Chords for Willie G & Jacob Garcia - musicUcansee.com - Press Room Interview @ NAMM '15

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[Em] _ _ _ _ [A] _ [E] _ _ _
[G] _ _ _ [Gb] Hi, this is Tino with Blue Z News.
We're at Winter NAMM 2015 [Am] and I'm here with a real
[G] legend, a rock and roll legend, Willie [Abm] Garcia, known as Willie G from the [E] Midnighters.
And
you're one of the few lead singers that can actually read music.
My brother, my oldest brother, actually didn't want me hanging around the corner, so to speak,
and getting in trouble.
And so he's the one that told me that I really needed to _ respect
the gift that God gave me, to learn as much as I could, and to respect the musicians that
I would be working with eventually, _ because they really didn't care for singers that much.
And I asked him why.
And he said, well, because they do all the work and the singers get all
the attention, all the glory, all the girls.
And so that just piqued my interest even that much more.
_ [N] _
Then 1964 comes along, Midnighters, October 18th, I want to say.
You recorded Land of a Thousand Dances at [Gm] ELAC, East LA [A] Junior College at the time, right?
That's right.
I saw a picture of that.
How old were you?
[Em] I had just turned 18 years old, [E] just graduated from high school out of Salesian.
[A] And Bill
Taggart, who was the musical director of the Salesian High School [D] band, he really [G] gave
us a platform.
He didn't want us [E] playing in nightclubs.
We were underage.
And he just
figured that wasn't a healthy environment for us.
So he's the one that [G] initiated, he
didn't call them Battle of the Bands.
A lot of people referred to them as Battle of the
Bands.
He called them rock and roll [B] shows.
[Cm] He wanted it to be a healthy [E] competition amongst
the bands.
And it did.
It was a great platform for us.
We [C] recorded our first hit single [B] at
one of those shows.
[E] And I would say you and Lalo Guerrero were probably the two most important artists for
[N] the Latino community, I don't think just in Los Angeles.
I think in rock and roll probably
all over the U.S.
Yeah, Lalo for sure.
He _ _ crossed [B] _ the boundaries.
It [E] wasn't just Mexican music.
He [Dm] actually
had [E] a large English and Anglo audience that really [N] appreciated what he did.
He was quite
an entrepreneur.
He was on the Liberty label.
And so that put him all over the world.
That
was international.
_ And then he had a nice little dinner club there [F] in East L.A. [A] on Eastern
_ Avenue.
It was Brooklyn Avenue at the [N] time before Cesar Chavez.
_ And that was just a great
[D] place.
He gave a lot of young artists opportunities to sing off of that [Bb] stage and perform.
Now with a career of 52 plus years, [F] the movie is being made. _
[E] Tell us about it.
We're [G] working on that.
We're in the works for _ a [N] director, Richard Rodriguez.
We're talking
with him about it.
And of course, Edward James Olmos will be [B] involved in some [D] capacity.
[F] David
Hidalgo [G] from Los Lobos is [Eb] going to assist us with the soundtrack. _
[Db] And I'm just excited
about it.
_ [Eb] We've done [Ab] several things throughout the years, some [Fm] documentaries, [Db] but I think
[Eb] the real story [Gb] has been neglected.
There's been a lot of _ inaccuracies over the years.
[D] The history [Ebm] of East L.A. music has [Ab] been kind of distorted.
So I really welcome the opportunity
to really kind of focus and really [Eb] from the inside out talk about what it was like growing
up in that era.
[Bb] Nice.
And Jacob, [C] you play drums.
You're a drummer.
[Ab] Yeah, drummer and singer.
[G] Talk a little bit.
You're here at Winterdowm 2015.
You are here because of [Bm] your [Cm] endorsement
with a cymbal?
Correct.
Yeah.
[Eb] Soul Tone Cymbals.
They're based out of Encino.
Great [Ebm] company, great
backing.
[A] They support what I do as a drummer who's venturing off to try and [Ab] sing at the
same time.
But they support me [Bm] and help me along the way and [B] provide me with so [A] much.
And how long [F] have you been playing drums and why did you pick up [Am] drums?
I've been playing drums [Dbm] probably seriously [C] about 16 years.
I guess it was the [D] pots and
pans getting banged up [F] that started it back in the day.
And I [G] guess come junior high around
6th, 7th grade, I got together with Pop and said, you know what, let [Ab] me actually learn
what I'm interested in and take some lessons and educate [Ebm] myself.
And I [Dbm] had a great teacher
who just [A] guided [Ab] the creativity [Bbm] that I had to [Bb] learn certain [Abm] styles and [A] different things
like that and sent [D] me on my way.
So when I saw you in 95, 96 singing with your dad, with your sister, you hadn't been playing [Dm] drums yet.
Kind of closeted a little bit.
Just playing at home, not necessarily playing with a band
[C] or anything like that.
Just kind of building it up within myself.
But then probably about
a year or two later I really stepped out and said, let me actually try and do something [Db] with this.
[D] Nice.
[E] Well, it's a pleasure to [Eb] meet both of you.
You know, I [E] grew up with a brother who
went to Salesian.
So in my household we were definitely taught who the Midnighters were,
[C] the Midnighters.
My mom has two favorite singers.
She's 86 years old, she'll be 87.
Her two
favorite singers [B] are Willie G and [D] Frank Sinatra.
So thank you so much.
God bless her and thank you, Tino.
Take care.
Appreciate the time.
This is Tino from [C] Winter NAMM 2015, [D] Blue Z News.
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