Cynthia Catania was born in Northern NJ to first generation, American born Sicilians. Culturally diverse, middle-class-earnest folk, Cynthia’s Dad Joseph, played the mandolin and brought music into the Catania family home. One of Cynthia’s brothers became the first of the brood to formally take up music. Cynthia followed in his footsteps at the young age of 13. That’s when she started taking piano lessons. Her real gift didn’t become apparent until a few months later when she started singing in garage bands. With a natural voice filled with soul & passion, Cynthia began her musical adventure.
After growing up in the NYC music scene, she relocated to sunny, southern California. Almost immediately, Cynthia began writing & recording her first solo album with well-known bassist Tad Wadhams. Tad, famous for his work with Sheryl Crow, produced and co-wrote her eponymous debut.
In her next LA chapter, Cynthia teamed up with singer-songwriter Annmarie Cullen from Dublin, Ireland and formed Saucy Monky. The band released four albums on Cynthia’s indie label olivoiL records. Saucy Monky went on to tour Ireland (many times), the UK, Central Europe, North America & has shared festival stages with contemporaries P.J. Harvey, Pink, Black Eyed Peas, Marianne Faithful, Gipsy Kings & Wilco. The band has played to crowds of hundreds of thousands! They also toured the US often & appeared with the B-52’s, the Young Dubliners, Metric and Beth Hart in the States. Their fourth album, Turbulence, garnered a Triple-A top 40 hit with the track “Disco Ball (Boulevard Remix)”. This song led to a deal with 429/Savoy/Warner Bros records in the US, and a licensing deal with Measured Records in Scotland/ the UK.
The LA Times said this about the band:
“Saucy Monky shares a lot of the qualities of pop’s classic female-fronted bands — irrepressible melodicism and smart lyrics”
After her work on Turbulence, Cynthia started her journey in record production. When the writing team of Cullen-Catania penned a theme song for ABC daytime’s “Food for Thought with Claire Thomas” Cynthia began composing for film & TV. You can hear much of the Saucy Monky catalog, and Cynthia’s solo works in network shows & indie film (highlights include Nickelodeon, CBS, ABC, MTV, and various film work).
Currently, the singer-songwriter-producer recorded an album of songs with The Secret Things, an LA rock trio, along with friends Dan Nelles (drums) & Steve Giles (bass). Their debut EP “Shock Diary” was released October 2016. Check out the band’s website and video for the band’s first single “All The Way Down”. TST’s live debut was during the Temecula Balloon & Wine Festival. They shared the stage with Neon Trees & Jimmy Eat World. Additional singles Cynthia produced for the band, “Down By The Water (Video Remix)” is an homage to PJ Harvey. The remix has been released on iTunes & Spotify. Filmmaker Sue Ann Pien directed an amazing video for the track, which was released worldwide on FaceBook and YouTube September 12th, 2017. The band celebrated at the video release party and created a concert and benefit for the Transgender community @The Hotel Cafe in Hollywood. All TST door monies & proceeds went to the transgender charities & non-profits aligned with the “Down By The Water” video, including the It Gets Better Project, TeenLine, TransLatina Coalition, VanNess Recovery House.
This year the trio signed with Loud Kult, a Swedish Indie distributed by The Orchard and Sony Music. The first single release with the LK label will be on October 5th. The single “Keeper” is a shout out to the #metoo movement. The song explores the cycle of abuse by Hollywood men in power and starlets that cross their paths. The title comes from the “Gate Keeper” nickname given to Harvey Weinstein during his takedown earlier this year.
For more info, visit The Secret Things online.
On the composing front, in 2017. Cynthia scored a short film by Barry Papick entitled “Breakable”. It was accepted into the Canadian World Film Festival. She has since completed her first full-length documentary “Enter Stage 4”, a film by Erica Brookhart. “Enter Stage 4” recently received honors at the Glendale International Film Festival. Cynthia has been writing & producing songs for film and TV. The end credit song “Get Wired” was released in the 2018 documentary “Generation Zapped“. Other credits this year include Tosca Musk’s “Hollywood Dirt,” released on the PassionFlix Network.
September 2018