Quick Facts
Biography
Carla Ragan Bozulich (born December 24, 1965) is an American musician based in Los Angeles, known for her work as the lead singer, lyricist and founder of both The Geraldine Fibbers and Evangelista and as a founding member of Ethyl Meatplow and Scarnella. Her 2006 album, Evangelista, was released by Constellation Records, that label's first release by a non-Canadian artist. In 2007, she also named her ever-evolving touring group Evangelista eventually recruiting bassist Tara Barnes and keyboardist/sampler Dominic Cramp as permanent band members. However, the rest of the lineup of Evangelista as a recording, performing and touring band changes each time they play or record. In keeping with this change, the albums Hello, Voyager, Prince of Truth and In Animal Tongue were released under the band name Evangelista. In 2014, Constellation released Boy, with Carla Bozulich credited as solo artist. This album consists of more conventionally structured songs than those appearing on the Evangelista albums. Bozulich has also been involved in other projects, including collaborations with Francesco Guerri and Sarah Lipstate. In addition to singing and composing music, she is known to play guitar and work with samples and sound experimentation. She was born in New York City.
Musical career
Bozulich's recording career began in 1982 when, under the name Carla Noelle, she contributed to a recording by Gary Kail called "Zurich 1916", which would be released in 1984 as part of the album Creative Nihilism. She has since played with numerous bands including the Neon Veins, Invisible Chains, Ethyl Meatplow, the Geraldine Fibbers, Scarnella (a duo with Nels Cline, the name being an anagram of their combined first names), The Nels Cline Singers, Scott Amendola Band, The Book of Knots, the as-yet-unrecorded band The Night Porter, as a solo artist, as a member of a duo with Ches Smith, and as leader of the Evangelista project. Bozulich produced the Evangelista album In Animal Tongue. She has also produced the 2013 self-titled album by the band Blue Willa. In March 2014, she released a solo album Boy, with Evangelista member John Eichenseer and percussionist Andrea Belfi as her main collaborators. This album was also produced by Bozulich.
Bozulich has also formed an improvisational project called Bloody Claws with Francesco Guerri, with whom she toured Europe in the spring and summer of 2009. She has also contributed to recordings by Mike Watt (most significantly as a vocalist on four tracks of his album Ball-Hog or Tugboat?), Hadda Brooks and Lydia Lunch. She has performed live with Watt, as well as with Thurston Moore, Christian Marclay Carla Kihlstedt, Wayne Kramer, Wilco, Agathe Max, Italian guitarist Simone Massaron (with whom she sings and provides lyrics on the 2008 album Dandelions on Fire) and many others. Members of Evangelista outside of the core trio of Bozulich, Barnes and Cramp have included Ches Smith, Shahzad Ismaily, Ava Mendoza, Jeremy Drake, Gambletron, Mirko Sabatini, Madigan Shive, Andrea Serrapiglio, Thierry Amar, Nadia and Jessica Moss, Becky Foon and Jessica Catron.
On August 16–17, 2009 she performed live with Marianne Faithfull and Marc Ribot in Düsseldorf as part of the 2009 Ruhrtriennale. Willie Nelson performed on her 2003 album The Red Headed Stranger, a song-by-song cover of his album of the same name.
Bozulich scored a 2001 production of Jean Genet's play The Maids, as well as the 2003 film By Hook or by Crook, directed by Harry Dodge and Silas Howard and produced by Steak House. The Geraldine Fibbers songs "Lilybelle" and "Seven or in 10," both cowritten by Bozulich, have been covered by Kiki and Herb.
Bozulich has been asked to perform as a solo artist at two All Tomorrows Parties festivals, and at two Bad Bonn Kilbi festivals. In 2005, she performed Brecht/Weill composition "The Ballad of the Lily of Hell" at the Meltdown Festival in London, curated by Patti Smith.
Eyes for Ears
Between 2000 and 2010, Bozulich created site-specific performance art pieces under the umbrella name Eyes for Ears. "Fake Party" (developed for Society for the Activation of Social Space through Art and Sound) took place at the Schindler House in August 2000; an event described by Bozulich as "new music dressed up like a party meets a social event disguised as art." During the piece, the audience was treated upon arrival as guests at a party at the Schindler House. Guests were pulled from the "party" into a private room, where they were serenaded by Bozulich lyp-synching to old pop songs, and eventually led into yet another party room. The intricate details of the event are described on Bozulich's website. A second piece, Performance for Fever Dreams, was performed at the Getty Museum of Art in February 2004. The third performance in the series was a "guerilla sing-along" featuring Bozulich and others at a train station waiting room in Glendale, California on Mother's Day 2005. Bozulich had recorded sounds at the train station for a previous project and decided to hold a free participatory musical event at the location.
The fourth Eyes for Ears performance was at the CalArts Center for Experiments in Art, Information and Technology (CEAIT) Festival at Los Angeles' REDCAT Theater on March 5, 2010. Titled Drowned To The Light, it featured Bozulich — along with David Rothbaum, Ezra Buchla and Danny Frankel — performing songs and improvised music before the projected films of Brooklyn musician and filmmaker Sarah Lipstate.
The fifth Eyes for Ears, entitled "Under the Skin" was performed on May 7, 2011 in Krems, Austria as part of Donaufestival. This was a multimedia installation incorporating the entire Minoritenkirche Knoster monastery and grounds. Bozulich also curated three nights of performances at the festival.
