Liza Mitchell
The local musical duo Complicated Animals always planned to move to the West Coast someday, where music and film coexist. For Monica da Silva and Chad Alger, that someday is now.
“We’re really excited. We’re going to be leaving at the end of February to move out to LA. I have quite a few friends and contacts that I’ve made over the years there, and I think it will just be really good for us to be near them and more personal for everyone. I’ve been dealing with people from afar. I really realize how important it is to have a personal connection with people, so I really want to get out there,” says da Silva.
“I feel like I’ve been saying it for so long now. I keep saying ‘we should try LA’. My sister and brother have moved out there for music, and they love it. They keep telling me ‘you have to come out. This is where the music and the movie industry is, and you should be here.’ We just haven’t taken the plunge until now.”
Before the big move, Complicated Animals will play a series of February dates including a “farewell show” Feb. 17 at Unity Plaza. They also have a show Feb. 10 and 24 at The Parlour and Feb. 11 at the Epping Forest Yacht Club. “I was a little nervous to call it a ‘farewell show’ because farewell indicates that we’re breaking up, and we’re not!” says da Silva.
The band is also staging an intimate Valentine’s Day house concert Feb. 14. Admission is limited to around 25-30 people and includes a catered dinner, drinks and live music by Complicated Animals and Gina Martinelli on piano at a local art studio. Tickets are $40 and available at www.complicatedanimals.com.
Recently, da Silva says she is focused on licensing their music for film and television. Complicated Animals will have music featured in a new BBC miniseries by the same company that put out “The Crown.” In 2014, the psychedelic-inspired song ‘That’s Not The Way’ was selected by the music director of ESPN to be played during the programming of The World Cup.
“I think it’s going to be a pretty big deal. They are releasing it internationally, and then in the US afterwards,” she says. ‘I think it will be good. I want to meet with people who do that, like music supervisors and kind of concentrate on that. We’ll be pretty centrally located, just south of the Hollywood sign.”
“I feel like there is so much going on right now. It’s kind of a Renaissance period for Jacksonville right now, and I’m sorry I’m going to miss that.”
Complicated Animals won’t be wasting any time trying to assimilate to the Cali life. As full-time musicians, da Silva and Alger are booking as many shows as possible to continue working and establish meaningful relationships like the ones they’ve built in Jacksonville. The band will play their first gig at Kincaid’s, a restaurant and bar on a fisherman’s wharf in Redondo Beach.
“We’re transitioning all of our shows, and I’ve been booking shows all the way up to Washington and down to San Diego. It’s so much. Chad made a huge list of venues he thought would be good. Each one of my friends out there has kind of sent me a list of people they know and places they think would be a great fit for us from vineyards to clubs.”
Alger and da Silva are also working on new material for two new releases. One album will be released under Monica da Silva with more Portuguese and Latin rhythms and the other as Complicated Animals that will reflect the band’s indie style. DaSilva is hopeful they can time the release of the MDS project with the release of the song featured on the new BBC mini show.
In 2010, the pair released their first album together, “Brasilissima” under da Silva’s as a nod to her Brazillian heritage. Featuring songs in both English and Portuguese, the album was produced by Alger and Bruce Driscoll, who has worked with Blondfire, Avicii and Freedom Fry. Their debut EP “In This Game” was released in 2015 and featured six songs in the duos’ self-coined “Indie Nova” genre.
With so many new opportunities on the horizon, da Silva is thrilled to begin this next chapter with Alger, but admits she will miss the city that she now considers her home. “I really do love it here, and I’m going to miss it so much,” she says. “I feel like there is so much going on right now. It’s kind of a Renaissance period for Jacksonville right now, and I’m sorry I’m going to miss that. We’ll be touring a lot, so we’ll come back to play and to visit.”
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