In conversation with Javier Weyler
Best known as former member for Stereophonics. Hailing from South America, Javier has an extraordinary career as a professional drummer, sound engineer, and film composer. The self-proclaimed all rounder tells us about his journey as a musician, the value of versatility, and shares his thoughts on these precarious times.
Interview by Daniel Vildósola, Photography by JC Verona
How would you describe yourself as an artist?
Wow, that's a tough one. I suppose an all rounder music designer, which is a very South American thing. When I first came to the UK that was one of the things that people sometimes didn't understand. If you're a musician in South America, you always end up doing another job anyway. That’s what people think. So you end up training in all the things or combining things. I'm lucky to have studied media communication and audio engineering. It's good to have perspective from many different angles. I would say that's probably the most characteristic thing; be an all rounder, so you can find gigs as an engineer, producer or musician. You have to wear many hats by necessity. For example, when you first start your band, you don't really have all the infrastructure or people helping you with anything. You end up doing stuff yourself otherwise nothing gets done.
Back in the day, a person would just concentrate on their craft and become really good at it and develop as an artist. But nowadays there's so much pressure from everything around you; you need to be good at social media, have networking skills, and work out how to portray yourself as a brand, etc. You just have to be careful because sometimes it can take away from the actual act of creating something. It’s important to not lose sight of what the actual goal is or what you’re trying to communicate.
Can you tell our readers about your band Claroscuro?
That was my first band. I was gigging professionally with them at 15 years old. It was an amazing chapter. It was my first everything as a creative. We were a quite independent band in many ways. We signed the two albums we released with small labels, made our own videos, flyers, and produced our own concerts. We had a sort of small cult following within the indie movement in Venezuela at the time. It was amazing. There’s something quite special about doing all those things for the first time. You do everything with a lot of energy, and you're kind of discovering that path with your mates. That's something I would recommend to anybody to do — something collaboratively with somebody else and create something. That gang mentality is amazing. When you have that push and pull, different opinions and things that you're like trying to steer into a common goal is amazing.
“That gang mentality is amazing.”
We ended up being the first Venezuelan band to have their music video played on MTV for Latin America. It was for our song, Mantarraya. At that time, Latin America used to broadcast the same signal from Mexico all the way to Argentina, so it was really good for us. Later on, they split it to North and South America and Brazil was its own thing. But yeah, we felt good about having regular programming with our independent release even though now you’d probably see that video now and think that it's absolutely shit, but at the time it felt like we were doing something quite amazing.
Why did you choose to move to the UK?
The obvious choice would have been to go to the US but for me it was an easy decision. I grew up listening to a lot of British bands. That was the kind of music which influenced me the most. I was a huge fan of bands like The Cure and Depeche Mode, and obviously the classics like The Beatles, The Who, The Stones, and Bowie. I mean, it has to be here, right?
There's another element to it as well. I admired the work of Phil Manzanera from Roxy Music. He is half Colombian and half British. He produced some amazing Latin American artists like Robi Draco Rosa, Fito Páez, Aterciopelados, all of which I listened to loads when I was growing up. So for me, Manzanera was a quite an important link between the UK and Latin America. I wanted to tap into that creative space and felt like I needed to be here. Lastly, I would say, is that back then there was a slightly clearer distinction between how people approached making and mixing music in the UK than they did in the US. The UK was slightly rougher around the edges, more creative and more focused on capturing a vibe or a movement. The US at the time was quite clinical and sharp and very defined. I preferred that sort of roughness in the UK, so here we are. Culturally and music-wise the UK is one of the best places in the world.
How did you end up joining Stereophonics?
Well, they came to the studio where I was an assistant engineer. I ended up playing percussion and assisted on the fourth album. Eventually we became mates. They went on tour and halfway through Stuart, the drummer at the time, stopped playing with them. They got Steve Gorman from the Black Crowes to fill in. When it came time to write the fifth album they didn't have a drummer. I practically lived in that studio so I ended up playing drums on all the demos and everything. One thing led to another, and then they invited me to record the whole album with them. At the time I thought to myself “Cool, I’ll just record the album then go back to my day job.” But it kept on going — the guys asked me to join as a permanent member of the band. We had amazing times. Several world tours and a chunk of albums, I have such fond memories of everything we shared together. For a kid from South America, to tour the world, like five or six times and go to places that I never thought I’d never see. On top of that, playing your own music. Yeah, it was really good. Like a kid's dream, right?
What is your favourite memory from touring with them?
Fortunately, I have many. It was very special when we played Live 8 in 2005 in Hyde Park. It was a day before my birthday, actually. Apart from the fact that I had I never played for such a big audience before in my life, the most beautiful thing about it was that my grandma back in Argentina was able to watch me on TV. I remember thinking to myself, “Wow, this is huge”.
Why did you leave Stereophonics? What have you been doing since?
Even though it was my dream to play in a big successful band like that, there were a lot of things that weren't being fulfilled towards the end. I always have been very interested in the combination of music with images and motion picture, collaborating with other artists; or sound design. You need to keep challenging yourself if you want to grow and also bands are like relationships and sometimes you can grow apart.
