Karina Frost is front and center in the new movement of up and coming singer/songwriters in San Diego. While performing under the radar for quite a while,
she is now garnering more interest, more bookings and the crowds are growing for her shows.

Her American-Mexican culture produced a rich blend of both personality and musical growth. Raised in a multicultural home, she doesn’t recall a lot of music being played at home. She remembers stories about her grandfather in Ensenada playing guitar and performing solo and in a trio in his younger years. Her other family members are not musicians, but they love to dance. Music was played at home for the purpose of dancing.

Karina received her first guitar from her grandfather at the age of twelve and started taking lessons soon afterward. While growing up, her main musical background was latin music, but there were also a lot of secular influences like Michael Jackson, Marty Robbins, Linda Ronstadt, Johnny Cash. Ballads and story telling are her greatest influences and more than the guitar, the story is what is primary.

The music that really shaped her sound came from Bob Dylan and Tom Waits. I wanted to tell the story the way they do. Today, there is also an infusion of hip hop as they are the artists that are saying the most. Because they are passionate on how they use their words. “My music uses instruments to support the voice, the message.”

Mark Chavez, who ran an alternative school of music, became one of her greatest mentors. “Mark gave me a vision and the ability to hear the music coming together.” It also gave her the experience of performing with other musicians. Each week the students would gather to perform as a group, thereby learning how the interaction with other musicians takes individual parts and forms a completely different sound. Mimi Zulu, Verdell Smith,Tori Roze, are some of the San Diego artists who shared the musical keys with me to help me get gigs and become a better musician.

Karina says her music empowers her to tell her stories, which is what interested her in the first place. “It started out as music that was about me, and now has evolved to it being about the world around me.” Karina’s music is all about the community around her, not just about her struggles and experiences, but also about everyone else’s as well. I have the responsibility to show others not just who I am, but who they are.

While she started out as a solo performer, “the music was always bigger in my head.” The time came when she was offered a booking at a large club, but the booking agent told her she could not book as a solo, she needed to have a full band for that venue. That gave her the push to find like minded musicians to work with to get to that “bigger in my head” sound.

With the booking date approaching, the Banduvloonswas formed. While Karina takes center stage in the band, the musical parts for each member are not as structured as is typical with scores or sheet music.  Performance is allowed to be free flowing from each of the band members, depending on what they are feeling in that moment and what they want to contribute right then, right now. This is an obvious call out to the band’s motto, which is “Let’s Get Loony”.  Loony as in having a good time and let’s see where it takes us.

There is an open message to Karina’s music. “Happiness is to share.” “Lift me up, take me there.” “We don’t have to just share the negative, we can share the happiness as well.” “Humanity, love, respect.” At the end of each show, she hopes that the audience can take away passion, be passionate about something. It’s also about sending unconditional love to the queer, muslim, black, migrant, disabled communities and every one else out there that feels alone or marginalized.

“My life purpose is to drive the music as far as I possibly can, to be a stabilizing force in my community rather than becoming a huge star.” “I want to be impactful, constantly.” Be a voice of the people as Bob Dylan was back in his early days. “I have all these ideas…some of them are conspiring against me, but some of them are inspiring.”

The story of “Lifted” inspires the annual “Lift Me Up” benefit for artists of color who are creating impactful art, contributing to the community and are deserving of our support.

Karina Frost and The Banduvloons are finalizing the work on their first CD to be released as soon as the mastering is completed, hopefully before the end of 2018. You should make the effort to see them perform live. They are a fresh voice ready for big things and with a lot to say.

You can also find them here on their social media sites:

https://www.facebook.com/KarinaFrostAndTheBanduvloons/?ref=br_rs

https://www.instagram.com/banduvlandia/?hl=en

http://www.karinafrostmusic.com