Gina Villalobos

Last updated

Gina Villalobos
Birth nameGina Villalobos
Born (1970-05-26) May 26, 1970 (age 54)
Los Angeles, California [1]
OriginCalifornia, U.S.
Genres
Occupation(s)
  • Musician
  • singer
  • songwriter
  • engineer/producer
  • composer
Instruments
  • Vocals
  • guitar
  • keyboards
Years active1990–present
Labels
  • Laughing Outlaw Records
  • Face West Records
  • Kick Music
Website ginavillalobos.com

Gina Villalobos is an American singer-songwriter and composer. From 1992 thorough 2013, she extensively toured and recorded in the United States, the UK and Europe, writing songs and making music in bands and as a solo artist. Counting her most recent release, Sola (2014), Villalobos has released five solo studio albums. She continues to sing and compose in her work as a music creator at Feverpitch, where she services the motion picture industry, specifically those companies making movie trailer music. She creates sound effects, produces music, and composes original scores.

Contents

Early life

Villalobos spent her childhood in the Santa Monica Mountain community of Lake Sherwood, California. By way of inspiration, Gina's mother handed down her passion for music, while her father Reynaldo Villalobos is an acclaimed cinematographer and director. [1] By the time she was seven, Villalobos was teaching herself guitar, and began her music career at the end of college.

Musical career

In her early 20s, Villalobos fronted and played guitar in the acoustic folk trio Liquid Sunshine. Together, they recorded the albums Sweet Commitment and Barbary Lane, as well as the self-titled Liquid Sunshine EP before disbanding in 1996. Between 1997 and 2001, Villalobos fronted the band The Mades, with whom she recorded two albums, before starting her solo career with 2002's Beg From Me. [1]

In 2004, she caught the attention of respected U.S. publications like Paste , No Depression , Acoustic Guitar , and Harp . [2] In anticipation of her sophomore studio album, Live from KXLU Radio was released, containing a live recording with songs off the new album. With her second outing, Rock 'N' Roll Pony, the European press and radio praised the CD, which reached No. 3 on the Euro-Americana charts, and by 2005, Villalobos was performing in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. She toured with Laura Veirs [3] in 2005 on her UK tour. Her 2007 self-release Miles Away repeated her previous successes in the U.K. press and on BBC Radio 2. Around that time, the alternative rock band World Party [4] invited Villalobos to tour the States with them, and her songs started showing up in movies and TV shows like One Tree Hill and Army Wives . Two years later, Gina delivered Days on Their Side.

Villalobos has been associated with Anne McCue, [5] and has been recognized for her contribution to California songs.

In 2014, after an extended hiatus and having taken the time to produce the album since January 2012, [1] Sola was released. She produced and Erik Colvin engineered, as he's done for each of her previous three offerings. Augmenting Gina's vocals and guitar are guitarist Kevin Haaland (Andy Grammer), back for his fourth Gina Villalobos album, and returning guitarist Josh Grange (Sheryl Crow, k.d. lang, Beck, Dixie Chicks); Also credited are Eric Heywood (Son Volt, Ray LaMontagne, The Pretenders, Alejandro Escovedo) on pedal steel. Upright bass was performed by Ian Walker (k.d. lang, Cher, Paula Cole, The Ditty Bops). Quinn (Tracy Chapman, Daft Punk, Paula Cole) was the drummer.

In late 2015, The Golden Globe Award and Emmy Award-winning Amazon Studios TV show, Transparent [6] selected the arrangement featuring the Gina Villalobos/Eric Colvin produced version [7] of the 1971 Sly and the Family Stone hit "Family Affair" featuring the vocals of Ruby Friedman for use in the trailer promoting the launch of Season 2. [8]

Discography

Studio albums

YearTitleLabel
2002Beg from MeKick Music
2004Rock 'N' Roll PonyLaughing Outlaw Records
2007Miles AwayLaughing Outlaw Records
2009Days on Their SideFace West Records
2014SolaSelf-released

Live albums

YearTitleLabel
2004Live from KXLU RadioKick Music

Singles

YearTitleLabel
2008Can't Find My Way HomeFace West Records
2011The Ghost in YouFace West Records
2016World Keeps TurningSelf-released

CD Compilations

TV and Film Work

Personal life

Villalobos resides in the Los Angeles community of Los Feliz, California.

