You can call him the father of the Festival de Musica Electronica (FMEL), the annual groundbreaking electro show that brings together some of the best international acts. This year look out for music from Mexico, Chile and Argentina. Charly is a true world music DJ and his sets are consistently exposing audiences to new genres and artists. Ruido de Fondo is his show weekly music show on Radio Arte 90.5 fm airing Thursdays at 10pm. Catch Charly every Friday night 7-10pm at Efebos Cafe in Pilsen.
Name: Charly Garcia
Age: 29
Roots: Mexicano
Where do you live now: Chicago Pilsen
Day job: Dental Assistant
Where were you and what were you doing 5 years ago? I was working in the clubs as a “barback” putting up with lots of drunk people….and producing “Rock Expresso” a show on Latin American rock with Radio Arte.
Current obsessions/addictions: Musica electronica and collecting vinyls
Movie that best represents your life: Ciudad de Deus
Last book you read: Cocinando, Fifty Years of Latin Album Cover Art y Old Rare New The Independent Record Shop
When did you start doing DJ-ing Why? I started 5 years ago, but more than a DJ, I like to think of myself as a “selector of music. I filled a book case of music with all the styles and I said to myself, why not share all this music with everyone else? So I started offering mys services as a DJ for free.
How do you define your sound? I don’t categorize myself as a one style DJ since I listen to the most rare and abstract music you can dance to. You could define it like Mezclas rudas.
How did you come up with your DJ name? From my nickname “Charly” and my last name Garcia, la verdad no me gusta eso de nombres estramboticos para DJs.
What constitutes a bad or good listening audience? A good audience is when the people appears to be interested in what you’re playing and they ask for information on where they could get the material. A bad audience is when every 5 minutes they ask you for the songs they play on the radio. Or aquella que porque no le gusta te pide que pongas algo mas pegajoso ( a esos djs en mexico les llamamos sonideros),ademas de ser una falta de respeto para el DJ.
Have you spinned in in other cities? No Why Chicago? It’s so multicultural, plus there’s good music year round especially in the summer.
Where you hang out when not DJing (clubs/parties/DJs you admire/like/recommend)? Me gusta mucho Sonotheque por su cartelera variada cada mes,ademas de tener un sistema de audio muy nitido. Me gusta mucho el estilo de Hatthew Herbert y admiro a Uwe Schmidt (senor coconut,atom heart,flanger,los samplers,etc)
2009 music predictions (LATINO, can be songs, trends, artists): This 2009 year we will see various new music proposals but what I think will stand out will be digital cumbia and electronica Latina, a good example of this are Static DIscos.
Song that gets people dancing every time (LATINO): Cumbia sobre el rio de control machete y celso pina.nunca falla.
Guilty pleasure (song/music genre): Follow me to San Jose de Erick Satin es un estilo electronico un poco complicado ya que es una mezcla de glitch,IDM, batucada y breakbeat.
Laptop djs vs. vinyl? Laptos if you don’t want to carry around the equipment plus the sofwares help you to create nearly perfect mixes which some would say is cheating. I prefer vinyl not for tradition but for the pleasure of having something in your hands that was so hard to make and you know is a unique puice of musical art work.
Where they buy their music (if they pay for it….)? Mi musica la compro principalmente en los fle markets,tiendas de segunda mano,dusty groove,old school records,reckless recods,etc.
How they discover new music? I read alot y me informo de lo que esta pasando alrededor del mundo musicalmente, the internet is also great help. Puedes descubrir cosas que estan pasando al otro lado del planeta y encontrar varios sitios blog donde puedes adquirir mp3 sin ningun costo.
Current projects? Im working on my musico-visual project of electronic music called GIROSCOPIO, in which I concentrate all of my influences through the years such as techno,microhouse,IDM,rock,latin jazz and others. I have a show on WRTE Radioarte 90.5 fm called RUIDO DE FONDO (jueves 10pm ) where you can hear electronica,brazilian beats,latin rock,dub y rarezas auditivas.
Biggest challenges? Sobrevivir de la musica es muy dificil y tratar de exponerle a la gente ritmos no comerciales y llamar la atencion del publico hacia corrientes alternativas.
Plans for the future? Continue with RUIDO DE FONDO y proponiendo musica nueva a la comunidad de chicago, talvez visitar otras ciudades y buscar otros lugares donde pinchar discos.
Tells us about the FMEL? FMEL (Festival de Musica Electronica Latina) It started as need to fill alternative music spaces and a place to showcase artists from Latin American and the U.S. We started as a small group of friends who all belonged to different collectives independently, we came up with the idea of this project with the final goal of exposing the new samples from Latin America and Mexico. We contacted people from Tijuana, Monterrey and Chile, they like the idea and supported us with their participation.
Whats the plan for this year’s festival? This will be the third edition of the festival. We are working with independent labels from Mexico, Chile and Argentina. We are trying to cover other important branches of electronic music like ambient,downtempo,techno,hip hop y house. With the especial characteristic that these shows are live since this is one of the goals of FMEL, to break stereotypes of electronic music that say our DJs don’t use DJ sets and their music is completely made from softwares, synthesizers and other technological tools.
Ruido de Fondo Thursdays at 10 pm on Radio Arte 90.5 fm, rebroadcast Mondays at 11pm