Creating and releasing her first studio album, parallel universe, pt. 1, has been a transformational experience for Alaina Castillo. A Texas native, Alaina made her start on Youtube with song covers and ASMR videos, cultivating a positive relationship with social media and fans. This connection has only grown as she's released an array of enchanting, self-defining music leading up to her first studio album. parallel universe pt.1 is Alaina's investment in herself, allowing her to step into her confidence and own it. We caught up with her at Schubas last week to talk about sharing this newly built confidence with fans, working on music during Covid, personal growth, and more.

Welcome to Chicago! How’s touring been?

I've really liked it. Actually, I think I was inside the studio so long that I was just waiting for the next tour ‘cuz this is my second tour ever. So being able to go see everyone in New York and now Chicago, I haven't been to Chicago before.

Congrats on your first studio album, parallel universe pt. 1, how does it feel performing it in front of a live audience?

I mean, it's really fun because whenever I was writing that album, I was finding a new piece of myself and now singing it for a show for my fans is like I’m finding another new piece of myself, a confident side. I really enjoy it, and I also have the second half of parallel universe that I'm going to sing tonight, so it's little surprises too, but I've just really been able to grow while going on this tour..

Do you have any nerves before you get on stage? If so, how do you battle them?

I used to throw up before I’d go on stage because of the anxiety and everything, but recently, I think also because of staying in and COVID, I had to grow up within myself. If it were two years ago, I wouldn't be able to have this conversation ‘cuz I'd be in the bathroom. But I think now, just meditating and realizing that you're with people who genuinely care for you. I feel I connect really well with people who listen to music and these people do that so I just hold them really close to my heart like family and that kind of erases it all.

This is your second stop on the tour, what’s been your favorite song to perform and which are you looking forward to performing tonight?

Definitely Parallel Universe. My favorite from the album is “pocket locket” but whenever I perform parallel universe, which I thought nobody really liked noticed or whatever, they were all screaming it and I was like, “Oh, what is going on?” So I'm excited to see how Chicago does it, as well as LA.

Can you speak to the creation of the album and how it came together?

Yeah. I mean, before that I had kinda been trying find myself and doing a lot of different sounds and then whenever we started parallel universe, I had a piece of me that just wanted to let go and do whatever the fuck I wanted to do. So that's when we made pocket locket and that [song] kind of set the way for this whole confident album… It was a lot of fun because I got to find myself, but I've just been growing this whole time that I’ve had to sing these songs. I think it's really helped me with what I'm making now, which is more R&B and Spanglish kind of vibes.

A few weeks ago, you were a part of the Adobe Create Change series, and spoke about the positive side of social media and using it to your benefit. How was that experience?

Yeah that was really fun because usually I'm like “Oh I'm a small person, why does something that I have to say matter?” but then when you look at what I grew up with, being told that I couldn't really do what I wanted to do most and then how I kind of broke away from that and started my YouTube channel and started to go on social media. After hearing so many bad things about it, I just said “Fuck it I’m just gonna go on and talk to the people who are nice to me, do what I want to and see how that goes,” and it started going really well. So I think my message for that was just to stick to who you are and to try not to get lost in the opinions of others because there’s always gonna be people who are gonna try to bring you down.

It’s clear the creation of this album has opened the way for a lot of personal growth. What would you say is the most important lesson you've learned in this journey?

I feel I'm still learning ‘cuz I dont really know who the fuck I am and for music, that's been the one thing that's helped me see “don’t really care about what other people are telling you, don’t let your ego control your mind because that’s gonna make you lock down/shut down and not really grow to your full potential. For me, I've always struggled with overthinking and stuff so to be able to push that album out has helped!

Beside’s hearing a bit of pt.2 tonight, when can fans expect to hear the whole thing or more music?

Everyone on Twitter hates me for this, but I don't know if I'm going to release it just because I've recently been in the studio working on this Spanish and R&B thing, which I really, really want to release early on next year, because I really like it and it has a lot of Spanglish in it which I feel is becoming very apparent in the music market. They might not get part 2, but they're definitely going to get the Christmas single again and “wishlist” in December, and then also the r&b/spanglish thing.

Alaina Castillo Steps Into Her Confidence and Sound