Being a producer, for example. I think you become richer as an artist the more you collaborate with people. If you stick in one ingredient all the time, it’s great because you develop that. But at the same time, you can become quite stagnant unless you challenge yourself, or unless you're in an environment where you get challenged. There was a part of me that wasn't really connecting with my past in terms of other cultures too.
“You become richer as an artist the more you collaborate with people.”
So to say the least, I’ve mostly been back in the studio. I created Breaking Waves, which I consider my sound lab precisely out of that necessity. A place which is more inclusive, where you see music as a whole creative process. Composing music for films, producing artists, sound design creation, sound branding. And even producing podcast series.
It’s quite interesting because when you work on sound or music that serves a purpose, you start detaching yourself as an artist from it. That said, you can still keep your creative hungers satisfied.
Aside from that, I’ve been lucky enough to play drums for a few other artists. I have been touring and recording with Phil Manzanera (Roxy Music). It’s very inspiring to work with somebody that was in the scene at the height of the 70s and 80s. I also had project with Zak Starkey (The Who, Oasis) for a few years and that was really fun. Playing drums for him, such a talented drummer himself, was an amazing experience.
El Testigo – The Witness
Can you tell us about some of the Film & TV series you’ve worked on?
At the end of last year, we did all the music for a Netflix original series called Maradona in Mexico. It was about Maradona’s time coaching a second division team in Sinaloa. It was a very interesting project with seven episodes.
Before that, I worked on a documentary by Kate Horne called, The Witness, which is actually on Netflix as well now. It's a beautiful project, which now has been nominated for the International Emmys. It is about the life work of a photographer called Jesús Abad ‘Chucho’ Colorado who has been documenting through his lens, the civil war in Colombia for more than 25 years. Rather than being grim, he has been sort of focusing on the things that represent the process of forgiveness within a population like that of Colombia; a country which has been living with a war for 50 plus years. The documentary sheds some light on how they can actually grieve and how they can actually forgive the other side in order to move forward as a society. His striking photos manage to find a lot of beauty within the situation.
What are your thoughts on how the arts have been affected by the pandemic?
Generally speaking I think that creative endeavours have been hit really hard by the pandemic. Anything creative is about sharing; it's about collaborating with people; it's about creating something that you want to put out there for people to consume. So professionally, it's been really, really tough on the music industry. I’m lucky that I have a studio and have a few projects going on; but it has been really, really tough for a lot of my friends who have depended mainly on the touring side of things.
Unfortunately, we're in a situation where the arts are very low on the priority list according to the people governing this country. It's quite ironic because they're happy to tell us to rescale and retrain; while they are the first ones to shag, do drugs, get drunk or party to our music. They're sitting at home during a lockdown watching Netflix all day or listening to the records created by artists. So it's like, I mean, they’re actually using what we create, right? Or they benefit in some way or another, emotionally or whatever you want to call it. You can't just erase that. If you don't have artists, you will have a dull society. Artists are the people that question everything. Historically and culturally speaking, the creative and people who dare to think outside the box; are the ones who are actually questioning the rules and the status quo.
“We’re in a situation where the arts are very low on the priority list… …It’s quite ironic because they're happy to tell us to rescale and retrain; while they are the first ones to shag, do drugs, get drunk or party to our music.”
The reality is when you do something that is an artistic craft, that's your livelihood. You get better with time; it's not something that you can just turn off a switch. It's just not as simple as that. Artists are often trapped between the emotional and the rational plane. We started this because we had a calling or we had something that we needed to express. So money wasn’t the main motivation. But at the same time, then you want to make a living out your art, right? So that's always a struggle that we will incur. We're always in the middle and this COVID situation makes it far more challenging.
Has it slowed down for you as a film composer?
It did dry up for a while like any other industries, but it has giving us a chance to rethink and reinvent how we create and work. We were all in shock and everything came to a standstill. Now things are gradually moving forward. It has become more apparent that people are very capable of working remotely and remain productive. But at the same time, I am worried about the mental health part of it. We need collaboration, we need to socialise, we need to be impregnated with someone else's ideas and be inspired. So it's a double-edged sword.
I will say the most positive outcome over this has been that you start valuing all your affections, family and friends. Rediscovering things because you aren’t necessarily getting caught up in the rat race or whatever. Reconnecting. It’s been far too easy to lose track of what is really important.
What music have you been listening to lately?
JAVIER WEYLER’S PLAYLIST
1. ‘Nowhere, Man’ by Tune-Yards
2. ‘Gong Of Catastrophe’ by Osees
4. ‘Who You Say You Are’ by Eels
5. ‘Might Bang, Might Not’ by Little Simz
7. ‘Turntables’ by Janelle Monae
8. ‘Loner Boogie’ by Boy Azooga
10. ‘Tonada De Luna Llena’ by Simón Díaz
11. ‘Bára – Hugar Rework’ by Gabriel Olafs & Hugar
Capitan Melao is Javier Weyler’s solo project. Listen to his 2008 release, Lágrima here
Javier Weyler – Cuatro Velas, listen on Spotify here
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