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Thank you.

Hi, I'm Scott Brocato with KRWG Public Media, and I'd like to welcome you to this episode of Music Spotlight.

Santana Garcia is a guitarist composer born and raised near Anthony, New Mexico.

His fingerstyle acoustic playing has evolved from Midwest emo roots and punk.

We are pleased to welcome Santana Garcia to KRWG Music Spotlight.

And it's been a long time coming.

You've we've been communicating about being on the show for a while, so I'm glad you're, I'm very glad you're here.

It's an honor to be here thanks, thanks for having me.

Well, tell me about growing up in Anthony.

You were born in El Paso and your family moved to Anthony?

Yeah.

When I was very young, my parents bought some land and Anthony by the river.

And it was a beautiful place to grow up.

I didn't have very many, very many neighbors.

is that good or bad?

That was a good thing.

I think it was a good thing because it allowed me to just, enjoy the outdoors and also just kind of have space to myself away from school and, a lot of pecan trees and some cotton fields, chile fields.

It's very, very peaceful, very peaceful place for the kids are going to be.

Very aromatic too.

Yeah.

Depending on the seasons.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, you're.

When did you first get your guitar?

Your dad bought you and your brother.

I believe your first guitar.

Yeah.

How old were you?

I was, like, eight years old.

My brother was at least, he's three years older, so he's 11, almost 12.

Now Is he also a musician?

Yeah, he's a guitarist.

He, picked up guitar before I did.

he he took a a class in sixth grade, and I was in second, third grade, and he kind of just taught me everything he learned from from the guitar class he took.

It was a pretty easy for you to pick up.

Do you remember?

Yeah.

It was pretty easy.

It's always been.

I guess the word would be natural.

It's always felt pretty natural to me.

The guitar?

Yeah.

Yeah, it feels good.

And, so was.

It was.

I mean, he bought you your first guitar.

Your dad.

How else?

How has your family been encouraging?

As far as your music career.

Well, my father musical.

Well, my poor, my poor mother has never had her living room to herself.

She's always had.

She always had it full of instruments.

When I was growing up, me and my brother playing in bands always had, like amps and and drum drum sets and guitars and bass amps and bass guitars just everywhere.

It gets worse from there.

I know.

And so that was that was big support because, I mean, that's not normal, but they were there to support it.

It is if you're a musician.

I know right.

We make it normal.

It's our it's our normal.

Yeah.

No.

Yeah.

And I've because of my family support, I'm, I'm met where I'm at right now.

So.

Yeah, they're big in the musical.

Who do you remember who some of your musical influences were growing up, and did you get a lot of it from your dad that he passed along some favorites of his to you, or did you were there some actually picked up on your own?

So my my dad introduced me to Jim Croce, and I love Jim Croce so much.

He's a very big reason why I play fingerstyle guitar now.

And, just the style of folk folk and, you know, country, Americana music.

And, my brother introduced me to the Beatles at a very young age, and I was like in second or third grade.

And that really, really pushed me towards a beautiful musical journey.

Yeah.

Well, what was it about the what were some favorite Beatles songs?

Well, the first song I ever heard from the Beatles was Strawberry Fields Forever, and I remember hearing it on a CD player, and it was one of the most beautiful things I've ever experienced when listening to that song.

Let's get you set up for your own music, your first song that you're going to perform.

And by the way, these will be all instrumentals.

Your first song is called grounded.

What inspired grounded?

Nature and just, always remembering to be humble and to to be grounded.

All right, well, let's get you set up.

Our guest today on KRWG Music Spotlight is Santana Garcia on KRWG TV.

Well, thank you for performing those songs Santana.

Let's talk about the process of creating music, especially instrumentals.

Now, we mostly have guests on here.

You know, you talk about the process and it's, you know, their songs.

You know, it's often they write the lyrics first, then the music.

What goes into creating instrumentals?

What are some of the the processes behind that?

Well, for me it always starts with the feeling.

I always get a feeling of inspiration, but also just love and I guess what's the word like an almost like a natureistic feeling.

And so that always leads to me just kind of picking up my guitar and start like noodling around and just kind of playing and feeling it.

And it always turns into like a composition at the end of like a week or, you know, some songs take longer than others, but it just creates itself, you know, and and it starts with a just a good feeling.

Yeah.

Well, it's a long way from, your background and some of the music you played before I mentioned the intro.

Yeah.

that you, played, Midwest emo roots and punk.

I know what punk is, but for for watch or viewers that are around my age, what is Midwest emo roots music?

How would you describe that?

Well, a lot of that came from like, the Midwest area of the country and like the East Coast.

A lot of those bands are experimenting with different tunings, and they were playing, you know, unique style of like emo and punk mixed together.

And they kind of like, created, created this, like Midwest emo sound.

too, but not not math rock, but not fully math rock.

What is math rock?

it's a lot like a lot of, like, tapping guitar, if you will, a lot of, like, odd time signatures and like, very like like Van Halen style, like techno and stuff, but like, you know, more modern.

And you were in bands.

Yeah.

Yeah, I've been in bands growing up.

We were talking off-the-air about you had, an early gig at 14.

Oh, you had a bar.

You know.

What was that like?

That was fun.

Yeah.

We opened for this band called The Bad Assets.

They're from California.

They were touring, and we were able to get on their opening bill with them there at, this place in El Paso.

And, and.

Yeah, that was fun.

That was good experience to be able to be so young and to be able to open for a band, especially from a tour for a touring band from California.

They were really good.

Well, how did your style then evolve into what you're playing now?

Was it just a gradual thing?

That was a blues band then?

We were playing a lot of blues and rock and roll, a lot of classic rock stuff.

Well, I love your sound now.

Do you still play the other styles of music?

Either for pleasure or, in other bands, the punk or the emo?

I guess I do that around campfires nowadays.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, what's next for you?

What, do you have any new music coming out?

I'm working on a self-titled album.

It should be out in the summer, and I'm really excited about that.

I've been working hard on that and putting a lot of love into that, and time.

Well, good.

Well, again, it's a pleasure to have you on the show.

Santana Garcia, thank you for being on KRWG Music Spotlight.

And be sure to catch our past performances on YouTube and like us on Facebook to keep up with future episodes for KRWG Im Scott Brocato and thank you for joining us for KRWG Music Spotlight.