*Note*
This article, part 1 of a two-part series, is based on an interview with Native American/Chicano Rocker Freddy Trujillo, from March 2003.Rock music has always boasted of its rich variety of influences-everything from Blues to Folk to Techno and THEN some. One of it's NEWER influences is Native American music-made especially rich and diverse, since each tribe has it's own unique sound.
One of the more exciting artists in this genre is Native American/Chicano Rocker Freddy Trujillo. Freddy's music defies categorization. It derives from equal parts Native American, Latin and Classic Rock. The BEST way to describe it: EXCITING & FRESH!
Freddy took some time from his busy schedule to talk with me, from his home in Portland, Oregon.
SP: Freddy, tell me how you got involved in music-what inspired you to make it your living?
FT: Well, my Dad is a guitar player, so I grew up around it. When I was a little kid he tried to get me to play, but I really didn't take to it. My parents divorced when I was in eighth grade, and sometime around that Summer-like a year later-my sister got in a band. I think it was a combination of missing my Dad and seeing YOUNGER people playing music, music like Heavy Metal-she was in this Heavy Metal band. I was IMPRESSED by that! I wanted to do it through that! It just became kind of a thing that I make time for. In a way it's been kind of a hassle, cause I ALWAYS make time for it, and I think it's held me back in some respects, but then again it keeps me GOING and keeps me YOUNG!
SP: Yeah!
FT: People say I look YOUNG for my age.
SP: You DO! You do look young! If someone was showing me your picture, without me knowing your age, I'd say you were 21!
FT: Yeah, I'm 33.
SP: You don't look it. Congratulations!
FT: My parents say – my Mom anyway – that I inherited it from HER. She looked young for a LONG time!
SP: You know, what I've found, with so many people who do music for a living, is that they actually DO tend to look young for their age! There's a FEW that I've met who look much OLDER than their actual age...I'm trying to think off the top of my head...hmm... Peter Green, the British Blues guitarist...
FT: The guy who was in Fleetwood Mac?
SP: Yeah, who was in Fleetwood Mac. He looks much older than his years. But I think the OPPOSITE is the case with so many people. It kind of makes you wonder whether there's just that something MAGICAL about music! Whether it just...you know... it's GOOD for you!
FT: Yeah!
SP: It's good for your health, in some mysterious way!
FT: Like some of those Buena Vista guys! Man, some of them are like ninety-two and they STILL drink and everything!
SP: They look amazing!
FT: Oh yeah!
SP: I interviewed Mark Guerrero not long ago, and his Dad is MY Dad's age: he's 87!
FT: Mark's dad?
SP: Yeah. Lalo's like 87 now!
FT: I just saw him in October.
SP: Yeah, could you believe it?!
FT: He's awesome!
SP: He's amazing!
FT: He's so funny!
SP: So what was meeting Lalo like?
FT: I didn't actually meet him. Rubin (of Rubin And The Jets) put on a show, like an East L.A. review, ALL day! A history spanning from Lalo all the way til now.
SP: Wow!
FT: It was all FREE! Each band only played like 20 minutes. It went through like the sixties with bands like Cannibal & The Headhunters to the seventies with bands like Tierra.
SP: All the bands I grew up with.
FT: Yeah, then it went through the eighties onward: The Brat, all the way to bands like Ollin. It was pretty dang cool!
SP: Wow! And that was FREE?!
FT: Yeah! It was great and cool, right on the street! I've gotten to know a couple of the guys from Los Lobos pretty good. They come up here. The cool thing about living in Portland is when they come through they seem more accessible than where they're from.
SP: I've noticed that. Portland has a wonderful, thriving music community and no one believes me when I tell them in California! They're like "Oh? You're kidding!" They think of Seattle, but they don't think of Portland! And to me, Portland is the NEW Seattle! It really is.
FT: Yeah, and it's funny that you say that. When I first was moving here .. .like I used to work at Caroline's distributor down there. It was on the cutting edge of music and at the time I was moving here it was the big "Grunge" explosion and I was moving to Portland pretty much to get AWAY from the business for a bit, you know.
SP: Ha! Surprise!
FT: Yeah, and like the LAST thing I wanted to do was move to Seattle and follow ANY bandwagon! So I've got friends HERE so I came here, and I didn't even know what it was like when I came here. I'm sure I'll get into THAT a little later. That was all through that band I had with my sister… how I ended up HERE.
SP: It's an interesting environment, isn't it? I think it's exciting!
FT: Yeah, I must like it! I've been here TEN years now!
SP: TEN years now?! LUCKY you! I wish I was there NOW!
FT: Yeah!
SP: So tell me a bit about how living in Portland..how has that influence been different on you than what you had around you growing up? What has the difference been?
FT: Yeah, you know ironically, like that saying "You're too close to the forest to see the trees" I felt that way about my culture, you know? About who I was. And when I came up here... when I FIRST came up here the Mexicans who WERE here were mostly Mexican Nationals and NOT Chicanos like myself. So when I came up here I started going BACK to L.A. and seeing it in a whole different light. I got my head out of the stupid business, and started drawing from MORE inspiration-learning about WHO I was: American basically, but with a Mexican history. Then I went to college and started reading all the books, about other Chicanos and Chicanas, to find that I shared the same story with A LOT of other people. Sometimes you feel like... which... I don't know, it's kinda funny. Cause I think we were all going through the same thing, cause one of my friends from Yuma, Arizona and me were always around Chicanos like ourselves, but up HERE we felt… like… isolated. In a weird way it changed me A LOT-even the music I play. I started getting interested in Tejano music and all kinds of other stuff, you know, and in blending it with Rock & Roll! For a while I was playing in a Salsa group here and got pretty schooled in THAT music.
SP: Oh yeah.
FT: On one track on my record it's got a little Salsa flavor. You'd think I would have learned that stuff in L.A., but when I came here they tracked me down! The Puerto Rican, Cuban and Dominican-they're a pretty SMALL community, but somehow they found out about me: that I was a bass player who had a Spanish last name. So they tracked me down. Everyone here plays percussion and/or sings, but no one plays piano or bass. So there's like ALOT of guys like myself who get thrown into it, ha! It's pretty fun, you know! That's the other thing about up here, it's such a different scene. Down there in L.A., because "The Business" is there, there's always been that "Pay to play" thing in clubs. Up HERE people CAN make money, which IS kind of annoying cause everyone schleps themselves around instead of just being in ONE band. So it has it's plus and minuses. But down THERE, I always threw my eggs in ONE basket/one band and that was IT. We never made money playing LIVE, but then when you get the big record deal then it all pays off!
