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Felicia Villani wears many hats... disc jockey, musician, lead guitarist,

vocalist, and martial artist.  Based out of West Hollywood California,

DJ Felicia has spun for many promoters, both as an in house club 

resident and on the road in a regional and national capacity. When the

2020/2021 pandemic hit, she joined the Twitch platform, and kept the

music alive by playing live shows on the Twitch platform during lockdown. 

Prior to the pandemic she was spinning some of Southern California's most

popular clubs including, Micky's West Hollywood, Revolver West Hollywood,

The Other Door NoHo, Hunters Palm Springs and others. During her DJ

career, Felicia has chalked up a long resume of past events at venues

including Factory, Ultra Suede,The Abbey, Here Lounge, Rage, Motherlode,

Flaming Saddles,and more. She has also played circuit events including,

Reflex After Hours @ Factory and @ Los Globos Los Angeles, Rainbow Circuit Party and Festival Sacramento, Momentum/360 Live,Dinah Shore weekend Palm Springs, White Party Palm Springs, Texas Circuit Boys events Dallas, Tracks Denver, MOS Circuit productions, DeDe's Productions, and more.  Felicia is a current member in the Sobel Nation music promotion group.  Under the label's umbrella, she completed production on several official dance remixes which were released for Billboard charting artist, Carol Hahn. As a band artist herself, Felicia also tours as a live musician, performing as lead guitarist, backing vocalist, and band manager for the band, Allison Chains - World's Only Female Tribute to Alice In Chains.  She is also a member of the Gibson Guitars Family Of Artists since 2009.  Along with her musical endeavors, she is also

a karate practitioner, and holds a 5th degree black belt in Tang Soo Do. Felicia loves practice of the samurai sword, and in open tournament competition has achieved multiple Southern California area Grand Champion titles.

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Growing up in Colorado, Felicia was raised in a creative family. Her father sang opera, her brother was

a playwright, lyricist, and actor in musical theater and film, and her mother was a poet, artist, seamstress, homemaker, and played the mandolin. Her family exposure to the arts, inspired her to choose a path in the entertainment world.  Felicia picked up her first guitar at age nine, began learning blues rock riffs, and formed her first band with childhood friends.  Her first professional gig was at age 13, performing a concert at Denver's Bonfil's Theatre. From youth through college, she sang in concert choir and madrigal groups, played guitar in jazz band, studied acting singing, dancing, and performed in local drama and musical theatre.  She studied at the University Of Colorado Boulder, majoring in music and acting, with a minor in psychology as a fall back plan. During this time Felicia began a balancing act of college student by day, and belting out rock anthems in clubs by night. In June of 1987, while performing a rock show in a Boulder, a radio industry friend suggested Felicia take a shot at her first opportunity to DJ behind the turntables. Her musical background was made her a natural while training on vinyl as a club disc jockey, and helped her attain very first DJ residency at a club named Springers.  Immersed in both arenas of dance and rock music, she began doing local studio recording work in the Denver-Boulder area.  As a rock guitarist/vocalist and club DJ, Felicia fought to break down doors and make her mark at a time when it was rare for women in the genre.  The only way to gain acceptance, was to shred and spin as fiercely as possible. Felicia soon became a resident DJ at Denver clubs Traxx-Paradise Garage, and Stars. She also landed a residency at Radd nightclub in Boulder, CO, all the while continuing to perform with a number of rock bands locally and nationally.  She cut her teeth on the road, touring much of the West and Mid-West with original and cover rock bands originating out of both Denver and Detroit areas including; Sterling, Snowblind, Infrared, The Music Zoo, Isis, and Surrender Dorothy.  Surrender Dorothy most notably landed an overseas Department Of Defense - USO rock concert tour of the Far East and the South Pacific. There she gained international experience performing for U.S. troops and audiences in Japan, Korea, the Philippines, British Indian Ocean territories, and Australia.

