interview by MARK
GABRISH CONLAN
Copyright © 2012 by Mark Gabrish Conlan for Zenger’s
Newsmagazine • All rights reserved
Fabio A.
Rojas has certainly packed a lot of living in his 20-something years. He’s been
making music ever since he was four or five years old, when he formed a family
singing group with his older sisters in his native Colombia. His parents
brought the family to Miami to get away from Colombia’s unrest, particularly the
threat of kidnapping, and after studying music in Minnesota he ended up in San
Diego. At present he’s the owner of Refugio Roots Music, a combination
recording studio, performance space and art gallery at 906 21st
Street in Golden Hill (it’s a corner building and the entrance is on “E”
Street). He’s also recording progressive events for Activist San Diego’s
under-construction radio station, KNSJ 89.5 FM in Descanso, and he recently
returned from a tour with the popular, long-lived (17 years) Latino rock band
the B-Side Players. Rojas can be reached online through Facebook at Facebook.com/Fabioalejo,
or via e-mail at pentafabio@hotmail.com
Zenger’s: Why don’t you tell me a little bit about your
background, your history, and how you got into music?
Fabio A.
Rojas: I was born and raised in Bogotá,
Colombia for the first 15 years of my life. My family raised me with the
tradition, culture, values and style of living of a typical Latino. My dad was
very passionate about music. He had sung as a very young man, but because of
money-related issues and stuff like that, he couldn’t really pursue the dream.
He owned his own company — not too big, not too small, a very medium way of
living. So we struggled at the beginning, but by the end of the day he always
got us into school, into some music classes here and there.
I started
singing when I was a baby. I’ve sung all my life, ever since I have been
conscious. My dad took us to the churches and the local spots to perform with
my sisters. He would train us to do harmonizing and play the guitar a little
bit, like a couple of chords. And he would get us a teacher. We couldn’t stand
it. We wouldn’t have a teacher for more than two or three months because we
would somehow find a way to get them fired. I guess, because We wanted a way to
play our own stuff, or we just couldn’t stand to have a teacher.
My sisters and I
ended up doing an album of traditional Christmas songs, ones we all liked, like
“Feliz Navidad” and stuff like that. We were 8 or 9 when we recorded that. We
went around the country, did a couple of tours there, and a famous producer who
was in charge of the project said he wanted to do a TV special showing us
recording an album. We ended up recording in the best studio Colombia has,
working with top-of-the-line recording equipment in a million-dollar studio.
So you really
get impressed. You’re a kid, you see how everything’s getting recorded. It’s
got pots [volume controls] and buttons and clicks and ProTools technology.
You’re in an amazing booth, comfortable, perfect temperature, everything’s
fine. You feel like you want to pursue that. You feel like this is music, it’s
capturing music, so this is an art.
I started out
doing my own recording when I was 10, since I had some kind of knowledge with a
computer. I still remember Windows 95 really well, which was my beginning,
really. I definitely started recording with little microphones and doing stuff
like that when I was 13. Through all those times, in school I was always the
top student in music, because it was like my favorite class. And when you put
passion into something, you become the best you can get. When I was 12 I
started playing in programs, in commercials, in TV, whatever I could get myself
into. My sisters would back me up sometimes, and I would back them up
sometimes.
We finally left
Colombia for two reasons. One was we thought there would be more opportunities
in music in Miami. The other was the bullshit, if I may say this in an
interview, all the terrible things that happened in our country sometimes.
Colombia is a beautiful, amazing country with wonderful values and people. But
my father’s company was becoming bigger, so he was making a little more money,
and so we started receiving letters and people threatened our lives.
My dad felt
like, “My family’s in jeopardy, because for some reason we travel a little bit
with our kids, and they know that they’re singing and we have a little bit of
money, so they want to do something to us.” All that social struggle over the
60 years of guerrillas, of wars, of
false leaders, caught up to us, to the point where my family would watch TV,
and all you would hear in the news was 10 more killed, 20 more killed. We were
especially afraid of being kidnapped, because they were talking about
kidnapping and doing something to us.
