Interview with Marcel Riesco – By Marc Fenech
For Southern & Rockin' Magazine - Revised 2006 (1) Who is in the band and
who plays what? Speedie Carlucci, plays electric bass and he's been playing for years. I bet he can even play under the water. He has lots of experience and he is a great player and a great guy. He gives the band a tight sound with his Fender bass. He plays a great Mustang bass as well. Jeff Gerow plays the drums and he’s got a lot of rhythm. He is full of feeling and you can hear it when he plays. He is open for new ideas and is always up and running. I'm glad he is with us. I play guitar and sing. I formed the Truly Lover Trio when I was about 13 years old, just about a year or so after I started playing guitar. I was very young, and my Dad taught me the first basic chords. Then I pretty much learned on my own, playing and playing all day, and singing. Singing was very important to me from an early age, still is. I cared about singing and it was a natural thing for me as well. I used my guitar more like a support for my singing, rhythm guitar so to speak, and then yes, I learned some riffs and things that allowed me to be able to play lead guitar as well. Yes, I was born in Uruguay in 1977, grew up and went to school there. The education system is really good there, one of the best in South America. I went to Law School too. Like I said, I started playing as an early teenager, and it was awesome, cause it was all so new to me. Everything was a new experience. From getting up on stage for the first time to having to rent equipment for the shows cause I didn’t have any or borrowing a drum set cause the drummer didn’t have one, or to teach my bass player how to play bass cause he didn’t know how. It was an adventure. Still is for the most part, cause we are always learning. But yes, my first band was called Truly Lover's Band. What happened was, I had written a short story and the main character's name was Truly Lover and he was a mystery person and ran around at night, but anyways, my friends read it and they started calling me Truly Lover, and then everybody in High School started calling me that too. That was just about the time I formed my first band, so then I called it the Truly Lover's Band, and we were all young kids trying to learn how to play, the band had 4 members and I didn’t play lead guitar, just rhythm. But things evolved. We got to play talent shows and school contests and battle of the bands and stuff like that, and we started to win those things. We became pretty good. Then I started booking bars and clubs, and we became a three piece, so I was doing the clowning, the jumping around, the singing, the rhythm guitar and the lead guitar. Shows would go on till very late, we would start like at midnight and play till about 4 am. That’s a very good training for a kid hungry for any kind of learning experience. You know? So I had a heavy training. We started playing good clubs and gaining popularity, eventually getting on FM radio pretty often, and prime time TV as well. We became pretty well-know, even people would stop me on the street. We also did some recordings, but nothing was released. Oh, wait, there was a compilation CD with best of Uruguayan Rock that came out with 2 of my songs in 1994 or 1995. I have quite a few unreleased tracks from that time, and they are quite interesting. (4) How old were you when
you came to the US to live? I came to the US back in 1996 to play the Rebel Weekender in Indianapolis and stayed some time playing. Got to play there twice. Then left and came back a couple of times. In fact, I was asked to record an entire album for X FM from Montevideo, during my last visit to Uruguay in 1999, they had a record label too, so I did record it for them. Lots of original tunes, and a lot of studio time and personal time invested. But unfortunately, the material was never released. This was 1999. In 2002 I settled down in Los Angeles, but I had been here in the US from 1996 off and on. In LA I reformed the band and I started playing around town. I didn’t know anybody, so I had to start from zero again. It was kinda hard to get used to a different system and approach. But things worked out fine. I also noticed that its hard to find good musicians from an early age, but that’s no news to anybody, right? I haven’t been back to Uruguay since 1999 although there were plans for a possible Uruguay and Argentina tour in the near future. (6) What was the line-up
in the beginning, and in 1998 (at the time of the EP) and what happened
