hi! my name is pamelia. someone once told me that i should make a more professional biography that properly represents my world class rollerskating artistry but it's always a little weird to do that BIO thing... wait...it's not just a little weird... it feels horrible because...
FIRST i would be assuming that you do not have ears or taste (the capability to form an opinion about what you hear) and must rely on what i write in my bio (which could all be lies anyways) to make your own (pre)judgement about my music. it would be a lie to myself to try and sell you into liking what i do which is like a two-way insult to us both in the end!!
SECOND i would have to pretend like what you read below is coming from that 'third person' who is bragging about me while i am just standing here next to the computer... so... let me just tell you as if you were sitting across from me in a coffee shop and i am answering your questions. i hope i don't sound cocky or like some annoying name-dropping slime-ball (like those people who hand you a business card and say 'I'm a producer' blah blah blah....)
when i was still in diapers, i began playing piano... (hey, i'm not going to tell you when i got potty trained!) at six, i memorized my mother's repertoire... at seven took piano lessons but it was really boring so i quit and continued to learn on my own.... then in junior high, there was a music program so i joined the orchestra class and picked up violin, viola and cello (so exciting to play strings.. i always wanted to play string instruments but i wasn't part of the demographic that would have any exposure to them). in highschool i joined the jazz band, marching band, orchestra, choir, and ditched or fell asleep in most of the other classes. i had a cool teacher who let me take a bunch of instruments home in the summer. eventually though, i dropped out of highschool, ran away from home and lived on a farm in indiana with a boyfriend (and i learned about the joy of goats!)
my career began as a thereminist in 1997, when i was still known as an upright bass player in L.A. with this band called Geggy Tah. i saw that documentary Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey by Steven Martin about the theremin and i wanted to at least try one because it sounded very vocal and string-like when i heard Clara Rockmore playing it ( i have a soft spot for string instruments). anyhooo... i didn't think that i would become a thereminist. a few months after i picked it up, by chance, i met Steven Martin, and after he heard me, he introduced me to Clara Rockmore (a whole other story for next time), and Bob Moog at the NAMM show that winter (Bob let me take home the ethervox theremin! my first endorsement deal!)
A LITTLE TANGENT a lot of people ask about who i learned to play from. i ended up teaching myself because i didn't want my sound to be like a 'theremin'.... i LOVE and MISS playing string instruments and a theremin is much cheaper than buying a decent violin or cello. plus, my theremin has the range of all those string instruments combined. (i use the Moog Etherwave Pro & the older Big Briar Ethervox) i still continue to strive to make adaptations with my technique whenever i wish to expand my own possibilities of expression/interpretation. it is not my big mission to be a MAESTROBATER.
BACK ON TRACK... in 1997 i began doing a lot of session work besides performing live. some of my earlier recording work has been with Matthew Sweet, the Indigo Girls, The Kurstins (self released album with my then husband, Greg)... Gerry Gibbs' Third Trio from the Sun... and at about that time in the late 90s, i was also performing with saxophonist Arthur Blythe (upright bass and sometimes theremin)
in 2001, i relocated to New York and performed occasionally with Cibo Matto, Dopo Yume, went on a World Tour with Sebastien Tellier later that year, and there were many recording sessions i also participated in - David Byrne (Grown Backwards), Foetus (Love), Grace Jones (Sunset Sunrise) Barbez (was also a member of this group), Bela Fleck & Flecktones, etc.
in 2002 i premiered my first solo performance (theremin orchestra) at the opening of the Rose Centre Planetarium in the Natural History Museum of New York. the theremin orchestra has as many as 16 different parts, i record them all one at a time, track by track or i use looping pedals and perform/record/playback all of the parts during a live solo performance. examples of these live performances can be heard on 'solo' page of this site.
in 2003, after asking Moog if it would be possible to have an easier to transport professional model theremin, we met up to so he could show me
some potential body designs and find out how to make some design changes that would suit live performance... one example is how i used to have
to make a little pause to change the timbre and waveform settings on my Ethervox when i was switching between the vocal and "walking bass" settings.
