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Veronica Gonzalez, a '95 alumna, now has her own music publicity company after working in the off

This is the story of a middleman – a middlewoman to be exact. Sandwiched between the artist and the press, a publicist usually facilitates interviews, instead of actually giving them.

However, an interview beckoned when UCLA graduate and publicist Veronica Gonzalez served as curator for a recent Getty Center concert, bringing in soundscaper DJ Cheb i Sabbah and a slew of traditional Indian music performers.

“I haven’t seen a nice Indian concert at a major venue all summer, and there’s a large Indian community in L.A.,” Gonzalez said. “I realized that Indian culture is utterly neglected within mainstream L.A. People are sampling Indian music like crazy, yet why is it not getting more attention?”

To hear Gonzalez’s motivation for the Indian music showcase is to learn the secret of her success: find a niche and fill it. The violinist with an ethnomusicology degree from UCLA founded Elemental Media, a media, marketing and radio promotion company, two years ago.

A first generation Mexican-American, Gonzalez has parlayed her music background and her ability to communicate with the mainstream media as well as the Latin world into a successful start in publicity.

“I felt really confident people would want to hire me because there aren’t that many people doing great bilingual campaigns,” Gonzalez said. “I have clients, and I haven’t even done any advertising. You find a niche, and there’s no one else that can compete with you.”

Gonzalez’s background as a musician and a world music aficionado has helped her as a music publicist.

“I’ve had music critics call me up and say they enjoy talking to me,” Gonzalez said. “They feel they can really get down to details about the music, dig deep into the artist and who they are culturally. On the other hand, another publicist, who studied communications and didn’t study music, might be going off the bio, saying, ‘Oh, I love the album – it’s beautiful music.’”

Born and raised in East Los Angeles, Gonzalez was inspired by her musician relatives and decided to take violin lessons. She attended the L.A. County High School for the Arts, where record labels made regular visits to recruit interns.

At 15, she began interning at A&M Records, helping promote Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation Tour one summer. Stints at Cal State Fullerton and East L.A. College followed until a music teacher introduced her to the ethnomusicology program at UCLA.

“I couldn’t believe there was a major like that,” Gonzalez said. “It’s like anthropology – you study culture but through music. I thought it was perfect and just what I was looking for. Right away, I auditioned. I talked to the counselor, Al Bradley, and he said he would help me out. By fall of 1992, I was at UCLA.”

After completing her studies in 1995, Gonzalez moved to New York, where her degree impressed visionary salsa producer Sergio George. She immediately became manager of George’s record label, Sir George Entertainment. She then landed the managing position on former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne’s Luaka Bop label.

“Working with David Byrne was the experience of a lifetime,” Gonzalez said. “It was so much more than I had ever done before that it took me to another level.”

Now, Gonzalez has her own company with upcoming Latin artists such as Quetzal, Cafe Tacuba, Juana Molina and Radio Mundial under the fold. Though not exactly proven heavyweights, they still have a shot at stardom.

Visit www.dailybruin.ucla.edu for more information on Quetzal, a band on the rise from Gonzalez’s roster.