RECORDS LiVE

Luis: Hi, how are you doing?

Donna: I’m so good. Introduce yourself to the lovely people who don’t know who you are.

Luis: My name is Luis Huizar, and I take care of all the strings for Shaman Cult.

Donna: Yes, big snaps for Shaman Cult. I’m really into the snaps today. I don’t know why.

Luis: I noticed that yeah.

Donna: Well, you know what it’s like I only have one hand free, so what am I supposed to do?

Luis: It’s nice and dark in here, too. Yeah, it’s the vibe for snaps.

Donna: Yeah, it’s like the like the poetry reading vibe, it’s like the spoken word vibe.

Luis: I brought you some records too by the way.

Donna: You just know. OK, I have to ask as I pop this one into the record player, was this the influence for your band name?

Luis: Absolutely

Donna: All right, let’s get into it.

Song Plays: The Doors – Shaman’s Blues

Luis: Let’s listen to it first and then we’ll get into it.

Donna: We’ll take a moment.

Luis: This song really takes me back to probably thirteen years ago now. Seems like forever, but yeah, the song is called Shaman Blues for anyone who doesn’t know it. It’s an amazing song. From one of the best Doors albums out there for sure. I joined the band when the band was already named so I was a little late to the name but our lead singer, Frank, who was the founder of everything, he resonated with the song a lot and he really liked the song. He really resonated with the word shaman for some reason. And then when he looked up the word cult, it literally just means a group at the end of the day, so something about a group of shamans really resonated with him, so he was like, “That’s the band name.” I stepped into the band a little bit afterwards and the name was already there. I kind of just nominated myself as a bass player.

Donna: That’s the way to do it.

Luis: I was at a show, actually. I used to play in another band, and they were playing right before us. So, I really liked the way they played, the way Frank sung was super cool, and I went up to him after and I was like, “You guys sounded great, but you guys really need a bass player.” They were like, “Do you know anybody?” And I was like “Hey, I play bass.” And I didn’t play bass at all, so I kind of just winged it and I was that guy pulling up to show as being like “You have a bass amp? Do you have a bass?” And just asking everybody and eventually piecing together a bass rig and playing. I didn’t have a bass rig for the very longest time. So yeah, that was super interesting.

Donna: Did they know that you were just B.S.-ing the entire time?

Luis: Right? Fake it till you make it right? I really took that phrase to heart. I played bass a lot. It was cool. I ended up obviously getting a bass rig thanks to my wife. I was super broke at the time, and I found this bass on Craigslist. I really want this bass and it was 500 bucks. At the time I could not afford it. I just kept complaining about this one bass and one day she handed me 500 bucks and said, “Go get it.”

Donna: “Stop complaining…”

Luis: Yeah. And that was the first bass I got.

Donna: Do you still have it?

Luis: Yes. I still have it. Yeah, it was a treasure.

Donna: You never forget your first.

Luis: Yeah, I treasure that bass to this day. I still play it live from time to time. It means a lot.

Donna: Do you whip it out for special occasion shows or is there a specific sound that it produces that you like?

Luis: You know, it actually has a very specific sound that it produces. It’s a vintage bass. The Peavey T-40, and those basses are infamous for being super heavy, so for that reason I don’t take it out everywhere. It’s extremely heavy. It’s like a mean bass, like people make fun of it because it’s so heavy. That’s the reason I don’t take it out everywhere. Beyond that, it does have a very specific vintage bass sound to it. It’s very mellow, very kind of dark and Sixties/Seventies sounding, but it’s amazing. I try to not take it out too often because of the weight, but I love it.

Donna: Real quick, going back to this song, was this already a track that was close to your heart when you had inherited the name and the band?

