I meant to call Joel for weeks to learn more about his world. Since I’ve met him in LA a few weeks ago on campus, I’ve been wanting to ask him more about his music, what it’s like to be at UCLA, etc. Here it is. Xavier Hey Joel, thanks for calling me back. How are you? Joel I’m great, you? Xavier Not bad - hey, wanted to ask you a few questions for the Wambo blog? Joel Sure.

Xavier Soooo, who’s Joel Rose?
Joel Ah-ah, like how you say it. Well, Joel Rose - that’s me, I’m a 3rd year UCLA student majoring in Political Science - English minor.

Xavier Did you grow up here in the area?
Joel Yes I did - I grew up in LA, went to school here at Montclair Prep in Van Nuys and then came to UCLA.

Xavier That’s cool. Hobbies?
Joel Tons - I’m a big sports guy - and also have a passion for music and the arts.

Xavier What sports?
Joel Basketball, football, soccer,hockey,golf,tennis,baseball…

Xavier You have a favorite team?
Joel Lakers. I’m a huge fan of the Lakers.

Xavier Let’s talk about music - how did you get into that?
Joel Well, my dad was in the music industry in the 70’s in England. When I was in 8th grade I started writing songs and singing/rapping. When I was in 10th grade, I started to see my music as a serious hobby.If there is any genre it can be labeled as it’s hip-hop/rock. Then at the dawn of myspace music I began promoting myself with MySpace.

Xavier What inspired you to pick “IceMix” as a name for your band/etc?
Joel The cliche goes that it is a “cold world” out there, and what substance can withstand the cold, and even thrive? Ice. And the mix is reference to the mix of emotions that are conveyed within my music.

Xavier How so?
Joel Well you know, I went through a lot of things through my life - growing up in LA, having family issues, etc. Icemix is really about staying cool, and just going on with life. I’ve got a good perspective on life. I consider myself a little more mature than people of my age. Many kids around live in a bubble, not knowing what’s really going on till they get hit with reality.

Xavier Is this something that inspires you as an artist?
Joel Absolutely - my songs are about my past life situations, and how I’ve overcome then time and time again.

Xavier What’s your favorite song in your album?
Joel I’m about to release a new album very soon - and the one I, and many others like best( of the ones finished so far) is probably “Trouble”. It’s a good summary of my life, and the other artist on it (Finesse’s) trials and tribulations- and the message is really that you should go on .Life is too short to be dwelling on sadness,and dissapointments of the past. The future is the present, so it is best to make the most of each moment.

Xavier Last question: do you have a hero or someone you look up to?
Joel My Mom. My Mom’s gone through a lot personally yet she was always there to support me and the family and keep us happy. She’s extremely independent, has overcome so much adversity, and always comes up with good advice on how to deal with life. My favorite sports hero is Kobe Bryant, as he has and continues to battle critics, overcome a variety of problems he encounters, and strives for greatness each and every second he steps on the basketball court.

Xavier Is your mom in LA?
Joel Yes, she’s a physical therapist. She was actually born in Iran, spent some time in Danemark then Israel before coming to the states where she went to college. A remarkable woman and a role model.

Xavier OK, very last question. Wambo?
Joel Wambo? Endless possibilities for growth - file sharing’s got enormous potential and Wambo’s the one that’s really innovating. To tell you the truth I’m kinda pissed right now because my PC Crashed, - but can’t wait to get back on it real soon.

Yes, shinny and everything the small incident…

Ummm… Yes and no.

Let me tell you a little more about Xavier’s new “disease”.
First of all, it is chronic. For several days now, we have been working with Gianni “Gidibao”, our Italian blogger friend, to translate Wambo website in Italian (thank you Gianni by the way, awesome job! ). Since Xavier has been reading those Italian translations, he keeps distracting the whole team by repeating over and over again the same sentences in Italian. How exotic would it be if he could actually speak Italian! Unfortunately, the sentences he likes repeating are more like “Cliccare su Finito per terminare l’operazione”, which means “Click on Finish to finish the operation” or “Messaggistica Privata di Gruppo”, which means “Private Group Messaging”.

Here are other information you need to know about this rare disease:

Is the disease contagious?
God no!

Are there secondary effects?
I’ll tell you in a few months. You never know, maybe Xavier will eventually decide to learn Italian.

What type of medication do you need?
Well, I’m not a doctor but I am pretty sure we need to call back our friend Enrique (see previous blog post on Ruby Skye) and ask him to fly back to California. If Enrique was here, Xavier would be speaking Spanish all day long. That would save us!

Hopefully, he’ll recover by himself. Actually, although Xavier is temporarily enduring severe “Italian-aholism” , I’m glad Wambo is becoming so internationally-oriented. Wambo has friends in so many countries now: Spain, Italy, France, Mexico, Argentina, Malaysia, Guatemala and others. Starting this week, you can even read our website in English, in French, in Spanish and in Italian. So we’re moving forward with the localization of our software. I hope you’ll enjoy it!

Anne-Laure