Los Angeles Journal


	Home My Account Register

2008-02-11

by Don Simpson

Grupo Fantasma

Summary

Making love with Grupo Fantasma on Valentines Day

Article

To be perfectly honest, I was very hesitant to see Grupo Fantasma for the first time. I presumed that their brand of Texas-flavored Latino music equaled some headache-inducing variety of “Tejano” (an accordion-infused traditional form of music which derives elements from Mexican-Spanish vocal traditions and Czech and German polka tunes). After a relentless onslaught of convincing arguments, my friends finally got it through my thick skull that Grupo Fantasma does not feature accordions, nor do they play anything resembling Tejano music; and in fact, they are more akin to the Buena Vista Social Club ensemble. I conceded and obeyed my friends’ commands and my mind was blown.

Based on the theoretical traditions of cumbia, salsa, mambo and Afro-Cuban music; Grupo Fantasma performs their songs with a raw intensity and freedom relative to that of jazz and punk, while maintaining a unyielding hip-shaking groove. Like the highest-quality jazz performers, Grupo Fantasma is able to perform loosely yet with unprecedented confidence, grace and talent (knowledgeable critics compare their music to the historically significant Fania All-Stars). The most impressive fact is that they write and compose their own music – instead of succumbing to the same old Latin standards that most other Spanish-language bands perform.

Their resume is impeccable: performed on PBS’s Austin City Limits television program; featured on NPR’s Latino USA and Song of the Day; recorded a BBC Radio session at the infamous Maide Valle Studio in London; their horn section performed at clubs and festivals with indie-rock stalwarts Spoon; opened for Prince in London and Miami; performed at Prince’s Golden Globes after party; served as Prince’s backing band at several high profile events including the CBS Superbowl Bash in South Beach and the ALMA Awards; performed as the house band at Prince’s Las Vegas nightclub 3121 for a two-month, Thursday night stint. And that’s just what they did in 2007!

Grupo Fantasma formed in 2000. They released their self-titled debut in 2001 followed by Movimiento Popular in 2004, additionally they released Comes Alive a live album (recorded at Antone’s in Austin, TX) in 2006. They have sold more than 20,000 discs independently and they continue to avoid the slick, overproduced stereotypes and clichés of Latin music. The audience reflects their indie attitude, ranging from indie-rock hipsters to deejays and hip-hop kids to traditional salsa and mambo dancers (not to mention the plethora of musicians, music historians and journalists that cannot resist Grupo Fantasma’s prowess sans swagger).

Grupo Fantasma is currently recording a new studio album to be released in late spring of 2008. We chatted with Grupo Fantasma guitarist Adrian Quesada as they prepared to embark on a brief West Coast tour. Grupo Fantasma will be at Echoplex (http://www.attheecho.com) adding some Latin spice to Valentine’s Day (February 14th) in Los Angeles. If you caught Brownout’s (Grupo Fantasma’s side project) performance in LA a couple weeks ago, you know these guys have the chops to make the audience swing and jive. This Valentine’s Day performance is one that is not to be missed!

Los Angeles Journal: What is the musical background of the band?
Adrian Quesada: A little less than half the band is formerly trained, mostly the horn players and a couple other guys. The rest of us grew up playing in bands when we were younger and just learned by ear. The band is pretty much comprised of some guys that grew up playing in garage bands and some guys that are really schooled. That’s what gives us our sound. We have the rawness of people who just learned to play by ear combined with a horn section that is really schooled and they know a lot more theory that the other guys do.

LAJ: How does that affect your writing process? I assume that a strong knowledge of music theory is important in Grupo Fantasma’s songwriting.
AQ: If one of the guys that learned by ear writes a song, they get together with one of the horn players to work on the arrangement. There are definite limitations that the guys that are untrained have in terms of writing for a four-piece horn section or eleven-piece band.

LAJ: What was it like growing up in Laredo, Texas?
AQ: The music that we would hear on the radio and around the family was all kinds of Latin music, mainly Cumbias and a little bit of Tejano. Before I started playing guitar, I got really obsessed with hip-hop; for a few years I was way into that. Then I started playing guitar when I was 13 and started gravitating towards rock and just whatever skate-punk stuff all the skaters were listening to. All through high school I went back and forth from hip-hop to rock. It wasn’t until I was 17 or 18 that I really started to go back and appreciate the Latin music I grew up with. When you’re a teenager, it’s typical to rebel against the music of your parents and grandparents; then as you get older you start to realize the reason that music has been around nearly half a century is because its timeless music and its not about being trendy.

