New single from local artist Ceci Ceci; Key takeaways from the week

You're listening to North Texas Now. I'm Ron Corning. And I'm Miranda Suarez. Local singer-songwriter Sessie Kayejas, who goes by Sessie Sessie, is getting ready to release her first album. She sat down with her good friend LaBelle from Sister Station KXT to talk about her new music and preview her first single. Today, for fin, I'm conscious. I'm Law Bell with 917 KXT and today I'm hanging out with an amazing Dallas artist, a homegrown artist, Sessie Sessie here out of Dallas. She's making a lot of beautiful noise with her new single La Bruja, which is out right now. And she was also a part of our Homegrown Bites Volume 2 vinyl, so you probably know the name. Sessie, thank you so much for being in our studio today. Wait, I wanted to say this. I love that. Graziez. Yeah, I might have butchered it just a little bit. No, that was great. Thank you. For those who may not know you, just give them a quick intro before we get into the single. Yeah, my name is Ceci Sesi, I am an artist born in race in Managua, but I moved to Texas nine years ago, and I've been making music for about seven of those eight years. And, yeah, based in Dallas, Texas. Now, with this new single, La Bourouja, which means bubble bubble in Spanish. One thing that I've noticed about you as an artist is that you are very, you are very deep into your culture, right? It's very important for you to, you know, write your songs in Spanish. You know, you sing most of them in Spanish as well. Like, why is that a thing? Why is that so important to you? It's Spanish is how I process things. I think it's because I was born and raised in Nicaragua. Yeah, what I'm talking to you right now, I'm translating from Spanish. So, you know, English was the second language I learned. So it's only natural for me. That's how I process in Spanish. And brouja, this bubble that you put yourself in. Is that a bubble that you feel like you made for yourself? Or is this like a bubble that you feel like you were put into? I feel for this particular song, I'm talking about a bubble I was put into. Yeah, growing up in Nicaragua, I come from a very conservative circle. And since I was little, I felt very...

like an outsider in a way. So this is me talking about growing up in that bubble. Yeah, I was going to say you had a lyric in there that says you felt different, you know, from everything else. So that makes a lot of sense. And what I also gathered from the song was that it felt like to me like a transformation. Like was there something that you went in in particular if you feel like talking about it to share with us that got you to that point to write this song? Yeah. I went back home after a couple years and I was in a social setting where I interacted with people I grew up with and I felt very disconnected and very different. And I was like, whoa, I can't believe I. I grew up in this space, but also thankful. I don't think it's a bad thing. Sometimes you outgrow places, you outgrow people, and that's perfectly fine. And I think that's me writing this song as being like, and I talk, say it in the song, like, you know when you leave a place you change and that's totally fine like yes let let some things go yes in order for you to grow correct yeah that's one of the things i took away from the song as well now you also recorded this with uh argentinian producer and a singer songwriter sir hope yeah right in mexico city yeah so you went to mexico city to record the song what was that experience like it's literally Like Hillary Duff said, what dreams are made of. Like Hillary Duff reference. Okay, I didn't see that on my bingo card for 2026. Copy that. No, but literally what dreams are made of. If you were to tell the younger Sessie starting to make music, hey, you're going to go outside of Texas to record with a great Latin American producer. She wouldn't believe it. It's like why I do what I do. Amazing. What's one thing that you think that people who are outside the city of Dallas need to know about the music and the musicians here in Dallas? I think there is so much to offer here. And, you know, I, and being here is just an example of that. Like, people support music. And I think Dallas has welcomed me and my stories, even though they're in Spanish. So that's what I have to say to Dallas. Well, there's like a, but there, I feel like there's, I won't say an awakening, but there's like a evolution, I think of like Latin music and it becoming more popular. And it doesn't have to be like we don't have to understand it. for us to appreciate it. Is that something that you're also finding is kind of like a new wave in music right now? Yeah, I think bigger artists and I think, you know, the biggest one right now that I can think of is like Bad Bunny and, you know, his influence of like people maybe not understanding what he's saying, but his music, you know, transcends that.

