Cera is a blonde haired blue eyed 21 year old songstress from Salt Lake City, Utah. While her initial appearance may be of innocence and virtue, her music captures rebellion against her religious upbringing and a tendency towards the dark side. With her song “Too Much Love for the Wicked” she sings “too much love for the wicked, too much love for sin…… they say I'm gonna loose my soul, in the land of drugs and rock n roll, well they should know that baby, that ain’t me.” Cera's music is original with elements of country and grunge. Her music is seemingly therapeutic as she wails out her pain note by note. Cera’s music is visually, lyrically, and vocally powerful making her a must listen. I spoke to the singer songwriter over the phone this past week to speak to her about being raised strictly Mormon, her songwriting, and bisexuality.
Where are you originally from?
I am originally from North Carolina. When I was a kid, my dad got a job out here so we moved.
I love the song too much love for the Wicked. What do you mean by the Line “Too much love for the wicked” ?
So that song is actually a really long story. I grew up in a really religious household and as I got older, I kind of struggled to internalize all of that within myself, and I had a hard time finding my place amongst all of that. The song is very metaphorical as it is talking about how God is saying I should be one way and Satan saying I should be another way. It kind of represents the voice of my parents and the world pulling me two different directions. So I guess when I’m saying too much love for the wicked I am saying too much love for my own path in life, and that my own path is wicked. That was constantly told to me when I was younger, that that was the wrong way to be, and that is the wrong way to live. So “Too Much Love for the Wicked” is just kind of about that inner turmoil.
Could you tell me a little more about your religious upbringing?
I grew up LDS which is like another form of Christianity, but it’s a little bit different. Mormons really great group of people overall. They are very nice, very giving, and very into charity. But personally, as I was growing up, I found a lot of fallacies in it. I think growing up in general is very hard, and when you are an adolescent trying to figure out who you are, it is even harder when there are all these different expectations of you and anything that might be considered like a normal behavior can be vindicated as being sinful. So struggling with that, and struggling with finding my identity, with my music and as a person, and my sexuality, I think it all kind of really influenced my music. like the religion itself did. not because I am so involved with it. but it pushed me in a very specific direction. and just the way it kind of made me look at life initially.
Are you still LDS? Or did you separate when you have become an adult?
I separated once I became an adult because I found so many fallacies in the church. They don't believe in gay marriage, which was always really important to me being bisexual, and that was a very hard thing for me to deal with growing up. As I was trying to figure out my sexuality, everything I knew and everything I was told was saying that it was a sin, and you will go to hell for that. Well you will not go to hell because you are gay, but if you act on it you will. So I just ended up leaving for a lot of reasons. I don't have a problem with religion but I feel like it can really limit your ability to grow as human being and branch out and learn different things. I think it’s important to learn as much as possible and I think that they discourage looking into anything that would contradict the doctrine. I thought that was so strange I thought that if this is the restored church, then why are you so worried about anything contradicting it.
When did you know that music was what you wanted to do?
Well, when I was 13, I took a little bit of a break from music because I lost a little bit of my confidence. I was exploring Youtube for bit, and because I was such an awkward kid, I got a lot of hate on youtube I was starting to post videos, and because I had really short hair, was super scrawny, and had big buck teeth people where always commenting “why is Pippy Long Stocking singing?” I got so offended that I did not really write anything for a while. When I was younger, I was bullied for a bit and I felt like this was the one thing I was good at. So when that got bashed on I was like “oh no! I’m not good at anything!” I gained some esteem as I got older and when I was 15, I got a new guitar. My parents where super sweet and they bought me another guitar and I started writing like no other. I like wrote and wrote and wrote. We went to California over summer in like 2011, and I wrote probably like 8 songs in that time, and thats when I decided that music was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.
Who are some of your influences?
Thats always a really hard question because I feel like throughout your life, you are inspired by different things. One of my biggest influences just starting out was probably Enya because I felt like she had such a beautiful way of singing. I felt like you could see her soul, and it was so captivating and inspiring When I was 10 years old, I heard Faith Hill for the first time. I had never really listened to a lot of country, but she had such a power to her voice and I was like "women can seriously kick ass!" All that I had ever heard before that was ballads, and I love that, and I think there is such a value to that, but to hear a women seriously sing it how it is and to be such a bad ass was so inspiring to me. So after that, I really gravitated towards strong female vocalists. one of my favorite bands of all time which genuinely gave me the confidence to pursue music when I was like 15 was The Pretty Reckless. The lead singer Taylor Momsen is actually very close to my age, I think she is 23 so at the time she was like 17, and she was writing this insane music, and it was like really articulate, creative, super interesting and also like inappropriate for her age. I felt so empowered by it. The idea that someone that young can do something like that, and break all the rules like she did.
Have you faced any obstacles in the music industry because you are a women?
When you are going into the music industry, or any industry in Hollywood, whether you like acting, music, or what have you, there is a lot more pressure on girls. I always heard that growing up, and I'm like “I'm gonna overcome that and thats fine.” I feel like I definitely have, but its very real and I have definitely experienced it in the past few years. People expect you to sound a certain way, dress a certain way, and look a certain way. They have this idea in their heads and if you don't fit it, they want to shape you into that. I have spent the past few years of my life trying to stay as true to myself as possible.
I was working on an EP for a really long time and my producer during that whole debacle was consistently trying to turn me into someone else that I wasn’t. They wanted to make me sound more appealing and empowering to women. They would say you cant sing about being sad because if you sing about being sad you will make other people sad. You can't think about being angry because that puts you in a bad light. You cant sing about making bad decisions because then people will know that you make bad decisions. Don't talk about desires that are maybe not as excepted in society, because it will make you look less feminine. I just have never heard anyone say that to a man and so I was so surprised that they where trying to force me into a mold that I did not fit in.
What is some advice you would give to other girls trying to start their own career?
I would say to just be patient, because it is not easy, and not everyone is going to see you the way that you see you. They are going to see you as something to mold into their own vision. I would fight tooth and nail to keep your artistic integrity. When you go into business, there is always compromise and you have to partner with other people to help you. So don't lose yourself in the process and recognize your own value, and your own uniqueness. Don't let people take that from you in an attempt to make you as marketable as possible. The thing that I try to remember through out all the crap that I have had to go though is that there is always someone who had to rebel to create what we have. For every norm we have today, there was once someone that had to rebel to create that norm. In music, women used to never sing rock n roll, dye their hair, wear dark eyeliner, and shred on a guitar. So I think that if they could be an exception, that I can be an exception too. I think everyone should think that way. Your uniqueness will get across to people and your creativity will speak to people the way its spoken to you. Remember who you are and never let anyone force you to forget it.
