Interview with Juan Alderete (Bassist for Big Sir, Mars Volta)

Ricardo Lezama, La Cartita
Interview Date: July 19, 2014, Brooklyn, NY, NY.
Posted: July 24, 2014
Juan Alderete Show Photos & Music

I. Introduction

Non-stop, for over a decade, Juan Alderete has been touring the world playing bass. He's been in tons of bands; Big Sir; The Mars Volta (gaining membership after a few years); Racer-X (...because he has enough 'technique' for metal); and now he's doing hip-hop with his friend 'Dan the Automator' from Deltron 3030. We talked for a half-hour before the Deltron 3030 show. We talked about his family, politics, his hectic touring schedule, wish to spend more time with his wife, and how difficult it is to make a living off of music. This last point surprised and disturbed me.

Given the quality of Juan Alderete and Lisa Papineau's music, I was extremely surprised by Alderete needing to tour constantly. Part of the reason lies in the fact that people refuse to buy music anymore! Musicians view shows as the only way to make a living. However, most people do not consider the implications of this business formula. For starters, musicians are away from family for long periods of time. Then, there are the actual risks associated with touring, stress, along with the potential to lose money even if tickets sell well.

Music 'lovers' have also latched on to the I-Tunes, Pandora, YouTube business model; they passively get directed to the biggest artists in the biggest labels, and do not experience music that exists outside of that internet marketing environment. In the music world, the tailored online advertising results in plenty of profit derived from 'free' music for the people who upload content, but, ironically, the artists are not 'free' to create as a consequence. For example, artists are not given a cut of the profits derived from uploads of their music in video sharing websites.

Here is the audio interview:


For those who love to read, here is the transcript:

Lezama: How do you identify yourself?

Alderete: Chicano. Mexican. My mom is Guadalajara and my dad is Chihuahua, then they moved to Los Angeles, where my [family] was born, but I remember thinking 'to me its just a border line' because they are still Mexican. So, I would always call myself Mexican. People would always give me shit for it because my Spanish sucked, and I didn't grow up in Mexico, so they go 'you cant call yourself Mexican'. I just kept thinking 'well, I want to be!' [because] to me it was just a border. And, I remember the first time I went to real Mexico and thinking 'I feel more at home with these people than the people I came up with'.
We actually had a tour manager who would give me shit about it. He was like 'dude, you are Chicano, you are not Mexican. Go hang out'. After you hang out, then you see the mentality differences and the cultural differences. mentality and the cultural differences and you're like "yeah, you are probably right", but it that doesn't mean my culture is completely different from a Mexican culture, but it is definitely from an American culture. And, you know, all my family members are married to Americans basically. Except for my little brother, he's married to a Chicana and their kids are fluent. And, my wife is half-Japanese so I came in to my own thing so I was like 'fuck it' if that's what you call it, then I'm Chicano.

Lezama: I experienced something similar.

Alderete: Where are you from?

Lezama: I was born in Santa Ana.

Alderete: My brother lives there.

Lezama: Really!?

Alderete: He ran for city councilmen last year.

Lezama: What's his name?

Alderete: Alderete, Eric Alderete. He didn't win, haha, yeah, but he's by the 5 and 22 freeway.

Lezama: Wow, yeah, man, I used to hang out there. Haha. Where are you from originally?

Alderete: I was born in Los Angeles. I was born in Kaiser Hospital on Sunset. I am one of the few people who was actually born in Los Angeles, so I rep L.A., but I grew up in the bay. My parents moved us to the bay. I went to college there but went back to L.A. to do music there. I'm always been fucked up! I'm not 'Mexican', you know what I mean? I'm not NorCal; I'm not Southern California. I don't really claim the Dodgers. I don't really claim the San Francisco Giants. I always got this conflict. But, what I do rep are the Raiders because the Raiders were in Los Angeles and in Oakland. They are a California team. But, I dont wear Oakland Raiders shit. I only rep L.A. Raiders shit. Now, they are coming back to L.A.

Lezama: That's a trip. I had a similar experience growing up. My parents and I used to go back and forth between TJ and Mexico City. You feel that 'rechazo' from Mexicans back home. People don't really like you here. Everybody is stomping on you.

Alderete: Especially when you have Mexicans saying that you're not Mexican, it hurts the most...

