We asked Forum‘s producers to each pick their favorite arts show from 2013. Producer Irene Noguchi explains her pick:
I’m a sucker for Latin music, so I had to go with Oakland composer Hector Pérez, who goes by the name “Sistema Bomb.” I love how he blends his two worlds on the mixing board: the old-school Mexican Jarocho music he grew up with in Los Angeles where men strummed small guitars, and the modern electronic beats you hear in dance clubs. It was great to hear a deep conversation about finding ways to preserve one’s culture through new art forms. It also doesn’t hurt to have great tunes for the producer to dance to in the control room!
Interview Highlights
On the Name “Sistema Bomb:”“A lot of us Chicanos speak in Spanglish. [When we speak with other Chicanos], half of our sentences are in English and the other half in Spanish. That’s why in the name there’s a Spanish word and an English word — ‘Sistema’ and then ‘Bomb’ is the English. I hadn’t named it until I finished all of the tracks. Then when I stepped away and listened to it a few times, I thought ‘The sound of it is really bombastic.’ It was a collective who put it together but I didn’t want to use the word ‘collective’ because so many bands have the word ‘collective’ in it. So I just whipped out the thesaurus and saw the word ‘System’ and I thought, ‘Oh! That’s much better,’ but then I wanted the Spanish thing so it’s ‘Sistema Bomb.'”
On the Early Musical Influences in His Life: “Being a Chicano from the barrios in LA, on the weekend we’re listening to our cumbias with ‘camaron pelao tu quieres.’ Then during the week were listening to hip hop, like Salt-n-Pepa, The Fat Boys, and then some pop on the radio. And this is all reflected in this record — the Electro-Jarocho record. That’s my hip hop roots, my cumbia roots, my Latino conjunto roots — it’s all this posole — this soup.”