The Winkiez

The Winkiez share the heartfelt and sentimental story of how they came up with such a unique and personal name for their band. Elyse shared that Erika, Kiki and her were in their sophomore year when they went to downtown Los Angeles to see an indie artist perform. They interacted with him and explained that they were musicians too. In response to this, he sang an original song of his for them, called “Winkie Dolls.” The artist then asked what their band was called, but at that time, they were unsure what their name would be. On the spot, they took inspiration from the song “Winkie Dolls”, and thus, the Winkiez were born! 

Elyse shares that one of their longtime dreams was to be in a band. 

“In 7th grade, I really liked rock bands, and I thought, wow I really want to do that! My middle school was really small so I didn’t have enough people to play the instruments,” stated Elyse.

Elyse further explains, “I was really lucky to meet Kiki, who loves to sing. Erika, she learned the drums, and Mia came in sophomore year which completed it.” 

Kiki shares that she wanted to create a band because of her love of music, and “it’s just fun!” 

Fun fact: Elyse is actually mostly a pianist and guitar is not their normal instrument! 

Erika shares that their band rehearsals are very impromptu, and they get their inspiration from whatever they feel in the moment. 

“We all have a giant Spotify playlist where everyone puts on songs they want to play, and then we go through it and pick which to perform. We play different genres to fit our audience, like for the reunion we played older songs and at the St. Mel carnival we played Halloween songs. It’s honestly just whatever we want to play!”

Keyboardist Mia gets her love and admiration for music from when she was just a little kid. 

“When I was  little, I used to sing ‘Party in the USA’ by Miley Cyrus and I would dance right before I got into the bath every morning. I’ve always been in choir and I played like, 4 instruments,” stated Mia. 

The Winkiez get their inspiration from indie, alternative artists such as Mother Mother and Mitski. Lead singer Kiki in particular gets her love of music from her dad. “He loves Bob Dylan, and I’ve listened to old music and jazz my whole life. I was born to jazz actually!” she says.

Although they’ve been very busy with their active participation in the performing arts and the recent musical, “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” they are working on original music. Their “free style jam sessions,” as Mia calls it, have been sounding really good. Kiki shares that many of the members also love writing songs and they look forward to putting out their own music in the future. 

Check out the Winkiez Instagram account, @the.winkiez_band, for updates about gigs, merch, and possible original music! We look forward to seeing the amazing performances in the future of the band!