“It made me think all about perfectionism” – An Interview with Cinema Hearts
Having discovered Washington DC’s Cinema Hearts at last year’s SXSW Festival, we were delighted to see that they were playing again this year. The project of former Miss America contender Caroline Weinroth (guitar/vocals) whose sparkling indie-pop songs draws inspiration from surf-rock to jangle-pop to 60’s doo-wop (and everything in between). She is ably supported by the dynamic rhythm section of Massimo Zaru-Roque on bass and Danny Ortiz on drums.
The band has 2 EPs that you should definitely check out – 2022’s Your Ideal and 2023’s I Want You. Known for their fantastic live shows, Cinema Hearts have opened for Hozier, Cold War Kids, La Luz, Hunx & His Punx, The Courettes, Sloppy Jane, Death Valley Girls, and Dengue Fever. They have been featured by Rolling Stone, DC101 Radio, Washington Post, Spotify Fresh Finds Rock, Bandcamp New & Notable, and Consequence to name a few!
We met up with the band after their showcase at The Lucky Duck in Austin (thankfully Caroline did not injure herself for her craft, unlike in 2025) to chat about why they love the festival so much and the joys of a six string bass.
IDOV – Thank you for chatting with us and welcome back to South by Southwest for the third year in a row. What’s so special about SXSW that keeps bringing you back?
Caroline – I don’t think there’s another festival like it and I think a lot of that is because of the Austin music scene. I think it’s very casual, very flexible. A lot of great music venues so you can have really exciting events, really great up and coming artists at any bar, venue, restaurant, coffee shop, whatever. I think what brings us back is the people like media, incredible people like you all and other friends of ours who come from all over the nation, all over the world, and we all congregate here. It’s like a family reunion.
Massimo – I do like to kind of take ownership of being the band “yapper” and every single year we’re playing these different showcases with all these different musicians and I love going up to people and saying “Hey! I enjoyed your music”. And that’s just how you build community with people. Like all these different people from different places coming together here for this week long celebration of music is truly just enjoyable and inspiring and you just meet so many people.
IDOV – First question we ask everyone – which classic album cover art is your current mood?
Caroline – I’m not even sure what my mood is right now!
Massimo – I have one. Definitely Fred Hubbard – Red Clay.
Caroline – We just sold that one recently.
Massimo – Like, a little impressionist but also very much just in that kind of warm atmosphere, right? It’s got all the red in there, but it’s very clean, very detailed there and oh, just hearty vibe, which is kind of how I’m feeling right now. Just meeting everyone, right? It’s very fulfilling and colored and creative in this like one span where we’re running sometimes from show to show and it’s a little crazy, and then other times we’re finally back at the rest area and like laying down. But all of it, even in that blur is still just so full of warm emotions and just very fulfilling.
Caroline – Mine might be a little basic. What comes to mind is St Pepper’s , because I feel such a connection to my bandmates and to greater music history and then to current people that we meet.
I really like that that album cover is just a gaggle of people of different icons and also all the bright colors. One thing I really love about Austin is all the different murals and the creativity and you go to all these different places that have such creative vibes.
IDOV – Can I sidetrack for one second. You mentioned earlier that you just sold a record?
Caroline – Yeah, my partner and I own a record store. We do all used records. My boyfriend, Garin, owns Right on Records in Herndon, Virginia and I work there too. We had Red Clay in the rare section and I sold that to a woman recently so I know that one. Actually a couple of our songs were about my partner and how I met him at the record store.
IDOV – Nice. Your 2022 EP “Your Ideal” was produced by Bartees Strange, who we love. How did that come about?
Caroline – He messaged me on Instagram and I didn’t know who he was at the time. This was right before his debut album but it was after Say Goodbye to Pretty Boy (his 2020 EP of The National covers). So he had the connection to The National and he was getting some attention. I had the song “Your Ideal” and a few other songs and I had the toughest time finding a producer because I wanted to work with someone nearby because I just wasn’t ready to travel for it yet. And a lot of people near us, it was all dudes who were trying to tell me what to do and they didn’t understand the vision. Like, we mentioned Freddie Hubbard, we mentioned The Beatles, and I love a lot of old music but I’m not trying to be a revivalist act. I’m not trying to be a tribute act.