In October 2003, halfway through the sessions for Rock 'N Roll Party, production was halted when Villalobos sustained serious injury to her right eye. After numerous retinal surgeries, she was informed she would be permanently blind in her right eye.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beth Orton</span> English musician (born 1970)

Elizabeth Caroline Orton is an English musician known for her "folktronica" sound, which mixes elements of folk and electronica. She was initially recognised for her collaborations with William Orbit, Andrew Weatherall, Red Snapper and the Chemical Brothers in the mid-1990s. Her UK/US first solo album, Trailer Park, received much critical acclaim in 1996. Orton developed a devoted audience with the release of the BRIT Award-winning album Central Reservation (1999) and the 2002 UK top 10 album, Daybreaker. Her 2006 album, Comfort of Strangers, was followed by a break during which Orton gave birth to her daughter and collaborated with the British guitarist Bert Jansch. Orton returned with Sugaring Season in 2012, which moved towards a purer acoustic sound, followed by a return to electronic music with Kidsticks, released in 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Buddy Miller</span> American singer-songwriter

Steven Paul "Buddy" Miller is an American singer, songwriter, musician, recording artist and producer, currently living in Nashville, Tennessee. Miller is married to and has recorded with singer-songwriter Julie Miller.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neko Case</span> American singer-songwriter

Neko Richelle Case is an American singer-songwriter and member of the Canadian indie rock group the New Pornographers. Case' contralto voice has been described by contemporaries and critics as a "flamethrower", "a powerhouse [which] seems like it might level buildings," "a 120-mph fastball," and a "vocal tornado". Critics also note her idiosyncratic, "cryptic," "imagistic" lyrics, and credit her as a significant figure in the early 21st-century American revival of the tenor guitar. Case's body of work has spanned and drawn on a range of traditions including country, folk, art rock, indie rock, and pop and is frequently described as defying or avoiding easy generic classification.

k.d. lang Canadian musician (born 1961)

Kathryn Dawn Lang, known by her stage name k.d. lang, is a Canadian pop and country singer-songwriter and occasional actress. Lang has won Juno Awards and Grammy Awards for her musical performances. Hits include the songs "Constant Craving" and "Miss Chatelaine".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shawn Colvin</span> American singer-songwriter

Shawn Colvin is an American singer-songwriter. While she has been a solo recording artist for decades, she is best known for her 1997 Grammy Award-winning song "Sunny Came Home".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laura Veirs</span> American singer-songwriter

Laura Pauline Veirs is an American singer-songwriter based in Portland, Oregon. She is known for her folk/alternative country records and live performances as well as her collaboration with Neko Case and k.d. lang on the case/lang/veirs project. Veirs has written a children's book and hosts a podcast about parenting and performing.

<i>Its Alright (I See Rainbows)</i> 1982 studio album by Yoko Ono

It's Alright (I See Rainbows) is the sixth solo album by Yoko Ono, and her second release after the murder of husband John Lennon. As a variation of a theme concerning its predecessor, the back cover features a transparent image of Lennon in a then-contemporary photo of Yoko and Sean, depicted in Central Park. Released in 1982, all songs were written, composed, arranged, produced, and sung by Ono. It charted at #98 in the US.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heartless Bastards</span> American rock band

Heartless Bastards are an American rock band formed in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 2003. The band has released six albums.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anne McCue</span> Australian singer-songwriter

Anne Monica McCue is a singer-songwriter, guitarist, music-recording producer, video director, and radio host from Australia, more recently based in Nashville, Tennessee, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thao & the Get Down Stay Down</span> American folk rock band

