Unloved

Defined as much by Jade Vincent’s knowing vocals as by the evocative sounds of composers Keefus Ciancia and David Holmes, Unloved combine ’60s girl groups and classic film scores to dramatic, cinematic effect. They laid the foundations of their stylish approach with 2016’s Guilty of Love, honed it with their work on the BBC’s darkly humorous television series Killing Eve, and gave it Technicolor polish and variety on 2019′s Heartbreak. Vincent, a Phoenix native, moved to Los Angeles in the early ’90s. She soon met Ciancia, a Coloradan who relocated to L.A. to study music while singing in the city’s jazz clubs. The pair began a romantic and creative partnership, first forming the Jade Vincent Experiment, a ten-piece big band that released the 1998 album Moy, and then Vincent & Mr. Green, which released a self-titled effort on Ipecac Records in 2004. During this time, Ciancia became an established session keyboardist and composer for film and television (his later projects include The Hunger Games, Nashville, and True Detective). He and Vincent continued to work on their own music, which blended her dusky voice with eclectic arrangements spanning jazz, electronic, hip-hop and country. Their project came into focus with the addition of acclaimed British producer, composer, and DJ David Holmes, whom Ciancia met in 2013 when he played keyboard overdubs on Holmes’ Haywire score. After hitting it off, Ciancia invited Holmes to DJ at the Rotary Room, a music salon in Los Feliz that he and Vincent ran where professional musicians could relax and play music informally. This led to the trio writing and recording together as Unloved, with Ciancia and Holmes crafting tracks inspired by the the Shangri-Las, Lee Hazlewood, and Ennio Morricone for Vincent to flesh out with moody character sketches and vocals. Unloved debuted in October 2015 with the Guilty of Love EP. The following March, they released their first full-length, also called Guilty of Love; recorded at L.A.’s Vox Studios, it featured contributions from Rotary Room friends such as Wayne Kramer and Jonathan Wilson. In 2018, the trio provided original songs as well as Guilty of Love tracks to Killing Eve, a taut, sardonic TV series about the cat-and-mouse game between an MI5 security officer and an assassin produced by the BBC (Holmes also scored the show). Unloved returned in February 2019 with their uninhibited second album Heartbreak. ~ Heather Phares & Thom Jurek