España Artist Spotlight featuring DePedro & Gecko Turner

Spain has a rich cultural legacy associated in part with artists like Picasso and Salvador Dalí, as well as film directors Pedro Almodóvar, Luis Buñuel and others.  Recently, Spanish actors and actresses such as Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz have also helped bring Spain into the global spotlight. On September 29th, Putumayo released España, an exploration of the contemporary music of Spain, in an effort to introduce Spanish music to a broader international audience.

The music emerging from Spain is a fascinating blend of styles and influences that reflects the varied cultures and communities that exist within the country.  We recently spoke with artists Gecko Turner and DePedro, who are both featured on our new España CD, to get a better sense of how the eclectic blend of cultures, styles, and influences in Spanish music has impacted the current music scene coming out of the country.

1. Spain’s most recognizable musical genre is flamenco, but there are an incredibly diverse array of musical styles within the country (the music of Andalusia, Catalonia, Castile and more.) How do these diverse musical influences affect the contemporary music coming from Spain? How do they influence your music?

DePedro: Spanish roots are a big influence for me; the great melodies are in my mind often, and we [Spaniards] have our special touch in music. We have much more than flamenco music; there are also very old influences from many cultures– Celtic, Jewish, French, Basque, Catalan–tons of rhythms, melodies, and ways of singing that form our “thing”. You can find these influences in all the music that we make right now.

Gecko Turner: Spain is a place where all of these influences meet: African, Muslim, Roman Catholic and more. These cultures have an influence on everything you see and hear, but in speaking only for myself, I am most influenced by people that I know, in particular musicians that I work with or have met. Musicians from Brazil and Cuba particularly influence me, thus the music that I play is rooted in African music. Funk, rock, R&B–these all come from the same root and are primarily African. Also, in tango music there are rhythm patterns called palos, and when you play them slowly, it becomes a reggae beat… Spanish music can be played in different styles and still maintain its original feeling. I think a lot of contemporary Spanish music has these kinds of flavors within it.

2. Do you think there is a thread or signature that is unique to Spanish music and can be heard when listening to the country’s contemporary music?

DePedro: One thing that I know is that we put a lot of heart and emotion in everything that we do–food, music, art–and maybe that’s the Spanish thing.

Gecko Turner: What really makes Spain unique musically is flamenco music. Flamenco to me is like the blues: it’s real, it’s not a pose, it’s not a fake thing. It’s a very pure art form and expression. It is very deep and sophisticated. I can’t play flamenco music because it is not something one can pick up; it takes years and years of practice to be able to do so. I try to take musical elements from flamenco like hand claps and whatnot to incorporate into my music, and I also try to use the same approach in order to get to that pure feeling that flamenco has.

3. Please provide a little background about your song featured on the España CD.

Depedro: “Como El Viento” is my favorite song; it’s about how when everything seems to be wrong, the one you love gives you light and you can do whatever [you want]. [It also] talks about the fact that one single person is like a light breeze, but together [humanity] could be a hurricane, which is a lesson I learned in a place called La Realidad in the south of Mexico, from the locals.

Gecko Turner: The chorus of “Te Estás Equivocando” just came to me, and I started to pound my hands against my chest and play the rhythm (laughs). It has a Cuban reggae type of rhythm-bat, bat, bat-and the lyrics just came to me: “You are getting it wrong, mama…you gotta learn from your mistake…behind your eyes is the truth.” The song came together very naturally.

4. Who are your influences and/or inspiration in regards to your music?

DePedro: I grew up listening to the music of central Africa [played by] my mother, who lived there for 15 years. I also listened to the pre-war songs that my grandma used to sing to me every day and of course all the tapes that I could find of rock, blues and pop music.

Gecko Turner: I’ve always believed that you are what you eat, and for musicians, what you listen to is what you eat. I always wanted to drink from the source of the fountain. As a result, I listened to a lot of blues and James Brown, Robert Johnson, Ray Charles and more. I grew up listening to groups like The Rolling Stones, The Beatles and Bob Dylan and they in turn introduced me to these blues artists.

DePedro: It is an honor to be part of a Putumayo album. I didn’t expect that you guys would choose me for that, so as a fan of your philosophy of exposing people to new cultures through music: thank you!

Gecko Turner: Thank you for having my music on Putumayo and España, I am so happy to be part of this new album!