After years of live shows and lineup changes, Bolero has found its groove as something of a living, breathing organism formed on rooftops and parks in San Francisco. In a recent live interview with Marcus Rosario, founding member Gregorio Perez Figueroa shared how the seven-piece ensemble blends Latin rock, blues, and soul with an ever-growing cast of players. Their upcoming album Greetings Mother Earth is an ode to connection: to the land, to their ancestors, and to the neighborhoods that inspire their groove.
For more information about Bolero, you can find them on Instagram and on YouTube.
TRANSCRIPT:
MARCUS: And today is a special show. I'm joined by one of the founding band members of the local band, Bolero. Gregorio. Welcome to KALW. How are you doing?
GREGORIO: I'm doing great. Thanks for having me.
MARCUS: So I opened the show up today with a forthcoming tune called Bathala. I don't think it's been played anywhere. Thank you for sharing that with me. Can you tell us a little bit about the band Bolero and how it came to be?
GREGORIO: Yeah, the band was formed in 2019. It started when I met our lead guitarist, Joe DiLeo. We actually met at a show at the Red Victorian Commune that was on Haight Street and both our bands broke up at that time that we were both in and we just bonded 'cause we knew each other already, but we have very similar style of dress and like the same kind of music. And then I invited him over to my house and after our very first jam it just exploded into whoa, like we could do something really special and start a new band that's based off of the music that we love. You know what I mean?
MARCUS: What are some of those influences?
GREGORIO: Yeah, we love a lot of bands from the sixties and seventies. Like the Allman Brothers was a band that we really bonded over and Santana, Malo, even soul bands like Tower of Power and stuff like that, War. And then some other San Francisco bands like Quicksilver Messenger Service. And then, of course I love The Dead too. He's not a huge fan, but he does love Jerry. But yeah, we were just jamming. I was living out of a red Vic or a blue Victorian at the time and we would just play music on our rooftop deck and play outside and something magical formed and we formed the band and then played for a year and then Covid happened.
GREGORIO: Yep. Yep. Which was really tough. And we started recording our first record during covid at Hyde Street Studios with our friend Jackson and we laid down all the basic tracks and then when it came to overdubs, covid hit, and our band mate Joe was living with some folks in their eighties and seventies. And he obviously had to social distance and not be around a bunch of people in the studio and we had to do a lot of things remote and it was difficult. And then, we had to try to rehearse too and try to play, so we did some, like live streams and stuff like that. And we couldn't play together inside of his space because of his living situation.
So we ended up just playing at the park in Golden Gate underneath where the windmill is and like the lily garden over there. So people would just see us and we would just have normal rehearsal like we're in a studio but there would just be random people walking by and sitting down watching. And that kinda helped the band grow during Covid. And then we had a couple different band members change all the way until about last year. And now we have this new record out that's gonna be out, and it's not out yet. It'll be out soon. We spent a lot of love and time into it and it was really great to be able to share a little bit with you guys.
MARCUS: Can you tell us a little bit about the new record coming out. I know we played that Bathala and we will play one more before we end things, but I'd like to learn more about the album coming up.
GREGORIO: So it's called Greetings Mother Earth, the name of the record. And it's this kind of ode to the planet and things that are happening and our attempt to get in touch with our community and our ancestry too and the spirit of life. I don't wanna ruin anything, but we tap into a lot of different genres and mix them together. But we have more of a Latin rock vibe on some tunes or more of a hard rock like blues thing or like a soul kind of thing, or almost like a classic like Latin bolero kind of type thing. And we just wanted to make this record of songs that we were already playing live for quite a while and just haven't found the right people to record with. And then our friend Kurt, who works with me at The Chapel Okay and is one of our head sound people reached out to me and was like, “Hey man, we really love how you guys are sounding right now and my partner Mikey, we would love to record your new record and help produce it.” Because the first album, it was our first time and it was a huge learning curve and it was definitely more than we expected to just do everything on our own, and our friend Jackson we worked with him, and we were all learning as we go, he was a great engineer, but we didn't have a producer and so we obviously went with them because they're already family. I've known Kurt for seven years and he's worked with tons of bands like the Melvins and all kinds of really cool artists and they have a studio down in Brisbane, actually.
MARCUS: Oh, wow, okay.
GREGORIO: Just south of there. In the industrial park right there. I don't know if it's like a big graffiti tunnel that's on a hike right there. It's literally around the corner from that.
GREGORIO: So we spent a bit over a year and a half, almost two, getting it all done with all the overdubs and then yeah, just trying to take our time and not rush it. Because I feel like the first record was rushed 'cause it was covid and we were like, we need to show at least something on what we sound and I'm really grateful to be able to take our time and work with real producers. I can't wait for everyone to hear it.
MARCUS: Yeah. I like what we heard and we're gonna get into another song in a bit. Who makes up the band Bolero, all the different players?
GREGORIO: So we're now a seven piece.
MARCUS: Oh wow. Okay.
GREGORIO: It's me on rhythm guitar and vocals. And then Joe Daleo on lead guitar, and then Evan Suda on organ and backup vocals, and then piano. And then we have Michael Vigil on percussion. He plays congas and timbales and a bunch of different stuff. And then we have Jimmy Perez on drums, and then we have Diego Rumor on bass. And then Connor is on Connor... I don't wanna mess up his name, his last name but Connor's on saxophone and flute now. So he's our most recent edition. And it's actually really added a nice kind of like jazz and like Latin jazz and funk element to the band and soul element to the band that's different from what's even on our record because we didn't have any horns on it. We didn't really know anyone that felt right and we tried some things on some songs and it just didn't feel right. And I feel like when he adds horns, you either have to have something super prepared or have someone who's been playing with you for a long time. And we just were like, you know what, let's try it out and now we became seven.
