Gia Torcaso has long been one of the most sought-after collaborators in Reno’s music scene. Whitney Myer, Tyler Stafford, Chari Smith and others have all benefited from her talent, thoughtfulness and poise at one point or another over the last 10-plus years.
With her first solo EP being released Friday, April 30, Torcaso is taking center stage and fully displaying the musical savvy that has propelled some of the area’s most inventive bands of the last decade.
“Beautiful War”is a series of relationship songs that, as Torcaso puts it, deal with “intimacy and how emotionally connected we become to the people in our lives — even if only briefly.” And while the subject matter is emotionally charged, the songs themselves are upbeat, charming, and dripping with the ’90s delivery and witticisms of artists like Indigo Girls and Ani DiFranco. Lyrics such as “Try to memorize the words you didn’t say” and “leave a window open even if I close a door” resonate with the instantly relatable feelings of loves both unrequited and fleetingly reciprocated.
Torcaso’s bouncing, folksy cadence is disarming; it exhibits her savvy for pop hooks and singable melodies while also being reflective. “And now I feel so alone// the more I learn the less I wanna know” she sings on “Therapy”, the song that perhaps most captures Torcaso’s songwriting prowess.
“Beautiful War” will be released alongside a mini-documentary featuring live performances filmed by Tony Contini at 7 p.m. Friday, April 30. The show will be held at Reno’s Lear Theater and streamed here at GiaTorcaso.com
-Spencer Kilpatrick
