Jed And Lucia

Jed and Lucia come from two distinctly different but complementary songwriting traditions. Jed being from the Pacific Northwest and Lucia hailing from Sweden, their collective voice is one of Seattle and Stockholm finding common musical ground. Playing host to this experiment is Southern California, where the naturally cold and rain-drenched angst of the two songwriters has been set out to dry beneath the relentless sun.

The two can be found sitting on their porch in the old civil war stagecoach stop of Chatsworth Lake, hidden away in the mountains on the far Northwestern border of Los Angeles without a streetlight or established property line in sight. The original home of the Lone Ranger and current home of The Hells Angels and at least one survivalist cult, its Topanga Canyon with guns and horses, landing on the border of L.A. county and Ventura so that neither police department will claim it to be within their jurisdiction. Its a place conducive to creating outside the norm, and where Jed and Lucia first fused their abstract folk with electronically organic beats and soundscapes.

Jed and Lucia met at CalArts, arriving there with some songs and leaving with some more songs and the uniquely inspired confusion that going to school for music can unknowingly bring a person. Though they continued to work on music together in different capacities, Jed and Lucia found themselves on very different musical paths.

Lucia released an album of acoustic, pared down original folk songs sung in both English and Swedish, and played live in Sweden in support of it. Staying connected to her native country has always been important to her, and she has performed there live and on both radio and television many times throughout her life as a performer. Lucia has explored other genres as well, performing in Los Angeles with a number of groups ranging from the famous Columbian singer Yari More, the Brazilian group Makoonaima, to performing Balinese dance under I Nyomen Wenten.

As for Jed, in 1999 he abandoned the guitar and singing and travelled through India and Africa with a tambourine in pursuit of exotic musical experiences, coming home with hundreds of rare albums after a 5 month record hunting expedition throughout West Africa. He started Afrodisiac Records with his longtime partner DJ Haul and began releasing compilations, DJing, and producing the popular "Afroheat" Series of mash up 12's released under the moniker Afrodisiac Sound System. The rest of Jed's time was spent on various musical projects, from playing wah wah Jaw harp with the 60 piece hip hop orchestra Dakah, performing on his constantly malfunctioning "next generation DJ setup" with the likes of Earth, Wind, and Fire, Mark Isham and Mike Garson (David Bowie), composing music for modern dance for Jamie Bishton, producing an album with Miroslav Tadic featuring the legendary Macedonian singer Vanjia Lazarova, and doing session work for folks ranging from Sean Callery to Sting.

After Jed and Lucia moved to Chatsworth Lake, Jed began making strange electronic sounds in their growing studio and insisting on playing questionable drums on Lucia's new songs whenever they would play together. Lucia would ask him to play guitar and sing with her and he would refuse out of some priciple long forgotten. One day Emma had had enough and in a fit of tears and rage ordered Jed to play guitar and sing with her. Jed was so shocked that he did. They dove into the confines of their studio for a year and a half, and emerged with Candles In Daylight.