So my dad took a
decision for both the music and for our lives, and we decided to move to Miami
to start a new life. That’s true. That’s why people come to this country. This
is a beautiful land of opportunities. It started with immigrants. I didn’t
understand that back then, but of course I didn’t want to because I was 15. I
had my friends and all my people there, but when you’re 15 you still don’t have
much to say. You still have to go with your parents. You might have a lot of
things in your mind, but you still have to be with your family.
We ended up
moving to a retirement village called Cape Coral, two hours away from Miami,
which was very cool. My father fell in love with it. He’s a very laid-back guy.
He works a lot. He taught me a lot in life, but we still have a little bit of
problems with each other because we both have that passion, that revolution
inside, of like saying what we have in our minds. And if he’s right, we go for
it. So I ended up moving out of my house when I was 17. I started looking for
opportunities, went to Miami and recorded a couple of tracks with different
people there. I started working with a radio station there, doing the jingles,
cutting up tracks. Sometimes the radio station needed a short clip, so I would
edit it or do something with it or try to find a way to get involved.
Zenger’s: So you were both performing and doing
engineering and technical?
Rojas: Yes. Yes, sir. When that started happening, I found
that my voice was changing late. Most people’s voices start changing when
they’re 14 or 13. I started it when I was 16 or 17 because I took good care of
it, so that made me stop a little bit as an artist, as a singer and stuff. But
I kept developing the keyboard and the piano, and the guitar, and other
instruments like percussion. I always had my hands around because in Colombia
it’s always like you’ll never miss a plate of food or an instrument in the
house. There’s always an instrument and there’s always a family member or
somebody that comes from out of town.
I started
developing more on guitar and piano, and music overall. I graduated from high
school in a music school. It’s called Cypress Lake Center for the Arts High
School, located in Fort Myers, and I’m a 2005 graduate with honors in music. I
was a tenor in the choir. I did some jazz and some Latin. Definitely I was in
charge of the Latin section. I remember there weren’t too many Latinos, but we
kind of took over with the band.
Zenger’s: In Florida? That’s a bit of a surprise.
Rojas: Well, it’s just that it was two hours from Miami.
It was a retirement community, and most of the people were in their 60’s and
70’s, retired people, American people, people that had lived here all their
lives, U.S. citizens, not too many Spanish speakers. But I would travel to
Miami constantly, I would have to say every month. It was so close. It was just
an hour and 45 minutes.
Then I started
developing a lot of contacts with Puerto Ricans and Jamaicans. My accent is
very Colombian, but sometimes if I am talking to a Dominican or Cuban or Puerto
Rican, I could pretty much pass as a Puerto Rican or a Dominican because
there’s so much unity.
I started doing
and listening to music that was very real. I mean, saying things about social
and political stuff. They don’t just stay quiet about it. They don’t just go
pop and whatever is hot, whatever is cool, but when people actually want to say
what needs to be said through the songs and through music.
The local
newspaper had a Spanish section, and I would write little things like how
Dominicans thought about the new law that the government was putting in, or how
Puerto Ricans have approached that since they’re part of the U.S. They’re a
colony of the U.S., and so how does that relate to them?
As soon as I
graduated from high school, I went to a college of music called McNally’s
College of Music. Back then it was called Music Tech. These days, they changed
the name to McNally’s. Very popular, one of the top 10 recording schools in the
country. Very nice, because it had a lot of free time to record, so I happened
to be in amazing studios for a long time.
Zenger’s: Where is that?
Rojas: This is in Minnesota, in the Twin Cities,
Minneapolis and St. Paul. I would perform every Friday and Saturday. Of course,
Minneapolis and St. Paul don’t have too many Latin people concentrated in the
areas. You actually have to find the clubs and where they go.
There were two
clubs, two very popular clubs, in downtown Minneapolis. Conga Bistro was one of
them. I used to play there with a band that would just come together every
Friday or Saturday. That’s how we got our money to survive. I started producing
a little bit, of course, just right away, because the first months that you
start going to a school of production you don’t know very much, if anything,
about the art of recording.
