Nineteenth Operator showcases innovative, expansive pop sounds

The duo discussed creative partnership, pushing musical boundaries and the multimedia aspects of the sonic project

By HANNAH OSBORN — arts@theaggie.org 

On March 12, Davis duo Nineteenth Operator will grace the basement of The California Aggie with their layered pop music and intentional style.

Nineteenth Operator is an experimental pop project created by Bernadette Albano, a fifth-year biological sciences major, and Rosie Mendoza, a recent UC Davis graduate. Meeting as students at the university, they began playing music together as part of local band Cowboys After Dark.

“We met playing in a cover band our freshman year,” Albano said. “We were like, ‘We should make pop music, we should do this.’ We got together a bunch of songs and started playing shows.”

Part of the name of the duo, “Nineteenth Operator,” originated from their former employment at UC Davis. The other was forged by shared personal experiences. 

“‘Operator’ is because we both worked as operators for the campus phone before they shut it down,” Albano said. “Nineteenth is from this time we were 19 and wanted to buy a lighter [at] a 7-Eleven — turns out, you have to be 21.”

Albano and Mendoza both provide vocals and play guitar, but are often supported in live shows with a backing band that includes keyboard, bass, drums, trumpet, saxophone and euphonium. 

“At first we had a friend helping us, just playing all the other instruments on demos,” Mendoza said. “But then we started producing songs at a quicker rate, so [now] we just show them the song and see what they’ll do with it. We’ve been lucky enough to have mostly the same band, so the sound has been curated over time.”

The duo also shared their various points of entry for music and how it informed their styles within the project. For Albano, it was a musical theatre background.

“[Theater] provided a really solid technical base for singing especially, and performing on a stage,” Albano said. “If you listen to the tracks, and you’re like, ‘Why does one of them have a crazy vibrato and musical theatre belt?’ it’s because that’s what I spent so many years doing.”

For Mendoza, on the other hand, marching band informed her interaction with music and how she writes the band’s songs. 

“I was a band kid,” Mendoza said. “That’s how I learned how to play trumpet. When I was in eighth grade, I saw a video of Grace VanderWaal and I was obsessed with it. I was like, ‘I need a ukulele right now.’ Then I started writing my own songs, and that’s how I learned to sing.”

When it comes to their creative process, Albano and Mendoza align in their focus on the auditory and visual experience of their audience. 

“We have similar goals and our motivations are very similar,” Mendoza said. “We bounce off each other, and we like pushing each other. We work really well together.”

As best friends and roommates, Albano expanded on how her and Mendoza’s personalities delegate their responsibilities and roles within developing the band’s direction. 

“We’re both people who need a creative project,” Albano said. “[Mendoza’s] just spewing out creativity at all times, and I have the type of brain where I’m like, ‘How do we make it bigger? How do we make it more multifaceted?’ Our skills just click.”

As Nineteenth Operator, the duo is focused on how their sound and image is able to break away from easy genre definition and typical auditory experience. 

“When I’m listening to music, I’m focused on the concept of the album and how it fits into the larger sense of the music industry at the time,” Albano said. “[Mendoza’s] very into the technique of the songwriting and the stuff being literally recorded on the tracks. So it’s genreless in terms of what we’re interested in, and I think that translates into what our music sounds like.”

Nineteenth Operator’s ability to invigorate both themselves and their audience through the soundmaking process is another cornerstone of the band’s creative expression. 

Mendoza shared how it feels for her to engage in musical experimentation and lyricism in her songs.

“I need to sit there and write a song in order to feel better,” Mendoza said. “I get energy. It feels like I’m resting when I’m writing a song. It’s a personal thing, and I just so happen to be able to share it.”

Heavily featuring narratives and experimental sound, their music seeks to push the boundaries of the conventional pop genre. 

“I like exploring different mediums and vessels of storytelling,” Albano said. “I think we’re both very storytelling-focused in terms of our creativity. We look at the music like: ‘How do we use it to tell the story? How do we change the genre? How do we change the instrumentation and technique?’”

When playing live, their musical style is combined with not just a distinct and deliberate costuming, but also physical media like magazines, which are distributed at their shows.

“We’ve been curating our visual vibe a little bit more with the outfits, the zines, the flyer making,” Mendoza said. “If you scroll to the bottom of our Instagram and then back up, you can see us get cooler.”

The zines, stemming from Mendoza’s work in an American studies class, feature collages, future dates for shows and community events, among other tidbits.

“It’s just really fun for people to have something physical at shows,” Mendoza said. “We have seven [different zines] now, which is so fun. People have come up to us being like, ‘I’m collecting all of them.’”

Making their mark on the Davis scene through the distribution of zines connects to their larger aspirations for Nineteenth Operator: to constantly expand their presence in Northern California. 

“In this past month, we started really touring around different places, playing more shows and recording our music,” Albano said.

Nineteenth Operator’s complex and elastic sound is something they hope to continue to pursue and expand upon as an ever-evolving project.

“This is what we want to do,” Albano said. “It’s a multifaceted creative work and the music community is really lovely. We’re just trying to take it bigger and see how far we can take it.”

For more information on the duo’s upcoming performances, you can find updates via their Instagram, @nineteenthoperator. If you want to see Nineteenth Operator live, alongside local bands Budget Cut and Love, Georgie, visit The California Aggie’s Couch Concert on March 12 at 6 p.m. Guests are asked to donate $8 to $15 at the door, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds. 

Written by: Hannah Osborn— arts@theaggie.org