Diandra Interviews Gabriel Garzón Montano: Staying Clear In Artful Vision

The curse of the creative is that their mind can have more sparks than a Macy’s Fireworks display. Thoughts can surge a million miles a minute around your mind, and the more intelligent, aware, and cultured you are, the harder it is to control such sparks. Yet, it is a good problem to have; being so inspired by so many things. You can see such goodness in Gabriel Garzón-Montano’s work and process.

Diandra: Having so many musical and cultural influences, is it hard to gain a set sound?

Gabriel: Definitely! It’s definitely been a conversation. Now, I’m just embracing all the different “bags,” and spaces I can inhabit, and all the different music that I really love and I want to make apart of my sound. I used to think that it was not concise enough to create one mega-fusion of all my influences, which inevitably happens if you channel into yourself.

I think not worrying about what genre my music will fall into is really liberating, and is going to allow me to share my music with people in a more reckless, inspired way. I have records that can live in different worlds; if you are really bent on genre. But, now, I am just going all out with it, and enjoying my range: singing in Spanish, making records that sound like Hip Hop next to ones that sound like Bjork.
Gabriel Garzón-Montano – Golden Wings [Official Video]

Diandra: How do you keep clarity in your process?

Gabriel: When I start something, I start a set of rules so that the song does end up having a certain logic. Like, harmonically, if I play a 7 chord, and take the third out, it opens the song up and makes it less R&B. You could do gestures of Stevie Wonder, but then take out some notes, and create a shell voicing that sounds a lot like it could live in a Radiohead space. So its still the same gestures, but you are taking out notes so different colors and emotions come out, or you are using the same chords in different contexts. So, its really about being strict and subtractive with the harmony.

Yet, when I am writing lyrics it is different. Like, I just a wrote a song, and I said, “I want to talk about the anxiety in my head.” Then, I was listening to Carl Sagan, and how we are just a little, blue dot, and, eventually, we do not even see that dot, and how the whole galaxy becomes a tiny, little dot amongst tons of other dots. So, you realize how everything is so small.

Sometimes, when I am in a cab, and I am really late, I am stressed out and feeling flushed. I think, “I have to lower my heart rate because it is not good for my body. It is negative adrenaline.” So I zoom out, and reflect on birds and then clouds and then so on, and everything is small again. It really is ideal. So, the song starts in a very emo place, and I never want to stay there. I want to resolve it, and show people the light, while trying to curb my “preachy” tendencies. So that is my one limitation; I am going to start out in my feelings and then zoom out of them to push further and further away from the panic that started them. And there other rules I invent for a song. Another rule is that I will say, every lyric needs to start with a preposition like, “in a cabin” or “on the ocean.” Again, it is to give you order.

Gabriel Garzón-Montano – Bombo Fabrika (Official Video) // Jardín

Diandra: So, by all means, your creative process is very meditative and spiritual?

Gabriel: Yeah, I am. It is who I am. Intention equals manifestations. I need enough of a richness to draw from because, otherwise, the process feels really trite and really surface. I want to create a space where I can really hold onto things and jump around to give the story depth.

Diandra: Your music has been described like “magical realism?” What is the literature that inspires your music?

Gabriel: I would say Gabriel Garcia Marquez. He has a very “matter of fact” way in discussing tragedy. He can be so funny and very zen about it, which is so Colombian. Of course, I love all the magic and colors. Obviously, his work is set in Columbia so you have all the lands, cultures, and animals. So, it cannot help but be magical.

On the European side, you have Arthur Rimbaud. His book, Illuminations, is a huge inspiration to me. It is very surreal and somber. He paints these really wild scenes that are filled with color. So, in my music, I started titling songs after fruit. Like, when I heard a Frank Ocean’ Channel Orange, he has a lyric, “mangos, peaches, and limes,” that created so many images in my mind. You can create, through your lyrics, a sub-conscious music video. Lyrics are like an internal projection.

Diandra: Well, I find your music makes me see emotions, and one emotion you always touch upon is desire, which is why I find it ironic that you mention anxiety. How does your music help you control your desires and anxieties for them?

Gabriel: I think music is a release of energy. Energy is always flowing and forming. I think it is a really healthy, natural way to treat the body, and the inevitable dancing you do, when you hear an instrument, and the singing in the shower we will do. Scientists show all that is very healthy. So, it is very cathartic, and you release a lot of energy through music. Yet. I do not think any of that would be complete without resting the mind, and pushing yourself into another place where you cannot even consider your thoughts. I think music does that. I believe that all the arts is something we have in common.

Gabriel Garzón-Montano – Bombo Fabrika (Official Video) // Jardín

Diandra: Still, you come from a very artistic family. Did that separate you from others, when growing up, in terms of perspective?

Gabriel: It really became clear to me when I went to college, and encountered all the tri-state, suburban cultures, that I was not American for the first time. That was really powerful to me. I came to this culture from another place, and I felt separated. I had an identity crisis.

When people used to question what there roots were, I thought it was so semantic. Then, I realized how people see themselves is tied to deeper political and power structures. It is conditioning and white supremacy. I understand that now. It dawned on me that I was coming from the identity and mindset of a white, Caucasian because that is how society treated me because I was not dark enough to not be. And, I spoke English and I sound like an American. So, in my mind, I was being inclined to be this “white dude” that society projects as the ultimate figure. So going to college, I felt at odds with the culture I was most seen.

Also, people who did not have the same culture as me were making incredible art. So there are whole, other layers of judgments. We live in a society that thinks if someone is from somewhere and likes the Kardashians, they are incapable of a full range of artistic expression. Yet, you can’t judge.
Gabriel Garzón-Montano – Fruitflies (Official Video) // Jardín

Diandra: What do your parents say about your artistic career?

Gabriel: My dad is a man of few words and he has always looked out for me, and tells me what I need to work on because he knows people are gassing me up. From time to time, he writes that the way I live my life is an inspiration to him, and that he is so proud. All, he has ever wanted for me is that I stay connected to the source.

Frankly, Gabriel is more connected to the source of his heart and creativity than most, and he is still very young. After this interview, I am more excited than ever for he music. He is so gifted that, if he truly chooses to be fearless, he can change the “music game,” and show that people do not need be told what “genre” they are listening to so as to know this is good music. The best works are often the ones we cannot describe but can completely feel, which is what Gabriel Garzón-Montano offers. Click Here For More Information On Gabriel Garzón-Montano.