There’s quite the collection of Aotearoa acts calling Berlin home these days.
First there was Earth Tongue, who have made the German capital their home base as they build up a solid following throughout Europe.
As he recently told us, laidback indie-pop star Muroki connected with the fuzz-rock duo after he moved from Raglan to Berlin, and he revealed that the Balu Brigada boys also lived there for a while.
Last year saw another excellent Kiwi musician join them when Carla Camilleri made the move to one of the world’s foremost music cities.
Formerly a member of Fazerdaze’s touring band between 2022 and 2024, Camilleri first came to Rolling Stone AU/NZ‘s attention as part of Recitals, a mesmerising Wellington-based collective who made our Best New Zealand EPs of 2024 list.
After briefly making music under the alias cc(tv), moving to a new city, country, and continent, a time of seismic change, called for a new name and a new project: c cada.
Camilleri’s first release following her rebrand is words later, a special mixtape which gathers demos and recordings she made between 2020 and 2025.
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The tracks were “made on beds, floors, trains, planes and airports,” she reveals, “in various bedrooms, houses and cities.”
“Most of these tracks remain in their original improvised form, many without real words,” she says. “A mix of sounds and experimentations from years of learning and mind changing.”
It’s a beautiful, gentle collection, prioritising ambience and atmosphere over anything else — words come later, after all.
“Like a radiant beam shining all the way to an alternative universe — forwards through time and touching the past simultaneously,” as one fan already gushed on Bandcamp.
Like her fellow Kiwi transplants in Berlin, who all make drastically different music to hard-hitting techno, c cada’s hushed sound is the perfectly chilled antidote to the frenetic sounds usually offered up in her new hometown.
Listen to c cada’s mixtape below, and then read on to find out more about the person behind the project as part of our Up-And-Coming Aotearoa Artists series.
C cada’s words later is out now.
Rolling Stone AU/NZ: How did music influence you in your early life?
C Cada: I really loved CDs! I would go to the library and rent out any I liked the look of and burn them onto my purple Walkman. I would close myself in my room and play them on my little silver CD player and dance by myself for hours. We went for a lot of long road trips when we moved to Aotearoa. I spent a lot of hours staring out the window, in my headphones. Music always allowed me to get lost in my own world, no matter where we were in ours.
What artists influenced you growing up?
I was always very spongey. Whatever I listened to, I listened to a lot. I’m sure little bits of all of these artists I binged can be found in my music, somewhere. I was surrounded by a lot of classical music growing up — stacks and stacks of Debussy and Chopin and Mozart and Bach. I loved ABBA as a child – I still think they wrote the best melodies.
I listened exclusively to Jeff Buckley for three months after my friend gave me Grace on CD. I loved Beach House and Connan Mockasin and Blood Orange.
In high school, I started going to all-ages gigs in the city and was introduced to the punk and experimental scene. There were a lot of local Tāmaki bands playing and writing amazing music — they were just kids too. When I discovered Cocteau Twins and Boards of Canada — my mind was blown. They had the biggest impact on me, musically.
When did you discover your passion for creating music?
Even though I’ve always been a creative and very musical person, songwriting didn’t come naturally to me. I was always writing songs with voice + piano by default because they were my first instruments. It just wouldn’t translate though — somehow all my songs would end up sounding like Coldplay ballads. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that! But not quite what I was going for.)
I studied opera in university and was so wrapped up in it I didn’t have much time to experiment with anything else. It wasn’t until lockdown, when I started messing around on Ableton and with synthesisers that I realised I could write more fluently this way; prioritising ambience and applying different techniques and effects on my voice and instruments to capture my feelings. With time, patience, and a lot of struggle, I grew to love it over the years. Nowadays I can spend hours writing. But I’m still learning, it’s still a muscle I have to exercise.
What are some career highlights so far?
My band Recitals’ first album. That whole experience of making something with some of my best friends, living in Wellington, performing together, putting together these songs, and finally releasing and seeing them on vinyl together. That was special!!!
Tell us about your life in Berlin.
I arrived in a blanket of snow at the beginning of the year. It’s chaotic and huge. It’s cold, really cold — the coldest winter in 16 years lol! It’s my first proper winter, but I’m enjoying leaning into it. There’s a lot of warmth and cosiness. When I’m not working, I’m spending a lot of time cooking and going dancing.
What’s the best thing about being based in Europe as a musician?
There’s always something happening, somewhere you can go to experience live music, art, exhibitions, food, history, all right there to soak up and inspire you. All these things and people that you can reach out to, not separated by vast oceans. It’s exciting. I’ve always enjoyed hiding away but I think the pressure makes me want to try anything.
I will say that I miss Aotearoa immensely, particularly the bush and the sounds of birds and cicadas.
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Tell us about your new mixtape words later. What’s the project about?
It’s a compilation/mixtape of songs and pieces recorded over the last five years. Most of them are improvised; the first spark of the song or piece. For a long time, they were in the ‘demo’ folder. I tried to turn them into ‘non-demos’ — tried to rerecord the vocals, guitars, and write lyrics.
But I would always go back; they capture the initial magic and exist in their own way, still with mistakes, still without any actual words. That’s just how they are and how they will always be. And they sat on my computer for a long time until I woke up one day a couple of weeks ago and decided to release them. It feels like a special first project because it encapsulates all of my experiments, my toe-dipping in different styles, my first stab at mixing and production. It feels good!
What kind of personality traits and values do you believe it takes to succeed in the music industry?
It depends on your definition of success! But I think no matter what it is, authenticity is always number one.
How would you describe your music to a potential fan?
Hmmm… you’ve been playing too much Stardew Valley and you’re starting to dream in that world.
What are your goals for 2026 and beyond? What can fans expect from you this year?
Connect with more artists on this side of the world, perform an ambient set, and continue releasing music. Thank you if you have been listening!