LAJ: What brought you from Laredo to Austin?
AQ: To pursue music and go to school at University of Texas at Austin.

LAJ: What’s the college background of Grupo Fantasma?
AQ: I don’t know how many guys have actually graduated but pretty much everybody in the band has attended college at some point. Quite a few of us went to the University of Texas at Austin.

LAJ: Do the members of Grupo Fantasma still hold down day jobs?
AQ: A couple of the guys teach music and the rest of us just work when we have to. There are some months that are better than others. A lot of us do other music projects on the side and just whatever part-time gigs we can do.

LAJ: Is there something Grupo Fantasma is waiting for in terms of a major record contract?
AQ: The climate has changed so much in the recording industry. When we started out the idea of record labels and major labels was completely different than it is now. The downloading of digitalized music files was just taking off and there was still the concept of having a record label really make things happen for you. We definitely had attracted interest from labels during the first few years we were playing, but they tried to get us to come up with an image or do something really corny like that. But it’s a case by case basis, we’re not totally opposed to anything. Nothing ever came to the table that really impressed us, so we just decided to do things our way. We’ve been working with Rounder Records in Europe, and that’s been great because they’re really open minded and they definitely do their work. A band can only do so much on their own, and at some point you need the experience and resources of a record label. There are definitely great labels out there.

LAJ: What have you learned from the history of the Fania All-Stars?
AQ: It’s a different situation, since that was actually a whole record label. But for us the biggest inspiration is how they took Latin music and infused their own approach to it, just like the heavy attack and rawness. It was crazy sounding compared to the slick mambo that was happening in New York City at the time, which was all great too; but they tried to create their own interpretation of the music. A huge thing for us is that they did it all independently – from the trunks of their cars. It was middle-finger to the establishment to just do it all themselves and it took off. They became a worldwide phenomenon and they essentially created a new genre. At some point the similarities kind of end because they were a record label with a ton of artists consistently putting out music. But it was mainly their approach to the music, their sound and their control of their music that inspires us.

LAJ: How open is Grupo Fantasma to its members releasing solo projects ala the Fania All-Stars?
AQ: Yeah, definitely. That’s part of the idea behind even having Brownout. There were a ton of Fania releases, all types of variations that were all by the same band members just recording under a different band leader’s name or a different band name. They probably had a roster of 50 to 60 musicians, so it was a much grander scale than Grupo Fantasma.

LAJ: Are there political issues that are important to Grupo Fantasma?
AQ: We decided that the best thing to do is to help raise money for people that are really going to do something. At the end of the day we are musicians and not politicians or activists. There are certain musicians that do that and do it well; but for us, we’re entertainers so we choose to raise money for people who are doing something we support. Obviously the big issue for us, pretty much the whole band being Latino and most of us growing up on the border, is the immigration issue. The border fence seems kind of messed up to us.

LAJ: Are any of the 2008 presidential candidates affectively addressing the immigration issue?
AQ: It doesn’t seem as though anyone has gone that deep into it. Of course everyone takes the safe answer when talking about it. To me, just anyone other than Bush next year would be great.

LAJ: What would you like to see changed in terms of immigration?
AQ: It’s obviously in need of some serious reform. This country was founded by immigrants and a lot of us wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t for immigration; a lot of people that are here contributing a lot to this country’s economy and culture. I don’t think it should be totally unregulated, I just think that it needs to be reassessed in terms of how to handle it.

LAJ: How has the political climate affected Grupo Fantasma?
AQ: Our music itself hasn’t been too affected. Mainly we’ve been trying to provide a way for people to get away from all of that. We always felt like if people were going to pay money on a Friday night to see us, we don’t want to remind them about how much the world can suck, or our country can suck, or our president can suck. We just want them to get away from that and have a good time. I don’t write lyrics, but there are Grupo Fantasma lyrics that have little social or political messages here or there; but we’re not too heavy on that.