 |
| Photo credit to Nadia Uribe. |
Garza has been a friend of mine since high school and we've both shared the same passion for music since a young age. Since his band Trepnacion has made it on Spotify, I decided to send him some questions about his musical career. Here's what he wrote back to me.
ED: Tell me a little about yourself. Where are you from and what musical acts have you played with? Which bands have been the most impactful?
JG: Hello, my name is Jesus Garza and I’m from a city in Baja California, Mexico (like 10 minutes away from California). I have played with quite a few acts (mostly ranging from the heaviest types of punk to the most melodic). My first band was named “Cheap!”, but we split up 2 years after we started and we all headed on to have different projects. The latest projects I’m part of are Nuke (horror death grind) and Trepanacion (a bizarre mixture between hardcore punk and deathrock).
I have always been into fast, noisy music. I had a hard rock upbringing because of my dad (which means I grew up on bands such as Scorpions, AC/DC, Deep Purple, etc), but departed from it at the age of 12-13 when I listened to Minor Threat and Black Flag for the first time. I still listen to them at this age.
It’s kind of hard to list all of the bands that have had the most impact in my life since I tend to listen to a wide variety of genres, but I think that early West Coast hardcore was the one that made me feel the most inspired to go pick up my guitar and write songs.
ED: When did you start playing music? What was the experience like?
JG: I started playing music at the age of 12, when I first learned how to play guitar. I owned a guitar a few years prior to that, but I never brought myself to actually find a way to learn how to play it. It was a pretty significant and enjoyable experience since that meant I had a way to connect with my favorite music and could write my own.
ED: What’s the scene like in Mexico? What’s the biggest or most important show you’ve been to?
JG: I cannot give you a concrete opinion regarding the Mexican scene, since it depends on the city and the bands. I can only speak for the scene I’m part of, but what I have seen is that most bands have a hard time getting national support, so they tend to share their work on other places in which the genre they play has a bigger following. I have known about a few bands that have been playing for more than 10 years and now they’re getting the attention they deserve from other places (mostly from the U.S.A). Also, it’s pretty cool that there’s a wide variety of bands to pick/choose from, but it is also unfair that great acts with a fresh proposal tend to split up due to the lack of interest/support.
I guess that the biggest/most important show that I have been to was the Municipal Waste set at Warped in the San Diego date. I met one of my favorite bands and I got to enjoy my favorite songs from them live. It was a changing experience that I won’t forget. Maybe it wasn’t that great of a show, but it surely was important for me.
Also, I have to give a shoutout to my homies from Ciudad Muerta and The Hand. They have been doing and organizing great shows for quite some time now, and they have been my favorite for sure. They do great things and they bring great bands. Those shows have taught me that you can do anything if you really want to get it done, and I have got to known great bands/people because of them.
ED:What places do you like to play shows the best? What was your worst show?
JG: Damn, man. That’s a hard question.
I like playing shows at bars but they don’t come close to house shows. I have always loved playing in living rooms, backyards, etc. A few of my best experiences playing live have been in those type of shows, and there’s nothing that compares to having a few people going nuts on your set in a small place.
My worst show could have been that time in which I didn’t even get the chance to play. We were promised to play at a certain hour, then they moved our set for a later time and once the band that organized the show played they disconnected all of the gear and the P.A and just left. We waited for 5 hours to play and at the end we didn’t even get a chance.
ED: Does the Mexico scene face any particular problems? If so, what kind?
JG: I guess that the biggest problem there is in the Mexican scene is the lack of support, how people tend to judge new, upcoming acts because they don’t compare to the others they tend to listen to, etc. I’m not saying everybody is like this, and these things happen everywhere, not only here, but I have seen that it happens quite a bit more than everybody would like it to happen.
There are a lot of non-lucrative collectives, zines, blogs and other types of diffusion outlets that help new bands get the recognition they deserve, but sometimes most of these don’t have a big audience to rely on. Shoutout to all of those people trying to bring the scene together.
