Left Coast Live

Interview of the Week: AIVAR

Aivar.

Aivar has been holding it down for the past three years and have already earned the reputation of being the band to catch live in San Jose. They are also one of the few bands already confirmed to perform at this year’s Left Coast Live music festival in downtown San Jose. Aivar released their self-titled album last year in August and have a DVD out featuring their concert at the Catalyst in Santa Cruz opening for Eek-A-Mouse.

Can you tell me what influences you or the band in the Bay Area or San Jose specifically?

Chris: I think the biggest thing in San Jose, is that it’s a big melting pot. I started with hip-hop originally, playing sax with that. Then I noticed that everything was so separated in San Jose.There’s the genres and that’s that, nothing else. The idea with the whole band in general, was to break that. Take musicians and artists from all genres and put them together in one group.

How does a band like Aivar fuse rock/blues/reggae all into one band?

Chris: It starts with an idea. The average idea with us is I’ll come with lyrics and a melody and maybe a few chords. Then our guitarist has the rock en Español, The Doors and blues kind of background; and our bass player has the funk background. We just start jamming and say this is the vibe for this kind of song and everyone puts their own little influence and adds harmony wherever we can. The big thing is that we try to let the music go on its own little journey. We don’t worry about the classification, if its reggae or rock. We let the music speak for itself and let everyone influence it. Our drummer is a very funk/punk drummer; he’s not a huge reggae drummer, but he plays reggae and ska.

How did you guys all meet and form Aivar?

Chris: In 2005 or 2006, I came back from Croatia; my family is from an island there. I came very inspired, just ready to devote my life to art; quit everything and just do that. I wanted to put together a band. I’m a huge admirer of Ben Harper and Manu Chao, they’re both very diverse in what they do, so I just started contacting people. I got a drummer in the band that I went to high school with. Then I found another guitar player, but he fell through. Then the bass player turned into the drummer then the guitar player. All these weird things started to happen over time. Some of them were from Craigslist, others were friends of friends. Now the core group that we have, the drummer and the bass player have known each other their whole life. Our current guitar player, Matt, is like a family member of mine; he’s my best friend. He originally played keys for us. Then our guitar player left, so I asked if he wanted to play guitar and he agreed to. Matt and I have known each other for years. Jacques and Josh have known each other for years. We’ve all kind of known each other through the community and playing out. The last 2 years have been going serious, before that people were in and out. Now we have our core group and it’s also because it has the whole family element. We may bicker and fight just like everyone else, but it’s because we love what we do and want the best for Aivar.

Aivar has been together for 3-4 years, how does the band go from being just a jam band in a garage to being known as one of the best bands in San Jose?

Chris: A lot of hard work and hustle. I live, eat, and breathe this and so do the rest of the guys.

What advice would you give to other bands, who are blending all types of genres, to get seen and heard in San Jose? Or just any band in general?

Chris: I would say stay true to yourself and don’t worry about the genre or title per song or your entire style. Just do what’s right for you. You meaning your group, the people you’re working with. It really takes 18 hours a day. The great thing about this was, yeah I did quiet doing everything else, but I kept everything music and art related. I may make my own hours, but I may not work for four hours a day. Then I might do three hours of phone calling or emailing all night long. Sitting up on Facebook and Twitter, just constant contact and connecting with people, never giving up.

Do you think the use of social media tool is a really vital part for a band now?

Chris: I think now in days it is. It’s an unfortunate thing, because I have a very old school mentality; but it is that way. You gotta stay up with Facebook. It’s like if you have 100 friends on Facebook as a band, that’s terrible, because that means your network is small. That’s how people communicate and artist have to adapt with the times., have to go with the trends. You don’t have to be trendy or sell-out by any means, but you have to use what’s there and what’s given to you.

Being in a band from San Jose, and also being from San Jose, what are some of the best venues to play at?

Chris: If you asked me two years ago I would’ve said Sofa Lounge. Sofa Lounge was one of the best venues in San Jose, it was remarkable. Not saying anything negative against anything else! It just had a very intimate and honest feeling to it. When we started playing, our first gig was at Nickel City, there was no stage and it had a happy birthday banner in the back of it, it was terrible. But that was the thing, we would play anywhere. That was our first show, but before that, we played this Starbucks porch party. As a starting off band, you need to take what you can get. Do what’s right for you. There’s a lot of great venues to start off at. South First Street Billiards is a good one and Blank Club is always fun. We run an open-mic for starting musicians in Cupertino, so every Wednesday in Cupertino that’s what we do. We give bands a chance to play a few songs. We’ve meet a few bands that have played 3-4 times and they came back to us that they are ready to play gigs now. It helps them as a starting point.

Is being involved with the community a big part of what makes Aivar who they are?

