Acalanes Grad Investigates Musical Soul, Becomes Unwoman

San Francisco cellist, singer, composer, producer Erica Mulkey doesn't just march to her own drummer, she creates the entire band.

Mulkey and her family moved to Lafayette when she was 13 years old.  By the time she graduated from , she'd taught herself to sight-read, played the piano, studied cello, and was on her way to a name and an identity: the Unwoman.

"I chose the name exactly 10 years ago.  It's from a Margaret Atwood book where the "unwomen" are a particular underclass. Coming out of an elitist, I'm more underground than you are phase, I felt I had an affinity with the leftist community.  It was like saying, I'm not going to let the fundamentalist Christian views of women or gays get me down," Mulkey said.

What could come across as a schtick doesn't because Mulkey is a serious artist: one visit to her website and five minutes on YouTube tells the story.  As a songwriter, her lyrics are stripped of pretense.  The songs carry intense, personal messages that — oddly — describe timeless, universal aspects of humanity.

Her sound is layered: a voice that travels from silky to searing in one phrase, a cello she doesn't just play, she rocks on the instrument.

Growing up in the East Bay had a huge impact on her music.

"A friend of mine at Acalanes, Ali Fard, he got me listening to music of the '80's like Depeche Mode, The Smiths, The Cure, Joy Division. I really got into this kind of dark, goth music. On the weekends, I'd take BART into Berkeley. I'd go to Telegraph Avenue and buy vinyl and used CDs and explore the totally non-mainstream music," Mulkey said.

Her parents supported her interest, although her dad gave her many "it's hard to be a musician" talks.  They provided financial resources, allowing her to choose between the goth clothing she favored and music.  She put the money into cello lessons.

"I loved my music teachers at Acalanes but, at that point, Matthew Owens, my private teacher, was most influential.  He was just a fantastic cello teacher: I think we made a lot of musical breakthroughs together.  He taught me how to play ergonomically. Now, I can do rock cello, where the bowing is about hit-you-over-the-head sound, in a way that's really natural and comfortable."

Living in San Francisco is the perfect setting for Mulkey, whose creative juices flow when she's out on the street.

"About half of the time the idea comes in snippets when I'm walking. It's usually one or two lines of lyrics with a little bit of a melody. Sometimes I just sing into my phone. Then, I'll come home and sit at the piano and explore the rest. You get into a certain mode of thought when you're walking: Words can bubble forth as you think."

Mulkey's favorite playing gigs have a spontaneous, even dangerous aspect to them, as if testing the parameters is inherent to her process.  Recently, she has been collaborating with drummer Felix Macnee, busking at BART stations as the Heavy Sugar Duo.

"Basically, you have to just not annoy the BART agents. I, personally, have never been asked to leave," she said.

Behind Mulkey's propensity for experimentation, there's a hard-nosed business acumen.  She self-funded her album Casualties through Kickstarter, a platform for creative projects, and the BART performances provide a rent-free rehearsal location and exposure.  Heavy Sugar Duo now has gigs they trace directly to their free, public appearances.

"Music is a place where I work out some of my demons. That's what working on my own songs is," Mulkey said.  "And playing other people's music, it's a way to connect to them without talking to them."

The dual signal—come close/stay away—is Mulkey's allure.  Classically trained, astute, goth-influenced, dark and futuristic, she's Unwoman: unclassifiable.

List of releases by Unwoman:

Unremembered - 2010 http://unwoman.bandcamp.com/album/unremembered

Casualties - 2010 http://unwoman.bandcamp.com/album/casualties

Blossoms - 2007 http://unwoman.bandcamp.com/album/blossoms

Wildness & Artifice - 2005

http://unwoman.bandcamp.com/album/wildness-artifice

Knowledge Scars - 2002 http://unwoman.bandcamp.com/album/knowledge-scars

Upcoming Heavy Sugar Duo gigs:

Sunday, 924 Gilman St., Berkeley, doors open at 6 p.m., with Nezzy Idy and Nomadic War Machine

Dec. 28, Coda, 1710 Mission St., San Francisco, A Night of Experimental Cello, with Sam Bass and Cello Joe