Time to “FLY” with LORIALLA

By Tracy Dietlin

Amazing things can happen when people work as a team. Huge success can come when a community works together. And when the team and community have a strong leader the sky is the limit. And sometimes you can even make things “FLY”.

On Friday, October 2^nd from 7:30pm-9:00pm, the band LORIALLA will have a launch party for their new video “FLY”. The event is being held at and hosted by Tesla Motors at 68080 Perez Rd. in Cathedral City and sponsored by CV Weekly. It is an all ages, free event, where people can eat, drink, watch the video, meet local UFC and MMA hero Cub Swanson, test drive a new Tesla, and even help local charity, Christopher’s Clubhouse.

This event has been put together by LORIALLA’s fearless leader Esjay Jones.

The story begins when South African born, award-winning music producer and songwriter, Esjay Jones met Paul Cotterell and Tom Collins (formerly of the band Pictures From Eden) at an Open Mic at the Riviera in Palm Springs over two years ago.  The trio struck up a musical partnership and Esjay began to develop and nurture the project, now known as LORIALLA.

Jones broke onto the music scene with her South African based pop rock group Stealing Love Jones.  After two full length studio albums, one special edition album, and seven #1 singles, Esjay made her move to Los Angeles, joining with Primary Wave Talent Management and Beluga Heights.

Esjay works in the capacity as a songwriter and producer with artists such as Krewella, Alien Ant Farm, Rihanna, Nile Rodgers and Escape The Fate (just to name a few) and started her production room 2 years ago here in Palm Springs to get away from LA.

LORIALLA is a 2-piece indie rock band from Coachella Valley, who under the development of Jones currently have 8 songs that she has produced along with her Grammy-Nominated partners, Ariel Chobaz (Nicki Minaj) and Josh Mosser (Imagine Dragons). LORIALLA’s objectives are to create and produce music and mnemonics for feature films, commercials, major product brands and sports leagues.

“I expressed to Paul and Tom, that if I was going to do this album, I would want to apply all of the knowledge and experience I have gained from working in the Top 40 pop and rock industry and create a project we love while still making money. They graciously gave me full reign and we started working together from there. LORIALLA’s first single “FLY” got picked up just 2 days after being mixed and mastered for UFC’s “Road to the Octagon” documentary,” shared Jones.

I asked Jones how she got Swanson to appear in the video.

“Amanda Palmer from the Dresden Dolls is a huge inspiration to me as a female performer and business women.  She has a NY Times best-selling book called “The Art of Asking” – in this book she talks about how she quit worrying and started asking people for help. Basically, I feel that the worst thing that can happen by asking someone for something is that they can say ‘no’. My philosophy with LORIALLA and everything I do is to ask people with greater influence in the community to get involved. THINK GLOBAL, SUPPORT LOCAL! So I called up Cub’s Tru MMA gym and after a coffee meeting explaining the vision of the band and our love for the Coachella Valley, Cub threw himself head-first into this video with us. He is such an amazing guy who is very active in teaching kids and being a positive role model in the community.”

Tesla came on board the same way. “I just kept calling until I got someone’s attention (she laughs) – they’ve been fantastic all the way starting from providing the car for the video to hosting the whole launch party with LORIALLA,” shared Jones.

The next part was to find a charity to support. Christopher’s Clubhouse will be receiving all proceeds raised from the launch party. “Paul is friends with Mika, the founder of the charity. I didn’t know much about Christopher’s Club House but after watching the video and sobbing for an hour because of how this charity was founded – I am absolutely delighted that we are supporting such a great cause!  Mika will be doing a 3 minute talk about Christopher’s Clubhouse so hopefully we will be able to raise some money for them.”

When asked about LORIALLA’s future goals she said that the full album release will be held in November somewhere in the Coachella Valley.

“LORIALLA will continue to write songs to be licensed to film and TV instead of spending copious amounts of time and money touring and performing small club gigs. That might sound fun when you’re younger but these guys have families and as a team, our vision has shifted to something bigger. LORIALLA will still play a few select shows that benefit the community and fulfill our passion to perform live music,” said Jones.

As for Jones she says she is looking to develop other artists as well. “My next artist will probably be somebody from the hip-hop genre. There is a great music scene and community here and I’m open to working with someone who is serious.”

Jones also makes a point that LORIALLA is her baby and that she has put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into developing and building the brand. “It’s a 24/7 thing. I love Paul and Tom like brothers – Unless you’ve played in a band, you can’t understand the connection.  I’m incredibly passionate about the music, our vision and the team. I want LORIALLA to not only be effective in our community but to reach the world.”

Jones says she hopes to see about 250 people show up for this event to support the launch of LORIALLA’s video, drive a Tesla, meet Cub Swanson, raise money for Christopher’s Clubhouse, eat some food and raise a glass of champagne to toast this amazing community! CV Weekly agrees.