Bio
Steve Espinola writes "sing in the shower" songs, though they also sound fine on stage without instruments or water, and with clothes. When not acapella, he plays piano, a homemade 19-string electric tennis racket, and 2-string dotar. Perhaps his music is a Fats-Waller-shares-a-bong-with-Brian-Wilson-while-Marianne-Moore-buys-insurance-from-Wallace-Stevens-and-Isabella-Rossellini-eyes-Stanley-Tucci-in-Big-Night sort of hybrid. He's a moody bastard with a fragmented personality, so some of his shows are manicky-funny-ish while others are morose.
Steve has begun archiving antifolk artists on 78 rpm plastic picnic plates, playable on Victrolas. (This is not a joke). To this end, he runs a website for like-minded alternative recording experimentalists called "The Secret Society of Lathe Trolls." He is also a student/member of a healing music group that makes and plays ancient-style wooden trance instruments.
He is a band slut. You may have caught him over the years playing various instruments for the Moldy Peaches (he is Jorge Regula), the Dream Syndicate's Steve Wynn, cub, The Dan Emery Mystery Band, Tom Warnick and The World's Fair, Debby Schwartz, The Cellos Wrapped Heads, Dallam-Dougou, and the Mike Hunt Band, among others. He just had a dream that a young, inaccurately tall Jimmy Page asked him to play keyboards for Led Zeppelin, and he happily agreed, but felt really out of place.
Sometimes he is half of The Lookalikes (USA) with Alex Wolf, and once in a blue moon he is half of Steve and Dwight with Do Peterson.
Why He's Antifolk:
He is antifolk because he is both traditional and futuristic, in a sort of Post-Neo-Now way, plus he is a bit passive-aggressive, and probably doesn't fit anywhere else.
Press Quotes:
If we were tripping on peyote and walking along in the desert, and we came upon a mysterious hallucinogenic lounge right there in our path, and it was dark and glowing and strangely comfortable inside, the piano player at that lounge would be Steve Espinola. --Tony Rubin, Recording Angels
More info at Steve Espinola.