Tuesday, March 4th, 2008
Interview with Sophia Ramos: KICKING DOWN THE DOOR OF MALE-DOMINATED ROCK RADIO!
Super Latina Rocker Chick:
Careful She'll Kick Your Ass
Inti Janeiro
Written By Inti Janeiro for Latinflava, Y2K
Sophia Ramos' life story has just about been what you'd expect a Rock star's life to be like, one full of heartache and despair interspersed with nights of all out head banging and bottle throwing. Let's not forget the everyday struggles one goes through in life, only in this case amplified about a hundred times, after all she is a Rock star.
And Sophia is a star; the world just doesn't know it yet. Standing at 5'6" her mane of curly black hair cascades over a face that can even turn Hip Hop enthusiast into bonafied headbangers and tops off a body that, well, especially when she grabs her breast and crotch on stage, sent me off into the land of make-belief, but that's another story!
The point is that Sophia rocks! She lets loose all those years of rage in one guttural and powerful roar with a voice reminiscent of Tina Turner, Gwen Stafani, and (dare I say even) a little bit, just a little bit of that Sade smoothness. And let's set the record straight right now, Sophia is not part of the Latin explosion; she IS the Latin explosion, she's the shockwaves from the Latin explosion, the ringing that will be left in your ears long after the Latin explosion is long gone. America better brace itself!
Born in the Bronx back when it looked as bad as those Death Wish movies with Charlie Bronson portrayed it to be, Sophia realized she wanted to sing one day while in the bathroom of her childhood apartment. But, as she put it, life happened and it wasn't until a few years later and after spearheading a religious movement in her home that she made the transition from bathroom to blues bar. Religious devotee? Yes this Bronx bred Rock and Roll Queens first calling was the Lord or his music at least.
I was a fanatic, said Ramos concerning her brief exodus into religion. My mother was really passive about religion. I was the one that became a Christian. My family was Catholic. One day when I was 5 my grandmother took me to a Pentecostal church and that was it for me cuz they had a band! They had a drummer, a bass player, a guitar player, a violin player, a conga player and everybody had a tambourine. It was such a great time! For me it was a social scene because my mother was really strict. We grew up in the worst f*cking neighborhood and she would not let us go out, ever! Church was great cuz I could get the f*ck out the house 5 times a week!
One day while taking a break from her religious duties she stumbled upon her second calling. A form of expression that was to send her off on yet another journey if not straight to hell, Rock and Roll!
I don't mean to sound sappy or spiritual but I think Rock awakened my Kundalini. I'll never forget the 1st time I heard Black Dog by Led Zeppelin. I flipped out! I totally flipped out! I was Pentecostal until I was 12 and when I heard Black Dog it was so rebellious, so rah, and so I'm gonna kick you in the ass and I don't f*cking care! That I think was the ultimate kind of expression for me. I could release my rage in a beautiful way. That's what Rock and Roll said to me!
Beautiful? Maybe, but Ramos has had to see a lot of ugly in order to release that rage. It all started with that feeling that seemingly surges through the insides of all future stars, Rebellion. At 15 she ran away from home and walked into a blues bar in The Village, - I don't remember which one, - she claims. As she puts it, I turned it out, I floored them!
Since then Ramos has lived the life most aspiring Rock stars dream of; she took on a bad boyfriend, joined his band and rocked dingy blues bars about town where greedy promoters, burly bouncers, flying beer bottles and uncontrollable rage were the norm. When her boyfriend became envious of all the accolades she was getting, he got nasty. That relationship was a mistake! she earnestly claims. Dropping her boyfriend like a bad habit she did like all good future stars do; she turned inward.
Ramos' music has never been the same again. She started her own band and within two years had record labels knocking on her dressing room door. This is Rock and Roll, however, and there remained more twists to come.
After having my 1st band together for 2 years we got signed by Epic and we did an album. They dropped us before the album was gonna come out. Literally the A&R guy said, We don't think there's a market for female Rock and Roll, especially for a woman of color. We don't think you'll sell records to kids in Iowa.
Well, it seems Iowa and the rest of the world is listening now. Recently voted VHI's Best Undiscovered Artist honor Sophia is on her way to stardom and on her own damn terms!
I'm doing this all by myself right now, explains Sophia. I have no manager or anything. Shit, I'm in debt right now!
With record labels knocking on her door again and possible deals in the works, Sophia is keeping her hopes up and continues rocking various venues throughout the city. No more dinghy blues bars though, now it's the Lollapalooza tour and, okay, an occasional dingy Village bar. One thing is for sure this time around; no shortsighted A&R or white washed system will get in her way.
