Guzzalina is an indie and electronic music project fronted by the multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, producer, and vocalist now known as Lisa Guzzalina. Formerly known in the Boston scene as Lisa Rocket, the Guzzalina project was born out of a desire to forge a new solo path. As paths twist and turn, the latest evolution of the project — now based in Los Angeles and no longer just solo — infuses indie rock sounds into the melange.
In 2018, she released Beat Smoothie — a 12-song album that included reworkings of some of her older material and a whole new batch of instrumental electronic tracks that weave in the energy and musicality of a genre-transcending producer who is also a lifelong musician, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter.
Although she has been playing and writing since her teen years, music took a back burner when she went back to school in the early 00’s. Now with a PhD, she spends her days as an academic researcher. But the drive to make music has never left, and after spending a few years building her home studio and studying music at Mmmmaven, Berklee, and the University of Edinburgh, in 2016, she started recording some of her original songs. As a lifelong electronic music listener, she approached her debut solo album with a fresh approach that was informed by wide-ranging influences and an obsessive interest in seeking out new sounds.
As an exercise in DIY, she not only played all the parts on the album, she also recorded, mixed, and mastered everything herself; created the cover art (a photo of one of her exploded paper lantern sculptures); and self-released via her own label, R0ck3t R3c0rds. She’s also made the music videos and visualizers for the project, allowing her to venture into a whole new medium.
Lisa has traveled many roads, having played in punk and folk bands (Nandina, Goats Where They Shouldn’t Be), performed solo singer-songwriter gigs (releasing a cassette-only EP, Welfare Mama, way back in 1997), toured regionally, and recorded with several indie groups (Drop Down Syndrome, Acoustic Avenue). More recently, she has performed for large crowds at protests, festivals, and gigs at Boston-area venues as a member of BABAM!, School of HONK, and the Jamaica Plain Honk Band. She is a founding member and organizer of LA BAMBA.