But since I
already had my ideas since I was 13, working with my computer, that gave me a
little bit of extra kick. So that way I was able to start recording from my
very first semester, start making myself noticeable. The course was usually
three years; I ended up finishing it in two. I took a full-time schedule, 8 in
the morning until 12 at night, very constant and very focused on that.
I took an extra
month of broadcasting, and I took a little bit of contracts and stuff like that
because I wanted to be a little more into the business side, and understand how
to make a living out of it. I also had to show clear results that will produce
and will make sense, as far as putting yourself out there. My dad was very
strict on that all my life, because he was a businessman. He was a salesman. He
would take me around the country, selling and showing me how to make things
run, as far as his business.
So he would
always say something to me, “Not everything in life is music, mi’jo. Not everything is music. Remember that.” And that
always sticks in my mind, because it’s true. Not everything is music. I always
wanted to make it in music. I wasn’t having fun if I wasn’t making music.
Sometimes I wouldn’t even think about anything but just music. And, you know,
you’ve got shirts to do. You’ve got to clean your room, and you’ve got to go to
where you can help the family, especially when we came to the U.S.
When we came to
the U.S., I remember working construction, working in restaurants, cleaning
bathrooms. I put in a tile floor. I did air conditioning. I mean, we all had to
hustle when we came for the first time, because when we came for the first
time, all the money we had, of course, those were thousands of dollars, of
course, to bring five people to the U.S., and to make — try to find a way to
make them [documented] residents and go through the whole bullshit and scam
that it is. There’s a lot of money involved.
I went to
college to get my degree, came back to Florida, lived in Tampa for about six
months, graduated with a diploma in business and stuff like that — it was a
short program, five or six months — and that gave me the idea of going to
Colombia and starting a recording studio, because it made sense to make it a
business. So I said I’m going to take this to the next level, hopefully.
I went to
Colombia. I didn’t find what I was expecting, obviously — a lot of closing
doors — but thank God that I already had the language. In those five or six
years that I was already here, I learned most of the English I’m speaking right
now. Knowing English in Colombia — or any Latin country — is very important,
because we do a lot of business in the international language, which is
English. They wanted teachers that could teach in both languages.
So I started
working in a very popular pre-school over there that has a lot of kids that are
from people that are in good and in bad positions. It’s a big school that’s
funded by the government, so I was able to get into teaching English through
music. I was a teacher for about two years. But then I started receiving
letters from the U.S. again, and it was like if you want to be able to be in
the U.S. and stuff like that, you need to be here. You need to report yourself
every three months from now on. Then it became every three weeks, and it became
terrible. I didn’t want to take the chance of not being able to see my family
for years, so because I didn’t want to take that chance, I decided to come back
to the U.S.
A wonderful thing
happened to me. As soon as I came back, a recording deal happened in L.A.
Somebody that I knew had won a recording contract, and he included me in the
recording deal. They flew me to Miami. I recorded with Sony Music some tracks
of this up-and-coming artist, and I was part of the production, ready to go
back to Miami when they had closed for 15 days. Then I went to a concert
featuring the B-Side Players. I met them and we talked. They liked the way I
played and we had a good energy going. So I ended up in San Diego, and I’m now
in my 13th or 14th month here.
I know I have a
lot of things ahead of me to learn. But now I can see a little bit more clearly
as, for example, this beautiful place we are in right now, in the Activist San
Diego movement and Occupy San Diego, and all these amazing things that are
happening lately, are because I think this is the real deal. These days people
want to stay real. People want the truth, and they’re trying to look for that
truth.
I think this is
the time to say what we need to say, at all cost, because then if we allow the
next thing to happen — the revolution to stop at this point — then how much
more time are we going to have to wait before we have some open channels? We’re
getting to the point where we need to take the little channels that the people
in power, the people in the government and the people who call themselves
“leaders” and stuff like that, haven’t yet closed. This is the time to strike
hard. And I think the media are the most effective way of making a statement of
what’s happening out there.
Zenger’s: So what are you doing now?