I think at a local level, I see that. I've gotten people, you know, that are like, Sessie, I didn't understand a word you said, but I felt the passion. I loved what you sang. And I was like, whoa. Music is a universal language. It is. It really is. And that was one of the takeaways that I got. I didn't. It's a, there's an atmosphere in Labrabuja that you can feel just by sitting and listening to it, which is why I think I enjoy it so much. Because even being able to understand the lyrics, once they're translated to you, thank you to Jose for doing that. It also allows you to just kind of like be like in this space. You know what I'm saying? And I really appreciate you for doing that, for traveling to Mexico City to give this to people so that we can all feel the same thing. Before you go, Hispanic Heritage Month is coming up. Yes. Ciclato. Okay. Give me three artists your favorite. In Latin America. Correct. Yes. Okay. Or Latin American, you know. I love Uruguayan singer-songwriter called Jorge Drexler. I love him. I think he's a huge inspiration in my craft. Okay. Timeless, if you haven't heard, I recommend to the max degree.

Julietta Benegger. Mexican artist from Tijuana. I get compared to her quite frequently. And I think it's because, again, I draw a lot of inspiration from her sound. Timeless. And I would say, do you know who Marco Antonio Solis is? I do not, no. I love him. I think timeless ballads in Spanish. Oh, I love a good ballast. It's like the Michael John Bolton. Spanish music? Yeah. Copy that. Okay, now, well, I have to look up all those artists. I've never heard of them before, but I'm happy to have some new references now. So with this new single, La Brebuja, I know you've also got an album attached to this that's coming out soon. Yeah. What can we expect with the new album? So I think I'm a big lover. I think my previous songs have revolved around. themes of love and I don't think that's a bad thing but I think with this album I'm challenging myself to write beyond love songs so I'm talking about community current events um belonging like topics that are so important and so human. I'm trying to talk about that in the album. And is it the same sound that we can expect that's on Labrabula? Yes. Yes. You can. Sessie, thank you so much for coming in today. Congratulations on the new record and I look forward to seeing you soon. Thank you so much. Thank you for having.

Oh, it's a joyous day in the studio, isn't it? It really is. We got a Jorge Drexler shout out in that piece. One of my favorite artists of all time. You were kind of singing along. And when you're happy, I'm happy. It's Friday. What more could we ask for? And everybody's happy. Everybody's happy. Yes. It's so great. La Belle, thank you for that. What a great conversation. And the mix of music making our day here on North Texas now. This is, of course, the end of our show here on Friday and the part of the week where we like to look back on the week that was and take stock. of the news and some of the most interesting conversations that we had this week. I think we both loved the conversation that we had with the Dallas Morning News Architecture critic Pulitzer Prize winner Mark Lamster about his new book looking at some of the most historic, interesting, weird, bizarre buildings of Dallas. And after we had the conversation about AI influencing writers or writers using AI, I'm reading his book this week, which by the way is such a great read. It's called Welcome to Paradox City. Welcome to Paradox City. the term he uses to describe Dallas, sort of our mix of everything here. We seem to contradict herself at every turn. And I appreciate this segment because I think it's an opportunity to sort of close the circle on the conversation and bring in some of our listeners. And when we discussed deck parks as a way of mending the city from the highway system, which divided so many communities, especially minority communities. Like Clyde Warren, which went over the highway to connect those two disparate parts of downtown. Yes. And that was, you know, Little Mexico, for example. And Patrick Boyd was among those people who wrote in, and he said, that area that Clyde Warren is in is currently gentrified in white. They're making the same argument when they bring down I-35, I 345, I should say, Deep Ellum also currently gentrified in white and feeling like the same thing will happen at Halper Park. I think that's a really solid point that while it stitches... the community back together, it is stitching together a community very different than the one it divided. Yeah, I highly recommend the Dallas Morning News wrote a story. I think it was last month about Halpern Park, which is this deck park in Oak Cliff, covering up the highway. It's gorgeous, but of course that comes with concerns about gentrification, and it's this classic tension when you go and redevelop neglected areas. The people that live there deserve nice things. We all deserve nice things in the city that we live in. But the consequences of that sometimes can be completely higher prohibitive property taxes. Because property values go up. Exactly. Some people there will get offers they can't refuse for their property, and that's a good thing. But then it raises the property taxes on everyone else, and the next thing you know, a community brought back together by the deck park is divided. It feels like they're making an effort to make this work at Halpern Park, and we certainly hope they do. Yes, and we'll continue to follow all of those conversations. You're listening to North Texas Now. Thanks.