(If you watch my TED talk video, take note of how the pianist has to stall a little so i can change my settings before i switch to the bass... i no longer
have that long of a lag-time when i use the Etherwave Pro now)
2005 i made the move to Vienna from New York. but i often return stateside, especially the east coast, to get my musical yayas out playing with a variety of wonderful artists: Simone Dinnerstein, Sugarlife, Brian Dewan, Susie Ibarra, Calvin Weston, Lisa Bella Donna, Gerry Gibbs, the list goes on and in case ya dont know of all these freakos... they are all from very different realms!
in april 2007 my solo album "Thinking Out Loud" was released on Tzadik (a wonderful label!)
since the big move to europe, i got to perform and/or collaborate/record with artists on this side of the pond including:
Maria Laurette Friis (Tys Tys, composer/musician/vocalist extraordinaire, Copenhagen), Liam Noble (pianist/composer, London), Seb Rochford (duo album 2011 "Ouch Evil Slow Hop" on Slowfoot label, London), Yoko Ono and the Plastic Ono Band (Meltdown Festival London & Paris), Ensemble Kontrapunkt of the Vienna Musikverein, Ensemble XX. Jahrhundert, Patric Pulsinger (Vienna), Ingrid Laubrock & Liam Noble (UK).. etc...
in 2013 i founded the band Blueblut with Chris Janka & Mark Holub and so far we've released 2 albums (see 'Listen' section of this site) and blah blah blah blah... from that point on up to the present, all the updates are on this site... recordings, albums, new projects... woohooo! Currently i'm on a composing and arranging rampage....
i occasionally give masterclasses, lectures, or workshops which are privately hosted or hosted by universities such as the New School Art Work Talk, NYU (New York) Duquesne (Pittsburg), HAMU (Prague), Berklee College of Music (Boston), Harvard Extension School (Boston), Carnegie Mellon (Pittsburgh) and i have performed in every type of venue from livingrooms, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Royal Albert Hall, Steinway Hall, & Lincoln Center, Tonic, Bowery Ballroom, CBGB's, some basement of a bar in Paris where the entrance to the performance was next to a urinal, to the diving platform at the beach in Geneva (i am so not kidding, and no, hell no, i didnt dive off of it!!!)... looking forward to the next adventure!
FIRST i would be assuming that you do not have ears or taste (the capability to form an opinion about what you hear) and must rely on what i write in my bio (which could all be lies anyways) to make your own (pre)judgement about my music. it would be a lie to myself to try and sell you into liking what i do which is like a two-way insult to us both in the end!!
SECOND i would have to pretend like what you read below is coming from that 'third person' who is bragging about me while i am just standing here next to the computer... so... let me just tell you as if you were sitting across from me in a coffee shop and i am answering your questions. i hope i don't sound cocky or like some annoying name-dropping slime-ball (like those people who hand you a business card and say 'I'm a producer' blah blah blah....)
when i was still in diapers, i began playing piano... (hey, i'm not going to tell you when i got potty trained!) at six, i memorized my mother's repertoire... at seven took piano lessons but it was really boring so i quit and continued to learn on my own.... then in junior high, there was a music program so i joined the orchestra class and picked up violin, viola and cello (so exciting to play strings.. i always wanted to play string instruments but i wasn't part of the demographic that would have any exposure to them). in highschool i joined the jazz band, marching band, orchestra, choir, and ditched or fell asleep in most of the other classes. i had a cool teacher who let me take a bunch of instruments home in the summer. eventually though, i dropped out of highschool, ran away from home and lived on a farm in indiana with a boyfriend (and i learned about the joy of goats!)
my career began as a thereminist in 1997, when i was still known as an upright bass player in L.A. with this band called Geggy Tah. i saw that documentary Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey by Steven Martin about the theremin and i wanted to at least try one because it sounded very vocal and string-like when i heard Clara Rockmore playing it ( i have a soft spot for string instruments). anyhooo... i didn't think that i would become a thereminist. a few months after i picked it up, by chance, i met Steven Martin, and after he heard me, he introduced me to Clara Rockmore (a whole other story for next time), and Bob Moog at the NAMM show that winter (Bob let me take home the ethervox theremin! my first endorsement deal!)
