UNA at Tar Fest & Interview by Marisela Gonzalez
Posted by Richard Larsen, August 4, 2003
The fifth annual TarFest at the La Brea Tar Pits between Wilshire and Sixth, Ogden and Curson in Los Angeles.
UNA will be performing on the main stage
Sunday October 7th at 1:30pm
TarFest is a free public festival of emerging film, music and art. A four-day event, the festival will feature screenings of experimental and traditional films, outdoor musical performances, innovative art installations, sculptures, paintings, drawings, photography, mixed media and arts education.
Admission is free. Street parking is available. The use of public transportation is encouraged. For additional information visit www.tarfest.com <http://srv.ezinedirector.net/?n=1864770&s=26259815> .
Sunday, October 7
Sunday in the Park
featuring educational, interactive and creative activities for all ages by the Korean Cultural Center, the Craft and Folk Art Museum, LACMA, the Natural History Museum, Zimmer Chidren’s Museum, Scratch DJ Academy, New York Film Academy and more. Also, Conrad Romo, creator of Tongue & Groove , will serve up a mixture of short stories, spoken word, poetry and personal essays between musical sets. Food, drink and fun!
LaBrea Tar Pits Park, 5801 Wilshire Blvd.
Musical performances by:
89.9 KCRW Presents :
- 12:30 pm Bardo
- 1:30 pm UNA
- 2:30 pm Young-B
- 3:30 pm Stewboss
- 4:30 pm Los Abandoned
Marisela Gonzalez
Interview with UNA
Unfortunately I was not able to sit down with UNA. I was, however, able to have a Q and A via some phone calls and e-mail. UNA, the burgeoning L.A. based Electronic band, playing the upcoming Tarfest, is comprised of Jennifer Cook- Lead Vocals, sometime keyboardist and co-songwriter (former keyboardist and backup vocals for Elephonic, another Favorite L.A. electronic band), Richard Larsen a.k.a “The Mighty One”. Richard is the Producer, keyboardist, co-collaborator, and co-songwriter, Eddie Barajas the turntable master for UNA (He wore the same hat for Elephonic).
Marisela – How did UNA come about?
Jennifer – UNA came about when I asked Richard Larsen to be my engineering/producing mentor. We both love the movie “The Fifth Element” but decided that the character’s name Pavalaguna was too long for a band name. With the idea that our music would have a Brazilian flair and nuances of boss nova and blues we went with a shortened version, UNA to pay homage to Brazil as well.
Marisela – The song Barbara Henry reminds me of the Neil Young song “Ohio” about the
Kent state shootings, do you feel the need to tell stories that are politically motivated?
Jennifer – We do. Love is substantial but I don’t want every one of our songs to be about Love. Life is just as interesting. Barbara Henry is an LA hero and we thought her story needed to be heard.
Marisela – How collaborative is the song writing process for UNA?
Richard – Jennifer and I work on everything together, the main bits and ideas. It is so hard to do two things, create magnitude and beauty. We want to be part of that essence. The music is truly inspired by our love of music, there is so much to learn. We hope to get Eddie into the mix more and more.
Marisela – what is your fan base like? Have you gotten to know them?
Richard – Sometimes I think our real fan base are the bartenders and door people who have heard UNA. Getting a positive review from them is really cool cuz they hear tons of music, all year. Our fans seem to come from no particular place, I guess we will find that out as we go along. We are just getting started, outside of the generous help from KCRW and 80 other stations across the US, we are just getting off the ground.
Marisela – You played Tarfest last year, how has UNA evolved since then?
Jennifer – That was the beginning of our live gigging. Bringing electronic music out of the studio and live is cool. We’ve grown to love the stage.
Eddie B – I like to think that we’ve gained some fans…LOL. performance-wise I think we’re trying to get more comfortable with the audience… be more interactive…
Marisela – You are getting quite a bit of “Radio Love” from Nic Harcourt and others
at KCRW, have noticed any affects of that, like higher audience attendance
at your shows etc?
Jennifer – Nic is the best. He really boosted our show attendance. Now that the LP is out, we’re waiting for KCRW to start playing us some more (hint). Anne Litt and Raul Campos are great as well.
Marisela – Anne Montone (former lead vocals for Elephonic) is playing the opening of Tarfest. Is it at all bittersweet to be playing the same event.
Eddie B – Not at all… if anything I would like to have an ‘elephonic’ session arises live on stage, but I don’t think we’re performing the same days…
Jennifer – Not at all. First off, it’s a complete coincidence. Secondly we love Anne Montone and her R &B project. We’re all going to each others’ shows.
Marisela -On your website you urge people to buy physical cd’s rather then downloading on Itunes for example. Can you explain how all of this affects the artist?
Jennifer – There’s something precious about album art, but the main reason why I want people to own the physical cd is because nothing compares to the quality of an undigitally compressed track.
Marisela – Who do you aspire to sound like?
Jennifer – I don’t aspire to sound like another human as much as I aspire to sound like an amalgamation of all the human emotions that make the heart go pitter patter.
Eddie B – Me personally? It’s a different question for UNA… while I don’t think that we’re trying to be the next Portishead… I wouldn’t mind reaching similar accolades…
