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vinylexams · 4 years

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A very special fireside interview with XUXA SANTAMARIA

Check Insta for our thoughts on this landmark album from Oakland duo XUXA SANTAMARIA. Stay right where you are to read a really fun interview I scored with the band this week. They’ve just released Chancletas D’Oro on Ratskin Records out of Oakland and Michael blessed me with my very own copy. It was so good I knew I needed to tell you all about it and I wanted to pick their brains a little bit, too. Without further ado, please enjoy:

//INTERVIEW

You’re still breaking into indie world at large, but you’ve already got a huge following back in California and your home-base in Oakland. What has it been like to be featured in major outlets like The Fader?

SC: We are a funny project; we ebb and flow from being total hermits to having periods of relatively high visibility (relative to aforementioned hermit state). I wouldn’t say we have a huuuge following in CA but I do think that the ‘fandom’ we’ve developed here is really genuine because we don’t play shows out of an obligation to remain visible but instead do so because we feel super passionate about the work and the audience and I think people respond to that energy. I for one, and perhaps this is because of my background in performance, have a hard time performing the same stuff over and over without change which accounts for us being selective with our playing live. That’s also why videos are such an important part of what we’re about. The piece in The Fader was important to the launch of this album because it established some of the themes and, to an extent, the aesthetics of this album in a way that can be experienced outside of a live setting. None of this is to say we don’t like playing live, in fact we love it, we just like to make our sets pleasurable to ourselves and to our audience by constantly reworking it. We strike a weird balance for sure but we’ve made peace with it. If we ever ‘make it’ (lol) it’ll be on these terms.

Chancletas D'Oro is a pretty incredible record and while it reminds me of a few bands here or there, it’s got a really fresh and unique style that merges dance with all sorts of flavors. How would you describe your music to someone who is curious to listen?

MGK: Haha, we generally struggle to describe our music in a short, neat way (not because we make some kind of impossible-to-categorize music, but just because it’s the synthesis of a ton of different influences and it’s hard for US to perceive clearly). But with that caveat in mind - IDK, bilingual art-punk influenced dance/electronic music?

SC: Thank you for saying so, we’re pretty into it :) Like Matt says, we struggle to pin it down which I think is in part to what he says – our particular taste being all over the place, from Drexciya to The Kinks to Hector Lavoe- but I think this slipperiness has a relationship to our concept making and world building. As creative people we make and intake culture like sharks, always moving, never staying in one place too long. Maybe it’s because we’re both so severely ADHD (a boon in this instance tbh) that we don’t sit still in terms of what we consume and I think naturally that results in an output that is similarly traveling. Point is, the instance a set of words - ‘electronic’, ‘dance’, ‘punk’- feel right for the music is the same instance they are not sufficient. I propose something like: the sound of a rainforest on the edge of a city, breathy but bombastic, music made by machines to dance to, pleasurably, while also feeling some of the sensual pathos of late capitalism as seen from the bottom of the hill.

The internet tells me you’ve been making music as Xuxa Santamaria for a decade now. What has the evolution and development of your songwriting been like over those ten years?

MGK: Well, when we first started out as a band we were so new to making electronic music (Sofia’s background was in the art world and mine was in more guitar-based ‘indie rock’ I guess - lots of smoking weed and making 4 track tapes haha), so we legit forgot to put bass parts on like half the songs on our first album LOL. We’ve learned a lot since then! But in seriousness, we’ve definitely gotten better at bouncing ideas back and forth, at putting in a ton of different parts and then pulling stuff back, and the process is really dynamic and entertaining for both of us.

SC: This project started out somewhat unusually: I was in graduate school and beginning what would become a performance practice. I had hit a creative roadblock working with photography - the medium I was in school to develop- and after reading Frank Kogan’s Real Punks Don’t Wear Black felt this urge to make music as a document of experience following Kogan’s excellent essay on how punk and disco served as spatial receptacles for a wealth of experiences not present in the mainstream of the time. I extrapolated from this notion the idea that popular dance genres like Salsa, early Hip Hop, and Latin Freestyle among many others, had served a similar purpose for protagonists of a myriad Caribbean diasporas. These genres in turn served as sonic spaces to record, even if indirectly, the lived experiences of the coming and going from one’s native island to the mainland US wherein new colonial identities are placed upon you. From this I decided to create an alter ego (ChuCha Santamaria, where our band name originally stems from) to narrate a fantastical version of the history of Puerto Rico post 1492 via dance music. We had absolutely no idea what we were doing but I look back on that album (ChuCha Santamaria y Usted - on vinyl from Young Cubs Records) fondly. It’s rough and strange and we’ve come so far from that sound but it’s a key part of our trajectory. Though my songwriting has evolved to move beyond the subjective scope of this first album - I want to be more inclusive of other marginalized spaces- , it was key that we cut our teeth making it. We are proud to be in the grand tradition of making an album with limited resources and no experience :P

We’re a big community of vinyl enthusiasts and record collectors so first and foremost, thanks for making this available on vinyl. What does the vinyl medium mean to you as individuals and/or as a band?

