Music Makers

Being an artist means putting yourself out there. The deeper and more real your expressions are, the more you set yourself up for criticism. Sometimes it’s tough to sift through which criticism to ignore, and which to pay attention to.

Strange Magic’s Javier Romero shares his solo project’s evolution, how his new album holds up to pandemic realities, and how he keeps track of hundreds of “mumble jams” to feed his songwriting.

“It was kind of surreal and didn’t sink in how crazy and legendary the room was when we were there. It almost doesn’t feel like OMG I was in the same room as Elvis and Johnny Cash; there is some kind of vibe in the room that I can’t describe.”

I asked all the members of Chicharra, a band I’m in, to come up with three questions for another player. And it’s like they’ve been giving interviews their whole lives. Their curiosity about the nuances of how music is made, how the other people in our band-fam experience practice and performance, was so spot-on. I loved hearing them talk shop.

“The extreme end of showbiz would be something like American Idol where people are trying to fit into this mold, have to athletically win this competition by making themselves as appealing as possible to a very broad denominator and it’s very bizarre and it doesn’t have anything to do with feelings.”

We began the piece in an atonal modal G# minor which happens to be four whole steps down from the actual key of the song. After a collective “gasp” the entire wedding party demanded that we be removed from the ceremonies.

Tracking this way leaves you very little control for editing or fixing later, since there ends up being a lot of mic bleed between the guitar and vocal mics. You have to just be happy with the humanity of it.

This was my fourth tour through the Pacific Northwest, and to see people from New Mexico in both Washington and Oregon was comforting and reassuring. I’m such a workaholic, and to see it pay off, even in the littlest of ways, is my fuel.

A song swap isn’t about mimicking and imitation, it’s about deep listening, re-interpretation and artistic growth.

Writing and recording is a way of healing for me, and many.

I really wish I could whistle reasonably well on cue, since what is now arguably our most famous song features me doing so at about three or four points during the song.

Honestly, I’ve always felt like a bit of an outsider in most situations. Music has not been an exception. That territory comes with some shitty shows, one of which I’m happy to tell you about.