Luis: Growing up, we were all into the sixties, seventies kind of stuff. All that Led Zeppelin and Beatles and Doors and all that stuff. We were heavy into all that separately, as individuals. When I came in and I saw that they were really into that as well it really sparked greater interest in the band for me. Even the instruments that are in this song are the basis of what Shaman Cult used to use back in the day. Pretty much just guitar, drums, bass, and an organ. We got an organ player who’s still playing with us, but he now plays a lot of synthesizers as well. We’ve developed a lot since then. Andy, shout out to Andy. He’s not here. But yeah, he used to just play organs exclusively. We used to model our sound after The Doors. That’s why this song is really near and dear to all of our hearts. Every time I play, I get a little teary eyed. Thinking of the little kid in us out there trying to be The Doors.

Donna: So, you guys have all known each other for a very long time, right?

Luis: Yeah, definitely. We all grew up in the same area. We’re all from Azusa and we all joined band. So, we were all band kids. We all did marching band. Frank used to play, which is our lead singer and drummer, he used to play jazz drums for Gladstone High and then me and Andy were in the Azusa High Marching band. So just through all that like, you know, we were kids in high school. So, it’s been 10 plus years now that we’ve been together. We’ve known each other for a very long time.

Donna: Do you find a special sense of camaraderie that has come out of that, specifically because you guys have seen each other transition for so much?

Luis: Yeah, definitely. It’s good and bad, right? We love and hate each other. We’re like brothers. We’re a lot closer than a lot of other people in my life. I really treat them like brothers, and I feel really comfortable sharing stuff with them. Making music is a very vulnerable thing. Having people that you’ve known for so long, it’s amazing and I couldn’t ask for anything more.Donna: That’s so rare, especially living near the LA area in general. I mean, it’s a college town, so a lot of people are transitioning so much in and out of different phases of life. It is so important to have those people in your life who you still feel like you resonate with and who have known you and seen you for so long.

Donna:  I’m actually very curious, you guys all came out of the classic rock era but this next song by Air is very different from that whole shebang. So, let’s pop it in here and I’m very curious to know your immediate thoughts as it starts to play.

Song Plays: Air – Le Voyage de Pénélope

Donna: I actually really enjoyed this one. This was really lovely. I don’t believe I’ve ever heard this band before.

Luis: I was actually kind of in that same spot that you were at. I was very unaware of them for a very long time. Where it kind of all started for me was this kind of journey we took out to San Francisco to go to Outside Lands. I’m sure you guys have heard of the big festival out there. We mostly went to go watch Radiohead, which you know, they’re infamous for people driving ridiculous miles to go watch them. We had never seen Radiohead, one of our favorite bands. I forget the year. Might have been 2016 or something like that.

Donna: Back when Outside Lands was still good?

Luis: Yeah, exactly. We were out there to go watch Radiohead and the band that went right before Radiohead was Air. It was a really pivotal time in the band because we were really into that classic rock kind of sound and stuff like this really took us out of that. We started incorporating a lot of synthesizers and even horns into our sound. If you listen to more of our recent releases, we have a lot of saxophone in there. We have tons of synthesizer. We actually don’t have an organ on stage anymore. We completely took that out. Our keyboard player has three synthesizers stacked up on top of each other, and a lot of that came from watching these guys play live at Outside Lands. They literally had an army of synthesizers on stage. Every member had 5 around them. It was such a powerful performance that I almost left there not thinking about Radiohead that much. I was like, “I already know all those songs. Those songs are great, and I love them and they’re still my favorite band,” but I left there in awe of Air. To this day I have that very special place in my heart and it really was a pivotal moment for the band. We transitioned from that classic rock kind of sound to the point where we are now. Incorporating a lot of synthesizers and horns. Synths and horns are all that happens in this song pretty much.

Donna: So, my big question to you is, as a person who came out of such organic music, right? Because synths and whatnot were not a thing back in the sixties and seventies, or at least not to the extent that they are now. Let’s call it natural music, right? It’s not computer generated. Coming out of music that is produced organically, how did you guys feel about beginning to incorporate the technology?

