The Blood Arm

History

The Blood Arm formed in Los Angeles in 2002. Singer Nathaniel Fregoso, born November 29, 1979, met guitarist Zebastian Carlisle at a karaoke bar in Koreatown and keyboardist Dyan Valdés at UCLA. The trio performed around Los Angeles until drummer Zachary Amos joined in 2003. They self-released the EP Four Song Demo in 2004 and the debut album Bomb Romantics in 2005, which sold out and remains out of print.

On March 19, 2004, the band played an after show party for Franz Ferdinand at LA's Troubadour; Franz Ferdinand singer Alex Kapranos named them his favorite new band. The Blood Arm were interviewed by Franz Ferdinand in the January 8, 2005 issue of NME. They were nominated for the LA Weekly Music Award for Best New Artist in 2004 and won Best Live Act at the 2005 South By Southwest Music Conference. The band traveled with a Master of Ceremonies named Ben Lee Handler.

The 2005 single "Do I Have Your Attention?" on Loog Records became a UK radio hit, and the "Say Yes" single on City Rockers charted in the UK top fifty. They signed to City Rockers/Because and released Lie Lover Lie in October 2006, which received positive reviews including a 5/5 from The Guardian. The single "Suspicious Character (I Like All the Girls and All the Girls Like Me)" became an indie disco hit. The band recorded a bilingual French and English version of "Do I Have Your Attention?" with French pop star Anaïs, which was a hit in France and led to performances on Taratata. City Rockers folded after the release, leaving the band unable to follow up quickly.

Solo projects

Valdés co-founded Everybody Was in the French Resistance...Now! with Eddie Argos of Art Brut, writing responses to popular songs. She composed all music and played most instruments on the album Fixin' the Charts, Vol. 1, released in 2010 on Cooking Vinyl, and toured worldwide. She also tours as keyboardist for Die Sterne. Fregoso released a solo album as Thee Nathaniel Fregoso & the Bountiful Hearts on Duchess Box Records in 2014; the lead single "Transatlantic Panic Attack" was a radio hit on Berlin's Flux FM.