So I wanted someone who understood the song references but also would make it modern. The way Bartees messaged me, we talked on the phone and I just knew he got it. In a way I kind of felt at the time like I was taking a risk because I didn’t really know him. He had some produced tracks but I just had a gut feeling. He was just an incredibly nice person. We had a blast working together and it’s been incredible to see how he’s been traveling around the world. He has just such a good soul and he brings like all this like positivity – he’s always trying to bend music in a new way and I love that about him.
IDOV – You’ve just re-released “Your Ideal (no crown)” as an EP with some remixes this time. What was the reason for that?
Caroline – Because I wanted to use those songs in my TikToks! So I had, I had that idea for a while. I wanted to use the instrumental on TikTok because sometimes I talk and I realized when I talk in the videos, if you hear a version of me singing in the background, it gets really distracting ’cause it’s like the same frequency. So I had the instrumental from Bartees and then I was like, I’m gonna be really cool and do speed up/slow down. That’s why I put it out; just for my TikToks and to be like, don’t forget about Cinema Hearts! We’re recording still but here’s a little bonus.
IDOV – I saw the TikTok with Alysa Liu skating to “Your Ideal” and then read the comments and everyone was “Oh My God. That’s Amazing!”…
Caroline – Yeah. I learned a lot of people don’t follow the Olympics!. It was kind of a joke because everyone takes social media as a band, so seriously. They either take it very seriously and they’re very good at content or they don’t care and they rebel. And I’m in the middle where it’s like, at the end of the day, I love just having a vinyl record. So to me, social media’s a tool and then I realized “oh, I can just prank people and get a lot of views.” The people who get us love it. And the people who don’t get us, I don’t even care. We booked a festival because of my memes!
IDOV – I saw that you’re playing the Let’s Go Music Festival.
Caroline – Yeah! We booked that from my Foo Fighters joke. I,
Massimo – We definitely opened for the Foo Fighters and it wasn’t a completely different looking stage.
Caroline – It absolutely happened. Dave Grohl took us to Weenie Beenie in Arlington. So we played at the Black Cat in September. Incredible. Loved it. It was our first time playing Black Cat. Then a week later, Dave Grohl announced a Popup Foo Fighters Show. So I had footage of us playing Black Cat, and I was joking with my friends, like, “oh, we played before Dave Grohl”. And I thought I’m gonna make it a video. Clearly I looked so fake, but people believed it.
The booker for the Let’s Go Festival followed me because that meme popped up on its profile. And then he was like, “I love the content you put out and we have an opening.” So you know what the moral is to just stop second guessing and put things out there.
IDOV – Second question we ask everyone. If you only listen to one record, what would it be?
Caroline – I’m gonna welcome our drummer, Danny Ortiz (who had been away ordering food)
Danny – Oh, that’s a good question. The first thing that comes into mind is InnerSpeaker by Tame Impala. I like some like sixties psychedelic-revival.
Caroline – I’m gonna give a new pick and an old pick. I think my new pick would be La Luz – Weirdo Shrine. I love that record. I played it on our car ride over here ’cause it’s like my pump up record. It’s what I listen to so i can remember like why I got into music. And I’m gonna pick an old one ’cause I think bands that don’t listen to old music are full of it. And I’m gonna pick The Supremes A’ Go-Go. I’m really into that one lately and their cover of “Get Ready”. I love Motown and I love that vibe.
Massimo – I took this question to mean you can only listen to one record forever kind of thing. Deep cut for me personally, there’s this artist, I think from out of New York, that I listened to a lot back when I was in high school and had friends who showed them to me named Oberhofer. I was listening to some of his EPS and I was like, whoa, this is super indie and cool and weird, like awesome blend of rock and classical. There was this album Chronovision that got into some like very distorted elements but still with this very lyrical, driven songwriting and like very spacey, wistful, sad. And especially the deluxe version where you got all the B sides, I think like over 20 songs. That just did a number on my mental health and me emotionally in a very important developmental stage. And I’m like, you know what? If I had to really strictly commit down to a single album, we’ll just do that ’cause I know I won’t get tired of it.
IDOV – I saw that you put two albums out in 2016 that are not available anywhere?