Other work
Bozulich has written articles, short fiction, poetry and criticism for Alternative Press, LA Weekly, Ecstatic Peace and Ben Is Dead. She has mentioned her desire to expand her short story "The Sparkely Jewel" into a full-length novel. Bozulich has also worked in the illustrative arts.
Discography
- Solo albums:
- The Red Headed Stranger [2003]
- I'm Gonna Stop Killing [2004]
- Evangelista [2006]
- Unrock Instore Gig Series Volume 4 (released in Germany and limited to 300 copies) [2008]
- Boy [2014]
- Featured solo work:
- New Coat of Paint: Songs of Tom Waits (song "On The Nickel") [2000]
- Fields And Streams (song "Blue Boys") [2002]
- For a Decade of Sin: 11 Years of Bloodshot Records (song "Lonesome Roads") [2005]
- As leader of Evangelista:
- Evangelista (released under the name Carla Bozulich) [2006]
- Hello, Voyager [2008]
- Live at Issue Project, NYC June 15, 2008 (self-released CD sold at live shows) [2008]
- Prince Of Truth [2009]
- In Animal Tongue [2011]
- Abisso (album by OvO - Evangelista as a band collaborated on song "Fly Little Demon" [2013]
- As lead vocalist and lyricist of the Geraldine Fibbers:
- Get Thee Gone (vinyl only) [1995]
- The Geraldine Fibbers (compact disc EP incorporating elements of Get Thee Gone) [1995]
- Lost Somewhere Between the Earth and My Home [1995]
- Live From the Bottom of the Hill [1996]
- What Part of "Get Thee Gone" Don't You Understand? [1997]
- Butch [1997]
- Collaboration with Blue Willa:
- Blue Willa (producer, guest instrumentalist and background vocalist) [2013]
- As member of Scarnella:
- Scarnella [1998]
- Super Bad at 65: a Tribute to James Brown (song "Hot Pants") [1998]
- Duet album with Ches Smith:
- Run (available as MP3 download only) [2012]
- Collaborative album with Simone Massaron:
- Dandelions on Fire [2008]
- As a featured performer with Gary Kail/Zurich 1916:
- Creative Nihilism (as Carla Noelle) [1984]
- As member of Invisible Chains:
- Invisible Chains [1986]
- As member of Ethyl Meatplow:
- Happy Days, Sweetheart [1993]
- As a featured vocalist with Mike Watt:
- Ball-Hog or Tugboat? [1994]
- As a featured vocalist and composer with Barry Adamson:
- Oedipus Schmoedipus (as Carla Bozlavich) (song "It's Business As Usual") [1996]
- As a featured vocalist with Wayne Kramer:
- Citizen Wayne (song "Back When Dogs Could Talk") [1997]
- As a featured duet vocalist with Hadda Brooks:
- I've Got News For You (song "Sometimes I'm Happy") [1999]
- As a featured vocalist with Victor Krummenacher:
- Bittersweet (song "Maybe A True Love") [2000]
- As a featured vocalist with Two Dollar Guitar:
- Weak Beats And Lame-Ass Rhymes (song "Bozo Shoes" [2000]
- Electric Guitar, Sampling Keyboard with Nels Cline:
- Destroy All Nels Cline [2001]
- As a featured vocalist and musician with Bonnie Barnett, Carla Bozulich, Rick Potts:
- Various - SoundCd no. 1 (song "Do You Dig?") [2002]
- As a featured performer:
- Various - SoundCd no. 1 (song "Carla Bozulich's Fake Party: Audience Cassette Tape Improv") [2002]
- As a featured vocalist of The Scott Amendola Band:
- Cry (song "Masters of War") [2003]
- As a featured duet vocalist with Lydia Lunch:
- Smoke In The Shadows (song "I Love How You...") [2004]
- A Fistful of Desert Blues (with Cypress Grove—song "End of My Rope") [2014]
- As a featured vocalist with Gowns:
- Dangers Of Intimacy (song "Apple") [2004]
- As a featured vocalist with Nels Cline:
- Various - Secular Steel (song "Eagle Rockers") [2004)
- As a featured vocalist for The Book of Knots:
- Traineater (song "View From a Watertower") [2007]
- As a featured vocalist for Bulbul:
- 6 (song "Shenzhou") [2008]
- As a featured vocalist for Mickey Finn + Cuong Vu:
- Gagarin (song " I Can´t Feel It Anymore") [2009]
- As a featured additional vocalist for Hawnay Troof:
- Daggers At The Moon (songs "U Can Just Ask" and "Like Her")
- As a featured vocalist with (r):
- Drama Queen (song "'See What The Boys In The Backroom Will Have") [2011]
- As a featured additional vocalist for Whitman:
- Dog Rose Gall (song "Wishes And War Paint")
- As a featured vocalist with Xiu Xiu:
- Always (song "Smear the Queen") [2012]
- As a featured vocalist with Jherek Bischoff:
- Composed (song "Counting") [2012]
- As a featured vocalist with Aidan Baker:
- Already Drowning (song "Lorelei/Common Tongue") [2013]
- As a featured vocalist with TSU!:
- HMS Angora (songs "Lilac and Stork" and "Day of Skucha") [2014]