UNWOMAN - BIOGRAPHY

San Francisco-based Unwoman, also known as Erica Mulkey, creates darkly beautiful music. Her repertoire is a powerful collage of vocals, cello, and electronics. Matthew Heilman of Starvox.net writes, "Her style ranges from a kind of experimental trip hop to swirling darkwave atmosphere with just enough static and noise to give it that extra technical punch."

She began playing the cello at nine years old, and piano at eleven. At thirteen Erica wrote her first songs for piano and voice. At sixteen she began studying electronic music at a local community college while continuing to play the cello and piano, compose, sing, and study music theory.

Erica earned a BA in music (emphasis on cello) and minored in electronic music at UC Santa Cruz. While at UCSC she began a thriving (now erstwhile) mp3.com page, choosing the name "Unwoman" from Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, in solidarity with females in the novel's dystopia who are stigmatized and punished for rejecting traditional gender roles. After graduating, Erica worked hard to finish and self-publish her debut album Knowledge Scars, which received fantastic reviews.

Unwoman has studied the cello with Patty Hicks, Nick Anderson (who invited the young Erica to receive instruction from revered pedagogue Margaret Rowell, then 94 years old), and Karen Andrie at UCSC. By far her most influential teacher has been international composer-performer, writer, and Renaissance Man Matthew Owens. Matthew Owens has been guiding Erica's musical development for well over a decade, and his instruction has been integral to her developing both cello technique and compositional savvy.

In July 2005 Unwoman published Wildness & Artifice, a wholly original double-CD featuring a full CD of material in a similar vein to Knowledge Scars, plus a bonus acoustic piano-vocal CD. This followed closely on the heels of the Web-only EP, Artifice and expanded and refined the production techniques of her debut. At the end of 2007 Unwoman released Blossoms, an utterly gorgeous album featuring one half with original electro-acoustic works, and one half with acoustic (mostly cello-vocal) compositions based on poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay.

Erica performed in Rasputina at Convergence 12 in New Orleans and in part of their June 2006 US tour. She has also performed with Falling You and Push Dance, among others. In 2007 she recorded sessions for Attrition, Jill Tracy, and Aoede for their upcoming releases. She also stars in a successful Siouxsie and the Banshees tribute band called Spellbound.

Erica lives with her husband and stepson in San Francisco and thoroughly enjoys producing hip-hop, pop, rock, and country ringtones for Moderati as her day job.