El Gavachillo y Su Banda Lluvia de Estrellas

Wil-Dog Abers admits he's the last person anyone would expect to run off and start a side project as surprising as El Gavachillo y Su Banda Lluvia de Estrellas (loosely translated as "The Little White Man and His Band of Raining Stars"). The self-described "white, Jewish" musician has another, higher profile day job, as Ozomatli's bassist, but he took a break from that to discuss his passion project and upcoming trip to SXSW with Spinner.

Describe your sound in your own words.

It's banda and norteno music. It's pretty traditional banda music, but if you don't know what banda music is, it's a 10-15 piece band with nothing but horns and drums. A lot of people refer to it as "circus music," however it's not circus music. It's German polka done in Spanish. A lot of immigrants came to the north part of Mexico in the 1700s and brought the music, and it's morphed into classical Mexican music from the north. I guess the only difference between me and another banda is I'm not Mexican; I'm actually Jewish. I'm white (and) Jewish, but I love the music.

How did the band form?

I've been into banda music since high school. Ozomatli was playing a gig at the Hollywood Bowl and ... we wanted to hire a banda to play the last song. We hired the banda, they came in, learned our song and in rehearsals, I knew a lot of the standards that banda bands play already, so I was calling out songs and they would play 'em, and I started singing them. They were like trippin' out that I knew the music. We went to the afterparty and the banda showed up and said, "Hey man, we wanna play." I was like, "I'm sure you can play, but who's going to sing?" Because their singer didn't come. They were backing us up. They said, "You." So I got up there, and I did it, and we did about 45 minutes to an hour; people just started asking me to play. I hadn't even come up with the name El Gavachillo yet, but then I just started doing more and more shows. It was like Wil-Dog y Su Banda, and then I just decided I wanted to go more authentic and really go for it and make an album, which I'm recording now.

How did you come up with your band name?

El gabacho is basically, it's a derogatory term for a white person, but el gavachillo would be like a cute way of making it a little white guy. So in the tradition of corridos and banda music, people name themselves after animals, 'cause there's a guy named El Coyote and he's "The Coyote" and there's Tigrillo, he's "The Little Tiger," El Gallo, "The Hen." I took that tradition and made it my own. Sometimes I get up there, and I'm wearing a cowboy hat and a full suit and people wouldn't even know that I'm white. I put it in the name so people would know. I'm not from the culture, but I'm doing it, and I'm honoring the culture and learning as much as I can. It's not easy -- Spanish is my second language. I speak OK; I hear I don't have an accent when I sing, but when I talk I do. I wanted to make the description in the name -- "lluvia de estrellas" ... that means "raining of stars, stars raining." It means the actual rain is stars. Actually, one of the guys in the banda, I said "What do you guys wanna be called?" He said, "Lluvia de estrellas." Sounds good to me.

What's your biggest vice?

It'd have to be banda music and the reason why I say it's a vice is because most people I hang around don't like the music. So for instance, it's kind of like this taboo thing. I don't really have any vices anymore. I stopped my vices seven years ago; I stopped drinking, which is kind of an oxymoron, since a lot of the banda music is about drinking.

What's in your festival survival kit?

Depends on where the festival is. Water; sunscreen; some sort of shade -- probably a little umbrella as well -- change of socks ... some wellies if it rains ... something to make friends with, 'cause if you're stuck alone, you need something other people need. Probably a hookah pipe as well, with some flavored tobacco.

Who was your first celeb crush?

Probably be Madonna, from 'Desperately Seeking Susan.' Molly Ringwald, I was into her in 'The Breakfast Club.' Oh, and Selena. Yeah, those three.

What's your musical guilty pleasure?

Singing lead in Ozomatli, and the rest of the guys cringing.

Beatles or Rolling Stones?

Beatles. Their songs alone; I haven't been a fan of their actual playing or performance myself. I think I was raised that way, because my dad wasn't that into the Beatles. The Beatles have actually grown on me; the Beatles can make you feel a bunch of different ways, I've noticed.

What's the craziest thing you've seen or experienced while on tour?

I don't know if this is crazy; it's the first thing that came to mind. I'm sure there's been crazier shit. So much crazy shit happened in my life prior to touring that nothing was shocking once I got out here. One thing that comes to mind, I was at the San Francisco airport and this woman next to me, (she was) chain smoking and drinking Diet Coke. We were sitting outside waiting for the van to pick us up. She went through literally a six-pack of Diet Coke and like 20 cigarettes. I just like mentioned "Hey, you're going through those cigarettes like it ain't no thing." And she told me to mind my own business and shut up. Two minutes later, she started having a seizure, so I had this lady in my lap, and I'm stroking her head, waiting for the ambulance. It's just so crazy – I was just thinking, "This lady just told me to shut up, and I patiently have her in my arms."

Are you working on any new material?

I actually recorded three songs. We went and played in Guadalajara for the FIL, which is Festival Internationale Los Libros, which is like the biggest book fair in Latin America. They were honoring Los Angeles and their relationship with Los Angeles, so a bunch of people from L.A. were there. Ozomatli performed, as well as Los Lobos, a bunch of other bands. While I was down there, I went to a bunch of clubs that play banda music, and I got up onstage and sang with a couple bandas, got a couple guys' numbers and said, "I wanna record down here." So I stayed an extra day, went into a studio and recorded three songs, two originals and one cover, and it came out amazing. Actually, one of the songs is the last song on Ozomatli's new record. They actually decided to put the song on the album. It's called 'El Caballito,' which means "the little horse."



Preston Jones is a contributor from Seed.com. Learn how you can contribute here.