C.M. got her music education from her mother’s turntables and 500 albums. Her early influences were the theatrical artists, Electric Light Orchestra, David Bowie, and Meatloaf.
Throughout her junior high, high school, and college years she sang in advanced choir groups. Gothic rock hit a chord with C.M., carrying her musical tastes into the Eighties. The resurgence of electronic compositions brought back her love for being a D.J. (She was a D.J. in college.) C.M. bought sampling equipment and began to integrate found-sound samples into her recordings. At this time, her influences ranged from B.T. to Aphex Twin, but her real love was the sultry and often minimalist Trip-Hop artists, Tricky and Portishead.
In New Orleans, a town known for its music, C.M. was a singer and songwriter in two bands, Orobouros and Hydraulis. At Voodoo Music Experience 2002, C.M. went solo as Vinylux. She grew a New Orleans following alongside bands like Electrical Spectacle, Glory Bee, and Quintron. She performed monthly in New Orleans venues and art-houses with shows that featured a SP-808, Handsonic drum, Kaoss Pad and a turntable playing real-time samples from records such as “Thomas Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase” and “Songs of the Humpback Whale.” She integrated Linn Drum percussion with soundbytes from a dot-matrix printer and added heady lyrics fed through a manually manipulated Kaoss Pad effect pedal. She was best recognized for the theatricality of playing two Theremin-based lasers. Comparisons to Bjork and Kate Bush were generous and appreciated. Vinylux currently performs in the band, Vuzz, in festivals, and also in her play, Ice Scream Theater.
Vinylux was featured in the Noizefest 2018 mini-documentary. Check out below!
C.M.SOTO 