 

Shortly after the USO tour, Felicia relocated to California. Upon arriving in Hollywood, she immediately secured a Saturday night club residency as the head DJ for West Hollywood nigtclub, The Palms.  She was in turn signed up by event promoter Joani Weir, who billed Felicia as "DJ Diva".  Weir's Klub Banshee parties were based out of Los Angeles, and quickly spread from Southern California's Orange County, Palm Springs, & San Diego, to other regions in Arizona, New Mexico, & Colorado.  Banshee circuit events were notorius for a sexy theme of cutting edge deep house, vocal house, tribal, and techno music. By day, Felicia worked as a music buyer and Bilboard Magazine reporter for Hollywood's Wherehouse Records on Sunset Blvd.  She later joined the staff at Macy Lipman Marketing in Beverly Hills, promoting albums for major record labels including, CBS, Sony, Virgin, Elektra, and Paisley Park.  Felicia also dug her heels into in the L.A. musician's scene as co-lead guitarist and co-vocalist for the r&b pop rock group, Mix.  The band wrote and recorded the Laker Girls L.A. Jammin' full length video soundtrack, benefiting the Magic Johnson AIDS Foundation. When Mix disbanded, Felicia and guitarist Gretchen Schultz struck out on their own and founded original r&b/funk bands, Apparition, and Soul Instinct.  Soul Instinct signed to the Asha Records label and became studio artists, recording under the direction of producers, Gloria Jones and David Horn.  (Jones is a recording industry icon, known for Motown roots, her original artist version of "Tainted Love", songwriting and producing for The Jackson 5, The Supremes, Marc Bolan/T Rex, Gladys Knight, Gonzales, George Michael).  On Jones' label, Felicia's guitar, vocals, and production arrangements were featured on the compilation album release, "Griots 1 - Tales of the City".  The album showcased various artists including singing diva Patricia Hodges, and Soul Instinct's dance single, Might As Well Party, with 12 inch vinyl remixes by house music producer, George Acosta.  Supplementing her band work as a hired gun studio musician, Felicia regularly lent a hand, recording with variety of hard & mainstream rock, r&b, funk, rap, and alternative artists at a number of Los Angeles' area studios including Rusk Studios, O.G. Pierce Studio, and Hit City.Felicia's production skills branched into the DJ realm when in 2003 she grabbed a Top 5 award in the Bacardi DJ U.S.A. remix competition for her original track, Element Fire.  

 

