To the victor go the spoils
They may have won Rookees Battle of the Bands, but Ventura’s Rey Fresco know they’ve still got to win the war — musically speaking
By Matthew Singer 07/31/2008
Rey Fresco
July 31, 9:30 p.m.
at J’s Tapas
204 E. Main St., Ventura,
648-4853
www.myspace.com/jenkinsyotzin
In a music scene long dominated by hardcore, punk and metal, it is rather surprising that the victor in Rookees inaugural Battle of the Bands competition features a harp. Chalk it up to the soulful proficiency of Ventura’s Rey Fresco. The quartet, fronted by singer-guitarist Roger Keiaho, beat out acts with names such as Chronic Stew and Beachside Stranglers to win $5,000 and free recording time. But Keiaho isn’t trying to celebrate too vigorously. After all, this is just one triumph in a career that is barely getting started.
“We have bigger aspirations,” he says.
The members of Rey Fresco have known each other for more than a decade — Keiaho and bassist Shawn Echevarria played on the same football team when they were both 14, and went to high school with drummer Andrew Jones and harpist Xocoyotzin Moraza — but it took them until last year to start playing music together. Jones and Moraza had the initial idea for a project, and recruited Keiaho, who in turn brought in Echevarria.
Each musician had other projects going on: Jones made surfboards for Patagonia and sold fiberglass drum kits on the side; Echevarria performed with local reggae staples the Legalizers; and Moraza had been busy serving the family business, which in his case is preserving the traditional folk music of Veracruz, Mexico. Keiaho — who was born in Fiji, coming to the United States at age 5 and eventually finding his way to Ventura as a teenager after stints in Seattle and San Diego — however, had been all but absent from the music scene since leaving his old group, Granddaddy Youth, four years earlier and moving up north.
“I was writing but not playing music,” says the singer, who grew up around his grandfather, a lap steel player. “I’m stoked that I’m playing music again. Everyone kept asking me if I was playing music. The people got me back into it, the people who have faith in me and my talents. They kept egging me on. I was out of it for a good four years, but I’m back.”
With a full lineup solidified, the group set out to develop its sound, though not in any specific terms. “We didn’t plan on having any particular sound,” Keiaho says. “We just all throw in ideas, and that’s how it all formed.” From that organic process, Rey Fresco ended up with a unique combination of Jack Johnson breeziness, the kinetic groove of reggae and, with Moraza’s son jarocho-inspired harp, a sublime beauty — although they’re not above revealing their hip-hop or metal influences, either.
Having won Rookees Battle of the Bands, Rey Fresco is now looking forward to its next milestone: The release of its first album, All In Awe, due out Aug. 22. The band recorded the record in two days at a studio in Ojai.
“We planned on doing six tracks, but we got eight down,” Keiaho says. “We did some homework and we were able to do extra songs.”
Following that, what Keiaho — and, he insists, the rest of his band — want to do more than anything is hit the road. Which isn’t easy to do, especially with the current economic state of the country, and when certain members have extramusical activities going on: Jones still works for Patagonia crafting surfboards, and Echevarria has a wife, daughter and painting business he started with his father, Hot Steppers Painting. At some point, though, Keiaho knows what Rey Fresco needs to do is get out of Ventura County. And now is, in some respects, the best time to do it.
“We want to travel. That’s what I want to do, make money playing and have fun playing,” he says. “We have good momentum right now. We have our own sound. We would love to tour and play music, but we don’t have it set up [yet].
Nothing is sketched in stone. But everybody wants to get out of here and play music for new ears.”
DIGG | del.icio.us | REDDIT
Great article! I am a close friend of the bands!! They rock!! Prob one of my most favorite ever!! GREAT JOB GUYS!!!! <3 kt