Austin-based World Music trio Easy Compadre are ready to share their songs with you.
Ever since featuring them during our Virtual Vacation series, we’ve been eager to see them perform live.
Until the time comes, we have resorted to jamming to their new releases and talking to Ted, Alfredo and Oscar about their process for Issue 19 “Make/Do.”
What inspires you to make music?
Ted: Honestly current events. Most of the time that triggers my need to write a song. I can channel feelings that I can’t express with actions, and turn them into music. After COVID and quarantine, I started using it as an escape to not think about the world.
I get inspired by protest music, like Cuban and Nigerian music. It’s protest music but the rhythms and harmonies are in major. It sounds happy. It makes you feel good and heal, but at the same time it has that protest action to it. It transforms the angry energy.
Oscar: Music is our group therapy. Especially music that helps us de-stress and have a good time.
Alfredo: Agreed. I feel like we are warriors and we are trying to heal people by sharing this type of music. People can dance, listen or just watch. We’re bringing something to the people.
How do you motivate yourself when you’re stuck?
Oscar: The problem is that we have so many ideas. Sometimes we have to tell ourselves to take it easy.
Ted: Yeah in this band, it hasn’t happened yet. But in the past, what works for me is to stop and identify what caused it. When I get writer’s block I feel like the energy in my body is blocked, so I start running or meditate. You can’t force yourself to write.
Alfredo: We just keep going. Go outdoors. If you feel like you need to experiment with electronics, just go for it, try new things. As Nike says, just do it.
“We are ready to share.”
Do you feel like something inside you compels you to make music?
Oscar: Yes, I’m 100% fulfilled by music. There are many components when you make music.
On your own, it’s very intimate and personal. You connect with the instrument. There’s a second layer when you play in a band and you’re playing covers and that gives you a different sense of satisfaction. That’s a performance. The third layer is creating the music, that’s where it starts to get interesting.
Another layer, performing live, there are some imperfections and happy accidents, like Bob Ross says, that make you react in a different way. There are some things that just happen, when you have feedback from the audience. That’s where the magic happens–dialogue with your band mates and the audience.
Ted: We feel that urge so much right now, with quarantine.
The need to connect and all of those layers. We’ve experienced different ways of connecting with the audience. The need never leaves, the urge to make the music and share it with band mates, then the need to share it with the public.
Alfredo: I have been craving that vibe. We can feel the vibe when someone is paying attention and that’s enough. We are ready to share.
Is there a time when you just had to “make do”?
Oscar: All the time. We try to be prepared.
Ted: We run a very complicated set and we have moments where technology fails. That’s happened. But when all of the digital stuff goes and we are stripped to just three elements, we found out we can play that way.
At one of our gigs, the electric elements went off. We pushed through but the audience didn’t notice. The vibe didn’t change. You just have to push through and keep on going and prepare yourself for the worst case scenario.
If the bare bones are good, that’s when you’ll be able to come through.
Alfredo: We have a strong structure. Then we add our elements. It’s always strong. We’ve been in the worst and best case scenarios, but we expect the worst. That happened and we survived.
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