Interview with Singer-Songwriter Gina Villalobos

You've been making music for over 25 years, in bands, solo and now as a composer, what has that journey been like for you? 

Filled with good times and bad times.  Ups and downs.  Times when you felt like you were on top of the world and then times when I’d ask myself “what the hell am I doing?”  Lots of sacrifices but lots of opportunities and experiences too.  You kind of feel like a human yoyo.  It’s exhilarating then exhausting.  You feel so lucky to be able to play music but it doesn’t mean it’s not hard dealing with the contrast of all the highs and lows.  It’s especially bad when you are touring a lot.  When people ask me what is it like to tour I always say it’s the simultaneous sensation of feeling totally trapped and free at the same time.  Trapped because you spend so much  time in some kind of metal vehicle, up to 10 hours sometimes and then totally free when you get to let it all go on stage at night.  There was a point in my career when I knew that I needed to take a break.   It was around 2012.


Could you talk a bit about the bands you started out in and when did you know that it was time to go your own way and focus on being a solo artist?

My first band was called Liquid Sunshine out of Santa Barbara, CA.  We were an all girl acoustic trio that sang folky, sing-a-long songs with lots of harmonies.  I started the band with Laura Kravetz.  We complimented one another.  I was self-taught and she was a trained cellist with perfect pitch.  We were opposites.  Before we knew it, we were on a CA college circuit.  It was a big deal when we could afford to sleep at a Motel 6.  We thought it was the lap of luxury.  It truly was the time of my life.  Touring was much easier in my 20’s!   We eventually added bass and drums had a couple good runs with the band but the dynamic changed when we added our rhythm section.  When Liquid Sunshine dissolved some members came with me to form my second band, The Mades who didn’t see nearly as much success as Liquid Sunshine.  I wanted to get back out on the road, others didn’t.  It was really hard keeping everybody’s motivation levels on the same page.  Being a band leader is not an easy task.  I was feeling held back.  That’s when I moved to LA to try it on my own.  


American roots music is a heavy influential thread throughout your records, who are some of the songwriters and musicians who have had the largest impact on you and your own evolution as a musician and songwriter? 

I mean there are a bunch but without a doubt if it weren’t for The Beatles and Rickie Lee Jones, I would not be playing music today.  

We used to play a game called the Beatles when we were kids.  I got to be Paul.  We would listen to their records over and over and over again.  We would set up a fake stage with pillows for drums and just go completely nuts, air guitar-ing, air bass-ing, air paino-ing, singing our way through all of their records.  

I finally got a real guitar and learned to play it by playing Beatle’s songs.

As I got older I got really into Rick Lee Jones.  She was it for me.  For some reason when I heard her music it made me believe that I could do it too.  

But really, I am influenced not only by music.  It can be a movie or book or photograph a connection to someone.  Anything that enables me to see my own feelings and my own emotions more clearly.  It’s the things that make me look at myself and the world around me.  It’s the things that show me where I am that influence me.     

As far as what has had the largest impact on my evolution as a songwriter, the most important part has been being able to understand what kind of writer I am and then accepting it.  

When I am writing it kind of happens by itself.  A lyric or some chords come out of nowhere.   It’s like I’m reuniting conscious and unconscious realms of experience to create their own reality—the song.  The unconscious is the wellspring of the imagination, the hardest part is tapping into it though.  It never happens on command and sometimes you just have to wait it out.   It’s like staring at an undeveloped photograph, and then BOOM all of a sudden it’s there, staring back at you.  The waiting is the hardest part.


Could you talk about the work you're doing now as a composer for film and television and what that process is like?

I started a company called Feverpitch (feverpitchsfx.com) with my long time recording partner Erik Colvin.  We started off making sound effects for movie trailers.  It’s not foley, we are not foley artists! Everybody always asks me that so I had to clarify.  Anyway, sounds effects are used emphasize and exaggerate artistic content or a storytelling point.   Sound effects don’t happen in real life.  

For example, these are the sounds we hear when we see Bruce Lee whipping his nunchucks around.  It doesn’t really sound like this when somebody uses nunchucks! Basically, we help create a hyper-reality.  It’s super creative work.  I am often asking myself questions like, “what does the sound of a headache sound like?”  Then we have to  figure out how to create it and then record it.  Anyway, these connections led into opportunities to do music for some trailers and a handful of commercials.  The most notable being the Transparent season 2 trailer.  My partner and I got to produce and compose a derivative version of the Sly & The Family Stone song, Family Affair.   Another fun project we got to work on was getting to do over lays for the Desert Trip concert at Coachella with The Stones, Paul McCartney, Dylan, Neil Young, The Who and Roger Waters.  It’s a completely different process than the singer- songwriter thing.  


What is your favorite on-tour, on-the-road memory?

I've got many wonderful and memorable moments from the actual transportation portions of our tours.   So many inside jokes and craziness happens because you are all just kind of stuck there.  It's a great bonding experience.  I miss those times and am looking forward to getting back out there.


Do you have any new projects in the works you'd like to mention?

I have a new single. 
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It’s a cover Richard Ashcroft’s World Keep turning.   It’s been a fav of mine for years, it hits in all the right places for me.  It has that quality that makes me wanna keep trying.  For what, I don’t know but I know it makes me wanna try for something good, to be good, even when times are bad.  I feel really brought together by the song.  It makes me feel closer to strangers.   It fills up a longing for connection that I have.  I felt compelled to record it so I did.

I am also working on a new album right now.  I have been going through the last 5 years or so of song ideas.  I have narrowed it down to about 17 songs that I’m working on finishing.  I won’t release 17 songs though, I will narrow it down again, then again.   I am really hoping to get back out on the road again and trying to find a way to get back over to the UK and The EU again.


For more information visit ginavillalobos.com/