AVA MENDOZA is a Brooklyn-based guitarist, singer, songwriter and composer. Best known for her solo guitar and vocal performances, and as the leader of the experimental rock band Unnatural Ways, she has received critical acclaim for her guitar work's compelling combination of technical virtuosity and visceral impact. In any context she is committed to bringing expressivity, energy and a wide sonic range to the music.

Mendoza has toured throughout the U.S. and Europe and recorded/performed
with musicians including Carla Bozulich, Malcolm Mooney (CAN), Bill Orcutt, Abiodun Oyewole (Last Poets), Mike Watt, Adele Bertei, Mick Barr, William Hooker, Nels Cline,
Matana Roberts, John Zorn, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Fred Frith, William Parker, Hamid
Drake, John Zorn, ROVA, Negativland, the Violent Femmes, and members of Caroliner.
Recordings are available on labels Tzadik, Astral Spirits, Weird Forest, Clean Feed,
Resipiscent, and New Atlantis. She was featured as one of Guitar World‘s “10 Female
Guitarists You Should Know”.

“A wizard on a semicircle of effects pedals, but… equally adept with FX-less technique," (Lars Gotrich, NPR).

“A beautiful, powerful and highly original solo electric guitar record – not just another record but a new sound, a new voice”. (Marc Ribot on New Spells, Mendoza's 2022 solo release)

"Mendoza plays these songs. She makes them sing. Her technique is impeccable, but her playing is astonishingly expressive. She doesn't just bend blue notes; she wads them up into a ball and throws them up against a wall... Mendoza knows what she does better than almost anyone else on the planet, which is tell stories with her guitar." (Aiding & Abetting).

“It’s… Ava Mendoza’s deconstructing of blues and punk into brutal shredfests that’s
causing a ruckus in NYC’s DIY hubs” (Brad Cohan, Noisey.Vice).