when this happened and it took me a long time to gradually heal. I had to let go of some instruments I was playing because it was too painful, such as the violin and even the guitar until the pain subsided over time. To not be able to use my body in ways I was used to really made me think about the meaning of life. I feel like I went through a lot of sobering lessons about life at a very young age.
I would say within the industry it has been overcoming the fact that some men in power will try to abuse that power and ask you to do things you are not comfortable with or simply not respect you. I have had so many times where I had to leave a session because I was uncomfortable, or I slowly realized we weren’t there for the music. I really resonate with Jessie Reyez’ song, “Gate Keeper.” Thankfully, now I have found people to work with that are kind and respectful in the music world and I only work with them.
If you had to pick the TOP 3 people you’d want to meet that could take your career (or business) to the next level…who would those 3 people be?
I just want to work with more producers. I love the creation of music so much. I probably should say a label or a manager, but I just want to create more music.
Producers I love at the moment are Stint, Nick Hakim, Malay. And a fourth would be Kevin Parker from Tame Impala. I can’t help myself!