Luis: It was definitely a big learning curve. It took some accepting, so to speak. At first there was a lot of push and pull. There was a barrier when it came down to just gear itself because we didn’t have the synthesizer to make the music we wanted to. The thing I love about my band is that they’re really open to a lot of things and there’s nothing that’s off the table. That’s why I love working with these guys. We can throw out an idea and by that night, we’ll be messing around with a song that has that new element in it. There were a few bumps in the road that prevented us from making the transition smoothly, but at the end of the day it did happen pretty smoothly.

Donna: So, you and Justin were having a hilarious conversation about gear earlier. So how did you guys get to the point, you know, being so young and then also reinventing your sound, how did you begin to acquire all of the gear that you needed to be able to transition into the musical style that you have now?

Luis: Craigslist. Yeah, just lowballing people. Just being disrespectful and lowballing people. People post their stuff up for like $1000 and I say “I’ll give you 300 bucks.”

Donna: How successful was that?

Luis: You know what, 9 times out of 10 they would be like, “Leave me alone and never talk to me ever again.” But you would get that one guy that would be like, “Yeah, sure. Let’s do it.” Slowly but surely, that helped us. As we got older, we got the means to acquire all this stuff. But yeah, Craigslist was awesome.

Donna: Yeah, that that one guy out of 10 is probably a true music lover to be able to help out a bunch of kids, right?

Luis: Yeah, thank god for that, Shout out to Craigslist.

Donna: I love that the song was so pivotal for you.

Donna: You have, like, such a great compilation of things in your stack of records. I never know how to pronounce this band’s name. Is it Portis-head or Portish-head?

Luis: Portis-head

Donna: I always want to say Portish. I don’t know why. My brain is like “It’s a shhh sound,” I think maybe it just sounds extra saucy that way.

Song Plays: Portishead – Strangers

Donna: But this is a big 90s vibe here.

Luis: Yeah, it is. Heavily, heavily hip-hop influenced for sure.

Donna: I feel like I’m about to watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Luis: This song is important to me as well because the entire vibe of this band is something I can relate to a lot. I’m more introverted than a lot of my friends so the whole vibe with this band is like they never wanted to be famous. It almost seems like they never wanted anyone to even listen to their music. It almost seems like they were so out there that they never expected anyone to even care.

Donna: I mean, they did like what, three albums? And now they have a cult following, right? Which is kind of in that ballpark of “Oh, it was an accident.”

Luis: And they were infamous for never interviewing with anyone. They were in the shadows all the time. Beyond that, it’s the mixtures of genre, like right now that whole time was acoustic guitar and then it goes back into this nasty hip-hop beat. Then there’s this heavy guitar in the back always. If you listen to guitar, just like a Black Sabbath song, the guitar always hammering in the back. It’s the mixture of genres that really blew my mind. How can you have an acoustic guitar with a beautiful voice on top and then break into this super heavy hip-hop beat with a nasty distorted guitar in the back with the same vocals on top? To me it was just mind-blowing. We still to this day try to incorporate that into Shaman Cult’s music. If you listen to our song called For You, it starts off with jazzy soft chords and it develops into this midsection where our keyboard player actually starts rapping. Stuff like this broke us out of our shell to be like, “You can rap in the middle of a soft, jazzy song.” You can do whatever, you know? There are really no boundaries. It’s insane. This band incorporates samples, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, a bunch of crazy different stuff. They have a live DJ on stage when they do this stuff. It’s insane. So, it was really inspirational.

Donna: Yeah, I’m sure it was very mind blowing to you guys, especially coming out of band and having everything be so structured and then all of a sudden, someone comes along and is like, “No, but wait, there’s another way to do things.”

Luis: And they even incorporate band instruments, so that took me back even further. The intro is a clarinet or something like that. So that took me back even further to my band days. We were sitting there in the orchestra room, and they’re even incorporating those instruments into their music. So, it really is crazy to me that you know how versatile they are. It’s super inspirational.

