Storyteller. Performer. Traveler.
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C.M. Soto is a multimedia artist and traveler based in New York. Her work has appeared in theaters, music venues, galleries, on the screen, online, and in publications worldwide. Soto’s travels have taken her to Thailand, Alaska, Europe, The UK, Ireland, Canada, and Cuba.
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C.M. Soto (Vinylux) obtained her early music education from her mother’s turntable and vast album collection. She was inspired by the theatricality of acts such as Queen, Electric Light Orchestra, and David Bowie. Throughout her junior high, high school, and college years she sang alto in advanced choir groups, performing and touring in the US and Canada. For six years, Soto hosted eclectic college radio shows as a disc jockey. Music was her first passion.
Following a creative writing path, Soto completed her BA in English/Writing with more than 50 publications and six produced theatrical plays. She participated in two Northwest Drama Conferences with her dark comedy, Begging Man with Woman who is Clearly Bored.
In 1996, Soto left her home state of Oregon to attend graduate-level film school in New Orleans, LA, with a focus on scriptwriting. Her son, Athen was four. Soto’s interest in film landed her TV/movie work on a small scale. In 2002, Soto consolidated her previously-published poems into a chapbook of poetry and photos, These are the Rooms to my Mother’s House. The book debuted at the New Orleans Museum of Art photography event, Underexposed.
Soto danced with a performance art troupe, NooMoon, taking gigs in New Orleans and Los Angeles. After heading up two bands as a singer and songwriter, Soto took the name “Vinylux” and went solo at Voodoo Music Experience (Voodoofest) in 2004. Vinylux grew a following performing weekly in local venues and art houses. She sang and played synths, samplers, Theremin-based lasers, and real-time audio samples from a turntable.
In 2004, Soto combined her interdisciplinary gifts into a dark one-act musical, Ice Scream Theater. This autobiographical marriage of film, poetry, music, photography, and theater was accepted into New Orleans’ Contemporary Arts Center’s, Dramarama in 2004.
Soto learned the graphic arts by creating her band’s posters and designing her own books. When Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, Soto’s family was displaced to Southern Alabama. She returned to the service industry as a bartender and graphic designer. She created catering packets, brochures, and menus for the growing business which got the attention of the local newspaper. The Fairhope Courier recruited Soto and she became a full-time graphic designer for Gulf Coast Newspapers. In 2007, she returned home to New Orleans where she launched her own graphic design company.
Soto and her son moved to her hometown of Klamath Falls, Oregon, the following year. With a partner, she designed websites and print marketing for festivals, restaurants, nonprofits, and government agencies as Optilux Design. The duo created the exhibit, Graphic Design as Art Form which opened at The Klamath Falls Art Gallery in Southern Oregon in 2010.
In her hometown, Soto founded The Creativity Collective to provide resources, networking, opportunities, and education for artists and art enthusiasts. It incorporated as a non-profit in May 2009 and opened a 6000-square-foot community art center, The Contemporary Arts Kitchen (CAK). It obtained an additional 4000 feet the following year. The group received grants and kudos for their programming and youth mentorship. In November 2011, The Creativity Collective became a 501(c)3 and the board of directors voted unanimously to move the non-profit to New Orleans. For 12 years, Soto was the executive director. After a short leave of absence, she returned to take the role of president until the nonprofit’s dissolution in 2020.
Before returning to the South, Soto launched The Traveling New Orleans Show. This 29-piece art exhibit showcased New Orleans culture, music, festivals, traditions, food, and the largest natural disaster on American soil, Hurricane Katrina. The show opened in 2011 at the Ross Ragland theater with a subsequent exhibit at The Klamath County Library. In December 2012, Soto’s theatrical comedy, In The Company of Killjoys was produced at CAK as part of the Snowflake Festival. In May, her son turned 18. Soto and her family returned to New Orleans the following November.
In 2013, Soto revamped her multimedia musical, Ice Scream Theater. The 55-minute play, featuring Nicole Lovince, played three nights at the New Orleans Fringe Festival. Soto rereleased her chapbook, These are the Rooms to My Mother’s House to accompany the production.
In 2016, Soto rebooted Ice Scream Theater with herself as Vinylux performing the show at Mudlark Theater and The Marigny Opera House the following year. Soto debuted her original play props and costumes such as wings made of vinyl records, a floor-length birdcage skirt, and a working time-piece belt. She released the show’s music on CD to accompany the final production.
In 2018, Soto traveled for three months through Europe and the UK busking with her indie electronica band, Vuzz. Their street performances culminated at the 61st Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. Back in the states, Vuzz played New Orleans clubs until the Covid-19 shutdown. The profound trauma and loss of Christy’s son to Fentanyl poisoning shook Soto’s world. Unable to stay in the town she raised her son in, Soto gave up her New Orleans home and possessions in favor of the DIY van conversion she’d began with her son and bandmate. With her bandmate, she finished the minimalist van with a maximalist aesthetic and circled the US for a year to process the loss. After months of healing and hardship, Vuzz finished recording their first full-length album.
in 2022, Soto settled in New York to pursue music, screenwriting, and theater. Since then she’s placed in multiple screenwriting competitions with her supernatural thriller spec script, Boo. Her band, Vuzz plays in the Bowery neighborhood of CBGB fame. Today, Vuzz combines their artistic and travel passions on stage and online—creating all their own music, videos, artwork, and social media—sharing their journey with the world.
C.M.SOTO 