Tell me about the writing and recording process of the album. Did you record and play everything yourself or have collaborators? Any difficulties or challenges?
About two years prior to the release of ¡Y Mi Abuela, Tambien!, I wrote the lyrics and melodies to ‘Por Francisco’ after my abuelo’s death and the personal tone of the song served as a jumping off point into writing more music in Espanol. I knew I wanted to make something that was an ode to Mexican California, something that captured the Spanish-language essence of the state and the country more generally. As I have come to know myself more as a mixed German Latinx Yaqui, I have become driven to create works inspired by the discovery of my racial and ethnic identities, my search for acceptance, and my quest to free myself from historical and multi-generational suffering.
More songs came and, as I was developing them, I was recording them in my bedroom studio. The bare bones of the early recordings came from single takes of me playing nylon string acoustic guitar and singing scratch vocals. I overdubbed electric guitars, electric bass, organ, and percussive elements on top of those early demos. I wanted all of the live instrumentals recorded in long takes, as if the songs were being played live.
What I was imagining was bigger than what I could do on my own. I am blessed and fortunate to know the following creative people, who are beyond talented and a pleasure to work with: Eve Elliot, Alec Santamaria, Hannah Rose Dexter, Gabby Cruz, and Alejandra Olmedo. I wanted all of these talented people to have complete control over what they were putting into the project. I trusted their gut intuitions. The instrumentalists wrote and improvised all of their parts on the spot during recording sessions, which took one afternoon with each instrumentalist. Much of the flow, direction, vibe, aesthetics and overall sound of the album came together in the collaboration with these talented people. Gabby and I wrote the lyrics on ‘Te Escuchare’; Gabby’s lyrics and her voice come straight from her heart. Essential in defining the visual aesthetics for the project, Alejandra captured the Latin charm and retro vintage style completely with her album artwork and photography. No second draft was needed for Alejandra!
What were your inspirations for the album as a whole?
In my youth, I watched Luis Valdez’s La Bamba: The Ritchie Valens Story and Selena directed by Gregory Nava on VH1 and felt parts of myself and my own story recognized. I felt the tragedy of both of these Mexican-American icons taken far too soon. For me, these films would be an introduction to Mexican and Latin cinema, music, history, and art generally.
A good Latinx friend of mine blessed me by taking me to see John Leguizamo’s Latin History for Morons, which helped me understand how performance art can tell a personal story, speak historical truths, and still be funny and entertaining.
Much music from across the Pan American diaspora was consumed leading up to and during the conception of “¡Y Mi Abuela, Tambien!” The psychedelic fuzz guitar Cumbias of Los Destellos influenced tracks such as ‘Juanmaguito’ and ‘(Yo Tengo) Los Attaques de Nervios y Panicos’, the infamous Indigenous rocker Link Wray appears in songs like ‘El Vazquez Rock’, the bold passionate vocalists Joe Flores and Lupita Palomera can be heard in songs such as ‘La Naturaleza’, the spacious Western solemnity of Andean folk music influenced songs like ‘Por Francisco’.
I would not exist, nor would this album, without the stories and lives of mis abuelitos Francisco Sanchez and Sarah Reyna, an immigrant patriarch and a farmworker matriarch.
