BASTARDO GERARDO

I came across a video one day on the gram, it looked like my grandma's house in mexico and I stopped what I was doing and watched the whole video.  Who was this cute little weirdo with a curly mullet with a melodic voice singing in spanglish right now?  His name was Bastardo Gerardo and I am now a fan.  

Q:  How did you come up with the name Bastardo Gerardo?

A:  I came up with the name just thinking about something catchy that also was kinda funny, kinda real. My birth name is Gerardo and I was born out of wedlock so Bastardo Gerardo kinda just came to me. 

Q:  Where are you from?

A:  I’m from Inglewood, CA.

Q:  How do you describe your style of music?

A:  I would say my music is like some lo-fi latino pop singer songwriter shit. I dunno, it’s hard to really describe your own work but I've been getting that question a lot as of late so I been thinking bout it more.

Q:  Tell me how you first got into music and when you decided this was something you wanted to pursue

A:  So I’ve always been obsessed with music since I could remember. Been through so many phases of music throughout my whole life I feel blessed for that cuz I really can listen to so much different shit from alternative rock to reggae to cumbia to bossa nova and there’s still so much music out there for me to dive into.  I just started a full deep dive David Bowie phase of music and I’m so stoked on it all haha.

So I’ve always been a fan but I honestly never thought I was good enough or gifted enough to ever pursue it on my own and partly it is from a melee of insecurity issues and doubts and some kinda imposter syndrome kinda shit that a lot of people deal with in their lives. Mental shit ya know. 

I rapped a few times in high school just ducking around on GarageBand with the homies but I was always too scared to sing. When I was around 19 or 20 I found Daniel Johnston’s music and was so moved and inspired by it I decided to make some outsider music kinda shit under a different moniker. I mean here was this guy who wasn’t “technically” good but was so passionate and real with his sound it connects with you as a human. So I shitted out these songs that were not so great technically but very real to me, each song meant something to me. I made about ten songs. I remember my buddy showed me that chords on a piano is just three fingers on the white keys with a space in between each finger so I’d make these out-of-sync basic synthy sounds with a wonky ass drum kit and sing all low like John Maus lol.  It was fun and very therapeutic but I never really felt confident about showing that music, it was more of a coping mechanism which it still is today.

I really wanted to sound like Cuco, Michael Seyer, Inner Wave, but didn’t know how and was too shy or embarrassed to ask anybody lol so when I turned 21 I remember I was so depressed, I was dealing with a lot in my personal life and would try and sound like these guys on my shitty piano and I would fuck up so much hahahah. 

It was honestly so frustrating a lot of the time, but I was so sad with life I was just like well, what else is there to do? So I went on in my little weird endeavors and jobs and relationships and whenever I had some spare time or had to get something off my chest I would use music to cope with that and it honestly has kept me alive today.

I just kept at it and got better every time I made a new shitty song until I actually started liking my shitty songs. I was 26 when I finally put slangs out. 

Q:  I was introduced to your music when I saw your music video “Slangs” and I loved the whole vibe.  First, shout out to whoever your creative director was for the vision of this video because it's fucken ART. 

Can you tell me a little about this video and what it means to you and anything you want to say about how you created it

A:  Hahaha Rob Alpine I owe you my life!!! Yeah so Rob and I actually go all the way back to the high school years, he used to shoot videos of skateboarders and I’ve always wanted to make a movie, I used to admire his hustle.

We kept in touch throughout the years and I reached out to him a few years ago and was like “Yoo are you interested in shooting something? I got an idea for a show” woot woot or whatever and he’s been my main director of photography/editor/producer for live at Jerry’s ever since.

So after the pandemic I was like alright fuck it ima start putting my music out there and I hit up Rob and was like yoo I got this song, it’s about my grandparents and I got an idea for a music video at my grandparents house where I grew up in. We set it up and I let Rob do his thing, he came up with the whole slo-mo idea and he’s always had a great eye. I’ve always very much trusted his ideas, and watching them unfold is apart of the beauty of collaboration.  You don’t know how it’s gonna turn out and you have to let go of your ways and have faith in what y’all are making. 

Q:  What is Bloody Gums and are you a part of that?