A LITTLE TANGENT a lot of people ask about who i learned to play from. i ended up teaching myself because i didn't want my sound to be like a 'theremin'.... i LOVE and MISS playing string instruments and a theremin is much cheaper than buying a decent violin or cello. plus, my theremin has the range of all those string instruments combined. (i use the Moog Etherwave Pro & the older Big Briar Ethervox) i still continue to strive to make adaptations with my technique whenever i wish to expand my own possibilities of expression/interpretation. it is not my big mission to be a MAESTROBATER.
BACK ON TRACK... in 1997 i began doing a lot of session work besides performing live. some of my earlier recording work has been with Matthew Sweet, the Indigo Girls, The Kurstins (self released album with my then husband, Greg)... Gerry Gibbs' Third Trio from the Sun... and at about that time in the late 90s, i was also performing with saxophonist Arthur Blythe (upright bass and sometimes theremin)
in 2001, i relocated to New York and performed occasionally with Cibo Matto, Dopo Yume, went on a World Tour with Sebastien Tellier later that year, and there were many recording sessions i also participated in - David Byrne (Grown Backwards), Foetus (Love), Grace Jones (Sunset Sunrise) Barbez (was also a member of this group), Bela Fleck & Flecktones, etc.
in 2002 i premiered my first solo performance (theremin orchestra) at the opening of the Rose Centre Planetarium in the Natural History Museum of New York. the theremin orchestra has as many as 16 different parts, i record them all one at a time, track by track or i use looping pedals and perform/record/playback all of the parts during a live solo performance. examples of these live performances can be heard on 'solo' page of this site.
in 2003, after asking Moog if it would be possible to have an easier to transport professional model theremin, we met up to so he could show me
some potential body designs and find out how to make some design changes that would suit live performance... one example is how i used to have
to make a little pause to change the timbre and waveform settings on my Ethervox when i was switching between the vocal and "walking bass" settings.
(If you watch my TED talk video, take note of how the pianist has to stall a little so i can change my settings before i switch to the bass... i no longer
have that long of a lag-time when i use the Etherwave Pro now)
2005 i made the move to Vienna from New York. but i often return stateside, especially the east coast, to get my musical yayas out playing with a variety of wonderful artists: Simone Dinnerstein, Sugarlife, Brian Dewan, Susie Ibarra, Calvin Weston, Lisa Bella Donna, Gerry Gibbs, the list goes on and in case ya dont know of all these freakos... they are all from very different realms!
in april 2007 my solo album "Thinking Out Loud" was released on Tzadik (a wonderful label!)
since the big move to europe, i got to perform and/or collaborate/record with artists on this side of the pond including:
Maria Laurette Friis (Tys Tys, composer/musician/vocalist extraordinaire, Copenhagen), Liam Noble (pianist/composer, London), Seb Rochford (duo album 2011 "Ouch Evil Slow Hop" on Slowfoot label, London), Yoko Ono and the Plastic Ono Band (Meltdown Festival London & Paris), Ensemble Kontrapunkt of the Vienna Musikverein, Ensemble XX. Jahrhundert, Patric Pulsinger (Vienna), Ingrid Laubrock & Liam Noble (UK).. etc...
in 2013 i founded the band Blueblut with Chris Janka & Mark Holub and so far we've released 2 albums (see 'Listen' section of this site) and blah blah blah blah... from that point on up to the present, all the updates are on this site... recordings, albums, new projects... woohooo! Currently i'm on a composing and arranging rampage....
i occasionally give masterclasses, lectures, or workshops which are privately hosted or hosted by universities such as the New School Art Work Talk, NYU (New York) Duquesne (Pittsburg), HAMU (Prague), Berklee College of Music (Boston), Harvard Extension School (Boston), Carnegie Mellon (Pittsburgh) and i have performed in every type of venue from livingrooms, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Royal Albert Hall, Steinway Hall, & Lincoln Center, Tonic, Bowery Ballroom, CBGB's, some basement of a bar in Paris where the entrance to the performance was next to a urinal, to the diving platform at the beach in Geneva (i am so not kidding, and no, hell no, i didnt dive off of it!!!)... looking forward to the next adventure!