Donna: How often do you guys go back to your band roots?

Luis: You know, not as often as we should. I think it’s something that we’ve been currently trying to tap back into, not only because we feel the need to do it, but also because we’ve gone to shows and people have asked us to play some of the old stuff and we’re just like, “No, we don’t do that anymore.” But I feel like we really should. So, I feel we don’t get back to our roots as often as we should. We’re trying to tap back into that and get back into the stuff we used to do. Bring back the organ. Bring back all the old elements that made us what we are today.

Donna: If you could give your younger self a piece of advice, what is the one thing — coming out of a structured band environment and then joining a band that experiments much more avidly — what is the one thing in this whole experience that you would want to tell your younger self, or even to someone else who is on that same trajectory?

Luis: I would say don’t be afraid to share. I think making music is a very vulnerable thing, just from the conception of it, writing a song is already kind of scary, and then going and showing it to your friends is even scarier. And then going and playing it here in front of people is even scarier. It’s probably the scariest, but I would tell my younger self don’t be afraid to do that because at the end of the day, that’s really what’s going to get you to the point where you are now. Sharing those ideas and not being afraid to express those feelings, and just being honest. I feel like it was a struggle for us to communicate at the beginning. It was a struggle and I’m sure it is for a lot of people, it’s tough to just spill your guts out and be like “This is how I feel. This is the music I’m making.” I really wish I would have tapped into that a little bit earlier.

Donna: Which makes your guys’ connection so much more valuable, that access to vulnerability and the fact that you all speak the same musical language because everyone sounds so different. I feel like it’s so easy to disregard someone else’s opinion, or maybe be like, “No, it’s supposed to be this way. I know more about this artist; I know more about more about this album.” I feel like it’s very easy to fall into the trap of talking at people rather than discussing.

Luis: Definitely. So yeah, that would be my only piece of advice to my younger self, for sure.

Donna: Did your younger self ever envision you being in love with a Brazilian band?

Luis: No, actually, no, absolutely not. Not when I was listening to Zeppelin. Definitely not.

Donna: Well, let’s take a listen. This one is definitely, I think in terms of style, besides Air, is the other standout in the compilation. I actually do really enjoy this one. I think Brazilian music takes so much from their culture. Music is so avidly part of the culture in Brazil.

Song Plays: Los Hermanos – O Vento

Luis: Definitely, and that’s part of the reason why I really got into it a lot. I really want to incorporate our culture a lot more. Me and the guys, we’re all Mexican. My family’s from the city of Mexico. I was the first born here, so I would really like to grab all those aspects and throw them into our music a lot more. I feel like we haven’t done that as much as we should. We have definitely done it. We have a song in Spanish, but I feel like we really should throw that in a little bit more. It’s really what one thing I admire about Los Hermanos. They’re an incredible band. I actually found them in my younger days, which is funny enough that you mentioned, “Do you imagine listening to this when you’re younger?” I actually found them through the The Strokes. The Strokes have a bunch of side projects. The drummer made a band called Little Joy, which you’ve probably heard of, and Little Joy is The Strokes’ drummer and Rodrigo Marante, who is the singer for Los Hermanos. It kind of bridged that gap to get to Los Hermanos. When I listened to this, I was like “This is a way better Strokes,” in my head. That was just me personally. I’m sure a bunch of people can disagree with me.

Donna: You know what? Julian Casablancas can kiss my white behind.

Luis: Yeah, so that that’s how I got to Los Hermanos through them. They were my favorite band at one point and they’re super inspirational. I don’t speak Portuguese, so I have no idea what he’s saying. I know the song called O Vento, which means “the wind,” but I do not speak Portuguese at all. But something about the language is really beautiful. The way they sing and the cadences they use are obviously a lot different from American Music, because of the language. They use different words and all that, so their melodies and the way they express things is so different from the way we do it. It seemed so foreign to me at the time when I first listened to it, but now I can’t get over it. I love it. I love it just as much as cumbias and all that stuff I grew up listening to with my family. And you know salsa and all that. This is right up right up in that avenue in my head for sure.