ED: If you were stuck on a desert island with just your three favorite albums and a record player, what would those three albums be?
JG: This is going to be tough to answer but I’ll try my best not to regret it:
Despise You - West Side Horizons: This is a great powerviolence record, and can surely bring that adrenaline rush that everybody needs in their daily lives. It’s gritty, it’s angry, it’s dirty, and it is a masterpiece.
Deathreat - Consider It War: This record makes you want to pick up a skateboard and break all of your limbs in the most violent ways known to mankind, and yet keep skating. It’s in my morning playlist for sure.
Death - Scream Bloody Gore: As a friend once said, “this record is like listening to a horror movie”. As a horror and death metal fan, this record is a must in your collection.
ED: What influences you musically? Where do you get inspiration from?
JG: Bands that want to stand out from the rest without being too cocky or pretentious, bands that are faithful to their roots and yet try to bring in a new twist here and there, bands that aren’t afraid to try new things as long as they do it because they like it, and bands that made a record without knowing that it would go on to be one of the greatest influences to everybody in that genre.
I usually get my inspiration from live videos/performances or from reading the lyrics/studying the musical composition of the albums that I love from the bands that I usually listen to. For example, let’s say I want to write some grindcore songs, so I spend a whole day listening to the grindcore bands that I like and discovering some others and study the way they play, the attitude they expel and how they write their stuff. I try to have at least a concrete idea of what I would like to do at the end of the day.
ED: What did it take to get your music on Spotify? What’s the process behind that?
JG: To be honest, I have no idea. The dude that released Trepanacion’s demo EP on CD (Testicular Records) did all of that for us.
ED: Give us a rundown on your gear. Your guitar, amps, etc. I like to know the specs.
JG: I play a Starcaster P-Bass (which is like a Squier P-Bass) that I fixed/kind of modded to get the sound that I wanted. I plug it in through a Boss TU-2 and a Behringer delay/reverb pedal. I usually borrow an Ampeg head (which I don’t know the exact model for) and a Metal Muff from Trepanacion’s guitar player (who also plays in Nuke) when we play live. For rehearsal I use a Peavey Tour TKO 115 that I borrow from a friend (big shoutout to my dude Alvaro for letting me borrow it).
ED: Do you have any future projects that you would like to tell us about? Where will you go next?
JG: Right now I’m just focusing on those two projects. I’m busy with school and I wouldn’t like to lose all of my attention on my career and those two bands for now. The next thing we’ll do is release Trepanacion’s new EP on Testicular Records and record Nuke’s new EP, we’d also like to play in another city by the end of the year.
ED: Is there anything else you’d like to say?
JG: I would like to thank everybody that has believed in my projects and all of my friends’ projects, the people that go out of their way to ensure that everybody has a great experience at shows, all of the dudes that I have been in bands with, all of my friends that put money from their own pocket to bring great bands that everybody might get to enjoy or get to know, all of the people that come to our shows and stick around to see all of the bands play, the people that have bought our merch and shared our music, our friends that have given us promotion and everybody that is making all of this possible.
Also, thank you for the interview, man. It’s always nice to share this type of stuff.
Check out Ciudad Muerta's Facebook page here.
The Hand Booking FB page here.
Trepnacion's latest recording, 'Exhumacion'.
Check out Nuke's Instagram HERE.
I like playing shows at bars but they don’t come close to house shows. I have always loved playing in living rooms, backyards, etc. A few of my best experiences playing live have been in those type of shows, and there’s nothing that compares to having a few people going nuts on your set in a small place.
My worst show could have been that time in which I didn’t even get the chance to play. We were promised to play at a certain hour, then they moved our set for a later time and once the band that organized the show played they disconnected all of the gear and the P.A and just left. We waited for 5 hours to play and at the end we didn’t even get a chance.
ED: Does the Mexico scene face any particular problems? If so, what kind?
