She opened for Mariah Carey in 2003. She was featured in Rolling Stone, People magazine and interviewed by local radio stations. She’s been given a beat for Damizza’s upcoming hip-hop mix-tape, and a slot singing a hook on Scarub, of the “Livin Legends” next album.
Rebecca Solodon, or Becca as she prefers to be called, is a City College music student and a highly recognized local songwriter and musician. Prior to her career success, Becca survived an aggressive form of cancer known as soft tissue synovial sarcoma at the age of 15. Battling cancer changed her in several ways-personally and artistically.
“I used to be really shy. In choir I’d barely sing,” she said.
Becca’s love for music started at age 4, and she began taking musical training soon after. While undergoing chemotherapy, Becca met Nikki Simon, founder of the Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation.
Simon provided opportunities for Becca to record in a professional studio. There she met Ronnie King and Damion “Damizza” Young. Both recognized her talent immediately.
“We knew she had a voice. In the studio we realized she had a style,” said Ronnie King, a musician who worked with rap-artist Tupac Shakur and also mentors Becca in songwriting.
In the early stages of home recording, Becca would record into her Motif keyboard. Lacking a direct line from her keyboard to her computer, Becca placed her speakers on the floor and recorded the song saved on the keyboard into the microphone hole on her computer. When shown the home recordings, Edgar Sanchez of Star Trak Recordings exclaimed, “You’re doing this out of your house?”
Later, the Make a Wish Foundation bought Becca some essential home recording equipment to further support her musical ambitions. Now she is a volunteer for the Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation and spending time inspiring young children.
Her next performance will be at Disneyland on Oct. 5, at the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Make a Wish Foundation, a group that grants ill children gifts and travel opportunities.
Becca is is studying theory and music recording in an intense effort to make music that makes you say, “YEAH!” Becca’s style brings her musical vision into to full-frame focus. What does she like about her music? “I think it’s the dissonance,” she says.
A fan of augmented and diminished chords, Becca likes to employ something the Jesus and Mary Chain group mastered; taking a chord or noise that isn’t immediately accessible to the average listener and rendering it palatable.
“Once you put a harmony over it, you can make it pleasant,” she said. Her style is adaptable and diverse essentially defining the music that comes from the individual.
The focus is now on moving from home recordings to polishing them in a professional studio. Addressing Becca’s future, King said, “Her situation was unique, but now she’s got to make her way in the music industry just like anyone else.”
