Today we’d like to introduce you to JJ Moreno.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I have been in the music business since I was a kid, I started playing piano when I was seven or eight, not classic, grupero, traditional Mexican music, that’s what my dad used to play. When I was 13 or 14, I got drawn heavily into guitar due to a cousin who would come and visit with his family from another state to our house and play the acoustic guitar, 90’s songs from Nirvana, Metallica, and Oasis, to name a few. I really liked the sound of the guitar, so I dedicated my time to learn more and more, techniques for speed and scales. That was in Mexico in a small town in the state of Jalisco. When I finished High School there, I came to Texas. Don’t worry, I was born in the San Francisco Bay Mr. President (wink)(wink).
Here in Dallas, I tried to join a band, but I wasn’t good enough, but I kept practicing to get better, I didn’t know many people, so most of my evenings were spent in my room learning songs by ear from the bands I admired, Heroes del Silencio and Caifanes. Finally, after some hits and misses, one evening I was practicing in a studio around West Dallas, and Gioh came with another friend of the drummer. I liked his voice so I asked him if he was in any other band, he said he was available.
15 years later, we have changed everything we used to do then (Spanish Rock), to what Papi Chulo is now (Cumbia Artesanal). I have played in bands that recorded a couple of indie Albums, played for years in bars in the Dallas area, and taken those bands to other cities in Texas, Houston, Austin, San Antonio, and to other states like Illinois and Oklahoma.
Today, Papi Chulo is the band with the winning song “Tira la basura en el bote”, for the Spanish Don’t Mess with Texas campaign from the TxDOT. The video for the song is played in Univision and Telemundo to remind the Texas citizens to throw the trash in the can, to keep this state clean and beautiful. Also, the song is being played in the Spanish iHeart Radio stations in the big cities of Texas.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Struggles are always present. First, finding the right members for the band, just like any other job, if people don’t enjoy what they do, they don’t perform well, they don’t put enough effort to make it work. Second, finding a sound that’s different from the rest, what makes your band stand out? That takes time, practice, dedication and lots of disappointments when you realize that the song you worked and spent so much time on, sounds just like another song you didn’t know existed, but your friend tells you it reminds him of something else.
Third, being able to connect to people, I enjoy playing music, but if people don’t enjoy it, then there’s missing energy flow. The best shows I have been to, are shows where the audience is just as involved in the performance as the band is. I enjoy seeing people dance to Papi Chulo’s music, even if our song is in Spanish, I can see that people who don’t speak it, understand the rhythms, dance and let themselves submerge in the magic of feeling the sounds of the drums, bass, congas, jembe, bongos, guitar, accordion, and maracas.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Papi Chulo – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of and what sets you apart from others.
In the 21st century, you can’t be just a musician and hope a promoter, manager, record company will come and see the potential in you and take you by the hand to stardom. So you must do everything needed to make things work. I consider myself a guitarist first, but I don’t play the guitar much these days. I spend most of my time scheduling performing dates (Booking Agent), arranging the instruments needed for each show (Stage Manager), promoting the band on social media (Public Relations), writing songs for our first album coming out this summer named Cumbia Artesanal with Gioh (co-songwriter), delivering tickets, T-shirts to fans around the area interested in our shows/merch (Street Team), bookkeeping of the money coming in and coming out (Accountant). Now, being in a band allows distribution of responsibilities, so everybody in the band helps with the previous tasks. I don’t know what I’m known for, but I’d like to be known for my dedication to do things right, I don’t enjoy getting on stage and not having a great performance, whether there are five people present or 500. I want to deliver a good show.
What I am mostly proud of Papi Chulo is how great people have received us and embraced what we offer, I am proud that I can say that Papi Chulo is the band in all Texas that has won an opportunity to be a voice in keeping the world clean, to make conscience that this is our backyard, our front yard, our home, this state, this planet is all we have and we must give it to our children in a better shape than how we got it. I believe that everybody is different and unique, and that’s a good thing because as society we need different people to do different things so we can thrive to a better future, Papi Chulo is set apart just for having people that play music from different parts of the world, Mexico, Bolivia and Venezuela, and everybody brings their flavor to our Papi Chulo pot and the flavor that comes out is what you hear on our shows, fun, entertaining, music.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
We want to play more in front of more people from other cities, other states, and eventually other countries. For now, we are focused on finishing our first Album “Cumbia Artesanal” and take it to as many places as possible. We want to keep enjoying performing the songs we wrote, we continue to write music and to make some good impact on the people we get to know on our shows.
Contact Info:
- Email: papichulocumbiatron@gmail.com
- Instagram: @movimientopapichulo
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/cumbiatron
- Twitter: @papichulocumbia
Image Credit:
Robotika, 2430 Norte Films
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