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If you came here looking for
Jessica's Attic, click here

The Veil...
featuring
Sophia Speaks

Biographies

Margarita Kovats -- lyricist, spoken-word vocalist, bass, keyboards.
Though she’s been writing and recording for over 10 years, Margarita still feels like a relative newcomer, but considers her current projects the most exciting to date: “They’re complementary – one buttresses the other. It seems like they have parrallel/intertwining paths, where ideas I have in one end up in the other.” Celto-Middle-eastern-trance-dance project The Veil is finishing up an album of her lyrics entitled Sophia Speaks, and Margarita is also collaborating with producer/multi-instrumentalist/studio engineer Justin Weis on the avant-garde, deeply disturbing project The Dark.Past projects include the comedy music video Blood Bank Blues with members of Quiet Riot and The Edgar Winter Group as well as work with pop-jazz vocalist Antonia Venezia and the rock band Rash Behavior. Her future-rock group Jessica’s Attic released 3 critically acclaimed albums, which are still selling well.

Mark Ungar
Multi-instrumentalist Mark Ungar specializes in acoustic and electric guitars, mandocello and vocals, also playing mandola, violin, electric bass, electric sitar, banjo, percussion and drums. A versatile accompanist, composer and songwriter, Mark explores the idioms of rock, folk, blues, psychedelia and Celtic traditional music, with frequent excursions into the realm of the unclassifiable.

 Equally at home on stage or in the studio, Mark and his compositions have appeared on several albums. He was a member of legendary San Francisco Celtic rock band Phoenyx and techno-pagan-sci-fi band Annwn, and toured Germany with super-corn folk group Shanachie. Mark has performed with Shana Morrison (yes, Van's daughter), Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Cassidy (Hot Tuna),  and at the 3rd and final wedding of Jerry Garcia. Currently, Mark performs with The Veil (Celto-Middle-eastern-Trance-spoken word), Avalon Rising (Medieval-Celtic rock), The Claddagh Band (Kevin Brennan’s venerable Irish-rock band), and Smokey Knott and the Boll Weevils (hillbilly comedy-folk, featuring railroad, sailing and miner’s songs from the American past). Studio appearances include sci-fi genre albums My Favorite Sings, by Kathy Mar, Crosstown Bus and Roundworm, and an upcoming tribute to spaceflight, co-sponsored by the National Space Society and Prometheus Music.

Deirdre McCarthy is an accomplished Bay Area musician known for her unique and vibrant playing of the bodhran, the Irish folk drum. Doumbek, ashiko, tar, congas, bones, zils, tupan, bomba leguera and Middle Eastern tambourine round out her arsenal of noise-makers.

Deirdre is an accomplished lead and harmony vocalist, who grew up singing in Russian, Greek, and Arabic liturgical choirs and has been singing in the traditional Irish a cappella style for the past 20 years. She is also beginning to explore a natural talent for Tuvan throat singing, the polytonal style originating in the wild country north of Tibet and recently popularized by the Gyoto Monks. Deirdre appears on many albums, most recently a collection of Robinson Jeffers poems set to music by pianist and composer Colin Farish, Kate Price's release, Deep Heart's Core, and with Jennifer Berezan on her album The Eye of the Storm, as well as the debut album of Avalon Rising, the Bay Area's leading Celtic-Medieval-rock fusion group. Current projects include work with pianist Colin Farish, Grammy nominated reed player Paul McCandless and ethnic percussionist Glenn Velez, an alumnus of the Paul Winter Group. Her own band, Red Branch (1988-1991), made two recordings: Folk With an Edge and To the Sea, both favorably reviewed in Dirty Linen magazine. Other album credits include Denis Murphy & Friends: Tiompan, Annie Lore's The Grey Cocked Hat, Southwind with Glenn Morgan as well as Glenn's A Following Wind, and his new release Westwind. Deirdre has also worked on a selection of projects with reknowned Irish producer and musician Gerry O'Beirne.

Scott Irwin – acoustic and electronic drums, vocals. A Bay Area native, Scott is an inventive and rock-solid drummer with a lifetime of playing experience with such bands as Random Men, RCB, Wise Guys, The Claddagh Band, and Fiddler’s Fancy. As well as being a capable and innovative lead and back-up singer, Scott’s clever arrangement ideas have been a welcome element in his countless studio and stage appearances. Scott is currently producing a project with his own band, as well as recording with The Veil.

Cat Taylor
Eclectic electric and acoustic violinist Cat Taylor was educated classically with a BA in music from UC Santa Barbara. She is currently Director of Entertainment for As You Like It Productions, producers of The Great Dickens Christmas Fair and The Santa Barbara Renaissance Faire and Midsummer Market™. She also performs with Celtic-Medieval rockers Avalon Rising. Visit her website at www.fiddlersfancy.com.

This site was last updated
Monday, November 8, 2004 12:44 PM