to those guys? Ok, lets see, you mean the names of them? In the beginning we had Franco Bagnati on drums and Nicolas Borba on electric bass, then Alvar Carranza on electric bass and stand-up bass. Here in the US the first guys I played with were from Indiana, where I used to live. I used a couple of different guys for live shows and for the studio. The bass player I used live, his name was Joe Bel Air, who also played on the recordings I made in 1998 for the EP, and then another guy who played also with the Blue Moon Boys (they are a wild bunch from Fort Wayne, IN) and he is now deceased. He was a nice guy. The drummer also played with another band, I can think of their name right now. I moved out to Los Angeles and they stayed there. (7) How many copies of
the EP “Lonely Blue Dreams” were made? How did that come about? And
are there any unreleased songs from that session? I do have a bunch of old recordings from Uruguay, from the 90s. But I wanted to make some new recordings when I came to the US, so I went up to Fort Wayne, Indiana and cut four tracks: Lonely Blue Dreams, A Cat Called Domino, Rockhouse and one more song, what was it?....ah..Ooby Dooby. Those recordings aren't really good recordings. I guess they show me how much I have improved...And I wanted to put out a single, so Sunset Records released that EP, and I cant recall how many copies were made, 500 maybe? maybe less. There are a few alternate takes from that session but no, no unreleased tracks. I guess this EP is now hard to find. I saw one on ebay not too long ago, it was an autographed copy. That was funny. (8) So list all your
releases. There was the first compilation from Uruguay that featured 2 of my songs, then this EP, and then the CD released by El Toro Records. My songs also came out on a CD called Perfect For Parties released by Rhythm Bomb Records and El Toro this year (2005) and a new compilation called Hot Rod or something like that on Cherokee Records from Germany. That one features a song of mine as well. There are a couple more compilations out there that feature material of mine. Of course our new record called "Dance". Well, the demo of Blueberry Eyes was recorded for me basically. I do that pretty much all the time after I write a song. I like to have a demo of it. It's just me playing the guitar and singing at my house. So, yes, I have quite a few demos of course and then quite a few unreleased tracks all the way dating back to 1992. (10) Are there any
advantages for being South American that you have noticed in playing...
like has it helped to get any gigs in California or Texas or with any
events organized by, or places owned by, South American descended fellas? No advantages, I wish there were. (11) Where all have you
played so far, Uruguay, Argentina, Denmark, Spain, Finland, Sweden,
Holland? And what's the most prestigious events or festivals that you've
played... Vegas 2004, Greenbay 2004, Screamin, etc. I played Uruguay a lot of course, even the Montevideo Blues Festival was very cool. I played a sold out theatre with one of the legends of Uruguay Rock music, his name is Eduardo Darnauchans and he was my special guest that night. It was a great night. I never played Argentina. I did line up the Buenos Aires Rockabilly Festival and I was on the bill but the Festival never took place. I did play Viva Las Vegas 2 years in a row, and the Rockabilly Rebel Weekend, also the Shake the Shack Festival in Seattle, Washington. I never played Greenbay. Then this year we just came back from a fantastic European Tour. It was a beautiful experience. We played the Screamin' festival in Calella, then the D Day in Amsterdam, the Mid-Summer Festival in Sweden and the My Way Jamboree in Finland. We also traveled all the way down to Mexico for a big show once. Flagstaff, Arizona is great and very friendly too. (12) The obvious
question... musical influences of the band? Roy Orbison would be an
obvious one... especially with the 3 covers on the EP... what stuff of
his are you doing live? You studied his singing style? I found Roy Orbison by the time he was with the Traveling Wilburys and just about the time he passed away. It was so sad to find out he was gone. I started collecting his stuff and learning from him, learning his singing techniques. His voice is such a mystery, and he was such a heavy smoker! He sang like an angel. But anyways, yes, I do a lot of his Sun stuff live. The later stuff he did is so hard to sing...ha ha ha, I just do it at home when nobody is listening. Now, I research his life and career. I wrote his bio on the official website at www.orbison.com . (13) Your approach to
the cover songs often seems to be to speed them up. Your mellower stuff is very strong... you
should do more of it live. What do you think? The fact that we speed up the songs, I don’t really mean it that way. Adrenaline probably has a lot to do with it. Whatever the style is, it comes from me and my personal taste. And yes, the original tracks seem to be more mellow yes, for the most part. Not Hey Little Girl for instance but yes, I agree with you. We do have a lot of new material and we play that live now. (14) You like Bob Dylan,
Springsteen and some modern stuff too? Are they just likes or do you