Caroline – So you want to know the story? So Cinema Hearts started 10 years ago and my brother was in the band, shout out Erich Weinroth, my brother, because I probably wouldn’t have had the guts to be in a band unless my brother was in it. At the time, where I lived, I was trying to find band members and people were so mean to me. I was like, “I’m trying to do like a sixties rock revival.” They did not get it.
So my Mom made my brother join on bass and Erich actually produced and recorded those first two EPs as like his senior project in school. Then our friend James, who actually went to high school with Massimo, played drums. I’m still great friends with James. He plays guitar for this local band near us, Shelley Star & the Galaxy, so we still see him on occasion. So this was like a school project and I think those songs were good. Actually we rerecorded five of them for the EP “I Want You”, so five of those songs appeared on Feels like Forever and Burned and Burnished. You can find them on Discogs if you wanna listen to ’em. Email me. I can send ’em to you.
I’m gonna be so real with you. Like, they’re not good, they’re okay. Actually I had those still up and Bartees told me, “Hey, I would take down your demo albums and make this your real debut.” I had a tough time grappling with that because I love listening to people demos. Then I realized when you put those old songs on a playlist with Bartees or with Pompom Squad, or with Illuminati Hotties, it doesn’t work. It just isn’t the same quality. So I took them down and that’s why I rerecorded five for “I Want You”.
IDOV – You mentioned on stage that you were Miss Northern Virginia in either 2017 or 2018. Some people might hide that but you play that up in your videos and on stage.
Caroline – Oh, that was my dream as a child to be Miss America. We’re from Northern Virginia and we play a lot in DC, Massimo lives in DC now, we all work in DC but we’re from the suburbs. Also, if you think of the DMV, Virginia is always at the bottom for some reason so I always had this joke that I’m gonna reappropriate my hometown and make it really cool.
Yeah, so I was Miss Northern Virginia. Miss NoVA. I loved doing Miss America, but at the same time, it like really forced me to grow up. It made me think all about perfectionism but everything I do just in my life kind of relates back to pageant. Actually traveling for this trip, it felt the same as doing Miss Virginia – the packing, getting everything ready, getting your outfits together, getting the gear together ’cause I play guitar. Also, people think it’s cool, which I was shocked by when I put out “Your Ideal”. I thought people were gonna hate it and think I was being a priss but actually they love it.
I think because I think deep down, everyone likes to say pageants are irrelevant and no one cares about Miss America. But deep down people kinda think it’s kind of cool. It shaped me. Because a lot of what pageants are about is women making themselves the best they can be, about making their communities better, about picking social causes and performing and doing work for that and like, how is that not punk? How is that not like what Food Not Bombs does, you know?
Photo Credit – Kate Atkinson
IDOV – Massimo, I noticed that you played a six string bass this evening. Are you just showing off?
Massimo – Well, for anyone that’s curious, I do play six strings because I am compensating (laughs). No, I have been playing bass for 14 years and I didn’t really jump up to a six string until a year ago. It was always kind of like a pipe dream, especially after doing a lot of music in college and studying audio engineering. You see all these like famous like modern bass players that have six strings or at the very minimum five strings even at times. We have these more advanced speaker systems and bass amps that go even lower so the five string got prominence. Then people wanted to use the bass as a songwriting tool and then you’ve got that upper C string and now it’s a lot more melodic.
I was kind of going through this crux of, as a bassist, songwriter and producer, wanting to write things and overdub. I’m very self-taught, like to an intermediate level on guitar but, as much as I would try to make demos and work on things, It was never quite like my instrument. I just felt like I play the bass so often, it’s what I know in and out and a five string opens up your harmonic range, it gives you more possibilities. All the melodies, all the bass lines and things I still wanted to play were still there.
I was playing with some different groups around the city playing a lot more R&B, hip hop, a little bit of go-go even which I had to very much so get schooled on and learn. All these genres where that low register is really important. I finally hit that area where I needed to get my professional level gigging bass and I thought I may as well bite the bullet and get the six string. I’ve not regretted it and I love it as my songwriting tool.
IDOV – We ask the niche bass questions that nobody else asks! What was one thing you had to bring to SXSW that you couldn’t leave at home?
Caroline – Well, my suitcase was almost 50 pounds. There was so much where I was like, “I can’t leave home without this”.
