casa sueño

from mike baggetta:

   "I first met John Herndon back in 2017 when my friend Devra Hoff took me over to John’s pad in L.A. to play a session together in his garage. This was about a week before I made the 'Wall of Flowers' record with Jim Keltner and Mike Watt and I was playing a few gigs around town with Devra on bass and Scott Seiver on drums beforehand to kind of help myself learn some of the music I thought we might record the next week for that album. Anyways, Dev suggested we get together with John one afternoon and see what happens. I actually don’t remember a lot of what specifically we played, but I remember the deep & sick grooves for sure. I think him and Devra had a good history playing together because I would have been just as happy sitting there listening to the two of them play all afternoon, as I was trying to make some music with all three of us. I probably said about 7 words to John that day, but I remember the playing was like really fierce and super… easy? in a way, to get creative stuff flowing. I thought that was really cool and its stuck with me all these years. Looking back on it now and realizing that I met John Herndon and Mike Watt for the very first time in that same week now, in hindsight, seems kind of interesting.

   I’m really excited about this new band, Casa Sueño, that me and John and Watt have put together. We have played, as of this writing, exactly zero gigs together, but somehow it already feels like it has a strong collective spirit to the whole thing already. Back in December we got together at Casa Hanzo in Pedro to record the 2 tracks that Nomad Eel Records is putting out as our first 7” in advance of these shows. The song I brought was kind of a two-parter (side a & b) and it kind of gets to the heart of the matter for what I think the music we’ll be working towards could be… Some things that are more like song-songs, and some things that are more free-songs…? I have been getting towards trying to play a music that has no boundaries since as long back as I can remember. And that doesn’t just mean off the wall freak out stuff (I mean, thats a part of it sometimes), but a music that lives inside of improvisation and song forms in equal parts. That flows back and forth between rubato and groove, between drone and harmony. And one that can flow between the people making it just as easy as the people listening to it. Like the real early blues recordings I’ve heard where there’s no pressure to keep 4 beats to every bar, but the vibe, groove and beautiful sounds aren’t suffering any.

   So here we are, getting ready to play 23 shows on the west coast (u.s., Mexico and Canada) and learning what its like to play a new music together with each other, and you all in the audience, every night together. Again, as of this writing, I am not really sure how many songs we have and I haven’t even finished the demos for my 5 or 6 or 7 or however many I have rolling around in my head all jumbled up so far that I am trying to put through the hopper. Mike Watt’s been on point though and already has his 6 songs done! So we’ll have a mix of new stuff to play for you, but more important is that we are gonna maybe have a new ‘way’ of playing it for you. The last band I had with watt, I felt like maybe I had hit a wall about how far I could take that concept, just from my own side I mean, about writing all the parts for everybody for all the songs. I learned a lot doing that, but one thing I also learned is that the music always got better when the other guys would change the parts I brought in to suit the song and their style better. This time around I want to have less control over that type of stuff, so right from the get go we are all coming up with our own parts (notes as needed) for the songs we are gonna be playing. I was also heading a lot more towards drone based ideas and finding ways to stretch the music out that wasn’t just like in a fusion way, but still you could be playing a song, or it could be a free thing, or maybe both together, but exploring different parts of the music without just a full on jam all the time, and I think we are gonna get deeper into all of these types of ideas with this new Casa Sueño band. We’re also doing something else a little different on this trip and that’s making a record somewhere in the middle of the tour after the Portland, OR shows. We also have a couple stops of double-nighters, in Vancouver and again in Portland, OR right before we record.

   Anyways, I think it’s gonna be a blast. I already know I like traveling around the country in the boat with watt, and I already know I love hanging with John too. I also know that I love playing music with both of them and I’m excited to see where these new songs and sounds take us on this west coast trip, and I truly hope that you all find a way to come out and join us for these special shows!"