Donna: In terms of the structure of this song and Brazilian music in particular, because I know you’re partial to it, do you find any overlap between the structure of this and the Mexican music that you grew up listening to?

Luis: Yeah, definitely, it would touch back on the cadence. When you’re singing a different language, you’re obviously not using the same phrasing and melodies. You draw from the music of the past. So, yeah, I think there’s definitely some similarities for sure. And just like the melodies and stuff like that. I think it’s beautiful. Stuff like this, they get super jazzy. It’s so great. There’s definitely a lot of similarities in the old Mexican boleros. They use a lot of the same voicings in the chords, which I’m a huge fan of.

Donna: Are there any other countries that produce music that you feel especially drawn to?

Luis: Recently on a little vacation I took my wife on, we were in Belgium, and for the very first time I listened to Fela Kuti, which I’m sure a bunch of people know about, but that that kind of like Afro beat music really captured my ear. Recently I’ve been falling into a wormhole of all that music. I really love it.

Donna: And do you listen to hip-hop at all?

Luis: Yeah, for sure.

Donna: Did you feel like the roots of hip-hop coming through when you were listening to that.

Luis: Oh yeah, one hundred percent. We love hip-hop a lot, mostly Andy, our keyboard player. He’s like the kind of heavy hip-hop head in the band. Which is why our music is heavily influenced by Portishead, just like the previous song. But yeah, he he’s heavily into that. He’s constantly feeding us songs like “Check this out. Check this out.” I definitely see a lot of similarities in it.

Donna: Do all of you guys have a specialty genre that you bring to the table, in terms of what you listen to?

Luis: Kind of, yeah. Andy’s definitely hip-hop. Frank would be a little crazier with the electronic and pop music for sure. I would probably be a little bit more on like the salsas and cumbia stuff. They’re probably not as heavy as into it as I am, but my family, you know, I was raised on that, so it’s kind of ingrained in me.

Donna: Right. I feel like the things that you grow up with, you really take them everywhere and especially into music. Like you said, it’s so vulnerable and it’s such a delicate process. I think it’s so important to be able to know where you came from to know where you’re going.

Luis: For sure.

Donna: I know I made a snide comment about Khruangbin earlier. I have a love/hate relationship with this band, but let’s give it a listen and see what everyone else thinks.

Luis: Let’s do it. So, she told me she doesn’t like Khruangbin.

Song Plays: Khruangbin – Dern Kala

Donna: Well, it wasn’t so simple, all right?

Luis: I kid, I kid, but this is probably my favorite band right now that’s currently out there playing, making music. Only because my roots are in playing guitar. I picked up the bass way after I picked up a guitar and I’ve heard the phrase “Guitar music is dead,” way too many times, to the point where it’s kind of annoying. A band like this really proves that it’s not dead. This song in particular has zero vocals. It’s just beautiful guitar tones, beautiful bass tones, a perfectly clean, almost hip-hoppy drum part. That was it, you know, like I didn’t need any more convincing. The guitar playing is so perfect. The tones that he uses, he’s almost singing with his guitar. He doesn’t need to speak into the mic at all, like the man could just stand there and play guitar and everyone’s just in awe. They’re probably the band I’ve seen the most live.

Donna: OK, how many times?

Luis: Probably like 7 times. I traveled to see them and everything.

Donna: Oh my God. You’re a die-hard.

Luis: I love them. They’re so incredible.

Donna: How does your wife feel about this?

Luis: She went with me. She’s cool with it, she loves it too.

Donna: It’s a mutual adventure. I love it.

Luis: It’s definitely one of those bands like those chill beats to study to kind of thing. You know how people do that? This is like the perfect band to do that to. You can almost play it and ignore it. If you were kind of like me and you’re heavy into guitar, you listen to him like, “How is he playing that? How is he doing that?”