MGK: I think for us, it’s the combination of the following: A. The experience of listening in a more considered way, a side at a time. B. Tons of real estate for graphics and design and details. C. The sound, duh!

SC: In addition to Matt’s list, I would just say that I approach making an album that will exist in record form as though we were honing a talisman. Its objecthood is very important. It contains a lot of possibility and energy meant to zap you the moment you see it/ hold it. I imagine the encounter with it as having a sequence: first, the graphics - given ample space unlike any other musical medium/substrate- begin to tell a story, vaguely at first. Then, the experience of the music being segmented into Side A and Side B dictate a use of time that is impervious to - at the risk of sounding like an oldie - our contemporary habit of hitting ‘shuffle’ or ‘skip’. Sequencing is thus super important to us (this album has very distinct dynamics at play between sides a/b ). We rarely work outside of a concept so while I take no issue with the current mode of music dissemination, that of prioritizing singles, it doesn’t really work for how we write music.

MGK: We definitely both remain in love with the ‘album as art object/cohesive work’ ideal, so I would say definitely - we care a lot about track sequencing, always think in terms of “Side A/Side B” (each one should be a distinct experience), and details like album art/inserts/LP labels etc matter a lot to us.

What records or albums were most important to you growing up? Which ones do you feel influenced your music the most?

SC: I know they’re canceled cus of that one guy but I listened to Ace of Base’s The Sign a lot as a kid and I think that sorta stuff has a way of sticking with you. I always point to the slippery role language plays in them being a Swedish band singing in English being consumed by a not-yet-English speaking Sofía in Puerto Rico in the mid 90s. Other influences from childhood include Garbage, Spice Girls, Brandy + Monica’s The Boy is Mine, Aaliyah, Gloria Trevi, Olga Tañon etc etc. In terms of who influences me now, that’s a moving target but I’d say for this album I thought a lot about the sound and style of Kate Bush, Technotronic, Black Box, Steely Dan, ‘Ray of Light’-era Madonna plus a million things I’m forgetting.

MGK: Idk, probably a mix of 70-80s art rock/punk/postpunk (Stooges, Roxy Music, John Cale, Eno, Kate Bush, Talking Heads, Wire, Buzzcocks, etc etc), disco/post-disco R&B and dance music (Prince, George Clinton, Chic, Kid Creole), 90s pop + R&B + hip hop (Missy & Timbaland, Outkast/Dungeon Family production-wise are obviously awe-inspiring, So So Def comps, Jock Jams comps, Garbage & Hole & Massive Attack & so on), and unloved pop trash of all eras and styles.

Do you have any “white whale” records that you’ve yet to find?

MGK: Ha - the truth is that we’re both much more of a “what weird shit that we’ve never heard of can we find in the bargain bin” type of record buyer than “I have a custom list of $50 plus records on my discogs account that I lust over”.

SC: Not really, I’m wary of collectorship. That sort of ownership might have an appeal in the hunt, once you have it do you really use it, enjoy it? Funnily, I have a massive collection of salsa records that has entries a lot of music nerds would cry over (though they’re far from good condition, the spines were destroyed by my Abuela’s cat, Misita lol, but some are first pressings in small runs). For me its value however, comes from its link to family, as documents from another time and as an amazing capsule of some of the best music out of the Caribbean. I’m glad I am their guardian (a lot of this stuff is hard to find elsewhere, even digitally) but I live with those records, they’re not hidden away in archival sleeves, in fact, I use some of that music in my other work. Other than that, the records I covet are either those of friends or copies of albums that hold significance but which are likely readily available, Kate Bush’s The Dreaming or Love’s Forever Changes, or The Byrds Sweetheart of The Rodeo as random examples

Finally, is there a piece of interesting band trivia you’ve never shared in another interview?

SC: haha, not really? Maybe that we just had a baby together?

Congrats on your new baby, and also for this wonderful new album. It was a pleasure chatting with you and I can’t wait to see what the future has in store for you and your music!

#xuxasantamaria #interview #oakland #music #electronic #electronicmusic #ratskin #ratskinrecords

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adventuras-de-nicaragua · 6 years

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Esteli Año Nuevo

The morning we were set to ride out of Leon and to Esteli was a sad morning. We enjoyed Leon a lot and wished we had more time there, however we already booked our place in Esteli. We woke to sore heads, thanks to our tour guide from the previous night and the Canadian couple we made. We ate breakfast at the hotel and enjoyed the rooftop balcony one more time before hitting the road.