Lezama: That's where you have to draw the line! People can define themselves however they want.

Alderete: Right. Now, as I get older, all this shit seems less and less [important]. I think what people don't realize is that my whole family - my mom's side and my dad's side - were politically active. They actually contributed to a lot of social change in the United States. My dad was a federal mediator, dealing with race issues. My uncle was a member of U.N.O, which was an organization that tried to get gang members of the streets and also that empowered Chicanos. My cousin, Mickey, and his wife, Silvia, the day they got married they went out and marched. I was actually the ring bearer. When you learn about Chicano protests, people use that photo of them in their wedding clothes, in their tuxedo and the wedding gown. When people reference those huge marches in the early 70's, they tend to use that photo of them doing this: [makes fist motion]; it's been on the L.A. Times a whole bunch of times.
People can say whatever, but I know what my family contributed to race relations, [so that] Chicanos, and Latinos in general, get more strength. The day that I woke up and our president was African-American I thought ' this is not the same country that I grew up in when I was a little kid'. I thought our country was always going to be racist. I didn't think the country had it in them.
It is a different country from when I was a kid. When I moved the Bay Area we were the only Latino kids while I was growing up in the Bay. When I grew up, I was the only Latino kid there. I got my ass whipped all the time. They didn't like you because you were dark, and they didn't like you. We were the only family there; there was like one or two other families at the time, probably. Now, my little brother's kids go to school with Latino kids, Asian kids, white kids in Santa Ana, and they all get along. It's nice that the world evolved. I'm sure that you can move somewhere and still get your ass kicked, but it just doesn't happen as much in California. I would have been bummed if I had had kids and they grew up in a super racist place.

Lezama: Well, thats why I mentioned Arizona in that email. In California, you have substantive protections, but in Arizona, Texas, Mexican American Studies is outlawed. Then you have SB-1070 that allows for police officers to search on the basis of appearance, and all the copy-cat laws. That to me indicates that whatever progress was done in California is either incomplete or we are losing sight of the bigger picture.

Alderete: Right, I also think our people need to be more active. There is always going to be that removal. They dont think anything works. Even when I was in Mars Volta, none of those dudes votes. I voted. None of those dudes believed in the system, but I would get made fun of for voting, and I was in to it.

Lezama: That's good. That's the whole point of [us] talking. Absent of any other options, yeah, [doing something is better than nothing]. There are options. People are talking to each other through social media, and that [interaction] leads to things.

Alderete: Dude, Mexicans are the number one users of Twitter. As a country, they use it the most as a way to communicate. The majority of my twitter followers are Mexicano. I'd say more than half of them are Mexican. Like a good amount are Latino too. I have a lot of Chicano followers too. I think I have always had that love from Mexicans because I rep the flag. We would play - the Mars Volta would - in Azteca Stadium and I'd get mad love from those kids. I'd raise my fist and those kids would go wild! That never happens to me anywhere else in the world do I get that type of response I get in Mexico City. They know I'm the dude with the flags!

Lezama: I remember the flag! When I dropped out of high school, I was sort of ambivalent as to what to do with school and everything. I go to a Mars Volta show because someone invites and seeing the flag. I thought 'man, there is a flag there? They kind of look like my friends and like me'. It was so impactful because it showed you could rep and do something big like that. You never know whose watching, man.

Alderete: I agree too man. It's all empowerment. I give a lot to my social media mainly because I believe kids dig having someone that they can check. That its familiar to them.I know all my fans are not Latino, and I appreciate them too! I just think you have to have people that you can check out you that you feel you can relate to. That's what is cool about social media. Now, I don't believe everything about it is great.

Lezama: Right. It's meant as a marketing device.

Alderete: I know. Haha. I know. I mean that's how I get people to come to my [music] clinics. I got my last one in Ashbury Park, NJ

Lezama: What are you playing here?

Alderete: We're playing Deltron 3030. It's free. There is a full orchestra. People should show up, today's such a nice day, not too hot.

Lezama: Yeah, they'll show up. You seem to blur that line between session musician and band member.

Alderete: You'd be surprised. I don't do a lot of sessions. I have friends who do those sessions. Lezama:Really?

