Caitlin Marsilii is currently a senior studying Communications at the University of Delaware. However, there’s more to her than meets the eye: she is a musician and songwriter as well as a full-time student. I interviewed Caitlin about how she balances school, work and her music, as well as how she started performing.
Caitlin said she loves anything relating to the arts, whether that involves the fine arts, theatre or of course, music. She credits her start in music to her father, who is a musician himself.
“It comes from the fact that my dad was in a band and we have strong ties to the Delaware music scene. There were always musicians over at our house, so I was always in that circle without knowing it,” she said when asked about her introduction to music and performing. “I’ve always been interested in music. My brother and I used to do live performances as kids, just for fun.”
Caitlin was introduced to music from a young age and began taking guitar lessons when she was in fifth grade. She describes the lessons as being “lowkey,” as they mostly involved learning new songs and how to play them. These lessons led her to put on more performances for family and friends, which she credits as piquing her original interest in songwriting.
It was only in her freshman year of high school that she started thinking about performing outside of her close friends and family and sharing the songs that she was writing. After this, she began playing at open mic nights.
Caitlin said, “Being at these open mics was a good jumping-off point because you knew you were starting out. Everyone else was in the same boat. There were other people there but they were at the same level as you, so you all were able to grow together.”
Caitlin explained that music has and will always be an outlet for her. She believes that even if she isn’t writing music for the sake of performing, she would still be writing music for herself. To Caitlin, music and school go hand-in-hand. Once she’s finished with classes, she looks forward to de-stressing by playing guitar and songwriting. She is currently a full-time student as well as the general manager of WVUD, the University of Delaware’s student-run radio station.
“It’s definitely difficult to balance school, work and music. I try to carve out time for writing and playing. I’m always drawn to writing, even if I take a month off or get busy,” she explained when asked how she balances her academic responsibilities with her love for writing and performing.
Caitlin has currently released an album, Evil Things in the Sky, as well as a handful of singles. In terms of future projects, Caitlin said that she has an EP in the works, titled Unicycle. She also plans to release some “2021 era songs” as singles later in the year.
Although she does enjoy performing and writing, Caitlin does not plan to pursue music full-time. She expressed that she “likes music to be [a] fun outlet and not very high-stakes because that would take away some of the value for [her].” She plans to graduate this spring and work, preferably living in a community that has a strong art and music scene so that she can continue writing and performing.
“I hope that when I’m older, I’m still playing,” she added.
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