Donna: But then inherently, doesn’t that not make this a chill study song, because you’re paying more attention to the guitar than you would be to whatever you’re doing, right?

Luis: For me, yeah, for sure. But I would say for the average listener, if you’re just chilling this is music for the background.

Donna: This is like music that I want to make an omelet to on Sunday morning. This is my omelet making music.

Luis: Feel good music that it’s so heavily driven by the guitar. And again, my first love was the guitar. That’s how I got into all of this. I did play in band, but after a while I was kind of like “This is dumb.” I didn’t have a passion for the trumpet. When I picked up a guitar it reignited that same feeling when I first saw the trumpet and I was like, “That’s sick.” Then I found guitar, and I was like, “This is way better.” Khruangbin really takes me back to the roots of falling in love with an instrument and being able to express yourself through it. Not needing any words, not needing any extra fancy synthesizer or fancy pedals or production. The guy just has a guitar. He has like 3 pedals on the floor and an amp. It’s so minimalistic, But it’s so perfect. I just saw them headline like Primavera Sound and there was a sea of people and not one person wasn’t dancing. It’s super inspirational how far you can get with just a guitar.

Donna: That explanation was so much deeper than what I thought it was going to be. I’m genuinely impressed. That’s a good thing. Like I said, we all hear music so differently, and for you to be able to really pick that simplicity apart and resonate with it on such a deep level, I think it’s very beautiful.

Luis: Yeah, definitely. When I listen to music, I’m the kind of person that listens to lyrics second and the music first, so a band like this immediately sparked an interest for me.

Donna: Funny enough, I’m actually the same way. I also have encountered bands where they create the lyrics as part of their sound, which is why I think I also like post-punk so much. The voice is just like another instrumental layer oftentimes. I think that adds to the sound and the message of the song becomes very much secondary. But that’s more of like a modern take on the production and the music.

Luis: For sure, yeah.

Donna: So where do you guys see yourself going forward, having all these influences on the table? What do you think is next for your band?

Luis: Well, we actually built a little studio for ourselves for the first time. In the past we used to just pay to go and work with people on this and that. We figured out that that really wasn’t the way for us. So, we actually are working on a full length, our first full length and we have a bunch of singles out. Check them out on Spotify, by the way. We will have a single coming out on June 16th. We have an album coming out late July. All these influences that I just spoke about, you’ll hear them all in there. So please, everybody check it out. June 16th, we’ll have a single out, late July we’ll have an album out. It’s months away.

Donna: It’s going to sneak up fast.

Luis: Yeah, yeah, it’s coming up soon.

Donna: I’m so excited to hear how you guys are going to compile all of this together. I can only anticipate something really juicy because I already really love all your singles so much. You guys have a very cool sound. Everyone if you haven’t already, get on your Instagram and add Shaman Cult and Paleshifter.

Luis: Yes, yes, both.

Donna: I’m looking at you guys in the back over there. Give them a listen. What do you feel is your second favorite band besides Khruangbin?

Luis: Oh man, I mean…

Donna: There has to be a second. Rather, what is the one band throughout your years that you put to the side a little bit and then you keep going back to it?

Luis: I did mention it earlier and it’s going to be kind of predictable because a lot of people mention it, but it really is that band. It’s Radiohead for sure.

Donna: Right. The next conversation I have with a musician, I will literally pay them 10 bucks if they don’t mention that their influences are either Radiohead or Queens of the Stone Age. Those are the two that I get most often.

Luis: Because they’re so good, they’re literally the best band. So, I don’t know.

Donna: I think it’s so beautiful when over time those songs still will resonate with you, and perhaps they even change in meaning as you get older, which I think is pretty cool too. Well, Luis, thank you so, so much for being here with us tonight.

Luis: Thank you.

Donna: Thank you for joining me in my home.