The journey to Esteli was a long one, 140 km with 1,600 meters of elevation and a fierce headwind. The first half was relatively flat and we got to enjoy the views of the volcanoes as we exited the Leon region. Next section was a bit harder with the wind and a slow drag up. Alex and I kept switching who was in front to give the other shelter. Alex very quickly started feeling ill which made for a long day out. After a bit of a nasty climb, approx 1/3 of the climbing done for the day, we started to wonder if we were going to make it before sunset. The last bit of the journey was stepper and the headwind was not easing up.

After a couple more hours we came to the conclusion that we might run out of daylight and is it really worth it to cycle when we both really didn't want to? The answer of course was no, no need to kill ourselves on this vacation. I had read about the chicken buses in Nicaragua and have already seen several go past. A chicken bus is a school bus in the USA that is deemed no longer safe for the roads, so instead they get sent to Nicaragua and repainted bright colors. These buses are the local transports that cost locals about 30 cents and us non locals about a dollar per ride. There are no buses stops, instead you flag down the bus as you see it coming and a man who is in charge of looking after the people wanting to get on and get off signals the driver. The buses comes equipped with a fence around the roof allowing you to put your luggage or larger objects on the roof of the bus.

At about 95 km in we saw a chicken bus and flagged it down. I asked if this was going to Esteli and I must have not said it the local way and the guy in charge said no and the bus started going again. Just as they were pulling away another guy asked if I was going to Esteli, pronouncing it the local way, and I said yes! The bus slowed down again and two guys carried our bikes up a ladder to place our bicycles on the roof of the bus. We quickly got on and was on our way. The chicken buses were made for school children and def not Alex sized, he had to sit sideways and keep moving if the people needed to get past.

Only a 15 minutes later the bus stopped and told us everyone off, it was the end of the line. Our bikes were handed down to us and happy to see nothing terrible has happened to them. I asked a local and they told me if we wait another bus will come to take us the rest of the way to Esteli. Not more than 5 minutes and another colorful bus came with a big sign reading Esteli. We went through the process of getting our bikes on the roof of the bus and headed inside. This bus was packed and there was no where to sit and almost no where to stand. I sat near the door on the floor and Alex resorted to crouching over the luggage rack, mostly because he was unable to stand in the bus as it was only 6 ft tall. The ride was uncomfortable to say the least and at times so over packed with people the main guy had to ride on the outside of the bus. Seems to me these buses run just fine.

Once in Esteli we found our hotel and were sad to find out the water would be turned off for many hours, no showers for us. We weren't feeling overly great and decided to go out for a bite to eat and hopefully by the time we would come back the water would be on. Our inability to think kicked in and we ended up at Tip Top Pollo, a chicken fast food joint of which the owner owned the island we stopped off on our Isleta tour in Granada. The food wasn't overly great but did the trick. We headed back to our hotel and happy to find the water was turned on. After showers it was only 5 pm and we thought of taking a nap and next thing we knew it was the next morning. Apparently, we really needed sleep.

The next morning we woke feeling much more refreshed. We walked to find "treehuggers' the local tour company and see what we could do. It was very surprising to find that the tour company spoke no English and I had to rely on my Spanish to plan out what we wanted to do. The guy booked us to go into the Miraflor the next day, which we heard was a very scenic mountain protected area. A local family would cook us breakfast and lunch and we had to take the chicken bus there and back. Once he booked that, and filled out a million papers, I asked if it was possible to go see the Tisey reserve. He explained in Spanish that no more buses go there today and only way to go is by private truck. We said that was okay and he was able to arrange a truck and a guide to take us into the Tisey Reserve for the afternoon. However, none of the guides would speak any English so for the next two days we got by with my limited Spanish.

The Tisey Reserve was only about 15 km outside of town, but was up some massive climbs on very poor road conditions. Our driver had to make some 4 wheel drive or suspension adjustment half way up to get his truck to make the journey upwards. We first stopped by the side of the road and would have a bit of a hike to go see Alberto, described as a hermit who carves pictures into the rock faces. We were not sure what to expect and paid our one dollar each to see these carvings. This man has spent his whole life carving into the rocks and lives in a tiny very basic house right there in the country side. The carvings were impressive and very unique to see. We had the chance to meet Alberto and kindly asked in Spanish to take his picture. Our guide brought him some cigarettes as he was quite the smoker.

After seeing the carving we took oranges from the trees and enjoyed those on our hike back to the truck. A Holland couple were on the side of the road, the girl had injured her leg and wondering if they could get a ride back to Esteli. We told them that we rented the truck and guide and would be happy to, however we still were going to stop and see a waterfall. They said this was okay and while we went to the waterfall they would wait in the truck. Now this truck only had seats for 4 people and now we were a group of 6, so the obvious conclusion was for Alex and I to sit in the truck bed. Little did we know we should have been doing this from the start as it provided the best views.

