By Laura Contasti ||
Refractions is Glass Mountain’s monthly interview series. This month, Laura Contasti speaks with the members of Cherry Mom, a Houston-based, self-prescribed indie rock band comprised of lead vocalist and guitarist Gaby Garcia, drummer Zero Zambrano, and bassist Roman Martinez. Their second EP, Madre Cereza or “Mother Cherry,” was released in October 2020. Listen on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6C0eE6bbMtk&list=OLAK5uy_k1vZ28k0IC3RTTZb9qECUx6IOCc9wIvSs
What is your favorite underappreciated album?
Gaby: Soda Stereo’s self-titled album. Soda Stereo is probably the best Spanish band out there—in the Spanish language, sorry. I never hear it too often, and it should be well marketed. I don’t think it gets enough radio time even if it’s from 1984. I still hear songs from 1990-something on the radio, but not Soda Stereo. And there’s no Spanish rock channel either. And if there was, they better be on there.
Zero: It’s Albert Hammond Jr. ‘s Francis Trouble and Amyl and the Sniffers self-titled album. Albert Hammond Jr. is from The Strokes and their work is pretty popular… And Albert’s is unique. I think it’s my favorite out of all of their side projects, and I think he should get a little bit more credit for what he does. It’s nothing like what he does with The Strokes. It’s vibrant and fresh, it doesn’t feel stale. For Amyl, it’s a recall to old punk which is cool.
Roman: For the World to See by Death. It’s a punk rock, all-black band from Detroit. They have a whole documentary about them being underappreciated.
What does success look like for you as musicians?
Gaby: Being able to host a secret show and still having people show up. I’ve always wanted to have a secret show, but I’m afraid nobody would show up. And having access to your own studio, that’s pretty privileged as musicians. Being able to tour because touring is hard.
Zero: I agree with Gaby about all that stuff. I’d also really want to make music that I’m happy with and people like it. If I’m able to freely make whatever I want and have people still enjoy it, I would consider that a success. And being able to play it.
Roman: Having a tour and having a way to make music to where it pays the bills. Being able to provide opportunity for other people as well as ourselves.
"If I’m able to freely make whatever I want and have people still enjoy it, I would consider that a success."
What’s one of your biggest pitfalls in songwriting?
Gaby: We get off topic a lot, and we start joking around. We start just lollygagging and talking to each other, showing each other memes.
Zero: The main problem is trying to stay on topic. Roman will always be like, “You and Gaby got it. You don’t need me, I’m just the bassist.”
Roman: I do try to get myself out of [song writing]. I’ll say, “I’ll come at the end guys, don’t worry about me.” Y’all grown.
What songwriters have had the biggest impacts on your life and musicmaking? How have they helped you become a better songwriter?
Gaby: Anybody who wrote songs in Blondie. I think it was all of them. It just feels so carefree and so fun. I want to keep it fun, but also be sad. Like, they got some sad stuff, but it’s mainly upbeat if you really listen to it. I’d really like to keep it that way because I don’t want to be sad, but I’m also really sad. Even if it’s a sad song I want to keep it upbeat lyrically.
Zero: I have two, for sure, off the top of my head. Gerard Way from My Chemical Romance, his theatrical and dramatic way of, not just his onstage performance, but also how he writes his lyrics—it’s very much how I want to write mine. The second is Julian Casablancas. Gaby has caught me several times almost borderline plagiarizing lyrics. The way he flows and composes his music, along with his music, is very inspirational.
Roman: For me it’d probably be The Beatles or Electric Light Orchestra. The Beatles is pop, but with ELO, it’s like they took the Beatles’ [sound] and did something else with it.
What genre do you classify yourselves as?
Gaby: We’re a whole plethora of genres smashed together into whatever we can formulate. It’s really hard to formulate.
Zero: I think the biggest umbrella term would be “indie rock,” but we also take from the 80’s, dance, new wave, dark wave. We take punk, we take surf. Anything we’re listening to.
Roman: We got some surf in there, we got some punk in there. Surf punk.
What does your creative process look like?
Gaby: Drawing shapes on a white board, literally. Zero and I have a habit of writing a bunch of stuff down in our [phone] notes that are lyrical and we try to piece everything together that feels like it could be coherent in a song setting.
Zero: Normally we just jam out and find something that we like. We’ll play for five or ten minutes straight and then we end up hating it and then we’ll scrap it. Then we come back to it two months later and we’ll reinvent it. Then we’ll finally land on something that we like.
Roman: I think we definitely groove off each other. We figure out what we want to work on ourselves and then figure out what sounds the best in general, then scrap all the pieces that don’t fit.
"We figure out what we want to work on ourselves and then figure out what sounds the best in general, then scrap all the pieces that don’t fit. "
What was your hardest song/lyrics to write? Why?
Zero: Honestly the hardest song was Manzanita Sol. We changed that up so many times. I feel like that’s one of the songs we really need to do justice and record it right. It was the hardest song because we had to fit the bass into it, and the tempo alone—figuring out the tempo for it was so difficult.
Gaby: Even when we play it now, it’s kind of hard. It was hard to fit in ideas of Spanish lyrics. I think in Spanish a lot, but it was hard to formulate Spanish lyrics.
Laura Contasti is a senior Journalism major at the University of Houston. She’s been published in CoogLife, The Daily Cougar, and now, Glass Mountain. She enjoys collaging, reading, and roller skating.