Rojas: When I first came to San Diego, it was rough. I’m
talking about anybody who starts somewhere new, sleeping in the car, sleeping
on couches, trying to find myself in a stable position, trying to stable
myself. Finally, I started working with different bands around San Diego, so
that it gave me a little bit of extra income so that I could pay for my rent
and stuff like that.
One of the most
beautiful things that has happened to me lately to me is opening Refugio Roots
Music, which is something I started with in Colombia. We have an idea: Unidos
produciamiento arte. That is, “United
producing art.” I wanted to find something that included my passion for music,
which I know how to do, and which has given me my living for the last year at
least.
Refugio Roots
Music has been able to stay open because I work with three non-profit
organizations, not only providing some of the furniture and equipment, but also
some of that inner power, that thing that says, “Yes, we can do it. Let’s open
a recording studio that’s community-based.” My passion about the recording
studio is not just, oh, I want to make money, and I just want to make it for me
and to make my music, or to just make profit out of it.
My main passion
about the studio is how to work with the community, how to work with the
nonprofits and people who have a real and clear message, such as Activist San
Diego I want to use the media and what I know how to do, which is produce and
record jingles, tracks, record live events, even graphic design. you have a
computer with good software — ProTools, Prism, Flash, Photoshop and stuff like
that — you have a powerful machine. Now you have a way of saying something to
the masses.
We have done graphic
design at Refugio Roots Music. We have done art gallery events, because I have
a space for them. We have done live recordings. We have bands that have come
there, recorded on the spot, and then they play them back so that people can
get involved. Everybody in the room is recording at the same time, with a
laugh, with a clap, with a joke, with movement — because everything you do in
the room is getting recorded. It’s kind of like a concert that I’m putting
together, just like recording whatever is happening with a band, so everybody
can get together and record right away, on the spot.
The second part
of my life that is really amazing lately is Activist San Diego and the Occupy
movement. I think we’re right in the middle of la oja, like where you cook food. It’s like a pot. We’re
right inside of the pot, and we either find a way to bring the heat down from
the pot, so we can have some good-tasting food — or we just stay quiet and
don’t do anything. And of course that’s not the option I took. I’ve taken the
option of saying it, because of everything we have spoken about.
Zenger’s: You mentioned earlier the kind of music that’s
popular today versus what you’re trying to do, trying to write songs about
social issues and raise people’s consciousness. Were you ever tempted to go
after being a pop star and making a lot of money?
Rojas: Not at all, not at all. I’ve realized if I’m going
to sacrifice my art, I’d rather not even do it. It makes me actually mad that
people have such an amazing talent and they’re talking bullshit. They sell
their souls. They sell their souls. They sell their lives. They’d sell their
mama trying to get to a status and to a position of, “Oh, we got money and we
got the jewelry and we’ve got the cars.” That’s terrible. That really makes me
understand how bad a condition we are in, how people sell themselves.
I know there are
so many people who want to do good, but they took a decision earlier in their
lives, so these days they don’t even have a way back. They got into the
craziness that comes when they try to make it very successful, and they decided
to sell their soul, sell their art. There’s all kinds of private organizations
that are behind the media that are trying to corrupt you, because that’s how
they get in the minds of the youth. And if the children and the youth learn
bullshit, what are they going to become in the future? They’re going to become
a bunch of shit. They’re going to grow up to be a bunch of people talking
nonsense.
I prefer not to
sell one album but to be heard, to have something to say, than to sell millions
and have nonsense in my music. That’s something I have not even questioned,
ever.. I really don’t care what car you drive or what you’re doing with it. I
want to see what you’re actually doing with people that are coming right behind
you. What are you leaving? What are you saying? How are you putting this out
there so that people learn something? You don’t have to be a teacher or a
revolutionary messenger, or a “souljah,” as they say. Just be real.
I’m hoping to release
my album in 2012, sometime in June or July, and I think I’m very close to that.
Somewhere between June or July or something like that. That’s when people are
going to hear the music, and as we all know, music speaks so much more than a
regular conversation. You can say so much more through a tune, through a song.
Then probably it will make more sense to find me as a musician, as a composer,
as an artist, as an activist, whatever you want to call it.
