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The Obelisk Questionnaire: Beatriz Castillo of Cruzeiro & Misty Grey

Posted in Questionnaire on March 22nd, 2021 by JJ Koczan

beatriz-castillo-misty-grey-(Photo-by-Maritxu-Alonso)

The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.

Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.

Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.

The Obelisk Questionnaire: Beatriz Castillo of Cruzeiro & Misty Grey

How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?

I am a singer. Since I was a child I sang when I was in bed instead of sleeping and my mother scolded me for it. I guess it is something natural for me, progressively I was doing things related to music, because it has always been something that has made me fell good, it was not something decided, it just happened.

In school and high school I joined the choirs. After that, in the following years I stopped practicing music for a long time, although I never stopped attending, I followed numerous shows, dedicated myself to writing records reviews and concert chronicles as well as being a photographer covering those events.

A few years later I started with a friend to do music sessions as a DJs set under the name of Vinuum Sabati, later it turned into a series of mini underground festivals in Madrid, Spain, giving a place for national bands to which we wanted to give support and visibility.

After that, I started with a small music distribution and event promoter, I created the idea of a record-store day for extreme music in Madrid and also began to be an important promoter of underground shows in the city, always in communion with my friends. We supported each other since we did not do it selflessly, we did not earn a penny with it, it was just for fun.

At the end of 2014 I joined as singer of the Classic Doom Metal band Misty Grey . This past November 2020,the label Interstellar Smoke Records released the last work of the band called Chapter II on vinyl.

At the same time Barren Plains born, it was a BlackenedDeathMetalPunk band, where I played the bass and sang too, The band split off in 2016 after recording our first album never released. During the confinement I decided to release four of the six recorded songs, the idea consist in a recycled cassettes on a DIY edition that came out last November 2020.

Little over two years ago I moved from Madrid to Galicia and I have been here since then. I left Misty Grey in 2019 and soon began as a singer in CRUZEIRO, Doom / Stoner band from A Coruña, in the North of Spain. We recorded our first album in September 2020 and now we are looking for a label to release it.

I collaborated with Rockin´Ladies photographic project, with the objective of manifesting, visualizing and normalizing the high number of women in punk, rock and metal in Spain and also did the picture for the cover of Pillars of Salt LP, released by Balmog.

So I don’t really know how I got here, but I think there is no return.

Describe your first musical memory.

It is not easy to specify… I remember that in my house always sounded a lot of music but I remember that Pink Floyd caught my attention since I was a little child, my father was a fan of theirs of music.

Perhaps the most marked thing was when we visited relatives, my cousin Oscar was a super fan of Iron Maiden, I was about six years old and his music caught my attention, it was like a ritual when he went to the bathroom and played the Iron Maiden Music on the cassette at full volume, my cousin Cris and I (she is her sister) took the opportunity to go to her room, which we were forbidden to enter, that made me feel even more curious every time I went inside. Every time we did that expedition I was freaking out with all the flags and posters of Eddie in his room… my cousin Cris stayed at the door crying (she’s a year younger than me, poor Cris), she was afraid to enter the room with so much monster. I guess if that prepared me because after being a teenager about 11 I asked him to loan me the Iron Maiden LPs.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

Probably people who I have shared stage with, specially when Misty Grey shared stage with Manilla Road, we were their opening act in Madrid, after finishing our performance Mark “The Shark” Shelton was waiting at the foot of the stage. When I came down from the stage he was talking to me, and he left me a few words that I will always carry with me.

And watching concerts, whenever I have been able to be in the front row watching an Iron Maiden concert, I always end up crying with emotion when I see them and sing their songs live.

When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?

I thought for a long time that I did not like cats, that they were an evil and conspiratorial being who dominated human beings in order to enjoy their indifference towards us, I love animals, but I do not know why I was so suspicious of them, perhaps by ignorance.

One day some friends asked me the favour of letting me their two cats because they went to work to London for a month, and they had no one to leave them with, I accepted and for a month I was with my dog and their cats… at first I did not know how they worked and how I should act with them, but they made it very easy for me and I had a great time discovering that new world that opened before my eyes, also one of the cats and I established a bond very quickly and very strong.

I realized that I was totally wrong and shortly after that I adopted a kitten that came from the south of Spain and now we are a very happy roommates.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

As long as something enjoyed will lead to good things with your bandmates and even to new experiences, but if it becomes a career of goals in which enjoying or doing what you really like does not matter.

I guess it becomes something that is not progress or at least as I see it.

How do you define success?

When you do what you propose, you are satisfied with it, everything flows, and you do not get bored or tired.

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?

Sharknado.

Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.

My own personal project alone. A photography lab in my house and a random craft workshop, I like to be entertained with that kind of thing, but I don’t have space at home or have time, now with the COVID-19 I just need space.

What do you believe is the most essential function of art?

It is another language, another way of expressing and communicating, spitting and letting go from within, I think it is something healing as a therapy that we need to do to a greater or lesser extent.

Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?

Right now freedom, go out to the mountains / fields for days (we have perimeter closure since October).

Return soon to see my friends and family spend hours talking, touching, hugging, kissing yours (culturally, and emotionally we are like that, and it is a necessity for many) I have not seen my people for more than a year.

https://cruzeiro.bandcamp.com
https://www.instagram.com/cruzeiro.doom.band/
https://www.facebook.com/Cruzeiro.Doom

https://mistygreydoom.bandcamp.com
https://www.instagram.com/greymistdoom/
https://www.facebook.com/mistygreydoom

https://interstellarsmokerecords.bigcartel.com/product/misty-grey-chapter-ii
https://barrenplainsband.bandcamp.com

Cruzeiro, “The Owls Are Not What They Seem”

Misty Grey, “Frenzy”

Barren Plains, Demo/Anti-Demo (2020)

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