Mona Tavakoli is a Los Angeles-based touring drummer, singer and performer who believes in making music that unites, elevates and connects.
While Mona is equally comfortable performing as a drummer and a percussionist, she is especially known for adapting the cajón to unexpected genres such as rock and pop.
She has designed a signature instrument called The MT Box produced by Latin Percussion.
Mona is a co-founder of the Rock n’ Roll Camp For Girls Los Angeles, a nonprofit that encourages girls to find their voices through music during an intensive, weeklong summer day camp. She is currently touring with Jason Mraz and Ebi and is one of my favorite people in the world.
In these episodes we talk about:
- her early love of drums starting in school band while her Persian parents were pushing her towards piano or flute
- why and how she became the UCLA mascot (yep, wearing a bear suit)
- doing beauty pageants as 7 year old because that’s what her immigrant parents thought America girls did
- navigating around the word “should”
- how she cultivated her percussive Mona Magic, as I call it
- her discovery of the cajon that started a life long love affair and her creating her own!
- starting the Los Angeles Rock’n’Roll Camp for girls
- how even though she had an early passion for drums she didn’t see that being her actual career
- her constant desire to be part of a team/community
- her band Raining Jane coming together and touring the country all on their own without agent/management and how they worked as a team and a band for 20 years now!
- how Raining Jane became the most booked act at NACA
- how she is able to take criticism, show up without ego, and move past fears and doubts to be able to show up fully
- how we want others to make decisions for us so we don’t have to trust ourselves
- writing songs with Jason Mraz and then becoming part of his band
- what came up in touring with Iranian superstar Ebi
- her self talk during shows
- why Mona calls me sistamanifesta
- the mantra she says to not be so much of an energetic sponge
LINKS to other things/people/music we mentioned!
PS. If we mentioned something and I forgot to include it here leave a comment and I will track it down for you!
The article I wrote for yellow on cutting out the word should.
The HBO show we referenced with Pete Holmes who does the Naca circuit
The cajon Mona created LP Americana Mona Tavakoli Cajon
Check out Mona’s art work!
Girl’s Rock Camp Alliance to find or create one near you!
Subscribe to the podcast and rate it, it helps! And if you send me a screenshot of your review to yourjoyologist at yourjoyologist dot com, you will be entered to win a surprise box from my product line!
F THE SHOULDS. DO THE WANTS.
Forget what you have been told you should do or should be.
Instead ask yourself, “What do I want?
Learn how to listen to what it is that you truly feel & want so that you are living your most present, aligned, and alive life.
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