The Tall Juan Interview
Are you originally from Queens, NY? What was your childhood like? When did you first begin to fall in love with music? Was music relevant around your household growing up? Do you have any siblings?
No, I was born and raised in San Antonio de Padua, a city outside Buenos Aires, Argentina. Moved to Queens, NY when I was 23. It was alright, boring at times. I always had the guitar to get me through those moments though. I think I began to fall in love with music listening to Michael Jackson, then Luis Alberto Spinetta and his band Pescado Rabioso. The Album ‘Artaud’, I use to listen to that album at home a lot. It was very much. My dad would listen to Pescado Rabioso, King Crimson and Charlie Garcia. My grandma more classical music like Ravel and Manuel de Falla, then my older sister would listen to all the alternative music that was coming out in the mid 90’s like Björk, David Bowie, Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson. That was the coolest to me back then. I do, two sisters and one brother. All of them are older than me.
What would you and your friends do for fun growing up? Who were some of your earliest influences in your more formative years? When and where did you see your very first concert and when did you realize you wanted to spend your life pursuing music? Did you participate in any groups, or projects prior to Tall Juan?
We would throw rocks at people’s houses, smashing their windows in, sometimes we would jerk off all together in the same room. Go to school dance parties, or dance parties in the neighborhood, there was a lot of being around walking doing nothing around the streets too. But I would also play some music with some of them. I would say Marilyn Manson, Ramones and David Bowie. I went to see Marilyn Manson when he came to Argentina in 1997 and that definitely got me super excited and started playing more and more, then I went to see this underground Buenos Aires band named Fun People and after that show I knew I wanted to keep doing this. Yes! A bunch. I played bass and guitar in bands since I was 14 until I started Tall Juan at 24. Too many bands I won’t be able to name them all and most of them they don’t play anymore
When and where did you make your live performance debut and what was that experience like? You recorded two singles on Bufu Records before your LP “Olden Goldies” Tell me about writing and recording that album? How did the friendship with Bufu come about? What was the overall approach to this album and would you mind giving a brief background to songs such as “I Wish I knew”, “Kaya”, “Another Juan” and “Getting Old”?
It was at this backyard party in Brooklyn in 2013, I was so nervous I had to play sitting down because my legs were shaking. I wanted to do like a greatest hits kind of thing hehe that’s why I called it like that too. But it’s funny to have a greatest hits without having any album out yet Lol. I put together songs I had been writing until then and also covered some bands I used to listen when I was a kid, like Loquera, She Devils, Sumo and Ramones. It was like closing a chapter of my life and leaving the door open for a new one to come. I recorded everything in my room on a 388 with this guy Bastian on drums and then I mixed it all in Garage Band. They used to come to Juan Wauters shows when I used to go to Boston to play with him. I wanted to put my music out somehow and my friend Juan told me, you should hit up that kid who comes to the shows, I did and they were down to do it. I wish I knew, I wrote to the first girlfriend I had in NY, whenever I would remember the good times we had spent together. Kaya is a cover, originally by this band from Argentina, Sumo. I really thought I had made a good rendition of it and threw it into the album last minute. I recorded that one when I was very very stoned! Another one is Mac Demarco’s “Another One”, he was asking people to make a version of it and I did mine, also thought it was really good and felt it was mine, I asked him if I could include it to my album and he was down, he also recorded some Rhodes at the end of the song.
When and where was the album made? Having recorded the singles prior, what was the atmosphere of this full length project like in comparison? There was a bit of a distance between 2017’s “Olden Goldies” and 2020’s “Atlantico”. What was the overall approach and vision for your anticipated follow up? When and where did recording begin in correlation to the appalling pandemic?
My home in Far Rockaway. I liked the single versions better, but I wanted to re-record everything again to include them in the album since I didn’t have as many songs. It was exciting, because the singles where recorded by Mac and this album I recorded it myself, while learning how to record on tape. I finished recording Atlantico in 2018. It was very little time between those two, by then I was over the fast tempo songs and I had passed that chapter and wanted to experiment with Latin sounds and more rhythms, richer rhythms. And came up with Atlantico. Now I’m done with that chapter too and I’m doing something completely different. I’m always experimenting. I started recording in 2018, I can’t remember when. But mid 2018. By the pandemic I had it already ready to go.
How did the deal with Freeman Street Records come about? Any new projects on the horizon? Is there anything else you would like to further share with the readers?
No deal really, I put it out myself and a couple of weeks after it was released they reached out saying they wanted to print 200 copies and I said yes! I wasn’t planning on printing, it was gonna be just digital, but it is still a self release. Yes, I have an intense album ready and I am still looking the way to put it out. It is the best music I ever made and it sounds just as I wanted it. I would tell the readers to stay tuned!