Alderete: Yeah, I have always been a band-member. When I started in the 1980's I was a band member (with Racer-X), an equal band member. In the 1990's, I was in a bunch of bands that no one ever heard of, and then these guys in the Mars Volta called me in 2003, but then they made me a band-member within a couple of years. It was Ikey, me, Jon [Theodore], Omar and Cedric were the core band-members. This [Deltron 3030] is more like a hired gun gig. Here, I needed to make money as a musician. I've known the Automator for years. Tomorrow is the last show and then I don't have anything until November. I'm just out here grinding trying to see if I can continue to make a living as a musician, and it's getting harder and harder.

Lezama: What do you attribute that to? Digital technology? Loss of retail...

Alderete: I think people not paying for music really hurt us. You have to tour to make money when everyone in the world knows thats how you make money so then everyone is out. I see my friends everywhere else in the world because they're all out touring! You have to tour. I have been out since August of last year. Ikey is in Jack White's band. Jon is in Queens [of the Stone Age], I saw him in Toronto a couple of weeks ago. Cedric starts touring in a couple of weeks. You have to be out here touring; you have to grind. I miss my wife.I have spent the last 12 years of my life touring. I want a life with her. As I get older, I miss her more and more, man. This must have been the toughest one. We've been out here for 6 weeks. I like touring, but not this hard! I was touring with Big Sir for two weeks, then hooked up with Deltron 3030 for 4 weeks.

Lezama: How was touring with Big Sir?

Alderete: It was good. In terms of attendance, some days were good, and others were not. Lisa and I are still a band. We made an album and toured it, but the problem is people don't buy music anymore. It just gets harder and harder. Lisa and I are still a band. It's not that easy, we don't have a label.

Lezama: When I first heard Big Sir, unfortunately I couldn't find a way to buy it. I thought: 'how do these guys distribute? They must only tour.'

Alderete: Well, we put out a record in 1999. We didnt put out a record until I met Omar. We put out a record on GSL. Later we put out another record with Sargent House. Omar is not with Sargent House anymore so then Big Sir didn't have a home. Lisa and I wound up putting the album out ourselves. We wanted to do a digital hardcore mix of our album. Instead of having people remix it into digital. It's a really different record because it was all digital. So that's Big Sir.
Vato Negro, I hope to still do. Its getting hard to do that record. What is the end result? I don't get to tour that much. In the end, if I put out the album, no one is going to buy it because people don't pay for music. So, I can't put all this money on a record [that I won't recover.]

Lezama:Hold up. People do pay for records. They just don't pay for records not on the radio. So, then, how do you get people to listen to it on the radio?

Alderete: Well, I don't know the answer to that question. I know Dan produced the first two Gorillaz albums, and he's [still] having problems getting on the radio. It's a competitive world. I really don't know what people are looking for. I think things will change because whenever things are this bad, things change.

Lezama: What do you lose when you are in those established bands?

Alderete: Personally, I don't like to be a hired gun. I really don't know what I will do. I'll just figure things out as I go.

Lezama: You mentioned getting your ass kicked as a kid [for being the only Mexican in the Bay]. It occurred to me that you were in a metal band ....in 1980. What was that like? Were they open-minded? Alderete: I went to music school. At the time, in that era, Hollywood was all about shredding. I could always play fast. I met a guy who needed a bass player. I didn't like heavy metal as much as they did. I liked some metal but it wasn't that deep. The next thing I knew I was in a metal band for three years! That kind of got me off track for a bit.

Lezama: Off track, in terms of what? Composing, you mean?

Alderete: Yeah. I mean my favorite band at the time was Killing Joke. That is not a metal band. I was listening to New-Wave bands of the time. I just wanted to make a living. I always wanted to make a living being a musician. Now, I'm like (*old man voice*) "it's getting harder and harder to make a living as a musician".

Lezama: Its like people in my situation. Linguists all want to be in grad school and professors, but that stuff [public universities] is getting eliminated.

Alderete:Right, I feel you.

Lezama: Would you say Big Sir is closer to what you wanted to achieve earlier?



Alderete:Yes. We have that element. I love Vato Negro because I just get to go crazy on my instrument. I loved being in the Mars Volta. At one point I thought we were going to be the biggest band in the world because it just felt that way. The respect we got. Lezama:Yeah, that was pretty cutting edge.

Alderete on AMLO