Nite Jewel Performs Live on the Interface

Pint-sized Los Angeles resident Ramona Gonzalez wasn't always known as Nite Jewel. "I actually stole the name from a song on a sort of '80s synth-prog record by this band called Nimbus Obi," she tells Spinner during a recent Interface taping in our L.A. studio.

Gonzalez's lo-fi, do-it-yourself project began after she snagged a multi-track cassette recorder from a pal. After tutorials from her husband, Ariel Pink guitarist Cole Marsden Greif-Neill, Gonzalez began using it mainly for local gallery sound installations. "I just figured, I'm a musician. Why not just write some songs?"

Things moved pretty quickly from there. Last year, Gonzalez released her debut album, 'Good Evening,' and after only six months of performing live under her belt, fellow art rockers Deerhunter picked her up as the opener for a recent tour.

"I can work with whatever I have," Gonzalez explains of her non-linear howls and ethereal disco nods. "If I have a computer, a tape machine, whatever, I can sound lo-fi or I can sound hi-fi, or I can sound somewhere in between."

These days Gonzalez is rethinking the cassette tape option. "You know how much a cassette tape costs?" she points out. "$4 for one now! I bought a packet of 10 for $12.99. This was three years ago, and now they're super expensive."