Michael Patterson, Renaissance man.
SFR: You're kind of a Renaissance man-art, performance, you're in a great band called C'aguama-what's your background?
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MP
: I spent some time in San Antonio, Texas, did the high school thing, came out here to college at College of Santa Fe looking to study film. It really wasn't my taking-I found those personalities and I weren't getting along as well as I was with the fine artists, the performance artists, so I found myself involved with a band called Posies and Roses. That's where I kinda really got the music bug. In 2001 I returned back to San Antonio and the band broke up and went their separate ways. I started doing a lot of papier mâché art but didn't really see an avenue for that because San Antonio is kind of the opposite of this town-it's so spread out and large-there wasn't a centralized pocket for anything. I came back up here for a visit, had a Posies and Roses reunion show at Bar B and pretty much decided to come back. I saw what [Half Rack Studios proprietors and C'aguama bandmates] Raul [Ugalde] and Antoine [Earhart] were doing and was very excited to kind of jump on that. I saw these guys and said, 'Well, I'm moving back.'
How does it work, blending Raul's kind of Juarez vibe and your more punk, performance vibe?
The three of us all come from Hispanic-centric communities. As far as our songs go, there is a very traditional vibe. Raul is very familiar with those folk songs, Antoine is very familiar with them, more so than I. The angle I want to bring to it is kind of a higher intensity to counteract these beautiful melodies Raul comes up with, these fairly simple chord progressions that are kind of standard but putting a new spin on it, making it more accessible to the 'white' community as well as the Hispanic community. Hopefully the band one day will be one of these crossover deals where we're appreciated by both crowds. And, Jeez, I don't wanna say we can save the world and bring cultures together, but that sort of mentality would be great. And the way America's going right now, it makes sense to have a lot of Spanish influence and not to fight it, to say, 'That's great.'
That seems like that would be a really good thing for Santa Fe…
Absolutely. It just makes total sense for New Mexico. We're in the application process to get in the New Mexico State Fair, where hopefully we can get this showcase sharing the stage with these 18-piece, badass, grupo whatever bands, and [the showcase] also is going to represent rock, so hopefully we can be kind of this medium in between, so that the fans of the Spanish music aren't gonna be like, 'Oh, God, let's get out of here, let's go get a beer,' and the same thing with all the white folks. Most of all it's just really fun for us to blend the two.
Did the opportunities for music and art open up between the time you left Santa Fe and the time you returned?
It was a cool time that I came from at CSF. Something about the class, right around the time I was there, everyone's gone on and is really blowing it up, really getting it done. So there was a big difference when I came back, I was just, 'Holy cow, why'd I leave? This is the place.' Things are happening, shows are being booked, High Mayhem is happening, Half Rack is making stuff happen, Unit D, Ojo del Fuego…All these really cool emerging artists-which are frankly better than all the established artists that I was seeing in San Antonio-are doing it and it's just a question of the support of people getting out to see it. It will continue to happen regardless. I know a lot of these people personally and they're like, 'You know what? If people come, great. If we have 100 people tonight, awesome, we might make some money.' But in the end, if five people come, they still did their job for a reason, because those five people are touched by what's happening.
How do technology and the Internet play into the idea of an underground scene?
I think it's huge. We just got on myspace [
] and already we're blowing up and it's not just people that we immediately know. We have all these hits, 100 people have listened to our music. Whether they like it or not, 100 people is like a badass night playing one of these small venues and these are folks we don't even know so that's great. I know that for venues it's an amazing thing-it allows performers to find these venues that more suit them rather than just having to trust the manager; they can actually listen to music that's been played there before. It's making the world a lot smaller.
Do you think there's an inherent conflict between having something that's underground and trying to get people to attend?
Well, sure. The underground idea is just that: to stay away from media, let it be word-of-mouth, let it be, 'This is where the hipsters go, this is the thing to do because no one knows about it, and no one knows about it because we're the cool people who know about it.' So it's inherent that's going to probably hurt your audience. I mean, you could go mainstream and advertise in all the newspapers every week for every show, but that would also potentially bring the wrong crowd, people who wouldn't appreciate it. I'd like to see these underground things maybe blow up a little bit more, and then they could see the proper respects being paid by the public. And that's happening just on their own with longevity, that's been proved by High Mayhem, the guys down at Half Rack. When I go down there it seems like more and more people know about it, when I'm working I hear people talking about it and I'm like, 'Well this is catching on.'
Are you going to lose some of your street cred by talking to nerdy me?
What street cred? I'll still walk the streets with my chin up.
C'aguama will perform at 8:30 pm, Friday, Sept. 2. 8:30 pm at Second Street Brewery, 1814 Second St., 982-3030.
