Bird Call

For nearly two decades, Bird Call, the nom de plume of Guatemalan/Italian art pop artist Chiara Angelicola, has garnered loyal ears from avante-music fans and critics like NPR, The Guardian, and Nylon. Born and raised in Mill Valley, CA, Chiara received her vocal and jazz piano training from her mother during her youth and began her musical career singing, songwriting, and playing keyboards during her undergraduate studies in Santa Cruz. After recording and self-releasing four records, Angelicola signed to British label Zap Records and released Will We Get to Mars? in 2013, gaining recognition from underground music lovers and prominent music critics like Under the Radar who stamped Bird Call’s sound as "dangerous and romantic, emoting over a bed of cinema-worthy synths." Since then, Bird Call’s sound has been known to have a propensity towards a mercurial presence, always evolving, yet remaining rooted in a foundation of punchy lyrics and a voice that WNYC describes as “direct and impassioned”. Since her International Songwriting Competition win for Best Performer beside pop artist, Kimbra, Angelicola has gone on to share the stage with artists such as Angel Olsen, Empress Of, Majical Cloudz, Kyp Malone, Cassandra Jenkins, and many others. Angelicola’s prolific musical repertoire now spans 11 records including Bird Call’s forthcoming The Life is Extraordinary EP along with widespread syndication on many streaming platforms and networks including Hulu, Netflix, Amazon, Fox, and HBO.

The Life is Extraordinary EP is a collection of Chiara’s most masterful songwriting and production written under the influence of isolation during Covid-19 and the artist’s experience through postpartum depression after giving birth to her daughter. From the more subdued and up-front performance on “Celebrity” - a satirical commentary on the absurdity of social media, to the scintillating dream pop rendition of Aimee Mann’s illustrious hit “Save Me”, and the addicting and impeccably multi-colored single “Pray to the Unknown”, to the meticulously arranged whimsical romance of “The Light Inside”, we come to understand the full breadth of Chiara’s mastery as a distinct, seasoned, and refined voice and songwriter in the indie music scene. The Life is Extraordinary EP was recorded and mixed by long-time collaborator Gabriel Galvin (Rain Machine, Erin Durant, Michael Leviton) and will be released in the fall of 2024.

Images by Kathrine Zembera © 2019

Motel Pools

Motel Pools is a punk project started by Angelicola in 2015. Spin describes Motel Pools as having “grit and grime” while Impose Magazine described Motel Pools as “a particularly delectable style of fashionable destitution." Friend Kyp Malone of TV on the Radio worked beside Chiara as producer for the Motel Pools debut EP in 2015, and Angelicola produced Volume II along with directing the three music videos for “Waste Away”, “Lemme Walk Your Dog”, which features Ryan Katzner of Man Man, and “Suburbia”. 
Abrasive yet darling, earnest and playful, Chiara delivers a body of work that reckons with the perils of the ruthless music industry, her childhood suburban haunts, and former lovers.

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