Portland singer/songwriter Faustina Masigat just released her self-titled debut LP through Mama Bird Recording Co., the local record label thatâs also home to up-and-coming musicians like Haley Heynderickx and Courtney Marie Andrews whoâve been getting attention beyond the Pacific Northwest. Masigat has, tooâin a recent review, the Washington Post called her âa singular voice.â
But her new album was the product of some darker days. When she wrote it, Masigat remembers feeling like a failureâanchorless, lost, and the kind of sad that isnât easily escaped. Across 11 tracks, she sings about being broke and heartbroken (âPovertyâ), reflects on waning love thatâs âlike a cold bathâ (âInterventionâ), and eulogizes her old life (âI Was Hisâ). Theyâre ballads from rock bottom, that impossible state of mind where every direction seems like a dead-end.
âIf youâre struggling with a hard situation or if you have mental illness, it tricks you into thinking that youâve always felt that way and youâll never feel better,â Masigat says. â[But] if I donât process this, Iâm going to be stuck in this place indefinitely.â
Throughout the record, her voice carries the weight of disappointment, shame, and psychic pain, quieting to a hush on âDone Thinking About Itâ as she sings, âLying to my family/Said Iâm okay,â and swelling with resolve as she likens memories to sea glass illuminated by sunshine on the upbeat standout âColored Glass.â Itâs powerful and tender music, but instead of sounding overly gloomy, itâs a soundtrack for Masigatâs catharsis.
âWhether it was psychosomatic or what, I actually had some dysphonia right when the record was completed, so I actually lost the ability to sing for a little bit,â she says. âMy body just let go of so much, and itâs all on the record.â
Though her debut features an ode to Willie Nelson, Masigat says her holy trinity of musical inspirations includes folksinger Gillian Welch, R&B star Aaliyah, and the iconic Costa Rican singer/guitarist Chavela Vargas. Masigat says sheâs âcompletely absorbed by the universe [Vargasâs voice] creates. She was very out about her sexualityâshe was a lesbian who would sing these traditional Spanish-language ballads, but she wouldnât switch the pronouns, so sheâd make it very clear that she was singing to a woman.â
Masigatâs influences clearly span several different genresâAmericana, folk, R&B, and traditional Mexican rancheraâbut her debut is undeniably country-tinged. (âThat style made it easier for me to tell the stories I wanted to tell,â she explains.) The songs on Faustina Masigat push her hushed vocals to the front of the mixâthereâs no bass and very minimal percussion, with twangy fingerpicked acoustic guitar, lush melancholic strings, piano, and magnificent swoops of pedal steel (courtesy of the Minus 5âs Tucker Jackson) that accent wistful melodies like jet contrails smeared across the sky at sunset.
âThe pedal steel as an instrument is kind of like the banjo, in that itâs really easy for the song to suddenly be a banjo song, or to suddenly be a pedal steel song,â she says. âBut Tucker is really specialâhe almost performs like a jazz player.â
Recording her debut was a transformative process for Masigat, who thankfully emerged from her bout with dysphonia unscathed: âI listen to the record and it just sounds so vulnerable,â she says. âIt almost sounds like a different person to me nowâthe wave crested.â