Industry Weekly

[Emerge]

Cara Beth Satalino’s Outer Spaces pushes forward

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The rising indie-pop group Outer Spaces is on the roster for the Emerge Impact + Music Conference.

In this weekly series, we spotlight the performers and other participants who will combine for the Emerge Impact + Music Conference on the Las Vegas Strip November 16-18. Tickets are available now at emergelv.com.

It took Outer Spaces roughly a decade to release its first album—not because the band split up, or was wrapped up in internal strife. In fact, there was no band.

At bare bones, Outer Spaces is Cara Beth Satalino. She wrote fragments of the indie-pop group’s first LP, 2016’s A Shedding Snake, as a solo artist in the mid- to late-aughts. That halted when she played with Georgia-based jangle-pop band Witches until they disbanded in 2012. Satalino used those experiences and connections to revisit Outer Spaces, and she quickly released a single through Matador Records’ Singles Going Home 7-inch series, along with an EP on Salinas Records shortly after—both of which were heralded by critics.

A Shedding Snake is Satalino’s vision for Outer Spaces’ mellow indie rock—fully realized. In 2012, she reconnected with college classmates Rob Dowler (of Tides and Nuclear Power Plant) and Chester Gwazda (who has produced tracks for Future Islands and Dan Deacon) to flesh out a lineup that provides a foundation for her songs. The album’s beauty lies in its simplicity; the minimalist ballad “Shade of Grey” and the driving “Words” are catchy, four-chord numbers with huge hooks. Her vivid choruses and confessional themes unpack the moves she’s made throughout her life. “It’s kind of like reading a diary,” Satalino said in a release. “It’s helped me to understand the inner workings of my own brain.”

The trio recently wrapped up a tour with indie darlings Waxahatchee and Palehound, and Outer Spaces is gearing up to write another album.

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