I grew up under the impression that I had every right to the American dream as well. So you're saying I can't do Rock and Roll? We all know the history of Rock and Roll! Why is it that Britney Spears and all these blonde chicks can do R&B music? I have every right to sing Rock and Roll! I'm great at it and I write great songs, so what's up, it's the 21st century, people are ready!
Open wide the doors to Sophia, if you dont shell knock em down!!
______________________________________________
by Jennifer Layton for GoGirlsMusic
Kicking Down the Door of
Male-Dominated Rock Radio:
An Interview with Sophia Ramos
NYC's Sophia Ramos has a raging, powerful singing voice straight out of the Headbanger's Ball. Always cringing at reviewers' attempts to classify her as a VH1 Diva, she emphatically calls herself a rock and roll singer. And she will argue that point. As friendly and humorous as she is during interviews, she also uses the salty language of a drunken Marine on shore leave in Singapore. She's tough and smart, a showstopper who appeared onstage on the 1996 Lollapalooza tour wearing huge KISS boots and a leather jockstrap filled with lemons, which she tossed into the cheering crowd.
But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Ramos story is full of glam rock and backstage chaos, but it's also one of determination, surviving dangerous situations and pursuing her dream of making it as a rock singer.
She's on her way. New York radio station WBAB (102.3 FM) recently named her Artist of the Week, driving her web site hits up. She's recorded with Metallica's Jason Newstead, was voted "Best Unsigned Artist" on the short-lived interactive VH1 program "Breakthrough" in September 2000, and is currently considering an offer to participate in the network's reality series "Bands on the Run"; releasing her first full-length CD [HER MAJESTY, 2005] after releasing two well-received 4-track demos in 2000. Not bad for a former teenage street hustler who squatted in abandoned buildings and rummaged in trash cans to survive.
Ramos was born in the Bronx and grew up in the late seventies and early eighties, "when the Bronx was a fucking shithole," she says. "Crack was becoming an epidemic. Junkies were living in these burned-out buildings all around me. I learned to deal and watch my back."
The third and youngest child of Puerto Rican parents, Ramos inherited her father's interest in music. He was also an aspiring singer and performer who took classes at Fred Astaire Dance Studios and even appeared on television with his brother. Then came marriage and three daughters, and his musical career ended. He worked three jobs to help support his family, but his womanizing behavior led him to leave when his youngest was only three.
Ramos' sisters were ten and eight years older than she was, so they helped raise their baby sister while Mom worked in a sewing factory. "It was like having three moms," Ramos says. "They taught me to do stuff like tie my shoes, things that moms usually teach their kids." As teens, her sisters became heavily influenced by the work ethic their immigrant parents drilled into them including the importance of getting a good education. They put their own musical interests aside to focus on school.
But Ramos had other plans. She was active in her school's drama club and gospel choir and made good grades, but by the time she was fourteen, the stress of her home life made it difficult for her to focus on academics. She left home at sixteen and squatted on the Lower East Side, scouring the garbage cans in wealthy neighborhoods for jewelry and clothes to sell on the street. ("You wouldn't believe some of the nice shit rich people throw away!" she says, still incredulous.) She also took items that people left at thrift store drop-off points in the middle of the night and sold those as well. "I had to survive," she says. "Besides, I had a real Robin Hood mentality about it. I felt justified."
She says she never really felt afraid living this dangerous existence. "After growing up in the Bronx, Manhattan was a piece of cake!" she laughs. Still she had a couple of close calls. After getting stoned one night with some friends in Washington Square Park, she got into a van with them and rode around the city. At one point, two of her friends jumped out, leaving her with two men she didn't know very well. They drove her into Harlem, saying they were going to buy angel dust. Never one for hard drugs, Ramos tried to get them to drop her off, but they drove her into an abandoned area instead. Thinking fast, she pretended to throw up. When they stopped the van to let her out, she grabbed her chance and fled.
She shrugs off the incident now. "The key is to show no fear. I remember one night, I was being followed by two guys. One of them was holding a broken bottle. I just turned around and started yelling and cursing at them. They were stunned they didn't expect a woman to react like that. They just stopped and walked away."
She admits she's lucky. "I don't consider myself exceptionally brave," she says, "just someone who knows how to survive. I'm living in better circumstances now. I'm grateful that I haven't had to spend life looking over my shoulder in a long time."
During these years on the street, she met a fellow hustler whose influence and assistance started opening doors of opportunity for her. Pat Briggs, a glam-influenced, gender-bending, self-described "alien Barbie," was the frontman for a dramatic and androgynous rock act called Psychotica. With the help of NYC club owner Don Hill, Briggs opened the sensational New York nightclub Squeezebox, which he offered as a venue for Ramos. This same venue began attracting artists like Joey Ramone, Marc Almond, Courtney Love, and Debbie Harry.
