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Speaker 1: This is Latino USA, the Radio Journal of News and

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Speaker 1: Kurturre Latino US Latin Latino USA. I'm Maria no Hossa.

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Speaker 1: We bring you stories that are underreported but that mattered.

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Speaker 2: To you, overlooked by the wrest of the media, and

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Speaker 2: while the country is struggling to deal with these, we

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Speaker 2: listen to the stories of Black and Latino Studio United

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Speaker 2: Latino Front, a cultural renaissance organizing at the forefront of

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Speaker 2: the movement.

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Speaker 1: I'm Maria Ino Jossayan or La Latino USA. Listener, What's up?

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Speaker 3: What's up?

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Speaker 1: What's up? Here's an episode the Los Archivos from Futuro

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Speaker 1: Media and PRX. It's Latino USA. I'm Maria no Jossa.

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Speaker 1: Today Austin's legendary Umia Funk Institution Gurup of Fantasma. They're

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Speaker 1: gonna break down their song The Wall. You've spent some

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Speaker 1: time in Austin, Texas, there is probably a good chance

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Speaker 1: that you've been to a Group of Fantasma show.

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Speaker 4: Group of Pantasma is a rather large band from Austin,

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Speaker 4: Texas which plays our interpretation of American music. I am

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Speaker 4: Greg Gonzalez, bass player for Group of Fantasma as well

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Speaker 4: as a founding member. It's a form of music that

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Speaker 4: incorporates all of our heritages, all of our experiences. Many

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Speaker 4: of us are of Latin descent. Many of us are

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Speaker 4: from the border areas of Texas, including myself and Beto Martinez.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so my name is Beto Martinez. I'm one of

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Speaker 3: the co founders and the guitarist of Group of Fantasma.

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Speaker 3: Group of Fantasma was initially six guys, with the majority

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Speaker 3: of us being from the Rado, Texas. It was put

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Speaker 3: together as a project to play cumya and evolved over

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Speaker 3: the years to include, you know, many more styles and

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Speaker 3: a lot more members. It's become a bit of an institution,

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Speaker 3: I guess.

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Speaker 1: The band now has eleven members and the style they

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Speaker 1: call American music lies somewhere at the intersection of Latin

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Speaker 1: styles like gumya and salsa mixed with rock, hip hop

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Speaker 1: and funk. And speaking of funk, at one point they

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Speaker 1: became the on call backup band for Prince, so you

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Speaker 1: know they're legit. Group of Fantasma has been turning up

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Speaker 1: dance parties for almost twenty years. Their latest and seventh

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Speaker 1: album is called American Music Volume seven. What are the

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Speaker 1: standout tracks on the album is called The Wall. It's

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Speaker 1: a dive into the politics of our time. Beto and

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Speaker 1: Greg of Group of Fantasma take us into the songwriting

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Speaker 1: process behind the tune.

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Speaker 3: We recorded the record at Sonic Branch, which is in

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Speaker 3: West Texas in a little town called Tournello.

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Speaker 4: About forty minutes outside of Albaso, a pecan orchard which

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Speaker 4: has been converted into a complex of recording studios, really

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Speaker 4: nice gear and it's very beautiful, kind of you know,

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Speaker 4: high desert.

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Speaker 3: It's a destination studio where you stay out there, you're

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Speaker 3: fed there, and it's like a fully immersive work environment.

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Speaker 3: We went into the studio in January of twenty eighteen

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Speaker 3: and started laying down the rhythm tracks. The tune starts

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Speaker 3: out with this really kind of slinky and sinister bassline.

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Speaker 3: I mean I instantly thought of thriller because it's got

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Speaker 3: this like doom doom, doom, doom doom, do you know

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Speaker 3: that sort of thing. I guess from there, the drums

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Speaker 3: pop in guitar wise, I just doubled it. There wasn't

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Speaker 3: really much more to put on top of it. I mean,

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Speaker 3: I just doubled his part and made it a little stronger.

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Speaker 3: The horn line was based on a keyboard part that

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Speaker 3: Speedy was playing our trombone player. Almost dissonant, little playful,

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Speaker 3: yet sinister. It wasn't until a little bit after that

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Speaker 3: that the whole kind of concept of the wall started

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Speaker 3: to come about.

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Speaker 4: The the sonic ranch is in Tourtnillo, and at the

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Speaker 4: time you're recording it, we were told that since it's

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Speaker 4: right up against the real grounde that you could go

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Speaker 4: for a walk about half a mile a mile down

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Speaker 4: the road and see the wall just like a big,

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Speaker 4: you know, kind of gated fence sort of thing with slats.

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Speaker 4: Later on, before we had lyrics for this song, or

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Speaker 4: before we had finished fleshing it out, we became aware

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Speaker 4: after the recording that Tournillo was one of the main

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Speaker 4: housing places for separated families.

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Speaker 2: The Department of Health and Human Services and a private

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Speaker 2: contractor called BCFS have operated a massive tent city on

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Speaker 2: the edge of Tornillo, a little town on the Texas

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Speaker 2: Mexico border, where the.

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Speaker 4: Government says it's detaining migrant children who came across the

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Speaker 4: border without a parent, so called unaccompanied minors.

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Speaker 5: This is the first time we've seen or heard of

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Speaker 5: anything from this tent city that was constructed.

