Garcia Peoples

About Garcia Peoples

Formed in New Jersey by guitarists Tom Malach and Danny Arakaki, the band took a few years to find their flying shape, solidifying into a lineup with Danny’s brother Cesar on drums and Derek Spaldo on bass by mid-2016. Ramping up their acceleration around the time of their 2018 Cosmic Cash debut on Beyond Beyond Is Beyond Records, they’ve blasted through residencies and new songs and sessions and collaborations, relocating to New York, picking up two new members in keyboardist/multi-instrumentalist Pat Gubler and bassist Andy Cush, and leaving a trail of live tapes in their wake. This year, they’ve delivered not one but two new albums for BBiB: the sleek and song-oriented Natural Facts and the sprawling improvisatory opus of One Step Behind. 2019 also saw the first performances by the full Garcia Peoples lineup, a six-person behemoth with Spaldo on third guitar.

With a stash of live recordings accumulating at the Live Music Archive, Garcia Peoples’ music is very much a living entity. Since the release of their previous two albums, songs have started to expand, jam suites have grown, and experiments have been undertaken. The first part of 2019 has seen Garcia Peoples back Philadelphia guitarist Chris Forsyth (an expanded Solar Peoples Band has hit double-drummer overdrive several times now), and joined with guitarist Ryley Walker. They’ve improvised on WFMU, and jammed with the sounds of ocean waves and falling rain at strange late night happenings. Probably something else new and wonderful and weird has happened in the Garciaverse since I wrote this.

Whether or not you thought you knew Garcia Peoples’ music, One Step Behind is something new and beautiful, for new heads and old. No matter where you stand–behind, beyond, or another plane altogether–One Step Behind is ready. For those about to get on the Bus, we salute you.

About Jana Horn:

Optimism seemed to come about indirectly, almost in passing, a feeling of being in-between things. I was really mobile at that time, living wherever. Half the songs came through in a week. “Jordan” perhaps the most out of the blue… sitting there as I was on my brother’s couch in Austin. But I guess I don’t think that anything comes from nowhere. Everything is writing to me. A grad professor once told me that masturbation is writing, as long as you’re looking out a window.

I had just discovered, late, Raymond Carver Broadcast, Sibylle Baier (which “Tonight” is more or less dedicated to), Annette Peacock, Richard & Linda Thompson, a short story called “Car Crash While Hitchhiking” by Denis Johnson. I had “Heart Needs a Home” in mind, “The Great Valerio;” I was just really moving through the world, hanging in the shadows of the people I wanted to be. Hoping, looking out, this is Optimism. I was looking for anything.

In 2018, I took these ten songs into a studio in Austin with some members of the band Knife in the Water. I’d been singing with them at the time and it felt right. My friend Ian, who I’d been performing with as a duo for a few years, was with me on drums. “Friends Again” and “Jordan” were written in the process. “Jordan” was such an outlier, I thought: I can’t put this on the album. Then at some point in the recording process, decided to embrace it—the question of whether spiritual themes should be a part of my work—which wouldn’t even be a question now. It’s in everything. But at the time, you know, it was the first time, and so the song kind of scared me, like I was a mule for it instead of its owner.