Nina Jo is an award-winning singer/songwriter based in San Francisco, California. 

Nine Things To Know About Nina Jo

1) I’m named after my mom’s mom, Nina and my dad’s sister, Jo. Nina rhymes with China. 

2) My grandfather was the first artist I knew. We used to paint side-by-side in his garage-studio. 

3) My brother was murdered on the last day of 1979, the eve of a new decade. I couldn’t even listen to music for a year. In fact, name any song from the 80s; I probably don’t know it. I stopped playing music for about twenty years and instead earned a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, a master’s in Physical Education, founded The SAFE Place at San Francisco State and taught self-defense to more than a thousand people.

4)  I stole my mom's guitar when I was about nine years of age and taught myself to play by listening to her Joan Baez records.

5) I still have the mud-caked dictionary with pressed flowers in it that flew out the back window of my VW bug when I rolled it driving home from Fairbanks on the AlCan in the Yukon Territory 90 miles from the nearest town.

6) When I was a small child and we could see the Channel Islands, I’d say, “The islands are up!” because I thought they sank out of sight when they weren’t visible. 

7) I rehabilitated myself from a concussion I got on Cinco de Mayo 1995. I couldn’t get medical treatment for it, so I invented my own path, drawing, painting, learning traditional and movement-based storytelling. I started breaking into song during my improvs, so one day my teacher said, “You’re a singer. Sing!” Thanks, Corey Fischer, for helping me find my way back to music.

8) I started playing open mics in San Francisco in the early 2000s. At the time I thought, “Who’s gonna want to listen to a guitar-based singer songwriter these days?” Surprise! 

9) I think Belly Laughs make the world go ‘round.


Happy people having fun.

Emil Frantzvåg
Charles Wise
Harald Olsvik



MDFX is the moniker of award-winning Brooklyn-based producer/composer Martin Fowler for his progressive, electro, and techno excursions.  Ever-evolving and collaborating, Martin is constantly delving into new musical territory and consistently avoids finite categorization, while still maintaining an aura about his distinctive production style and sound.

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