Monday, August 2, 2010

EIC'S10Q'S w/Nite Jewel

"..sounds like montage clip notes from a time when nylon was (even more) popular, neon was the only color, and music was 70% synth based.."


Nite Jewel
Post Archaic Here After

Nite Jewel Bio:
Nite Jewel is the performing moniker of Ramona Gonzalez. She is a composer, songwriter, and multimedia artist from Los Angeles, California, where she has exhibited a number of video and sound installation pieces. A recent sound installation entitled “The Question Concerning Technology” has been transcribed to traditional notation by Human Ear Music founder, Jason Grier. She has collaborated with Julia Holter and Cole M.G.N. of Haunted Graffiti, curated two exhibitions at the Tiny Creatures gallery, and performed the work of Michael Pisaro. She was a philosophy student at Occidental College in Eagle Rock, Los Angeles.

The Nite Jewel project is a remarkable combination of revisionist Bronx pop and hazy musical impressionism. Like her ex-pop peers, Ariel Rosenberg and Geneva Jacuzzi, she records solely on portable 8-track cassette deck, often composing her songs by layered tape edits. In Nite Jewel’s case, however, the quality of her chosen medium seems to be neither a means nor an end, but rather a device to lend an ethereal kind of efficacy to the golden age of alternative disco. As influences, she has cited dance floor greats Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam and Debbie Deb, 90’s R&B, as well as Experimental, New Age, and Shoegaze.



Hello, how are you?
Hi, doing well.

What are you currently listening to?
A friend just sent me Yasuko Agawa's "LA Nights." Lovin' it!

When/where did you learn to master the synthesizer?
I have far from mastered the synthesizer; however, my working with synths in the past few years has gradually released me from my technophobia.

Other than it being a perfect fit for the music you create, is there a more specific reason on why you are called Nite Jewel?
My friend Jason started calling me that after he heard the song "Night Jewel" by Nimbus Obi.

Is there a title for your next full length yet?
It will be called "One Second Of Love".

I liked the collaboration between you and Dam Funk, do you see yourself ever revisiting that project?
We were just talking about writing a "slow jam" together a la R Kelly or T Braxton (that's what I'm thinking, he might have a different reference for "slow jam").

Who’s the next big LA act?
Definitely Teen Inc. is making waves here.

What’s your least favorite music?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-y2LUh-9AA

You can only keep/listen to ONE album for the rest of your life ..which album would it be?
Woo's "Whichever Way You Are Going, You Are Going Wrong" or Miles Davis' "Get Up With It".

Are you living your dream?
Often it's hard to tell between my dreams and reality

Thanx Ramona!

Nite Jewel just released the "Am I Real" EP, make sure to check that out, and check out the band at a concert near you soon after...

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