feel they've influenced your style in the music too? Where did you hear that?...ha ha ha...in fact yes, I never miss Bob Dylan when he comes to town. He is such a wise man, and his presence is mystical. He is an icon of such importance in popular music. I do like modern stuff too of course. We are in modern times don’t forget. This is the 21st century and I'm not stuck in time, I need to evolve. And yes, they have been a very big influence on me. I always listen very careful because I know that things do influence you and sometimes you have to be careful with that. Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Elvis of course, Presley that is. I like his entire career. He was the firstest and the mostest. Roy of course. People like Chuck Berry, Ritchie Valens, Buddy Holly or The Beatles, Eric Clapton, the Stones. They are all big influences on me. Also traditional and popular music from Uruguay was very influential, because I grew up there. (15) What songs do a
typical live show consist of... who are you guys covering? And how does
this differ, with what you used to play earlier in your career? Well, most time I know I have to satisfy the crowd, but I also want to satisfy me at times. Right now I do a few songs from the El Toro CD and all the new ones from the "Dance" CD....I didn’t do many originals back in the 90s, just a couple. I guess I was a bit reserved about pulling them out and showing them to the crowd. Then I realized that people do like them so I play them live now. But pretty much all the shows are different. I like to change the stuff around, so you might find a few surprises here and there, you have to come and watch the show. (16) So, all members of
the band speak Spanish? Where are they from? And what about the previous
line-ups? The guys from Uruguay did peak Spanish...ha ha...the guys now they don’t. Well no, Jeff speaks Spanish a bit, he learned it while working in the Peruvian jungle when he was a teenager, and he can still get along.....Speedie John is originally from New York and Jeff is from Bakersfield. (17) Is there any other Latin/Spanish stuff in the set (or, at least, recorded), besides the 2 songs on the CD? I do have several songs that I recorded for a record that was going to be released in Uruguay, but it never was. I recorded it during one of my visits there in 1998. It’s like a 12 track master. Most songs are in Spanish. I also have several tracks that I have written but haven’t recorded. The new record "Dance" has one of the tracks recorded in Uruguay that were never released. So, this one will see the light for the first time now! (18) Have you managed to play all over the US, or has it only been California, Nevada, Arizona? California, Washington State, Arizona, Indiana, Mexico, Europe....I played in Nashville once, but the club was empty… (19) What is the history of "rock'n'roll" in Uruguay?. How is the Rock and Roll scene there? Was surf music a bigger influence then in the early '60s? Uruguay was very big with Tango, just like Argentina, and traditional music. There was also a big Rock and Roll movement during the 60, not that much during the 50s, mainly after The Beatles. People like The Shakers were really big all over the place. They were great and people went crazy for them. There were plenty of Rock bands like that, and great bands, some surf, garage, sycodelic, ska, reggae, punk, traditional music, and even now, the movement is huge. There are tons of bands trying to express themselves with their music, I was one of them. The problem is that the market is so small. There are 3 million people in Uruguay and I think 3,000 copies is a Platinum record, and if you sell 3,000 copies that’s a lot for a market so small, so you can imagine the struggle trying to make a living...even Argentina is 10 times bigger in numbers and Brazil too, maybe even more. I left Uruguay way too early to release a record but I was on the right track I think. I wonder what would have happened had I stayed there... (20) What about South American bands now? Do you think there are many active rockin' (primarily, rockabilly) bands? There are a lot of bands in
Uruguay, a lot or art in general, amazingly so. Painters, poets, clowns,
theatre actors, all kinds of creativity. But they are all looking for
new frontiers and looking towards the future. Some bands are very
popular, some bands that were starting with me became very popular. Even
now, the guy that won the Oscar for best original song for Motorycle
Diaries is from Uruguay. Not many Rockabilly bands, I was one of the
few. There are a lot of Rock and Roll bands though, some raw and rockin’
bands. I know of a great Surf band for instance and a few underground
garage bands that will rock your socks off. (21) Is there anything particularly interesting coming up with TLT? The new record!!! We're sure you'll love it. Also a couple of tours like Texas, New Mexico, New York....so stay tuned.
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