Kira Fontana is a singer-songwriter and composer whose classically tinged alt-rock is often compared to Björk, Tori Amos, Imogen Heap and post-rock bands Tortoise and Sigur Rós. Her music straddles the boundaries between piano driven alternative pop songs and an almost orchestral music closer to minimal composers Steve Reich and Philip Glass.
The Inner Revolution is Fontana's official debut, mixed by Howard Bilerman (Arcade Fire, Godspeed You Black Emperor, British Seapower), and mastered by Howie Weinberg (Smashing Pumpkins, Jeff Buckley, Sonic Youth).
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On her debut album,
The Inner Revolution, songstress Kira Fontana triumphs in embracing an emotional rawness without fear, while also exploring a soul-searching mysticism that's undaunted in recognizing life's ever-changing moves. Like Sinead O'Connor and Tori Amos before her, the San Francisco Bay Area-born artist approaches such a task with unshakable power. Welcome to
The Inner Revolution.
"For me, [The Inner Revolution] is about coming full circle, back to the truth of who you are", Fontana says. "It's about really trusting that inner core above anything outside."
For Fontana, finding that place where your creative desires become a tangible realization began as early as five-years-old, when she started playing the piano by ear. Before she reached her teens, she was writing pop songs and classical piano instrumentals. She soon developed an insatiable appetite for all kinds of music, everything from alternative rock to Javanese gamelan, and explored the works of chamber music enthusiast Igor Stravinsky, and minimalist composers Steve Reich and Arvo Pärt.
"When I first heard Reich's "Music for 18 Musicians", I was completely blown away," Fontana says. "It was really a life changing moment, and it was then that I knew I would be a composer."
An anomaly among alt-rock musicians, Fontana studied classical composition with three Pulitzer prize winning composers before returning to her childhood love of songwriting. Her musical ventures took her to one of the top conservatories in the United States, the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, a period Fontana reflects upon as extremely progressive in mastering her craft as a composer. While there, Fontana's music attracted attention with its strong ties to the pop and minimalist idioms, winning composition awards and drawing the praise of two of America's greatest composers, Steve Reich and John Adams.
After four years of instruction in writing classical instrumental music, Fontana entered Yale for graduate studies as the top composition candidate that year, but soon began to feel that something was missing in her creative life. With stints writing and recording in New Haven, Brooklyn, and Montreal, she finessed her way back to songwriting by composing her first songs since age 13, beginning with a soothing, piano-driven ballad entitled "Still." It was the spiritual refresher she was craving. It's here that Fontana finds her artistic solace as she sings, "I'll come in rogue waves / in deepest silence / all I've ever wanted is to break upon your shore / I'm getting closer / closer to where you are."
Fontana, who composed, arranged and produced
The Inner Revolution, concisely molds an emotional catharsis with a natural blend of classical tinges and alt-rock leanings. From the haunting guitar riffs and layered strings of "Bloom" and the acoustic soundscapes of "Spark the Fire" to the slow-burning cadence of the near-nine minute epic "Always," Fontana brings both creative and spiritual forces together. It's with an easy spirit that The Inner Revolution defines an authentically expressive, minimalist pop-rock sound that's been simmering beneath mainstream rock's genre-blending stratum; the seven-song set is atmospheric, hypnotic and absolutely stunning.
Engineer Howie Weinberg (Sonic Youth, Smashing Pumpkins, Modest Mouse) mastered
The Inner Revolution, while Howard Bilerman (The Arcade Fire, Godspeed You Black Emperor!, British Sea Power) mixed the collection. Fontana issued the LP on her own Spark the Fire Records.
Fontana's music is currently being played on podcasts and online radio stations in Australia, Canada, England, Finland, Germany, Holland, Ireland, Israel, Spain and across the US. Shows in New York and California are slated for early 2010. The music video for "Bloom" from Brazilian director Andreia Vigo is available via
YouTube.
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Bio by MacKenzie Wilson
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