Thao & the Get Down Stay Down was an American alternative/folk rock group that originated in Falls Church, Virginia in 2003, before relocating to San Francisco, California. Its final lineup consisted of Thao Nguyen and Adam Thompson. Previous members of the project included Frank Stewart and Willis Thompson (drums). The band released five studio albums: We Brave Bee Stings and All (2008), Know Better Learn Faster (2009), We the Common (2013), A Man Alive (2016) and Temple (2020).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarah Jarosz</span> American musician

Sarah Ellen Jarosz is an American singer-songwriter from Wimberley, Texas. Her debut studio album, Song Up in Her Head, was released in 2009 and the song "Mansinneedof" was nominated for a Grammy Award in the category of Best Country Instrumental Performance. Her second studio album, Follow Me Down, released in 2011, received a Song of the Year nomination from the Americana Music Association's 2012 Honors and Awards. Her third studio album, Build Me Up from Bones, was released on September 24, 2013 through Sugar Hill Records. Build Me Up from Bones was nominated for Best Folk Album at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards, and its title track was nominated for Best American Roots Song. In 2016, Jarosz released her fourth studio album, Undercurrent. The album won two Grammy Awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Catherine MacLellan</span> Canadian singer

Catherine MacLellan is a Canadian folk singer-songwriter, based in Prince Edward Island.

Ruby Friedman is an American singer/songwriter/composer, with roots in New Orleans, New York, and Los Angeles. She is the leader of the Ruby Friedman Orchestra.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sam Cohen (musician)</span> American singer

Samuel Benjamin Cohen is an American rock vocalist, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, artist, and producer based in Brooklyn, New York. A founding member of the psychedelic rock and pop band Apollo Sunshine, he released several albums with the group in the early 2000s. In 2009 he formed the solo project Yellowbirds, releasing the debut album The Color in 2011. This release was followed by Songs from the Vanished Frontier in 2013. The first Sam Cohen record, Cool It, was released on April 28, 2015, on Easy Sound Records, and primary featured Cohen playing all of the instruments. It was then re-released on Danger Mouse's imprint of Columbia Records, 30th Century Records, on June 3, 2016. Cohen is also known for his original collages on the Yellowbirds album covers, and his collage animation videos.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Feelin' Alright (Len song)</span> 1999 single by Len

"Feelin' Alright" is a song by Canadian alternative rock band Len from their third studio album, You Can't Stop the Bum Rush (1999). Marc Costanzo produced the song and wrote it with Derek MacKenzie and Sharon Costanzo. The Work Group released it as the album's second single on October 19, 1999. An alternative rock song with heavy metal influences, it samples Hydra's song "Let Me Down Easy". A duet between Marc and Sharon Costanzo, the song is about thinking positive when faced with adversity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laura Veirs discography</span>

American rock/folk music singer Laura Veirs has released fourteen studio albums, four singles, an extended plays, a live album and four music videos on Raven Marching Band and Bella Records (Europe).

case/lang/veirs Canadian-American supergroup

case/lang/veirs is a Canadian-American supergroup consisting of Neko Case, k.d. lang, and Laura Veirs, formed in Portland, Oregon in 2013. The group launched with a June 2016 eponymous album, followed by a 19-city summer 2016 tour.

<i>The Lookout</i> (album) 2018 studio album by Laura Veirs

The Lookout is the tenth studio album by American folk musician Laura Veirs, released on April 13, 2018 by Raven Marching Band Records to a positive critical reception. Veirs recorded the work around her collaboration case/lang/veirs and continued a streak of working with her husband Tucker Martine as producer.

<i>My Echo</i> 2020 studio album by Laura Veirs

My Echo is the eleventh studio album by American singer-songwriter Laura Veirs, released on October 23, 2020 by Raven Marching Band. The album received a positive reception from music critics.

<i>Found Light</i> 2022 studio album by Laura Veirs

Found Light is a 2022 studio album by American singer-songwriter Laura Veirs. This is the first album without long-time producer Tucker Martine and also the first where Veirs recorded her guitar and vocals simultaneously. It has received positive critical reception.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.