Elaine Walker (Bio)

Elaine Walker, originally from Las Cruces, New Mexico has been writing, recording, performing, and producing electronic music since 1984. Elaine grew up as a classically trained pianist since age 6, with stints as a violinist and cellist. Elaine received her bachelors in Music Synthesis Production from Berklee College of Music and her Masters in Music Technology from NYU. Elaine is the founder and visionary of the band named ZIA, named after the New Mexico State sign, called a ZIA - a Navaho Indian sun symbol.

ZIA is a culmination of Elaine’s different visions,­ a positive view of our future on Earth and in space, breaking down walls that should not exist, and embracing technology. ZIA’s releases include "ZIA v1.5" (1994, full length CD), "SHEM" (1996, CD-EP with multimedia about the history of American space exploration), and the newest release "Big Bang!" (2000, full length CD).

Elaine joined her first band in 1985, called "Obsidian", and later formed the band "MFC" playing softcore punk songs including four of her originals. A string of other bands followed, the most prolific being "Schizoid Aria" which she formed with Scott Parsons in 1986. A full length album was recorded that summer, although never released commercially.

After spending her second semester of college in London, Elaine moved to Boston to study electronic music at Berklee College. There she finished her first solo album called "Blue Cartoon", which was also never commercially released. Elaine formed ZIA after she graduated from Berklee in 1991.

When Elaine was still auditioning musicians for her live ZIA show, she was asked to join up with local Boston industrial heroes, D.D.T. Elaine first played with D.D.T. towards the end of 1991, adding a melodic element to the band (ala Front242, NitzerEb, Front Line Assembly) underneath Noel McKenna’s growling industrial-style vocals. Lisa Sirois and Noel McKenna of D.D.T. actually performed as part of the first line-up for ZIA’s debut performance in July of 1992.

A classically trained pianist since age six, and a graduate of the Berklee College of Music Synthesis program, Elaine eventually threw all of her knowledge of traditional Western music harmony out the window and started composing primarily microtonal music. Always questioning (though not protesting) traditions and standards, with ZIA she went as far as banning all standard 12 tone instruments.

This meant having to build new MIDI controllers that don't visually represent the standard Western tuning. Recently, this desire to create new types of electronic performance instruments has developed into a love for electronics. Elaine has built a prototype of her invention, the "Chaos Controller". This project was part of her thesis for her masters studies at New York University, "Chaos Melody Theory".

Elaine first realized that she had an interest in human exploration of outer space, as she explored the inner space of the Internet, in the early nineties. Joining newsgroups about her favorite topics - longevity, futurism, extropianism, cryonics, and space exploration, it became clear what her lyrical content and imagery would be for ZIA in the years to come. In the mid-nineties she began attending a local monthly lecture series of the Boston Chapter of the National Space Society, and during her fourth month there, was elected president of the chapter.

At this time she made a conscious decision to form an even more intimate bond between her two passions: experimental music and space exploration. Elaine wrote new songs that were not cloaked in double-meanings, but had straightforward and uplifting lyrics about human space exploration. She entered two songs in the National Space Society’s song writing contest, and this led to ZIA’s invitation to play for their annual convention in 1999. Since then Elaine has sung solo at many pro-space conventions for banquets and hospitality.

In the Fall of 1999 Elaine and the other two women of ZIA (Liz Lysinger and Hae Young Kim) moved from Boston to Brooklyn, NY, and released the new ZIA album, "Big Bang!". While in NYC, ZIA played frequently at clubs in NYC and surrounding areas. Elaine's newest solo releases include the full length CD's "MARS", "Frontier Creatures" and "Space Elevator Music", and a CD single "Hiten", all compilations of music she has performed at pro-space conventions.

Elaine has been heavily involved in pro-space and transhuman organizations for several years. She served as President of the Boston Chapter of the National Space Society (NSS) from 1996 to late 1999. Elaine founded the new New York City chapter of NSS. She served as President of the NYC Chapter until moving to Phoenix in late 2003. Elaine also served on the Board of Directors of NSS, the Space Frontier Foundation, and the NY Transhuman Association in 2002 and 2003. Elaine is currently the Mars Projects Manager and an Advocate for the Space Frontier Foundation. Since 1998 Elaine has been the Region 8 Chapters Organizer for NSS and is currently the US Groups Team Leader for the Extropy Institute.

ZIA had their final NYC show in late 2003 before Elaine moved to the Southwest to let vocal nodules heal and train in the martial arts. Elaine considers this hiatus giving the band a rest, rather than putting it to rest, and has set a goal is to have the band together before the end of 2005.

I met Elaine in the 90s during the height of the DDT, ZIA, Sleep Chamber, You Shriek Boston music scene. As you can see from the Bio above Elaine is an amazingly dynamic individual. I have keep off and on email contact with Elaine over the years. Toward the end of 2005 Elaine permitted me to do an email interview with her for MutantNation. You can read the interview here. -Roblem

Elaine Walker External Links.

http://www.ziaspace.com Gateway to bluezia.com, ziaspace.com/ZIA, ziaspace.com/hosting, and ziaspace.com/beyond

Elaine's Journals from NASA Haughton-Mars Project on Devon Island in the Canadian High Arctic:

http://www.mars-frontier.org/blog (2003)
http://www.marsonearth.org/reports (2004)

Elaine’s future blog site http://www.myspace.com/elainewalker