Sounding Out: Diego Garcia

“There was this old beat up classical guitar that was in the pantry, next to the front door of the house where I grew up. Getting my shoes or my jacket, or whatever it was in that closet that I needed, I would always see this old, beaten up, dusty guitar and I felt attracted to it…I had a connection to it.“

Diego Garcia is a musician and artist who lives and thrives on connections. Connections to childhood memories, emotions, relationships, family heritage, and music seem to always be present with him. This past week I had a chance to talk with Diego about his beautiful new album Laura, which has just been released. What struck me about him was just how influential all of these connections have been for him, not only as an artist, but as a person.

“My mom was a guitarist until she had kids. When I was growing up, I would see these pictures of her as a teenager….This cool, hippy, beautiful Argentine girl playing the guitar back in the late ‘60’s and early ‘70’s.“ Diego said that she filled the house with music.

I asked Diego how old he was when he felt inspired enough to start playing the guitar himself.

“Around thirteen, my best friend started taking guitar lessons to learn every Led Zeppelin song. I went to my mom and said that I wanted to do that too!” Because his friend was so good at soloing, Diego needed to start off playing in the complete opposite way. “I started writing real songs on the spot…I kind of by-passed all the scales.” I Laughed and told him that my 10 year old son is trying to pull a ‘Diego’ right now with not wanting to learn his scales and chords…..he just wants to get in there and play. Diego Laughed.

“Well, it’s funny. I was so frustrated. Those first lessons…..your fingers hurt! I lasted maybe two or three lessons. I remember then asking my mom ‘when do you know to change chords?’ She looked at me….and I have never seen her get mad…and she just said ‘listen.’ And so I went on and taught myself music by listening to other people, learning their songs, and digesting them. Eventually I started writing my own stuff.“

Diego, the son of Argentinian parents, was born in Detroit and grew up in Tampa, Florida. When it came time for college he headed north to Brown University where he majored in Economics. After graduation he found his way to New York City to pursue music. In New York, he helped found the band Elefant, an indie rock band that was together until 2010.

On Laura, Diego makes a complete departure from the kind of music that he wrote and played with Elefant. Hearkening back to the years when his mom played guitar in Argentina, Diego’s songs are heavily influenced by the South American Romance albums of the time. I was curious to know if this significant musical directional shift was intentional on his part or whether this was something that had been unfolding in a more organic way over time. He said that it was both. “There are two different phases to me. The inspirational part, the writing of the album, and then there is the actual arranging and recording.”

“When I started writing these songs, they were just reflections of where I was in my life at the time. It is a romance record to the fullest degree, written to get my girl back. So I had these moments of light when I was alone and heartbroken and in a dark place….and that is where the songs were born.” In this respect, Diego said that there was a very organic, let’s see where this goes approach.

But there was also a real goal to make music that sounded like him and told his story in the most unique, original way possible. “I wanted to address the love story; the girl I lost, the color of her hair. I wanted it to sound timeless. And I wanted it to address my roots. My parents are from Argentina. I was born in Detroit. I grew up in Florida. I wanted all of that to come out of these recordings.”

Separate Lives   

Separate from his writing, Diego had been talking with his friend, artist and producer Jorge Elbicht, for a number of years about doing a project together. When they met in 2005 there was an immediate connection between them. “It was clear that I wanted to make my album with him. What wasn’t clear was what the hell this album was going to sound like.“

Unlike band projects that Diego had done for many years, tackling a solo project was an entirely different process. “A band is defined by its own limitations in a way. The bass has its own personality, the guitar has its own personality…..It’s all personality based and it can be great and powerful. When it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. But when it works, you get the Ramones, and it is the most amazing thing ever.”

“When you go solo and it is a studio project, it becomes more of a conceptual approach. It is even trickier in that you get 40 years of music and you are wondering, what is this record? What is the sound going to be? What is the arrangement going to be like? All of these questions were still up in the air when we started working.”

While working to figure out a direction for the album, Diego kept connecting back to the South American romance records from the 60’s and early 70’s that he had heard as a child. He decided to spend time studying as many of these records as he could find. “I think they are some of the most brilliant records ever made. They are these gems.”

Because it was so important for Diego to get this record right, he did not rush or force a time line for figuring out how make this album. He just kept playing with different versions of his songs and waited for his next connection. That connection came when he met a cellist by the name of Daniel Bensi.

”When we put the cello on my songs, suddenly it just made a lot of sense. Here was this instrument that is super emotional, it’s romantic, it’s classic, it's old, and it's European…..and my melodies were kind of saying the same things.”

With Daniel and his cello, Diego finally felt that he had a nucleus to work off of in the studio. ”We had a cello, an acoustic (guitar) and vocals, and we built off of that. And then the nylon guitar came into play and finally the bass and rhythm section came in which was inspired by those romance records.“

You Were Never There   

I asked Diego if he had considered not singing in English for any of the songs. “I want to do it so badly and I will, but it hasn’t felt natural yet. I did not want it to be a forced thing. I think in English, I write in English, I sing in English. Writing and singing in Spanish would be a whole new ballgame and I would be starting at square one."

With the album now released and receiving a lot of critical attention, I asked Diego how he is feeling about the album being embraced by so many and what comes next for him?

“I am trying to put my feelings into words. I worked on this album for so long and to let it go…it’s a beautiful thing." But, Diego said that he is trying not to get caught up in what people think because it is not in his control anymore. The next chapter for Diego and Laura is the live show. 

“There was a lot of work and focus to make this album. Hopefully we made something that is rooted in the past, but original and modern. I hope to do live what I did in the studio and that is going to take a lot of work…and that is very motivating. There is nothing more exciting to me now than the live show.” I'm sure that with his live performances he will make new connections with his music and his audience.

Diego is also looking beyond Laura. He says that as an artist and musician he is dead if he is not living in the present and working on new material. "As an artist, as a songwriter, writing songs is my oxygen....and it gives me the ultimate satisfaction." In this respect, he added that he is only as good as his next song and record. "I have to be thinking about the next record or else I am going to be unhappy." I really appreciated his last comment. Frankly, I'm going to be unhappy if there is not more beautiful music to explore beyond Laura by this great artist.