Welcome to the cyberlair of art-funk composer, musician, and writer PC Muñoz.
About PC Muñoz
Art-Funk composer, musician, and writer PC Muñoz confronts and celebrates the mixed-race indigenous experience in his 2013 multidisciplinary project HALF-BREED. Exploring the relationships between mixed-race indigenous people, the dominant American culture, and authenticity gatekeepers within indigenous subcultures, HALF-BREED will be a collaborative event featuring mixed-race artists from both indigenous Asian-Pacific Islander traditions and continental Native American traditions.
"In many ways, HALF-BREED is a project I've been working towards my entire artistic life," PC says. "In 1995, Artlab Books published my first chapbook Half-Truths, which was my first attempt to actively address issues related to multi-racial identity. In the following years, various poetry journals published key pieces of mine touching on related issues, and my 2002 CD a good deed in a weary world features a track that explores my own particular mix. But this is my first project to specifically give voice to and celebrate the unique experience of being 'half-indigenous'. I'm tremendously excited to work on this!"
PC's genre-defying projects as an artist and producer are stylistically broad and deep, revealing a sonic explorer equally at home with electronic funk, all-acoustic hip-hop, percussion-heavy improv, spoken-word, world-music fusion, and contemporary classical. His partnership with composer/cellist/longtime Kronos Quartet member Joan Jeanrenaud has yielded two highly acclaimed projects: the Grammy-nominated Strange Toys and the iTunes-charting cello and beats duo album Pop-Pop. A frequent and enthusiastic collaborator, PC has recorded and/or performed with rock legend Jackson Browne, dream-pop poet/chanteuse Ingrid Chavez, Prince and the Revolution synth wizard Dr. Fink, Kulintang virtuoso Danny Kalanduyan, sonic surrealist Kevin Carnes of Broun Fellinis, woodwinds renegade Kyle Bruckmann, noise/metal vocalist AC Way, and countless other musicians and recording artists across a wide range of genres.
PC's past interdisciplinary collaborations include 2012's Fall of a Sudden project in Hong Kong, 2008's public art installation Light Haiku with kinetic sculptor Chris Eckert, 2005's award-winning project Twenty Haiku, and ongoing performances with Vadim Puyandaev and Erika Tsimbrovsky of Avy-K Productions, including the December 2012 production Ir-Rational.
PC began his career in San Francisco in the early 90s as a R&B/Gospel drummer and indie producer, while teaching elementary school by day. In 1998 he launched a solo artist/label entrepreneur career, releasing his debut solo disc, The Trouble I'd Bring You on his own label, Beevine Records. Beevine also released 2002's CMJ-charting A Good Deed in a Weary World, 2004's Golden State mash-note California (featuring Jackson Browne on the title track), and 2005's Twenty Haiku. In 2005, PC delved further into production and artist development, co-founding the unique record label/private recording studio entity Talking House Productions with Seagate CEO Steve Luczo and 5 close music industry colleagues. Known as the Bay Area's premiere studio with the only SSL-9000K console in Northern California, the former Talking House facility is now called Studio Trilogy, and hosts everyone from local up-and-comers to pop mega-stars like Lady Gaga and will.i.am.
Born and raised in San José, California, amidst innovation and entrepreneurialism, Muñoz now resides in San Francisco.
UPCOMING PROJECTS AND APPEARANCES
Fall 2013 HALF-BREED
A one-time collaborative event exploring and celebrating the mixed-race indigenous experience!
Saturday November 23, 2013
The Loft Literary Center
1011 Washington Ave S
Minneapolis, MN 55415
Collaborators TBA!
PC Muñoz is a 2013 Loft Equilibrium Spoken Word Immersion Fellow. This program is made possible by a major grant from the Surdna Foundation and by the generous support of Loft members.
Stay tuned for news on PC's upcoming new releases with Joan Jeanrenaud, DEM ONE, and more!
WORK WITH PC!
PC Muñoz is available for select audio/music projects as composer, producer, or marimbata player/ cajón drummer, and as a content creator/project leader for large and small creative initiatives.
Visit PC's LinkedIn page here and contact PC directly at the address below for all inquiries.
