Ola Podrida

Ola Podrida, the brainchild of David Wingo, was born in early 2005, after Wingo had returned to his native Texas from New York. Although he had played instruments throughout high school and college and even composed the scores for friend David Gordon Green's movies George Washington, All the Real Girls, and Undertow, he had yet to make anything as a singer or songwriter. He recorded the songs on what would later be his debut album alone in his basement before shifts at the video store where he worked, but brought on friends guitarist Robert Patton and drummer Matthew Frank for his live show. All three musicians moved to Brooklyn in 2006, where they added Johnny Christ on keyboards and guitars and American Analog Set singer Andrew Kenny on bass. In the spring of 2007 Plug Research released Ola Podrida, and Wingo continued to work on film scores, including Todd Rohal's The Guatemalan Handshake and Craig Zobel's Great Wall of Sound, which premiered at the 2007 SXSW festival in Austin. A second Ola Podrida album, Belly of the Lion appeared in 2009 and Wingo continued soundtrack work, including co-composing with Explosions In The Sky in 2011 for the Emile Hirsch/Paul Rudd movie Prince Avalanche. For the next Ola Podrida album, Wingo expanded from his bedroom aesthetic into a full band set up, including Colin Swietek on guitars, Matt Clark on bass, and David Hobizal on drums. The expanded line up worked out Wingo's songs, expanding them into the third full-length Ghosts Go Blind, released in 2013. ~ Marisa Brown