Another underachieving coach was fired this week in the NFL. And wow, did he deserve it. After being given all the tools in the trade – a dedicated owner who placed victory over profitability, a gifted young quarterback, the support of the fans, a physically taxing homefield that disheartened the opposition and encouraged the home team to play with grit and toughness, not to mention one of the weakest divisions in football history… he completely blew it, capping a cycle of mediocrity that his team wore like a favorite jacket. It’s a story as old as time, really. In our world, failure means you’ll have trouble finding another good job. But in his world, he’ll have team owners knocking his door down, no matter how poorly he did. Why?
In another sphere of influence, moronic, overpaid pundits made asinine declarations to the public over and over again. They we’re wrong 90 percent of the time, and worse, incredibly unentertaining. Those guys are never thrown booted to the streets. They careen from gig to cushy gig, glad to have a seat on the giddy carousel of wingnut welfare. Why? For the same reasons they make sequels to films that weren’t great in the first place : because generally, people in power are risk-averse and bow at the alter of name recognition.
Sometimes, this can be a good thing, when it gives people confidence in a proven and predictable commodity. But often, the value of a name outstrips the value of the person behind it. Some people would ask why people are so dazzled by a familiar name. I wondered why those names get dazzled in the first place, and what can keep others from falling into the trap of complacency?
What’s in a name? The answer starts with a rather silly one.
“Honestly, coming up with a name is the hardest part about being in a band.”
Meet Raul Garcia, lead guitarist and primary songwriter of En Pursuit, a progressive band hailing from the Miami area.
“I could write you five more songs before I came up with a good name. The original name a friend helped us come up with was ‘In Pursuit’, so we went with that for about a week. When I went to go register the name on MySpace, we learned that a Christian Emo band already had the name. In a lazy attempt to be clever we changed the ‘in’ the ‘en’. Looking back, it’s not the best band name in the world, but we weren’t going to let a stupid name stop us from recording a demo.”
If you wanted to pick a place to live, Miami would probably be a perfect choice. Great weather, serene oceans, beautiful women. But for Garcia’s development as a musician, Miami was less than ideal.
“The entire musical population has devoted themselves to trance, techno, alternative rock, and hardcore. I would say that 90% of local bands are hardcore here. It’s an extremely annoying scene. The only other people that have the same taste as we do, musically, tend to live about an hour or so away, and I’ll tell you one thing about Miami… people are extremely unreliable.” Without the easy connections that came from being established, he had to reach out to people close to him, starting with longtime friend Victor Cepeda. Garcia picked up an electric guitar, Cepeda bought a drum set, and they started to hash things out.
As the group started, the two were sophmores in high school, and had to juggle their acoustic vision with academia. Even now, Garcia carries the methodical, goal oriented temperment of the permanently annoyed, and he wasn’t much different as a teen. He set up a mental blueprint for his advancement and eschewed everything that wasn’t compatible with his vision. Lessons were out. So was covering other bands.
“We pretty much developed our sound through the learning process. We’ve definitely played with tons of styles from screamo-based rock to jazz to technical-based music. We never took lessons, tried to stay far away from covering songs, never really learned much from anyone but ourselves. It’s definitely the longer route to take things but I feel like in the end it paid off with some sort of creativity.”
The two developed gradually, with other members floating in and out of the picture. They developed an on and off relationship with Andrew DeCarion, who served as the group’s vocalist and rhythm guitarist, and Sebastian Sanchez, who played a second guitar for a while, but transitioned to bass after the group ran into trouble filling the position. What they’d stumbled on after so much time developing a rapport was something like a holy grail for most performers – music as a pure expression of self. Naturally this sound, which Garcia had strictly cultivated and methodically developed, would be a big hit once they started playing shows.
Right?
“We played this random college graduation party when we were still in high school. Let’s just say we managed to drive away more than fifty people during one song. We were basically playing for an empty pool and my friend.” And maybe the volume of content they’d hammered out working together was part of the problem. “There was a time where I felt nobody would take us seriously unless we had a plethora of songs, so I would sit down and force myself to write something great. I’ve always had problems with trying too hard. Luckily, the people I play with are really positive and always give me a reality check.”
It’s something those with ready resources and comfortable names don’t always have – access to honest feedback when they go astray. Raul Garcia was a man with a plan, and despite the time he’d invested in the project, nothing – up to and including his own ego – would get in the way. Where many dedicated people would dig in their heels, considering any challenge to be a compromise of their core principles, this group always knew the difference between compromise and evolution. So they evolved, crafting a more organic approach to their songwriting.
“Usually, songs are born out of 20 to 40 minute jams, in which we’ll just take a riff and do every possible thing we can think of doing to it. Our songwriting process has always been sort of a jam, structure, complete, play, trash, recycle kind of method. We don’t intend on it. It just happens. We know we’re heading in the right direction when we can play the song over 40 times and not get bored.”
The goals they set kept aimlessness from sitting in. They played, they practiced, and when they were finally ready to step into the studio a mere four years after the group formed, they were honed and prepared.
Wait, four years?
“For the record,” he says cooly, “I am really picky.”
The group’s discretion paid off. Winter in Reverse is an instrumental work that defies the norm – instead of a flashy affair where the listener marvels at the technical mastery of the guitarist or the other individual players, the songs are crafted and complex – instead of a lumbering dinosaur it brings to mind a delicate machine with a series of coordinated parts. And in spite of the band’s relentless devotion to process, they made good time in the studio. The tracks didn’t require an inordinate amount of tweaking, and the Winter in Reverse sessions only took a month. And it could have been even faster. “Seeing as I had zero knowledge on recording, it took me a while to figure out the kinks. We were actually thinking about adding another song or two to the demo, but we were short on time, so we just released the four that are heard now.” Time limitations also kept them from polishing the lyrics as much as the music. Eventually, they were dropped altogether, leaving the demo as an instrumental. “I can only hope,” Garcia says dryly, “the final run on vocals will pertain to a subject other than love.”
Instead of getting wrapped up in frivolosity, Raul Garcia and the rest of En Pursuit have remained calm and focused through four years of ups and downs. That sense of professionalism and willingness to improve has led them to this point. But what’s their next benchmark?
“It’s a four-piece for now, but I definitely plan to expand on members in the future. I’ve always really wanted a keyboardist in here. There’s a few songs that we have that I feel we simply can’t finish without it. I’d also like to add a [sound manipulator], basically someone who would recreate all of those weird effects you hear in the background on the recordings, live. We’ve got tons of pedals lying around – I only use 4 – that need to be put to good use. Also, I’d like to record an EP in a studio with a final product including vocals and have it released later this year. The other part is a given for any unsigned band: get signed to a label and go on tour.”
And if you’re out to stand out in a sea of familiar names, maybe being En Pursuit isn’t such a dumb choice after all.
The entire Winter in Reverse EP is available at www.myspace.com/enpursuitmusic , so go check it out. We’ll keep you up to date on any major developments.