PC AWARDED FELLOWSHIP BY THE LOFT LITERARY CENTER: PC is a 2013 Loft Equilibrium Spoken Word Immersion Fellow---a program made possible by a major grant from the Surdna Foundation and by the generous support of Loft members. PC's November 2013 collaborative project HALF-BREED is possible because of this fellowship....stay tuned for details!
COLLABORATION WITH DEM ONE: PC just wrapped a unique new collab track with San José emcee DEM ONE, with a video directed by Chris Woon/Paper Son. Watch for it later this spring!
BERKELEY ART MUSEUM PHOTO SET: Check out this photo set from the March 22nd "Positively Alphabet Street" performance by PC Munoz's Singing Blood, at Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film archive, with special guests DEM ONE and Tyia Wilson! PC's blog post about the event is on the BAM/PFA site here.
PCM FILM SCORE: PC is beginning work on the incidental music score for Glenn Mack's upcoming motion picture Brujo which was filmed in Vermont and San Francisco and features the choreography of Marina Fukushima, with a story involving artistry, jealousy, passion, and magic. Lots of talented people from across the nation involved in this project..stay tuned for details!
NEW JJ/PCM MUSIC!: PC was recently at Studio Trilogy tracking some way-out drumset, marimbata, and kalimba tracks for Joan Jeanrenaud's new compositions for the Dance Theater of Harlem, which will debut in NYC sometime in 2013...check out the March 2013 issue of DRUM! Magazine for an article PC wrote about those sessions!
CHASE MARTIN ALBUM: PC is about halfway through with work on the upcoming album by Oakland Pop/R&B artist Chase Martin, featuring an incredible roster of Bay Area session players. Stay tuned for teaser videos/previews!
FALL OF A SUDDEN MUSIC: For those who missed the Hong Kong dance performance Fall of a Sudden, featuring the choreography of Allen Lam and the music of PC Muñoz and Kyle Bruckmann, you can hear some of the studio-prepared material at PC's bandcamp page here. Live, the studio-prepared material is augmented by percussion and voice by PC and oboe and english horn by Bruckmann.
VIDEO GUIDE: 1. "HALF-BREED" teaser video 2. "Panama Canal" by Joan Jeanrenaud and PC featured on So You Think You Can Dance 3. Fall of a Sudden promo video, featuring Hong Kong rehearsal footage and audio collage, Summer 2012 4. "Counterfeit" from PC's Micro-Jams project 5. PC Muñoz's Singing Blood: "Positively Alphabet Street" performance at the Berkeley Art Museum, audience footage 6. "Hippie Girl" music video from PC's Micro-Jams 7. PC's remix of Ingrid Chavez's "By the Water" single, featuring PC on drumkit, synth, and marimbata 8. "33 1/3" from the album Pop-Pop by Joan Jeanrenaud and PC 9. "Arietta" by Kev Choice, produced by PC
Press
"Dark, sexual, sensual, confessional, and confrontational--all at the same time...a poet." Performing Songwriter
"3.5 Stars (for Pop-Pop). This cello-and-percussion team moves through 10 tracks that are alternately tantalizing, mesmerizing, even somber at times." DownBeat
"(PC Muñoz) is truly a modern musician, equally at home with a live band, playing the most organic of instruments...or hunched over a computer, making beats and working magic with ProTools..." Tom Chandler, East Bay Express
"Muñoz's tasteful electronics, effortlessly balancing hard-hitting syncussion with bouncy basslines and buttery synth washes, are the perfect counterpoint to the thought-provoking words he spits out with an incomparable cool....undeniable talent for crafting songs that stimulate the mind and the body." Amorn Bholsangngam, Urb Magazine
"Somewhere between hip-hop attitude, Minneapolis nasty and latin rock playa chops, PC Muñoz has an instantly compelling sound that defies definition..." Rickey Vincent, author of "Funk: The Music, The People, and The Rhythm of the One" and host of KPFA's "The History of Funk" radio show
"Compelling beats, clever lyrics, and special guests, such as cellist Jean Jeanrenaud, make (Grab Bag) an enjoyable listen." Electronic Musician
"...undeniable stage presence...laid-back, but commanding...the show is a left hook all right---and a knock out at that." Mike Osegueda, Fresno Bee
"Great work. It's all too rare to hear someone breaking new ground in the pop field." John Zorn, Composer
"... PC Muñoz consistently redefine(s) himself, sailing effortlessly across artistic categories..." Marian Liu, San Jose Mercury News
