OCTAVIA

Octavia is the name that identifies the most important rock-pop band of Bolivia. The members of the band started their musical career in 1988 with their own compositions.

The band initiated with the name Coda 3 with which they recorded 4 albums:

* “Día tras día” (Day By Day) 1990
* “Verdades inéditas” (Inedited Realities - gold record) 1991
* “2387” (gold record)1994
* “Coda 3 Acústico” (Coda 3 Unplugged) 1995

Independent record labels in Bolivia were responsible for the production of these records.

In 1995 the band’s music transcended Bolivia’s boundaries. Their songs were released in the most popular music channel: MTV Latin America. This opened the possibilities for them and international record labels started showing interest on including the band on their catalogs.

In 1996 the band signed a contract with Sony Music Entertainment. It is then that the band decides to change the name to OCTAVIA. This change responds to various reasons, like the inclusion of native instruments and rhythms to their music, and also that there was a band in Mexico that had a similar name.

Under the contract with Sony Music Entertainment the band releases four albums:

* “Aura” (Platinum record)1996
* “Ciclos” (Cycles – gold record)1999
* “Octavia Acústico” (Octavia Unplugged – gold record) 2001
* ”4” (gold record) 2002
The album “Aura” became an icon in the Bolivian musical market and still these days continuous to be a top sales album.

Many video clips of these albums were played on important music channels like MTV Latin America, Telehit and Ritmo Son Latino.

All these Gold and Platinum productions motivated the band to start their first promotional tour in the United States of America. Therefore, in 1998 they performed in Miami, Washington, Virginia, Maryland and New York.

In the year 2000 Octavia was invited to play at the most important musical festival of Latin America called “Rock al Parque”. This festival takes place in Bogotá, Colombia. In this festival the band offered two shows for more than 50.000 people. The success of these shows encouraged CNN in Spanish to provide a broad coverage on the participation of the band on the mentioned festival.

On the same year Radio Activa, and important radio station in Mexico D.F. starts to play the single “Disco lipstick” of the album “Ciclos” (Cycles) on daily basis. It is important to mention that the producers of this radio station did not have any idea of the precedence of the material. In fact, they didn’t even know if the material was for sale. The single ranked number two on their chart and stayed in that position for many weeks. The sudden success of the single called the attention of some television channels and members of the press in this country resulting on invitations for the band to many promotional interviews.

During the following years the presentations that the band made in Chile, and a tour through Peru motivated Sony Music to produce the album “4” which was going to be released in Argentina, Chile, Perú, Ecuador and Bolivia. Unfortunately, at that time the economic crisis of Argentina forced Sony Music to call for bankruptcy, which led the company to close all of their subsidiaries on the region. For that reason, the material and the projects for the band were called off.

Due to that problem the contract between Octavia and Sony Music was canceled and the band decided to produce a new album independently in 2003. This new album compiles 15 years of the band’s professional trajectory and goes by the name of:

* “Octavia al Aire Libre” (Octavia Outdoors)2003

Octavia´s latest album is:

* “Talismán”(Talisman)2004

This album was recorded in Norman, Oklahoma in the US and was produced by Tyson Meade (lead singer of “Chainsaw Kittens”) with the label Flagstone Records. Even though this album was recently released in Bolivia it is about to become a sales gold record.

In 2005 Octavia is dedicate to promote the “Talisman” album all around Bolivia. One of the most important gigs was the Paceña FestiMusic in La Paz and Santa Cruz city whit the mos important bands like Ataque 77 (Argentina) and Kumbia Kings (USA).

In 2006 they gonna released the “Talisman” album in Argentina.

If we think of the challenging combination of rock with folkloric melodic structures, electronic sequences of the modern sound and the warmth of the acoustic sound that Octavia offers we can conclude that this is band with a great deal of versatility and sensibility.

Even though Octavia had to overcome a great deal of challenging situations, they showed over and over again that they are the most important band in Bolivia.
At this time the last record"Talisman" is been distributed by Navarre Corporation at all the mayor cd stores around USA and Canada