Massimo – I have a copy of Faber – Piano Adventures: Performance Volume One in my bag. I work at a music school and sometimes I have to print out charts or have like different important documents, but I don’t really ever own a folder or binder. We have a lot of different curriculum books around and this was one of them. I used it to transfer that and it lived in my bag forever. We were sitting in the airport and I was hoping my crossword app works ’cause I love crosswords. If we don’t have any like service up there, am I gonna buy wifi for the crosswords? Caroline mentioned that I had to get a paper one and I was like “I did buy a paper one, actually, it should still be in my bag.” Lo and behold, not there but I do I pull out Faber’s Piano Adventures.
IDOV – And has that been helpful so far on the trip?
Massimo – Well, I don’t have a piano with me, but I could definitely do some good score analysis, really get into it.
Caroline – So we’re currently on standby for official shows here at SXSW. Every time we play at South By, we go for the Cinema Hearts sporty look. We’re dressed as the Washington Nationals baseball team. This is our before 6:00 PM attire, but you know, when it’s after dark attire, we’re normally dressed like a Motown group. I have a sequin dress and wear high heels and the guys have these snazzy suits. If we get official, that’s the look I want to wearI wanna be Cinema Hearts glam. So we have that in our car right now and my dress like weighs like two pounds ’cause it’s beaded. I don’t even know if we’ll use it but I wanted the option.
Photo Credit – Kate Atkinson
IDOV – Third question we ask everybody. What would go on your signature pizza and what would it be called?
Oh, signature pizza. And it could be a band one or you can be individuals. Is that what you guys want to go Individual?
Caroline – I love a vegetable pizza. I love the crunch. I love it with the olive, the pepper, the mushroom. Hell throw some pineapple on there. I don’t even know if that’d work, but we’re gonna pretend.. We’re gonna call it “The Crunchy Caroline”. And I’m not a soft crust kind of person. I like it a little snap.
Massimo – Well I’ve always been a big fan of two types of very specific pizza. Typically Dominoes ’cause I love their garlic crust and there was one across from college that would do really nice cheap delivery. It would be two medium pizzas and it would be two toppings each. One would always be bacon and black olive; the other would always be spinach and sausage. But I feel like there’s some things that I could combine and not lose from them. I would definitely keep bacon and black olives, you can get that spinach on there. I think I would also want little slices of whole tomato. Here’s your twist. You gotta get some DC mumbo sauce on it. That’s kind of like DC’s cultural take ona ketchup.
Caroline – Wait! We should keep this proprietary. We’re gonna open our pizza shop. That’s a good recipe.
Massimo – I don’t have a name for it though
Caroline – Mumbo Massimo
IDOV – Last question – you just mentioned you have a new record. When are we gonna see it and what else do you have planned for 2026?
Caroline – That will really depend on if anyone reading this wants to sign Cinema Hearts to an incredible record deal. Why do I want the label deal? Because this is a question people ask me and I think the greatest albums are done with labels. So I’m hoping to have it out by the end of the year or next year. It’s in the mixing stage right now. Our album is 10 songs. Nine original songs and one is a cover. The cover came about last minute. ’cause I didn’t have 10 songs and I needed a song. I’m not gonna tell you what song it is but I’m gonna tell you this.
In the studio, my producer kept mentioning the band Suicide. They were a New York band and they played CBGBs and they were kinda like before the Ramones. So my producer kept mentioning them and I didn’t really know them. Last minute, it was between that and an old doo-wop song and I decided to pick the Suicide song because I wanted to do a song with synths. It was so last minute and I couldn’t ask the guys to come to the studio. So I was kinda trapped by my limitations.
So the album is 10 songs. It’s gonna be out soon. Follow Cinema Hearts online and come to South By and you’re gonna hear all the songs. Come see us in DC or on tour and you’ll hear all the songs. We’re gonna be official next year at South By!
I am pleased to report that Cinema Hearts got to wear their glitzy outfits at SXSW so the heavy suitcase was worthwhile. Since we chatted they have announced that they will be playing Windy Pop Weekender in September in Chicago, IL. You can get tickets for all their live shows by visiting their website where you can also grab some merch! Follow the band on Instagram and TikTok for all the latest news and Olympic clips.