After being signed as a DJ artist by Andrew Briskin's Tango Blues Entertainment, Felicia became a staple at premier West Hollywood events.  She has been twice nominated for a West Hollywood Award in the category of Outstanding DJ Of The Year, 2007 and 2008, categoried with renowned DJs including; Manny Lehman, Scotty K., Kimberly S., and Kio Kio, ranking her one of the top eight live event DJs in Los Angeles.  She has consistently fired up dance floors with her mix of house, circuit and tribal music for promoter's events including; Live 360/Ray & Dante's Momentum, (on the bill with with Issac Escelante and Erez Ben Ishay), RocknRolla Promotion's Angels & Demons Los Angeles After Hours (on the bill with Alexander), Reflex After Hours Los Angeles (on the bill with international DJ/Producers, Paulo, Hector Fonseca, and Eddie X), Talbott Street Indianapolis, Bill Bovier's XL Los Angeles, Red Nightclub Detroit, Tom Whitman's L.A. events, Size, Popular, Cherry Pop at Here lounge and Ultra Suede, Eleven Nightclub West Hollywood, Micky's West Hollywood, Rage West Hollywood, Factory West Hollywood, Faces Nightclub Sacramento, Rainbow Circuit Party, (on the bill with international DJ/Producer Tony Moran during Rainbow Festival), Ripples Long Beach, Heaven Palm Springs, Hunters Palm Springs and The Abbey West Hollywood.  Other events of note include Club Montage San Diego, Gay Days Anaheim - Welcome To The Jungle, (on the bill with Billboard charting DJ/Producer Scotty K), DeDe's United Pride circuit events on the Queen Mary, (Long Beach's original circuit events in the ship's exhibition hall), Hunters and Heaven nightclubs Palm Springs, Club Maxx Los Angeles, Texas Circuit Boyz Valley Of The Dolls Memorial Day Circuit Weekend Dallas, (on the bill with Susan Morabitio, Alyson Calagna, Lydia Prim and Wendy Hunt), Texas Circuit Boyz Texas Tea at Club One Dallas, Jeffrey Sanker's White Party 2000 opening event at Club INternational Palm Springs, Dinah Shore Weekend events Palm Springs, Kurfew New York City's XY Las Vegas event, Ripples Long Beach, Klub Banshee events, and Men of The Stable Circuit Events Los Angeles & Las Vegas.  Felicia has spun many pride events through the years including; Los Angeles' Christopher Street West Festival, Greater Palm Springs Pride, and Long Beach Pride's Night at The Dome event, held in the massive Spruce Goose hangar, and attracting thousands of party attendees. Felicia has also spun for entertainment industry special events and charity fundraisers at host venues Eleven, Here Lounge , and The Abbey.  Events of note include; Jovy Janolo & Cher Rue's Old Fashion Christmas, GLAAD's Thank Glaad It's Friday, Bravo Channel's Jackie Warner Work Out Season 2 Premier, and The Trevor Project & Tom Whitman Presents Oscar Night.  Felicia is also no stranger to the airwaves.  She became a featured artist for a number of broadcasts on San Francisco's Energy 92.7 radio show, the Massive Mix, with her DJ sets well received. Her debut appearance on the show in 2005 marked her as the second female DJ, (following NYC artist, DJ Jackie Christie), to be invited to the Bay area's popular broadcast.  Felicia's mixed sets have also been featured on world-wide mix shows and web-casts, including, Partylist.com's Circuitmix radio (Paris, France/San Franciso), Muzophile In the Mix (Los Angeles/Detroit), MaryTV.net (West Hollywood), Electric FM (New York/Canada), and The Real Mix Show (Boston)

 

In 2008, while continuing to DJ clubs and events, Felicia joined the original band, Absinthe, as co-lead guitarist and backing vocalist. Shows included music festivals and iconic California rock venues. The band took an awards sweep over some of L.A.'s premier musicians with three 2008 Rock City News Awards. Felicia took the award for Best Female guitarist. She also signed an instrument endorsement with Daisy Rock Guitars. In 2009, Felicia was also proud to announce becoming a member of the Gibson Guitars Family Of Artists.  Later she gained endorsements for Clayton Guitar Accessories and Core One Bullet Instrument Cables.  In 2010, Felicia joined Allison Chains, World's Only All Female Tribute To Alice In Chains.  The Los Angeles based tribute band has performed shows at venues such as The Whisky A Go Go Hollywood, House Of Blues Hollywood, House Of Blues Anaheim, House Of Blues San Diego, The Crocodile Seattle, Lucky Strike Live Hollywood, The Rialto Theater Tucson, The Van Buren Phoenix, Ramona Mainstage, M15 Concert Venue, Key Club Hollywood, Dave Navarro's Black Door Las Vegas, Viejas Dreamcatcher Casino San Diego, Orange County Fair's The Hangar Stage, LVCS Las Vegas, Malone's OC, Fitzgerald's Huntington Beach, Starline Concert Venue Fresno, Brick By Brick San Diego, Rainbow Festival Sacramento, and many others.  Allison Chains continues performing as an active band in 2020, playing shows across the Western U.S. and Pacific Northwest.

 

Felicia's love of all things music has been a life long journey and commitment.  Whether in the DJ booth, or on the live stage, she strives to connect with people, to inspire a pulsating dance floor, to rock out with abandon, and to celebrate the beauty of music.

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