Chris: I think its huge. Matt and I were part of protests. Most protests in San Jose, we’re heading it, helping it, or doing anything we can for it. We just did he march for the budget crisis, which ended going crazy in the East Bay, but we played that at De Anza and helped speak out for that. We helped raise money for Haiti, we’ve thrown benefits. The community is a big thing for us. I’m working on a committee for Bring it Back, a 2-3 day thing in San Jose where it takes hip-hop, rock, reggae and they do beat boxing, break dancing, battle rapping. They donate food, cans, clothes and have artists painting graffiti all over. That’s something that is huge. That’s why Left Coast Live is great, we just had a meeting and I went there and said that we need to push the art community. The art community is important. Yeah, our music is important, everybody is important, but the whole is important. If you go to a show and see someone painting and then you see a reggae band then you see hip-hop. Maybe you don’t like one of those things, but you’re gonna like something and feel some sort of connection. We battle apathy so much, that it’s important to open people’s eyes.

You guys were part of Left Coast Live last year, what to do you hope to get out of it this year or see different this year?

Chris: At the planning meeting I spoke out on a different things, one was that it has to be completely green. What we’re working on right now, and talking to organization is even going as far as having a bicycle power stage. 10 people on a bicycle just powering the stage and the music! Solar power energy, that’s a huge thing and wind power energy. Another thing is use recyclable materials that can be used the next day, so we’re not wasting. Also, as I was saying earlier is the artists, that we bring painters out and have that kind of environment and have an open call at every venue. Another thing that I’m fighting really hard is for anyone under 13 to be let in for free. I’ve started music programs in the Bay Area for kids, I teach music during the day and that’s a huge thing, to get kids to be exposed to that. So that’s a huge thing, the kids, the art community, and keeping it green and good for our environment. We have to stay very proactive in the community.

While being part of the community is a huge part of what makes Aivar, I read on your MySpace that you guys like writing positive lyrics. How do you guys incorporate that into your band and music?

Chris: We have a song called Lights On and it’s all about flipping that switch. There’s someone painting and looking for inspiration or they’re being completely ignored, it doesn’t have to be that way. If there’s a man in the corner that needs help, I’m not saying to give your money to every homeless guy but give them a peaceful smile, say hello, don’t ignore him. I know things are scary and it’s hard to get out of our bubbles, but that’s how we definitely incorporate into our lyrics. Our lyrics are about positivity and love, finding exploration. We have a song called Medicine Man, but because it’s a reggae song people think it’s about marijuana, it’s a natural assumption. However, I don’t write about drugs or about alcohol. The song is about finding your inspiration or always looking for answers in the wrong places, but the bottom line is that the answer is inside of you. You just have to be open with yourself, communication with you and everyone else is important and I think that comes out in our lyrics. You can’t be just lost in something, we have another song called Lost in Love. You can’t be lost in love, but you gotta be found in love. If you’re lost in love, then you’re in love, but lost. That’s a big thing with us, when we’re writing.

I’ve noticed that Aivar covers Manu Chao quite a bit, what made you guys want to cover them?

Chris: Just the inspiration that he drives for me; I don’t understand a lot of Spanish or French, a little in each, but he’s driven me to learn a little bit with the lyrics. He (Manu) always makes me feel good. You can be singing a goofy love song or some girl breaking up with you, but you’re in a good mood and humming to it and thinking it’s a positive thing. That’s a thing, we take things in stride and always try to stay positive about everything, so he influences me in that way. That’s a huge thing with me and music is that we have the opportunity to make people feel good and let them walk away like they had a good time.

Do you guys feel that on stage too?

Chris: Oh yeah, I think so. Our last album was extremely mellow and everyone always tells us that it doesn’t do us justice because we’re so crazy live. We are crazy live, we bring percussions instruments, we bring bongos for the audience to play. If you come to the show you rock out and that’s the fun part about it. Getting everyone involved and jumping around. When I get on stage I don’t worry about the audience, I’m aware of them, but I worry about being possessed by the music in a very positive way. Letting it over run me.

Speaking about the whole music scene in San Jose earlier, some say the scene is disconnected or that there isn’t any. How do you feel about it?

Chris: Well I think it’s a waste of time thinking like that. I mean you can think of all the terrible things happening in your life, but I’m not walking around broadcasting it. When I see people whining about it, I just don’t want it, it’s so negative. I’m trying to be positive. We should try to bring a since of togetherness by connecting with each other, open your doors more and not just look out for you.

I read that you guys have played with some very huge musicians/bands such as The English Beat and Eek-A-Mouse. How does it feel to share a stage with them?

Chris: It’s crazy and so fun. It’s a really amazing experience to play those shows and have people walk up to you and say that it was amazing, cause then we feel like we do belong there! The first couple of times that it happens you feel out of place, but now that we look at it and see that we’ve played with bands such as Iration, bands that are blown up so it feels good and know that we’re on the right track.

What’s the future for Aivar now?

Chris: The future right now is that we’re working on an EP, the idea is to have it out by June or July. We might tour this summer. If we tour it’s going to be something big. Then after the EP and the tour maybe do a full length album. We might even do the full length album on the road, just do some drum and bass here. Then I don’t know after that, I’m just looking to the few months up ahead.

Aivar MySpace

-Amalia Renteria

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 11th, 2010 at 2:11 am and is filed under Amalia, Artists, Uncategorized. Tags: Aivar, band of the week, Catalyst, Eek-A-Mouse, Left Coast Live, Manu Chao. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.