Today we’d like to introduce you to Rene Guitarrista
Hi Rene, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Hi, I’m Rene and I am the guitarrista for the Hedonistic Punk Vatos. I’ve been previously featured on this cool platform so I’ll just go into a little detail about my journey so y’all can understand me better. I started playing guitar when I was a kid after I got my first guitar on Christmas almost 30+ years ago.
I was in a band called Gotcha! with some high school friends and I played rhythm guitar. I’ve mostly played hard rock and metal music and I’ve never really bothered to learn cover songs, instead developing my own style over the years. I had stopped playing guitar when I went to college from 91-95 and I picked it back up soon after that on a casual basis after I got married in 98. It was right around 99 when I started a band in San Antonio where we played under various names such as Sniper Clowns and Vinyl Threat. I mostly came up with the music and my singer/bassist, Peps, came up with the lyrics. I had seen some band before this all started at a bar playing the music of a popular radio song and the singer said it was an original and he sang his own lyrics to it. I figured if these guys can play a big club ripping off music, I can do better with something original. Our band was doing really well all over that region, but soon our guitarist left, our singer/bassist started a family, and our drummer opened a dojo and we just kinda broke up after a rowdy few years. Unfortunately, my marriage didn’t work with my alcoholism and rock ‘n roll lifestyle and it was at this time when I started to really write my own stuff, locking myself away and having an outlet for my demons, so around 2001 I got divorced.
Newly freed from everything I’ve known, I abandoned San Antonio where I had lived for 16 years, and went to Arlington to start a new life. My brother lived there and he and his awesome wife let me stay on their couch for a good while. I had already had girlfriends in my life; however, I still had my ex-wife in my heart so that poisoned any real relationship and this was the basis for my lyrics. I write music based on my experiences, good and bad, and I don’t write about things I don’t ponder or haven’t lived. This is the same with my guitar playing. I like to play the pretty acoustic-electric mixed with heavy distorted chords; beauty and aggression, light vs. dark, and the battle in-between.
Around 2005 I met up with a guy who posted an ad on Craigslist, Johnny M. We started a band called Gypsy Lux and we did a mix of originals (me), and covers (Johnny). I had no choice and I wanted to play on stage really bad so I learned some classic rock stuff. My friend was going through stuff and it affected the band so I left to start my own, all originals band, the Hedonistic Punk Vatos. A good friend of my brother whom I became friends with, Ray, had recently bought a bass for Christmas so I’d go over to show him some bass lines and I’d jam with him. One nigt I told him I was going to start an all-originals band and if he wanted to play bass. He said yes really quickly, but I told him this is a commitment, so he should go and ask his wife about it because there would be times when it gets hard to go rehearse when you want to party or do family stuff and I gave him 2 weeks. When he did all that, we started the band and it was him who came up with the name.
Over time we’ve had singers, lead guitarists, drummers, but I still kept going. Ray left because it got hard to commit to doing shows, and his marriage, so I understand. We could never find a singer to commit, nor a lead guitarist, so I started to learn how to sing and play and do leads. Right now we have our drummer, Scotty “Too Hottie” Hamilton from the Gypsy Lux days. He came over after they broke up a year after I left and my original drummer left to Europe to work. We replaced Ray after a few years of looking for the right person and we found Matt Küss. Now we are going hard and have been playing a lot of shows and are finally making some money from it. I recently married my long-time girlfriend and I have balance in my life with music, work, and love.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I don’t think life is a smooth road because life is a series of choices and experiences which come with some good and some bad results. Would I have really locked myself in a room with my guitar writing deep profound heartfelt lyrics or contemplated what I wanted in life without having gone through what I did when my first marriage was falling apart? Perhaps. I always knew I would become a musician from the moment I started learning to play. I love art and literature, and I have always been a dreamer and stargazer. As a child I would play alone building worlds, but I was also very social, indulging with my friends growing up.
I think my biggest struggle in life is falling in and out of love. I love hard. However, if I fall out of love, it is equally as hard.
In this way, I have a deep drive to make the best music for myself; create something which I love, and I never tire of it. I’ve joked to friends if I had to play in a cover band I’d probably hate playing my guitar and give it up. We all have souls, and some of us are more in tune with it than others, and I honestly believe I can soul hurt, and I can soul soar. The in-between these two worlds is where it is hard for my to find the balance, and THAT is my struggle along the way.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I believe I was created to create music. The place I go to work is only an employment to afford to live. My real job is to make music, and I make music for myself. If people happen to like it, even better; however, I never make music to make people like it. I don’t write it to a formula because something is popular to use, we get enough of that on the radio. This is probably to my own detriment and commercial success, but I think if I create something good, there are people out there who would appreciate and love it as well. I want to sell my music, but I’m not going to sell my soul selling my music.
