Wayfaring
musician Raúl Vargas got a tip from a fellow Spaniard he crossed paths with in
Sydney, Australia: He had to go to San Francisco, and he had to check out the international
hostel in the Mission District. Vargas, who spent years traveling after playing
music and cooking professionally in Madrid, was game.
A few weeks
later, he landed, got to the hostel, and knew it. He had found his place. That
was where Vargas met bassist Vinicio Peñate which led to the birth of Makrú.
Sixteen
years passed, and a lot has changed, but Vargas and the band he founded in
2008, Makrú, are still loud and proud and freethinking as ever. On Tu Mission,
the five-strong group blends everything from reggae to rumba flamenca to ska in
songs designed to spark change and connect listeners to the spirit of the place
that inspired the project.
“Message is
as important as the music on this album,” Vargas explains. “It doesn’t have to
be openly political. In general when I write, a song’s message could be silly
or really serious and important. I picked songs for this new album that create
missions for people, ways they can hopefully help to improve their lives and
surroundings, even in small ways. I decided to do fewer songs but have them be
much stronger in this purpose.”
Songs beckon
listeners to harken to nature’s beauty (the rolling, rainforest-inspired
“Palabras”), to connect with their personal source of happiness and peace
(“Cloud”), to call for open borders and free movement (the punchy brass-powered
reggae ska anthem of “Nómadas Opción”).
As sonic
nomads, Makrú lets songs take on whatever style or color they need to make
their point. “I may write a rumba or a ska for one song, the next song will be
likely something completely different,” Vargas reflects. “I don’t really have a
niche that way, and we add new instruments or sounds or influences that fit the
conscious message.”
Makrú grew
out of a uniquely Bay Area creative endeavor, La Malamaña. Vargas settled in
the Mission and got to know fellow Spanish-speakers from around the Latin
world, including Peñate. The experience made him rethink his own roots, and he
went from listening to mostly Anglophone rock to diving into music from Spain
and Latin America.
“We were
hanging around, all these Latino and Latina friends, eight people from seven
countries. We want to start a project, but we don’t know what we’re doing,”
Vargas recalls with a laugh. “The group had so much talent, with dancers,
actors, and musicians. We decided to do three different arts combined into one
project. It was unique every time, dancing on stilts and juggling fire.”
Along with
the performance art came wild, upbeat music. “My fellow artists encouraged me
to bring more Spanish flavor to the music, so I started writing music for it,”
Vargas says. “We had this mix from Venezuela, Cuba, El Salvador, Costa Rica,
Spain and Argentina, and I really loved playing around with it.” The mix of
pan-Latin music and art was pretty unique for the Bay Area and eventually won
the group gigs at major local venues.
Makrú spun
off from La Malamaña, keeping its wide-ranging but Latin-centric heart. The
group’s sound emerged gradually: “The music I was writing and that I keep
writing, makes the most of all the places I’ve been and where I’m from,” says
Vargas. “It’s also drawing on the diverse experience from the band members.”
North American guitarist Bob Sanders, Colombian singer and vihuela player Jenny
Rodriguez, and Turkish violinist and oud player Haluk Kecelioglu bring their
own musical ideas to Makrú. The diversity in sonic and geographic origins has
sparked a united sense of urgency and hope, as Peñate explains. “We put our own
sources of inspiration and energy into our music,” he says. “Some of the lyrics
in ‘Where you wanna be’ are like a mantra to me. ‘Embrace the world / And fight
until you are gone.’ I want to live by that.”
Though
calling for listeners to find their personal mission, big or small, many of the
songs are wonderfully fanciful. The dreamy quality of “Cloud” Vargas decided to
magnify with a floaty clarinet line. “Palabras” was written on a laidback day
in the Costa Rican rainforest, when the sounds and sensations of nature
overwhelmed Vargas, who started jotting down individual words to capture sweet
and sour interaction between humans and nature.
Another
feeling that guides Tu Mission is the band’s birthplace, the infamously
bohemian neighborhood that has faced an onslaught of change and gentrification.
Vargas chronicles the eviction woes of a long-term resident on “Tu Mission,”
who looks around and sees the places he loved have disappeared. Though Vargas
still lives in the Mission, “the place I wanted to stay sixteen years ago is
very different now. The bohemian artist vibe is being pushed out by the tech
community. Those two worlds have a tough time merging,” he notes. “San
Francisco has always been changing, sometimes really dramatically, and I think
by highlighting the stories and considering our roles in it, we can find new
connections and a better way to be in our community.”
No matter
where you are, however, “Our mission is to be aware and to get involved in what
is happening around us,” muses Vargas. “We all need to prioritize our goals,
dreams, and wellbeing as well as those of our community…We want listeners to
reflect on what is important,” and to get moving, be it on the dancefloor or in
their lives.