MARCUS: How's this songwriting process with seven? I'm sure you all have different ideas you come up with every now and then.
GREGORIO: Usually it comes out with me or Evan, the organ player, bringing an idea or a fully written song or half written song. And we'll get together sometimes as a full group, but oftentimes it's like the rhythm section. We'll get together and we will work on something and then once it feels solid enough, we will invite or we'll have like our lead guitars come and then like anyone else who wants to be around for the writing process. It's usually this like modge podge, but definitely a lot of the songs come from my songwriting. I am constantly songwriting. I started off as a folkie, playing open mics and playing banjo and writing songs just in a more simpler form.
But being in a band it's really amazing to feel everyone's influences and there's no egos or tension, it's like really freeing with these guys or we can communicate and it's exciting to make things together, it comes naturally. It's supernatural. Like the other day we mapped out a song in one rehearsal, one two hour rehearsal.
MARCUS: That's, that must be really nice, like gives you peace of mind. Yeah. How does that translate too with just performing shows live in the live setting?
GREGORIO: It gives us a lot of trust where we know where the parts are and we actually will jam out on certain sections and make things longer just because it feels right. And all we have to do is look to each other or like verbally communicate and do it on the fly, almost like in this organic way where we don't want to have every show of us sounding the same.
GREGORIO: Sure the record's one thing, that's what we love about a lot of bands who improvise, that it's not the same from old bands, like Sunan and Allman Brothers and stuff to the new bands like, King Gizzard or Darkside, which we just saw, how there's the sections of or when it's really feeling right. The like universe opens the portal or something.
MARCUS: It's amazing. The universe opens the portal. Yeah. And speaking of live shows you've got a show coming up, you're a part of a really cool music festival happening this weekend. The May Day Music and Art Festival at Pie Ranch in Pescadero. What can people expect when they're gonna see you live there?
GREGORIO: We're gonna be playing on Sunday the fourth at the barn stage. We will be closing down that stage right after our pals Mild Universe. We are actually gonna be an eight piece for that. Our first drummer Adam will be playing auxiliary percussion and then we have a couple more guests who will be a surprise. So I won't tell you how many more people will become.
MARCUS: Sounds exciting.
GREGORIO: Yeah, so it's gonna be pretty wild. We're gonna be playing some songs we haven't performed in a while 'cause a lot of the shows we've been playing have been just more supporting act roles. So we have 30 minute, 45 minute, really tight sets and here it's like about 50 or so. But, because it's a festival setting, we want to make it really special and we're gonna actually film the whole show and record it as well.
MARCUS: Yeah. And it looks like a really awesome festival, like music, food, art.
GREGORIO: Yeah. Camping even. Tons of great bands.
MARCUS: Yeah. If you wanna check out this festival, you can just look up the May Day Music and Art Festival, Pescadero at Pie Ranch, May third and fourth. There's a lot of bands playing. I played Mild Universe earlier. Too many bands to actually list.
GREGORIO: We got like whisker bands playing Rainbow Girls Wolf Jet, our friend Selma Stone, who are based out here for a while and moved back down to LA and then a ton of, it's ranging from like Santa Cruz area, Bay Area, North Bay, and then a couple folks from LA. Pretty wide range of genres. There's like folk, there's folk rock, there's rock and roll. There's some psychedelic stuff. There's some country. Yeah, it's really diverse. I'm really excited to hear, and shout out to our friend Melissa for hitting us up asking us to perform and also Lily Askie for putting it on and Pie Ranch there. We're really excited to kick off the festival season with them.
MARCUS: Cool. And before we wrap things up and we hop into one last song from Bolero, where can people find your information and just info?
GREGORIO: Yeah, the easiest thing for folks to find what we're up to is our Instagram at @bolero.sfc. Sucka Free city, and yeah we post videos and our flyers and stuff. And then, I'm also a graphic designer and poster artist. So look around town and you might see one of our flyers somewhere too. I really love doing that.
MARCUS: Anything else you wanna share? I think we're gonna get into one more song “Simply Livin’” if you want to give us a preface on that.
GREGORIO: This song originated with one of our former bass players who was in the band while we were recording the album. And we were all listening to a lot of soul music. And we performed a couple times with different soul artists like Thee Sacred Souls who are good friends of ours, and then Thee Sinseers and Joy Nuñez and he brought the kind of basics to me and was like, I think we could write a soul song and like really do it right. And he came up with the basic chord structures Gilbert did. And I ended up moving it down like a whole step 'cause my voice was too deep to sing in that key. But when moving it down, it added a deeper, more guttural kind of tone to it. And then I was sitting on it and trying to write lyrics and then, I was like, you know what? I really wanna write like an ode to just the simple things in life and the little beauty of living in a neighborhood and being able to walk around with your dog, cut lemons from a tree and hang out with your neighbors and grill food and stuff.
So I ended up just riding it inspired by the neighborhood I live in now and then other neighborhoods I've lived in and grew up in and trying to encapsulate this almost like California piece.
MARCUS: Awesome. I love that. Yeah.
GREGORIO: And then we had our friend Jenen Benito, who was in Thee Sacred Souls as well and now she's a solo artist on Penrose, and she's singing backup vocals on that as well, which is really exciting to have her magical voice on there.
MARCUS: Awesome. That sounds amazing.
GREGORIO: And she's from San Diego too.
MARCUS: Okay, cool. Yeah, we're gonna get a preview of that right now. Thank you again. Gregorio from Bolero for coming through KALW and blessing the show. Anything you wanna add? It'll probably be a short preview of the song, yeah.
GREGORIO: Yeah. One love.
