Medella Kingston
I was born into Generation X on Long Island, NY, and discovered music before the manicured green lawns of the suburbs killed my creative soul. Piano taught me the math of music and then guitar led me to my voice, which came out much deeper and thicker than anyone expected from a skinny girl with frizzy hair. I was a wallflower who needed and outlet; I started writing songs at twelve and never stopped.

I sang depressing ballads and thumped out rhythm guitar on my acoustic in any coffeehouse that would let me. The music scene in Boston was great, but San Francisco was calling my name. My first Bay Area band was a well intended but unspectacular all woman foursome called Finger. We had a fair amount of gigs for unknowns but a failed romance between the guitarist and bassist split the band apart. Next I had the terrific opportunity to work with Chris Stone and Nancy Kravitz in Fiction. We played Folsom and Castro Street Fairs, and had the pleasure of opening for Linda Perry in 1997. The band stayed together for several years and then dissolved.

I turned to Craig's List where I saw an ad placed by musical genius M2. Seriously, this man's IQ is well over my weight. We began collaborating and found a groove that eventually took us to our unique hybrid musical style. Our influences couldn't be more different. He never listened to the goddesses I grew up on: Deborah Harry, Joan Armatrading, Patti Smith, PJ Harvey, Chrissie Hynde, Johnette Neopolitano, and others. But somehow we have intense musical chemistry. We both like taking varied approaches to composing, and working within limits but pushing boundaries. I didn't know who I was as a musician until I started working with M2

When I'm not making music I crave the great outdoors where I spend a lot of time with my dogs. I'm also a fiction writer and a movie junkie.
 

M2

I spent my formative years riding the bus to school in Sleepy Hollow, NY crossing the same bridge that saw Ichabod Crane galloping away from the Headless Horseman.
With a graveyard on one side, and a pumpkin patch on the other, it’s no wonder I like Oingo Boingo and Mr.Bungle.

My old school dad worked for AKG Microphones and had over two thousand albums, tube amps the Smithsonian wanted, and turntables sprouting six arms. He took me to see amazing bands in the studio. I played cello and guitar and and all that's probably why I dig Peter Gabriel, Frank Zappa, King Crimson and Stravinsky. My dad read sci-fi and collected dinner menus. We never got along. But it’s no surprise my Kindle is filled with sci-fi and Sandman Slim, while my weekends send me off in search of fresh yellowtail belly and gourmet street food.

I entered college as a sheltered 16 year old pre-med nerd. After immediate over-exposure to bad influences, girls, isolation tanks, and singing the blues in a band called Iron Bible, music was all she wrote. When I heard Adrian Belew make a guitar sound like a rhinoceros and 50 other things that a guitar is incapable of sounding like, it was all about six strings and guitar synthesis. And playing in Outpost.

In the wondrous Bay Area, after my old band  Sci-Fi imploded, I made my greatest discovery: Medella Kingston. Lover of dogs, teacher of children and a compositional force of nature. Add to that her amazing multi-persona vocals, her unpredictable sexy gender-bending performances, and the simple poetry of her lyrics and I knew I’d finally reached escape velocity. This woman loved the rock I loved, and taught me the pop as art and dance music she loved. Omnesia was born, a two-headed sonic monster that gives birth to songs that span the gamut from dark electro-pop to future vintage rock.

Medella comes up with our greatest of ideas. That’s the hard part. But it lets me do what I do best - take those ideas and build the auditory palace they live in. I get to arrange, write, mix and record everything from the big beats and psychedelic ear candy to the huge guitars and pulsating synths. Our world class global touring musician friends step in and supply whatever is missing.

We love that all our tunes rarely grow up to be what we expected. We share a love for the groundbreaking seminal music of the 80’s, while surfing the cutting edge. When I am not slaving away in the studio, I’m enjoying my wife, daughter, dog and 5 cats. And it’s no surprise my daughter is singing in musicals, craves five spice roasted duck and draws me plenty of aliens.