I am a poet. I write lyrical words and sounds. I read Shakespeare, Old English, and Castillian Spanish as easily as you read this. I have lucid dreams and I remember them, and I can see the spaces in-between. I guess I can say this is what I specialize in, but I am not known for anything.
I am most proud of my song Love or War. In 1989 my friend and bassist Arnold C. wrote a riff which my singer Larry Y. turned into a song. One day he was singing, “Is it all over” and I thought he said, “Is it love or war.” Fast forward many years and I remembered the main riff in a nostalgic moment and I wrote a new song called Love or War, in my seclusion. Of course I asked Arnold for permission to use his riff because we are still friends to this day. Side note: A thousand years can pass not seeing my friends, but when we meet it will be like no time has passed, so I don’t lightly call someone my friend, and if we stop being friends, it is only after I have exhausted trying to stay friendly.
Here are my lyrics, copyrighted long ago, for Love or War:
Love or War
Original music and lyrics by A.Castillo/R.Taméz 1989
Revised music and lyrics by R.Taméz 2006
Copyright by R.Taméz 2006
As I sit here thinking
‘Bout the way things used to be
Tried to make this work
But the pain is all I see
Waking screams then no more
Time has faded night is cold
You think it’s over
Don’t want to be sober
Is it love
Is it love or war
Is it love
or all over?
When the nights are cold
There’s no end in sight
Do you feel sorry baby?
Or you loathe the night?
Hide your feelings darling
It will serve you well
Tell you something baby
Answers are hard to tell
Is it love
Is it love or war?
Is it love
or all over?
Is it love
Is it love or war?
Is it love
Or is it….. (break)
Is it love
Is it love or war?
Is it love
Or is it…..
Over?
Let me slip inside you
I will run you through
Send me to the shadows
If you have a clue
Hear the black rain falling
Read between the lines
Stop hiding your feelings baby
And open up your eyes
Is it love
Is it love or war?
Is it love
Or is it….. (solo)
Is it love
Is it love or war?
Is it love
Or is it…..
Can you say it’s all over.
Here is an unedited video of this song with my original bassist, Ray on Vocals, myself, Rene Guitarrista on Guitar, and my drummer Scottie “Too Hottie” Hamilton on drums to show the whole canvas of my art: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MB7Y5SwTfig
I think in this way, it can be shown what sets me apart from others.
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
I believe taking risks in life is a good thing overall; however, the real trick is gauging the risks to take. So easy to say. The risks I take now are different. I am married, I have a rooted life. I don’t have the same freestying freedom like when I was living alone and pennyless.
One of the biggest risks I took in life was leaving San Antonio after my first (and last!) divorce. I had my ex-wife’s old beat up car (she kept our new car) with a trunk full of clothes and my guitar. The old Crown Victoria cruiser broke down on my way to Arlington, TX in DFW. I had a beautiful girlfriend who wanted me to move back to my hometown of San Benito, TX where she lived. It would have been easy to go there, but I knew in my heart I was not meant to live there anymore.
I think another risk I took musically was sticking to only playing original music. There were countless bands playing the clubs and making good money; however, they were playing someone else’s music, and I didn’t want to do that. I came to realize that I might never make any money, or get beyond the garage rehearsal space, but at least I would be happy, so I decided to go all in on making original music.
Some think that as someone gets older they take less risks, but I think they are more measured and contemplated more rather than just whimsical. It is when we stop taking risks altogether that life becomes boring; people tend to forget that adventure is what is exciting about life. One of my biggest strengths is that I know myself. Most people have not spent long hours thinking about oneself. If they did, they would know what they would do in any situation, how they would respond, and what risks they would take despite the consequences.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.hedonisticpunkvatos.com
- Instagram: @rene_ guitarrista @hedonistic_punk_vatos, @richardscotthamilton, @uncommonbass;
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hedonistic.vatos
- Twitter: @punkvatos4life
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@hedonisticpunkvatos
- TikTok: @uncommon_bass
- Email: hedonisticpunkvatos@gmail.com
Image Credits
All images are owned and copyrighted by Rene Guitarrista and the Hedonistic Punk Vatos.