Ramos remembers nights at Squeezebox with great fondness, calling them "so much fucking fun. Incredibly fun freakshows. Lots of drag queens performing it was primarily a gay audience but open to the straight crowd as well. I fucking loved it!"
She didn't know it yet, but the fun was only just beginning. In 1996, Briggs' Squeezebox performances with Psychotica attracted the attention of a promoter for Lollapalooza, who invited them to play on the main stage on the festival's summer tour. Unable to bring along Psychotica's Swedish female rapper because of visa problems, Briggs asked Ramos to fill in. The pay was a disappointing $250 a week, but she couldn't refuse, especially when she learned who else would be on the tour. "It was the Ramones, SoundGarden and Rage Against the Machine oh my God, I am a fucking HUGE Rage fan!"
So that summer, Ramos became the only female artist touring with one of rock's most historic and popular festivals. Aware of the media criticism over the dearth of female artists on the tour ("I have to agree with the critics that that was fucked up," she says), she still had a blast. She moved from riding the Psychotica van to riding SoundGarden's tour bus and found herself amazed by Chris Cornell's vocal performances. It was also on this tour that she met Metallica's Jason Newsted, with whom she later recorded tracks in San Francisco.
Psychotica made a huge impression on the festival audiences. "Pat's a total glam pyrotechnic whiz," she says of Briggs. "He wore a silver skintight spacesuit, and green smoke would be everywhere. I'd come out with my leather jockstrap stuffed with lemons...." she starts laughing, "The crowds went nuts. They loved us."
Ramos started receiving her first fan mail on the Lollapalooza tour.
Psychoticas performances caused such a buzz that by the time the tour was halfway through, word of mouth had spread, and the crowds were eagerly anticipating their show.
When the festival tour ended, Psychotica slowed down. Briggs began writing and acting, and Ramos needed to decide how she would make a living while keeping the energy from the tour going. She began singing commercial jingles and doing voiceover work. Her proudest commercial moment was singing "Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better" for the 1999 Gatorade ad featuring Michael Jordan and Mia Hamm. There was also session work, songwriting, putting her own stage show together, and recording her two demos in 2000.
Her plans for the summer of 2001 included playing two gigs a month in New York City. Money is always tight (it costs her approximately $1,000 to put on a show), but she keeps finding encouragement in the publics reaction to her work. Web sites like Indie-Music.com and AdultPop.com have given her favorable reviews, and so have her audiences.
When asked to describe her live show, she hesitates, confessing that shes really not one to try to sell herself. "My friends have criticized me for not being more aggressive in marketing myself," she says uncharacteristically. She finally describes her performance as professional, honest and raw, without the diva histrionics. She finds the tantrums she sees in some band shows highly irritating. "You can get raw emotion across without acting like an asshole," she says. "I don't want to sound self-righteous, but its a privilege to be onstage performing for people. When people come out just to see you play, it's an honor. I feel it's always important to treat the audience with respect."
Her biggest problem in booking gigs in New York is that most bands don't want to follow her. "I guess thats the kind of problem you WANT to have," she laughs, "but it just means that I have to go on last, usually around one in the morning. That can be a drag."
When asked where she wants to be in several years, she thinks for a moment, then says sweetly, "on top of the world," and laughs. After the disappointment of seeing VH1s "Breakthrough" get yanked off the air, along with her hopes for a video on the network, it's time for visionary partnership in her corner.
She also wants to avoid another label disappointment like the one she suffered in 1995 when Sony Records dropped her after a short-lived contract. The label executives werent sure how to market an aggressive, female, Puerto Rican rock singer from New York, feeling that she wouldnt appeal to audiences in, say, Iowa. "I fucking HATE that!" she fumes. "Its such a racist thing to say about white people that folks in the Midwest wouldnt appreciate something edgy and different. Attitudes like that don't give those audiences enough credit."
She would still consider a label deal, but only on her terms. "I don't just want the A&R person to think I'm great," she says, "I want everyone, including the promotion and publicity people to fucking love me and want to have my baby. That's the most important thing the enthusiasm. All the money in the world won't do dick without the enthusiasm from the whole team."
She's ready to forge a new path in rock radio that she feels is long overdue. Because of the proliferation of boy bands and the general male dominance of rock music, she thinks its time for more hard rocking female artists to grace the airwaves. "We need more chicks out there who can fucking rock," she says. "Right now I'm not really hearing it. I don't want to sound pompous, but I really think my time has come."
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