| The Exclusive Interview with Rhonda Valles of Taming Ingrid! |
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| Rhonda Valles is the highly energetic guitarist of California party-rock band Taming Ingrid, whom have built quite a following and an equally impressive reputation around the Golden State as a band on the rise. Taming Ingrid hopes to be ready to take the rest of the nation by storm as they are working on their first full length album. To get a sneak peek on what you are in for when Taming Ingrid gets you entangled into their spirited feel-good music, you can read this great interview with the talented Ms. Valles, and you can feel the excitement soaking through every word! |
| Q: Rhonda, thank you very much for taking the time to join me here for this interview! You are the guitarist for a band that is on the rise very quickly around California called Taming Ingrid. Tell us a bit about your bandmates, and how long the band has been together? A: Monica , (the lead singer) and I have been songwriting together for over 5 years. She was in a funk band, and my neighbor played in her band. We met and started hanging out and found that we clicked really well musically. We put a contemporary / Latin style band together consisting of 8 people (percussion, back up singers, guitar /bass/drums) and played around town for a while and produced and wrote a great album called Project Ralph. The style was real adult and more mellow. It was very raw and exposed. I love that album. So then we started heading more into mainstream pop but maintained our roots. Monica is more R&B influenced, and I am more classic rock influenced. We put together Taming Ingrid. We have been through many musicians...different drummers, guitar players, bass players until about 1 year ago we hooked up with Drew (drummer). We all clicked really well. He has that R&B background as well, but still solid and loud enough to carry me through my intense chunky rock moments, and perfect dynamics to compliment the vocals. He also sings, which is WAY important to our music. Then after that, we met Lee. He walked in and I knew right away he was the bass player for us. Interestingly enough, I had the vibe with both guys before I even heard them play, I knew that they would be the "missing links". Lee is an excellent bass player, Jazz influenced. He adds nice coloring to the vocals while locking in with Drew really well, and versatile enough to give us that low, groovin' backbone on the choruses, but adding nice melodic parts over the verses that compliment the vocals. So now we all really compliment each other well. The journey to each other was guided not only by musicianship, but by kinship as well. Its real important to me and Monica (and the guys) that we can all talk freely, that we can party and laugh, but also discuss ideas openly. Some may conflict and some we agree on, but we can talk about everything and not beat each other up! (laughs). Well, sometimes we have our moments but we know that no matter what happens we will always Stick together. We're getting closer everyday. We hang out and BBQ, we watch TV, when we tour we talk ALOT and sometimes during rehearsals (which happens atleast 3X a week) we go outside and toss a football around for a few minutes. All in all we really are happy with each other musically and as friends. Q: People seem to really stand up and pay attention when they see a female guitarist in a band that isn't shy about stepping up to the front of the stage and really wailing on the guitar, and you have certainly impressed a lot of people by doing that! How long have you been playing, and what made you want to pick up a guitar for the first time? A: I've been Practicing the guitar for at least 12 years, but my Dad is a grrreat guitar player! So I have had Guitar a part of my life since I was born. My Dad used to try and get me to practice but I never would....until later. I grew up playing everything from piano & organ, percussion & drums, and whatever else we had around the house. My dad and I would jam all the time. Then when I started really focusing, I would turn on the radio, sit in my room for hours and just play along with whatever was on. I would switch stations from classic rock, modern rock, grunge, smooth jazz, blues, old school 50's stuff like Buddy Holly, and Latin rock..even Latin stations...literally..whatever was on I would play to it. Everything I know to this day I learned by ear. If I look at a music book my eyes cross. I did try to study some theory and learn a Little about notation but it started to freak my brain out. My left brain started fighting with my right brain and my creativity got all pissed off. So...when someone starts trying to tell me why my A-minor diminished note doesn't theoretically fit with a B-major seventh..I lose it. If it SOUNDS good, then it Fits. My Guitar is really important to me. Every note I play means something. Its my voice. Like Monica who writes her lyrics, she has a message. Its clear and you can hear what she's saying. Its great. With me my notes, the arrangement, the rhythms and the leads all say something. Dynamic is to my guitar parts as Affect is to speaking. Q: I know that Taming Ingrid is currently working on their first full length album at this time. What does the progress of the album look like so far? A: The album is coming out great! We have a lot of new songs that haven't been heard (well, we play some at live shows) but it really is turning out Fat! We plan to have it completed for distribution by July 1st. So far, we're on schedule! We have a lot of variety on this album. We'll take you from Happy and Fun to Funk and Fun to Deep and Rockin to Mellow and Classic. You'll really be able to hear what I meant by having the combination of influences. Each of our styles are combined and well heard for such a cool mix. Q: Have you been shopping around the demos much? A: Nah. This isn't going to be a demo. Were going to be distributing this nationwide for sale. We have a small label already, and a couple PR people , radio PR people, and so forth working on the team so there has been no shopping needs. I have shopped for shoes though. Q: What do you listen to for inspiration when you are feeling creative and you want to write a catchy riff or lyrics? A: I listen to Robert Cray, I listen to Skynnard, Allman Brothers, Santana, Clapton, Steely Dan, Lindsey Buckingham and more...I usually listen to them for feel. Like while I'm just hanging out or driving...sometimes I play along to the CD. But when I'm in the riff writing mood, I usually just record a loop of my music, and play along to it for hours and record all the different takes of myself. Q: Rhonda, it has been a real pleasure having you here with us, and I wish Taming Ingird all the best and future success. Do you have any other projects or live dates that you would like to plug here before we wrap up? A: ALL Of them Please. We have a bunch of shows this year and new dates keep going up. We're planning on playing outside of California, so check out the Website and Join the mailing List for Updates! Also, We'll be up on the Budweiser.com site too so check that out! There's a lot going on with us and Budweiser and more....they will have a Video of our last show at BB KINGS up for viewing soon! Also we have a new website being built ...should be up by July 1st as well. It'll have Chat Rooms, Video's, ALL of our Song Clips, Pictures and more! Come to a Show if you can!!!!!!!!!!! OH! And Check out our Site for the List of Radio Stations playing our song! There's many stations all over the country so there HAS to be one near you! Please call in and request us! The more REQUESTS we get, the better our chances of getting out there to play a couple LIVE shows! Thanks so much for supporting our band!!!!!!!! TAMING INGRID! |