Interview with Masrhón by Lu Olivero, DR1.com

Give us a small history of yourselves, how you met, and personal background stories that would eventually influences you guys to follow music careers, and in particular this genre.

Well, ‘Masrhón’ is the result of a very long friendship between J Martinez and Aliosha Michelen. We grew up together in the same neighborhood, Bella Vista, and we’ve been like family since we were 10. And as kids, our way of playing, was to do some project. We used to write film scripts and short stories, etc. Aliosha had his band as well, Stupid Silence, which I became closely involved with, musically, throughout the years. So we were used to collaborating creatively as an important aspect of our friendship.

Another thing that we did was to listen to a lot of music. A LOT OF MUSIC. We would be swapping CDs and tapes daily, man. All the cool shit coming out from Europe, specially the UK. The 90s was an amazing episode for music in the UK. The Bristol sound. So many artists that we liked. It was just a matter of time to try our approach in music towards that direction, move away from the American mainstream influence. It had gotten too pink for our liking.

How did you guys come together as a group?

I used to play around with beats in my computer, just for the fun of it. One day Aliosha was around mine’s with his guitar, and as usual, he would play me something new he had composed. And, kinda like by instinct, I opened the file in the computer of a beat I had done the night before, and hit play. When we started listening both the beat and the guitar, it was like an Eureka moment and we said “WOW!”. That’s how our first song was born, “920”. We worked on that song for 3 months, just that one. We got together with this amazing rapper that just happened to live around the corner from us, Adolfo from Calor Urbano, and we released that track on the radio. The song went straight to No.1 in a few stations and stayed there for 3 months! We knew we had to keep going, and that has brought many things like appearing in the 2006 FIFA World Cup soundtrack. Also being selected in 2006 as the second song with most airplay during the year (“Cosa Clara”, 16 weeks No.1 in Radio Listin).

Over the years we have collaborated with a lot of musicians that have helped us develop our live act, and some have stayed with us for the love of the sound. Like our guitarist, Marino Peña. He has brought so much into the project and has blended in our sound so much with his vast experience.

How has music influenced you guys on a personal level, and as a group, what are your goals?

Music is our way of dealing with life, with the real life, and we use it to channel our energies creatively. The reason and the way are irrelevant. Everyone is touched by music in their own aspects of life. Life is not always pink and happy and cheery as the media wants us to believe constantly, keeping us asleep. Our only goal is to keep making music for as long as we can emotionally afford it, because economically we have paid the ultimate price since long.

As artists who have been your biggest influences?

Anything that has a beat! I think once you start listening to an artist and try and discover their genre, it becomes a journey, which is what I think is the biggest influence. The way music addiction starts growing in you, you can’t get enough new, interesting music to listen to, you have to keep feeding it, finding interesting music to challenge your intellect and grow. Expand your mind. See the whole picture. To single out an artist or a band as our influence would be disrespectful to the other similarly worthy.

Alternative musics don’t receive the support they should in the DR, why is this?

Well, it’s not as mainstream as it should be, but there is definitely support from the public. The truth is our fan base are a bit like ourselves, away from the mainstream, they want to find music that helps them define who they are, what they like and what not, and music with depth and meaning. And in their own language. Spanish is very important to us, and we want to kind of force it to the people the concept of well-thought music in their native language.

Now, if what you call ‘Alternative’ music is the kind of rubbish that we have been listening from other bands that don’t even deserve to be mentioned, you have to figure out the reason why it doesn’t get more support. I can hand pick the good acts currently active that really have something deep to offer.

You are now based in London, why is this?

London is a city that kind of calls you, some way or another. That’s the conclusion I have come to from living here and meeting so many people from around the world, it’s amazing. So many concerts, we have met so many artists here going to their gigs, DJ Shadow, Amon Tobin, Bonobo, Nicolette (she sang in Massive Attack’s second album). You can’t imagine how it feels to be able to meet the people you grew up admiring. London is a vibrant city, and electronic music runs in her blood.

The electronic scene in the DR is fairly new, what will it take to move it into the mainstream?

Electronic scene in the DR is old man! People have been raving since the 80s there. Strictly underground of course. But then it moved slowly to the mainstream and embraced the masses. Now you get so many top DJs and acts performing live almost every weekend, in beaches, in clubs, everywhere. The thing is the traditional concept of mainstream is what’s in the top 10 on mtv, which it’s sick. But we are not bothered. People love their music and appreciate more a band that has quality and can stand the test of time. Most of the artists that hit the charts get often forgotten.

I think the way forward is to keep making music that people anticipate, and that anticipation has to be satisfied or it will die.

Who are other artists on the Dominican scene, and internationally who are helping develop the genre on the island?

In the “Dominican” scene, there are quite a few projects that are doing it how it should be. We have for example Si*Sé, they are based in New York. A lot of producers in the island are doing a lot of interesting sounds as well, too many to mention to be honest.

How do you incorporate local sounds into the work you do or is your objective to venture into new and original sounds?

As the name of our project reflects, we are all about Dominican sounds, but we like to mix it, instrumentally and conceptually, with all the music that we like from around the world. Dub, samba, hip hop, trip hop, etc. We like to keep our sound pure to the source, and that’s a production challenge that we face every time we compose a track. However, we never repeat ourselves and that’s why it’s hard to label our style, although the hip hop influence is the most dominant. But we tried to keep it varied, you know, we have such a varied set of songs that they could perfectly be from different projects on their own. I think that’s what our style is about, diversity, but keeping it pure and very Dominican, no matter how international it sounds.

Where is the future of the genre in the country, and how do you plan on being involved in that development?

We have our own production house / label, JangaPresenta. It’s our main effort and source of our output, which Masrhón is the main project. But we are managing and producing for other artists, rappers, and for different commercials as well. The new Orange campaign was produced by us, so I think slowly slowly we are introducing and developing this perspective of music and pushing it through the mainstream. But the result and the feedback are always positive.

How has the Dominican public reacted to your music?

The first reactions that we receive are always “who are those people; they can’t be Dominican, they sound from Spain or some other foreign country”. They never believe it is a 100% locally produced project. It’s kind of flattering really…

Sept 18,2007.