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Speaker 3: We at this point, we were pretty far away back

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Speaker 3: in Austin, and we're seeing this go down, And as

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Speaker 3: kind of the magnitude of that struck us, and the

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Speaker 3: juxtaposition of the experience we had with the awful experience

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Speaker 3: that these children are having, we decided that that track

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Speaker 3: had to be the track where we said something about this.

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Speaker 4: I grew up within five miles of the Mexican border

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Speaker 4: for the first eighteen years of my life, and there

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Speaker 4: was no wall in Laredo, and I interacted with Mexican

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Speaker 4: people every day, never felt endangered. The experience had broadened

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Speaker 4: our horizons and to a certain extent, informed our careers

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Speaker 4: and our music. It was a very fortunate thing for us.

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Speaker 4: So we found it very upsetting, you know, the whole

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Speaker 4: detention center that was right there near where we recorded.

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Speaker 4: We found it very upsetting that there was this assault

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Speaker 4: on our very experience, of our whole lives.

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Speaker 3: We sort of came up with the idea like, hey,

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Speaker 3: let's get some people to collaborate on this with us,

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Speaker 3: and let's make this the tune where we make that statement.

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Speaker 3: And Loco Beloya, who was our producer and knew the

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Speaker 3: guys from Locos, Bruana and he got itarea to do

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Speaker 3: the initial vocal track on it. He's saying, basically, as

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Speaker 3: an immigrant, we're coming here with positive mind, positive attitude,

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Speaker 3: ready to work and just sort of countering the whole

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Speaker 3: negative notion of what immigrants come here to do that's

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Speaker 3: being spread out there right now.

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Speaker 4: From there, we got Ozo Matle involved. They put percussion

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Speaker 4: and guitar and bass over dubs on top of what

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Speaker 4: we had already done, and they also added the wrap section.

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Speaker 5: Everybody listen because it's just happening now in the moment,

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Speaker 5: So I said, it's aloud if you can't hear me

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Speaker 5: and you'll be able. Then a bunch of the crowd

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Speaker 5: and ninety six possibilities, the ali Yobao life of liperty,

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Speaker 5: justice for publicity. When it gets to everybody, man, please

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Speaker 5: come and kidding me, Oh history, don't even lift to

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Speaker 5: see that can of worms digging holes in your legacy.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, So what I guess we would call the chorus section,

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Speaker 3: and that works into sort of being an outro as well,

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Speaker 3: just a super funky part that Greg came up with.

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Speaker 4: Music Obviously, it's all about tension and release. It's all

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Speaker 4: about building some level of unease and then providing some

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Speaker 4: level of satisfaction. Just like any good movie. You know,

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Speaker 4: you you want to see the hero get in danger

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Speaker 4: before they saved themselves and make the world a better place,

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Speaker 4: you know. So that was kind of the triumphant part

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Speaker 4: of the song. Once we laid it down, I was like, man,

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Speaker 4: it needs to have that flabnett sound kind of filling

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Speaker 4: in the spaces, you know. I think it was James

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Speaker 4: Brown who said that funk is the absence of sound.

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Speaker 4: It's not what you play, it's about what you don't play.

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Speaker 4: In the spaces in between. Everything is kind of interlocking bits.

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Speaker 4: It was locals idea, I believe, to kind of make

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Speaker 4: it sort of like a bee Gie's inspired feeling.

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Speaker 3: His idea was think of staying alive for some reason

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Speaker 3: with the os and whatnot, which I thought was really

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Speaker 3: funny at first, but then it worked. It's sort of

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Speaker 3: this like joyous kind of jam at the end. I mean,

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Speaker 3: it's funky and it's fun. That's always sort of been

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Speaker 3: the group of Fantasma experience funky and fun and the

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Speaker 3: fact that we could sort of tackle a message and

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Speaker 3: kind of add our voice. I think it was important

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Speaker 3: for us to say that, and the fact that the

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Speaker 3: song kind of moves through these different sort of emotions

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Speaker 3: and ends on a more positive one, I think is

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Speaker 3: very fitting as well, because although there's a long fight ahead,

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Speaker 3: we do hope that at the end there is a

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Speaker 3: happy ending.

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Speaker 1: Betto Martinez and Greg Gonzalez are founding members of Group

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Speaker 1: of Fantasma. This segment originally aired in April of twenty nineteen.

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Speaker 1: This episode was produced by Marlon Bishop and edited by

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Speaker 1: Sophia but Lisa Ca. It was biggxed by Stephanie Lebau.

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Speaker 1: The Latino USA team includes Andrea Lopez Gruzado, Marta Martinez,

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Speaker 1: Mike Sargent, Victoria Strada, and Prinaldo Leanz Junior, with help

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Speaker 1: from Joni mart Marquez. Our senior engineer is Julia Caruso.

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Speaker 1: Additional engineering support by Gabriel A. Bias and Jjkrubin. Our

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Speaker 1: marketing manager is Res Luna. Our theme music was composed

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Speaker 1: by Sea Renos. I'm your host and executive producer Maria

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Speaker 1: Jojosa join us again on our next episode. In the meantime,

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Speaker 1: remember to find us on all of your social media.

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Speaker 1: I'll see you. There e no divies. Bye.

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Speaker 4: visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide, and

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