big announcement: new single AND release show! 🥀

I’ve been waiting for this one.

It’s been almost a year since I released my last single, “captain of the enterprise.” Life has been a lot, okay? But I knew this one would take time and that it would be worth the wait. I’m proud to announce that my next single, “love me in september,” will be released everywhere on April 29th! 🥳🥀

But wait, there’s more! To celebrate, I’m headlining my very own single release show! I’ve always wanted to have a release show and I’m psyched to finally make it happen.
Come see my killer band & I at The Bowery Electric in Lower Manhattan. We’re on at 9 – it’s a Monday night (you’re welcome, theater people) and I want to be in bed at a reasonable hour just as much as you do. So fear not!
Plus I have two incredible openers – jazz goddess Izze Stein and crown prince of indie Taylor Crawford. (Both of my first choice acts said yes. How lucky am I?)

Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 day-of, so don’t wait! As always, if you would like to sponsor a ticket, or if you would like to claim a sponsored ticket, message me. They are always appreciated. Grab your tickets here: https://www.ticketweb.com/event/rita-castagna-single-release-show

But oh, right, I should probably tell you about the song before asking you to pre-save it and stream it and come see me play it, I guess, right? Yeah? You’re so right. Okay.
”love me in september” has been a long time coming, to say the least. I first came up with the concept in early 2022. After experiencing four July breakups in six years (stream couch 🥴), I realized that I’d never been in love in the fall. It’s my favorite season, and I often long to share my arboreal adventures and cozy home cooking with a companion. So this song is a whimsical tongue-in-cheek “pitch” to any future lovers as to why I should be locked down before the next changing of the leaves.
I started with just a hummed chorus melody that summer, and I added some chorus lyrics in disconnected patches over the next few weeks. The pre-chorus, chorus, and bridge came in an I-95-driving-induced flow state in early fall, and the verses didn’t come together until I was preparing for my Rockwood show in January 2023. But windy as the path was, I was really proud of the end result, and I knew I wanted it to be single #3.
I asked Pat Oberstaedt (one half of The Gender Gnomes, producer of “cap,” and chief bassist of my band) to produce “september.” Every time we rearranged it for live performance I could tell they had a strong sense of where I wanted the song to go. They once again played approximately nine billion instruments on the track and mixed it to boot. Mike Parisi mastered it, Maggie Loesch shot the cover art, and Riley Tollen provided the location.
It’s jazzy, funky, and a bit theatrical, calling to mind artists like Sammy Rae & The Friends, Vulfpeck, and Lake Street Dive. It has a classically rita blend of moodiness and silliness. And humbly, I would be remiss not to mention that I do in fact sing it down boots. Hopefully releasing “love me in september” over four months in advance will be enough to break the cycle. 😇

Thank you as always for reading, dear reader. The spring equinox brings exciting new beginnings, for me and for you. Let’s celebrate them! 🌸🌱