Believe in Von Iva
SFist was blown away by Von Iva when they opened for Metric at the Great American Music Hall in late October. This all-female Bay area-based band doesn't need no stinkin' guitars -- just bass, drums & keys mixed with the loud, proud blues-gospel-soul vocals of foxy, feral front-woman Jillian Iva. Love the Yeah Yeah Yeah's? Love PJ Harvey? Love your rock to make your heart pound and your shoulders shimmy? These ladies have just what you're looking for.
Catch them live this Saturday at 12 Galaxies, opening for Bing Ji Ling. Doors open at 9pm and tickets are $10, available in advance here. Fresh off their video shoot for "Not Hot To Trot" [watch the video here], SFist tracked down bassist Elizabeth Davis-Simpson and vocalist Jillian Iva and asked them a few questions.
Describe Von Iva's sound for those who haven't heard you.
Elizabeth: Elements of disco & soul with the energy of rock. When we write music, it’s important to us that it gives you something that will make you want to dance, move, feel. It’s immediate. Emotional. Fun. Some influences: Devo, Sly and the Family Stone, old Tina Turner, Franz Ferdinand, The Gories.
Von Iva is 'San Francisco-based' -- how long have you lived in the Bay Area and where? Tell us how you all met.
Elizabeth: I’m proud to be living here in this day and age, for sure. S.F. is a very special city. I moved here from Seattle in 1997 with my band, 7 Year Bitch. When that band broke up, I started playing bass in Clone, who was looking for a keyboard player. We tried out some serious, sheet music reading types but needed someone who understood our vibe and could play by feel. I was just starting to become friends with Kelly (AKA Lay Lay) and we loved the same music and got along really great so I asked her to try out. She was playing bass in another band at the time so I knew she could make the switch to keys and she did. She fit in w/ Clone’s dark disco arty weirdness but when that band called it quits we just knew we had to continue playing together. So it became Kelly, her friend Bex and I experimenting w/ sounds and trading instruments and stuff. We heard about Jillian’s vocal skills from our mutual friend, Jesse from The Vanishing, and as soon as we all got in one room together and started playing, it was obvious that this was our destiny: to have a lot of fun making good, dancey music together.
You've only been together about a year, yet your live show makes it seem like a lot longer. How'd you get so good so fast?
Elizabeth: Work. We wrote and discarded quite a lot of material until we found our sound, so getting that clarity took some work. We rehearsed a lot before taking the stage and were set on presenting a professional, but really fun, live act. Clone was a very exacting band and I think Lay Lay and I took some of that with us to Von Iva. Bex is a precision oriented individual for sure so Jillian has a solid backdrop to cut loose onstage to. Lay Lay just started playing drums when Von Iva was born, same for Bex on Keys so the work ethic is in there pretty strong. We continue to practice three days a week!
Tell us what's good and what's bad about being a band in San Francisco.
Elizabeth: What’s good is SF is full of fun, creative, emotional people and that’s perfect for Von Iva. It’s also pretty close to L.A. and for artists, that’s important. Bands can have a tendency to get stuck here. It’s important to strike out to make yourself heard in other places. There are some really amazing bands in San Francisco. I’ve always thought the music community here was pretty great, even before I lived here.
Jillian, we hear that Von Iva is your first band. Where did you learn your skills to be a front-woman?
Jillian: I grew up in a very music oriented family and my mom sang in Sweet Adeline’s (Barbershop). I watched more MTV than cartoons in the 80’s growing up due to living with teenage siblings (9, 10 and 16 years older than I). I’ve always wanted to perform, it just took awhile to work up to it. I knew that I was blessed with a voice and I wanted to make the most of it. So after watching and studying my whole life I finally decided to put my skills to the test. It was a little scary at first but I had to give 110% to feel good about what I was doing. After the initial shock of my first time onstage it came naturally. I realized that I could either torture myself with nerves and insecurities or just get up there and bust my ass and have some fun…I obviously chose the latter. It’s really easy having such supportive and talented ladies surrounding me -- they are a big source of my confidence.
San Francisco audiences can be kind of stiff and stoic when faced with a band they've never heard before. Do you have any sure-fire secrets for winning over a crowd?
Elizabeth: When that happens, I look to my band mates for energy and put a lot more out. Watching the crowd transform is one of the most rewarding parts of performing. But I gotta say, SF audiences are great.
What's Von Iva's mission? (As in, "An inner calling to pursue an activity or perform a service".) If you don't have a mission, tell us something funny that's happened to you in the Mission.
Elizabeth: Hmmm, “performing a service”. Yes, I like to think of myself as servicing the audience. As long as they service me back.
We're expecting great things from you. What are your plans for world domination?
Elizabeth: Thanks for the vote of confidence – I’m a believer. Japan, Australia, S. America, US, Europe and all the weird little places in between that you only know about from the Risk game board; we wanna play there and combine worlds. There’s too much division between people. If anything can help that, it’s music.