The waterfall was okay, nothing overly special. The drive back to Esteli was scenic as we stood in the truck bed and plummeted out of the mountains. Back in Esteli we decided to take a long route back to our hotel and see what was around us. We found a taco place and must have been hungry already as we took a seat outside and got a couple beers and tacos. It was still very early so we wondered some more, Alex grabbing a slice of pizza before ended up sat in the center park watching the world go back.

People watching in Esteli was unique. It was a town with very few tourist and the park was filled with locals. Quickly you noticed the locals here had a different style from the rest of the Nicaraguan people we saw thus far. Esteli was in the mountains so more people wore jeans and lots of leather jackets and shoes. The young men in particularly were sharply dressed in leather shoes, good fitting jeans, long sleeve fitted shirt and sharp hair cuts with a bit of gel in it. Oh and you can't forget the strong cologne the men used as well. The funny thing was you would see plenty of very dapper men, but I struggled to spot the young females dressed so nicely. The young generation, teens to late 20's, walked with swagger as well. These were people you did not want to mess with. We would have taken a photo, but were afraid of getting punched.

The next day was an early start with a 5:30 bus ride out to the Miraflor from a pulpuria located about 1 mile away. When leaving our hotel to walk we noticed another tourist couple from our hotel getting into a cab, we had a feeling we were going to the same place. After we walked there we were unsure where this bus was suppose to pick us up as we saw no bus and we were just at a gas station. We indeed were correct and saw the other couple from our hotel, learned they were from Switzerland, and they showed us where the bus stop was.

When the bus came all four of us got on and luckily found seats for the nearly two hour journey into the mountains. I didn't know what to expect from the bus ride, but def didn't expect what we got. These buses, not good enough for the USA, snaked through the mountains on dirt roads that went straight up or straight down. Half the time during a steep uphill I was sure the bus was going to fail and we be falling backwards down the hill to our doom. Somehow this bus made it through and props to that bus driver for doing this every day. I not only wouldn't ever want to cycle this route, but also drive any vehicle on the road surface.

After a very loud bus ride, the chicken bus also blasted local Nicaraguan music, we arrived to our host family. They lived in a very basic house with an outhouse around back. The family spoke no English and we sat as the mother cooked us breakfast. The family had three small kittens that provided me with plenty entertainment, as well as many chickens. The breakfast was a traditional Nica breakfast and fueled us well for our start to the day. Our tour guide was the mother's 20 year old son. We picked the medium to high mountain region and started out on our hike.

The middle region was filled with these trees with old man beards, that we later learned were orchids. We saw a couple coffee plants and really just hiked around the countryside. Once we got to the high region we saw a game of baseball being played by the locals and sat down to watch it for awhile. Our hike lead us to another waterfall, not the highest but nestled away in some quiet countryside that was peaceful.

After our hike we arrived back to the house and was served lunch. After eating we still had nearly 2 hours before the bus back to Esteli and was unsure what we were going to do, turns out is not much at all. One of us would lie in the hammock another in the chair and we watched the world go by. It was New Years Eve and our host family was a popular place for the village people to stop by at and get ready. All the young men came over and spent longer than the females getting ready. Before no time we were slowly winding our way back on the chicken bus to Esteli.

When the crazy bus dropped us back off at the gas station we quickly found our Switzerland friends we made and walked back to our hotel together. We found they were a good couple to chat with and agreed to go out for dinner and drinks to celebrate the new year together. Alex and I happily had a quarto of Ron with Pepsi to start the evening out with while our friends had a cocktail. After some drinks it was already 9:30 and thought it best to find a restaurant. Being New Years Eve not much was open and ended up at probably the poshest restaurants in town, a steak house. Alex and I looked at each other than realized its New Year's Eve and steak did sound really good. The steak was bigger than I could eat and I had a side of veggies that really was a dish on its own!

After dinner we walked around looking for a bar to ring in the New Year. Unfortunately everywhere was closed. We walked past one we thought had a chance of being open and were sad to see it was closed as well. A man next door called us over and asked us what we were looking for. We asked him if he knew any bars that would be open. He explained that he owned the bar next door that was now closed, however we would be happy to join his family's celebration. We all looked at each other and quickly accepted. We sat in high bar stools and chatted for awhile before the main event got set up. It is custom to burn a man made of straw and fireworks on the streets. This symbolizes burning away the bad from the previous year and starting a new for the new year. We have seen several of this scarecrow man around town and now understood the significance.

At midnight one of the guys dripped oil all over the man and set him on fire. We were only 10 meters across the street as the fireworks went off and pure chaos. Alex ended up getting burned by a piece of plastic the man was sat in when they burned him, but besides that shocked no other accidents occurred. The Nica family told us tomorrow there will be many reports of accidents due to this tradition, but its a tradition. The man guy also gave us a brief history of Nicaragua pointing out to me specifically all the times the US tried to take over and how the locals won the wars.

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