A:  So Bloody Gums is an art collective of some of the best friends I have on this earth and I am very much apart of it and so happy to have met all of them. We all come together and help each other out. I really owe a lot to every one of those guys. They picked me up when I was nothing, nobody, just a guy volunteering at their art shows for free weed and food. They’ve all pushed me and helped me to put my art out there at a time when I could never do that. Big shout out to Abars, Willie, Neal, Tofu, Anta52, Deladeso, Berk, Balloonski, Chris Details, Liz, Roman, and Jason. 

Q:  You recently launched a DIY Talk Show called Live At Jerry’s,  It’s rad BTW..  Can you tell us a little about it

A:  Yeah so Live At Jerry’s was actually something that was birthed out of Bloody Gums lol me, Roman, and Willie are the youngest guys in the group and all we’d do is fuck around smoke weed and help them set up shop at different shows.

This was like right before COVID happened and Bloody Gums had a lot of momentum, we were doing shows in New York for the first time and Chris n Liz curated a show in Medellin, Colombia and we were on the phone with Abars and Abars goes,“Yeah we over doing all this shit we’re just waiting on the young guys to do something! Roman, Willie, and Jerry they don’t do shit they just smoke all day hahaha,” and I was like alright bet, here’s my chance.

I was binge watching all these old episodes of Tom Green Show, Norm Macdonald Live, and David Letterman and I really got inspired to do my own DIY talk show. A show where I have guests on and interview them, with a co host, have a guest performance and skits in between the interview. So I hit up Rob Alpine, he was gonna be my camera warrior. My buddy Abner, he was gonna be my music guru. And my unemployed cousin Louis would be my perfect co host. I wanted to make a show about a guy trying to make a show but failing miserably. So if I ever got stressed or worried or worked up trying to be funny or do a good show I could be like “fuck it, if I sound dumb or hacky that’s the point. I’m supposed to be failing.” Which has been a great exercise for just putting your art out there in a time with so much annoying noises and distractions. 

Q:  How long have you been boxing? Give me the all the deets. 

A:  I started boxing in high school for a couple years but was not allowed to fight cuz my mom didn’t wanna sign the waiver. So I said fuck that I’m not gonna train unless I fight or else what’s the point? So along the years I stopped boxing and tried endeavors briefly in visual art and film photography and once we got out of the pandemic I decided to have faith in my abilities to put out my music, continue on with my show, and start training again.

I used to get really stoned and hit the bag at this local gym by my moms house and one of the coaches there was a pro boxer and asked him where he trains boxing at. He told me about TG Boxing in South Central, a real dojo of the sweet science. It’s been the most wonderful art, honestly as good if not better than making music. It’s like your dancing but you’re trying to kill the guy in front of you. There’s so many things I’ve learned in life thanks to boxing. So many ass whoopings that I’ve learned from. So much fear you have to overcome just to step in the ring with a guy and work. You have to become friends with your fear. Nurture it and tame it all that jazz. Boxing is a physical art but it is much more a mental art than anything else. Your mind controls you and everything in there. Your mentality, way of life, and vibrations is everything. My trainer Tron Maxwell has been a great sensei in my journey. 

Q:  What is your purpose in this lifetime?

A:  I would say my purpose in this life is to just have fun and love. I have so much love around me. My friends and family really are the most important thing to me and my life and those two things allow me to have fun. Live the life I wanna live. Boxing, music, interviews, writing, drawing, traveling, doing nothing, seeing where this dance of life takes me. What this life offers me and recognizing the blessings it gives me even if they don’t always seem like bliss. 

Q:  THIS GOES IN ALL MY INTERVIEWS- What’s a question you wish I had asked and answer it.

A:  Wish you would of asked me about reading hahah I freaking love reading. Like maybe what’s your favorite book or what do u like reading?

Favorite book is too hard to say just one but 1984 by Orwell, Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon, Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky, Homesick for Another World by Otessa Moshfegh are some of my favorites. A good fiction novel or history or psychology book is my shit. Self help books my shit too, I’m not gonna lie lol. 

Follow @bastardo_gerardo on Instagram!  

 

 

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