JG: I guess that the biggest problem there is in the Mexican scene is the lack of support, how people tend to judge new, upcoming acts because they don’t compare to the others they tend to listen to, etc. I’m not saying everybody is like this, and these things happen everywhere, not only here, but I have seen that it happens quite a bit more than everybody would like it to happen.
There are a lot of non-lucrative collectives, zines, blogs and other types of diffusion outlets that help new bands get the recognition they deserve, but sometimes most of these don’t have a big audience to rely on. Shoutout to all of those people trying to bring the scene together.
ED: If you were stuck on a desert island with just your three favorite albums and a record player, what would those three albums be?
JG: This is going to be tough to answer but I’ll try my best not to regret it:
Despise You - West Side Horizons: This is a great powerviolence record, and can surely bring that adrenaline rush that everybody needs in their daily lives. It’s gritty, it’s angry, it’s dirty, and it is a masterpiece.
Deathreat - Consider It War: This record makes you want to pick up a skateboard and break all of your limbs in the most violent ways known to mankind, and yet keep skating. It’s in my morning playlist for sure.
Death - Scream Bloody Gore: As a friend once said, “this record is like listening to a horror movie”. As a horror and death metal fan, this record is a must in your collection.
ED: What influences you musically? Where do you get inspiration from?
JG: Bands that want to stand out from the rest without being too cocky or pretentious, bands that are faithful to their roots and yet try to bring in a new twist here and there, bands that aren’t afraid to try new things as long as they do it because they like it, and bands that made a record without knowing that it would go on to be one of the greatest influences to everybody in that genre.
I usually get my inspiration from live videos/performances or from reading the lyrics/studying the musical composition of the albums that I love from the bands that I usually listen to. For example, let’s say I want to write some grindcore songs, so I spend a whole day listening to the grindcore bands that I like and discovering some others and study the way they play, the attitude they expel and how they write their stuff. I try to have at least a concrete idea of what I would like to do at the end of the day.
ED: What did it take to get your music on Spotify? What’s the process behind that?
JG: To be honest, I have no idea. The dude that released Trepanacion’s demo EP on CD (Testicular Records) did all of that for us.
ED: Give us a rundown on your gear. Your guitar, amps, etc. I like to know the specs.
JG: I play a Starcaster P-Bass (which is like a Squier P-Bass) that I fixed/kind of modded to get the sound that I wanted. I plug it in through a Boss TU-2 and a Behringer delay/reverb pedal. I usually borrow an Ampeg head (which I don’t know the exact model for) and a Metal Muff from Trepanacion’s guitar player (who also plays in Nuke) when we play live. For rehearsal I use a Peavey Tour TKO 115 that I borrow from a friend (big shoutout to my dude Alvaro for letting me borrow it).
ED: Do you have any future projects that you would like to tell us about? Where will you go next?
JG: Right now I’m just focusing on those two projects. I’m busy with school and I wouldn’t like to lose all of my attention on my career and those two bands for now. The next thing we’ll do is release Trepanacion’s new EP on Testicular Records and record Nuke’s new EP, we’d also like to play in another city by the end of the year.
ED: Is there anything else you’d like to say?
JG: I would like to thank everybody that has believed in my projects and all of my friends’ projects, the people that go out of their way to ensure that everybody has a great experience at shows, all of the dudes that I have been in bands with, all of my friends that put money from their own pocket to bring great bands that everybody might get to enjoy or get to know, all of the people that come to our shows and stick around to see all of the bands play, the people that have bought our merch and shared our music, our friends that have given us promotion and everybody that is making all of this possible.
Also, thank you for the interview, man. It’s always nice to share this type of stuff.
Check out Ciudad Muerta's Facebook page here.
The Hand Booking FB page here.
Trepnacion's latest recording, 'Exhumacion'.
Check out Nuke's Instagram HERE.
No comments:
Post a Comment