Faith Coloccia is an American artist and musician. She is most known as being the founding member and primary songwriter for the post-rock band Mamiffer. Coloccia has also been a member of Everlovely Lightningheart, Pyramids, House of Low Culture and Split Cranium. In 2009, she co-founded the independent record label SIGE Records with her husband Aaron Turner (Isis, Sumac).[1]

Faith Coloccia
Background information
Also known asMára
GenresDrone, dark ambient, post-rock
Occupation(s)Artist, graphic designer, musician, singer, songwriter, record label owner
Instrument(s)Piano, organ, keyboard, guitar
Years active2003–present
LabelsHydra Head, SIGE, Blackest Ever Black

Music career

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Faith Coloccia describes one of her first bands Everlovely Lightningheart as being a large experiment that extended beyond the writing sessions. In an interview, she said the project included everything "from my friendship with [band mate] Chris Badger, to the ways we lived our lives, how we talked, what we made, how we viewed the world, everything. It encompassed our whole lives and was very much based on chaos" and elaborated that the band "the project focused on improvisational abilities, chance, collaborations, freaking ourselves out, unlearning old patterns of thinking, and was barely contained."[2]

After Everlovely Lightningheart disbanded, Coloccia took some of her unused ideas from the project and formed Mamiffer.[1] The band started out as a collaborative project with a new cast of revolving guest musicians on each new album, but grew into a duo project between her and Turner with Coloccia remaining the primary songwriter and creative visionary. Coloccia has also been a part of several other bands. She briefly joined Turner's drone project House of Low Culture.[1] She joined Rich Balling's (Rx Bandits, The Sound of Animals Fighting) collaborative project Pyramids.[3] After guesting on Turner's crust punk band's self-titled debut album, Coloccia returned as an official member performing keyboard for their second album I'm The Devil And I'm OK in 2018.[4]

In 2010, Coloccia formed the record label SIGE Records with Turner as a way to release albums they were directly or loosely related to.[1][5] SIGE also grew out of an interest to maintain control over their releases, have their products hand-made when possible and cut out as many middlemen as possible in an album's creation process.[5]

She released her first solo album (under the moniker Mára) titled Surfacing in December 2015.[6]

Artwork

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Coloccia is a photographer, artist and graphic designer. As a child, she was surrounded and influenced by several creative types who drew her toward creating art. Her mother and her mother's friends were involved in theatre, her father was a carpenter, and her childhood babysitter's house that "was made into different worlds and lands, sculpted terrains, and imaginary places" also inspired her.[5] Coloccia's interest in photography developed in part by her father and grandfather's interests in taking photos and flipping through issues of Rolling Stone and Martha Stewart Living magazines as a child. She majored in Fine Arts Photography at Otis College of Art & Design, where she met Chris Badger of Everlovely Lightningheart.[5]

She has created artwork and designed the layout for dozens of albums for her own projects and others including: Knut's Wonder (2010), Helms Alee's Weatherhead (2011), and Old Man Gloom's No (2012) and The Ape of God / The Ape of God (2014).[7]

Discography

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Everlovely Lightningheart

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  • Cusp (2006, Hydra Head)
  • Sien Weal Tallion Rue (2009, Hydra Head)

Pyramids

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  • Pyramids with Nadja (collaboration with Nadja) (2009, Hydra Head)
  • A Throne Without a King (split with Horseback) (2011, Hydra Head)

Mamiffer

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House of Low Culture

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  • Poisoned Soil (2011, Taiga)

Barnett + Coloccia

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  • Retrieval (2013, Blackest Ever Black)
  • Weld (2015, Blackest Ever Black)
  • VLF (2019, SIGE)

Baker / Coloccia / Mueller

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  • See Through (2019, Gizeh)

Mára (solo)

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  • Surfacing (2015, SIGE)[6]

Split Cranium

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  • I'm The Devil And I'm OK (2018, Ipecac)

Faith Coloccia

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As guest

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Year Artist Album Music contributions
2011 Boris Heavy Rocks piano on "Aileron"
2011 Master Musicians of Bukkake Totem Three vocals on "Reign of Quantity and the Signs of the Times / Patriarch of the Iron Age"
2011 Wolves in the Throne Room Celestial Lineage vocals on "Subterranean Initiation"
2012 Jodis Black Curtain vocals on "Red Bough"
2012 William Fowler Collins Tenebroso piano on "Scythe"
2012 Split Cranium Split Cranium guitar and glass on "Black Binding Plague"
2014 Old Man Gloom The Ape of God I vocals on "Eden's Gates"
2015 Sumac The Deal piano on "Thorn in the Lion's Paw"
2016 Sumac What One Becomes organ on "Clutch of Oblivion" and "Blackout"
2017 Janne Westerlund There's a Passage vocals on "So Messed Up"
2018 Sumac Love in Shadow organ on "The Task"
2019 Janne Westerlund Bell vocals on "So Vast the Fields of Sorrow"
2019 Dekathlon The Thin Road 7″ vocals
2020 Old Man Gloom Seminar IX: Darkness of Being vocals and organ on "Death Rhymes"
2020 Sumac May You Be Held organ on "Laughter & Silence"
2024 Sumac The Healer tapes on "World of Light" and organ on "Yellow Dawn"

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Hill, Mike (May 13, 2011). "Isis' Aaron Turner: Musical Renaissance Man — Exclusive Interview". Noisecreep. Townsquare Media. Retrieved January 28, 2019.
  2. ^ Devlin, Ross (April 7, 2016). "Mamiffer – Interview". Tiny Mix Tapes. Retrieved January 28, 2019.
  3. ^ Lake, Daniel (February 15, 2015). "Pyramids Premiere New Song, Interview". Decibel. Red Flag Media. Retrieved January 28, 2019.
  4. ^ Kennelty, Greg (May 23, 2018). "Split Cranium (Sumac, Converge, etc.) Stream Post-Hardcore Album I'm The Devil And I'm OK". Metal Injection. Retrieved January 28, 2019.
  5. ^ a b c d Grosso, Chris (December 20, 2010). "Blanket Of Ash – An Interview With Mamiffer's Faith Coloccia". The Indie Spiritualist. Retrieved January 28, 2019.
  6. ^ a b Bowe, Miles (December 9, 2015). "Faith Coloccia of Mamiffer announces debut album as Mára, shares 'The Gift Of Life'". Fact. The Vinyl Factory. Retrieved January 28, 2019.
  7. ^ "Faith Coloccia – Credits". AllMusic. RhythmOne. Retrieved January 28, 2019.
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