Fantastica Bastidas confess: "It was love at first jam"

Personnel:
Henry Lopez, guitar/vocals. Sonia Hernandez, bass/vocals. Scott Raynor, drums. “We also dabble with other instruments sometimes.”

How would you describe your style?
Raw post punk, surfy, ambient, loud, noise.

Where are you playing?
December 18 at Hello My Name is Red release show at Soundbite studios.

And this Monday, December 20 at Pehrspace with Michael Nhat, So Many Wizards, and Voice On Tape.

Fantastica Bastidas raise the dead. Photo: Sean Carnage

Which came first—the band or the name?
Henry: The band existed before the name did.
Sonia: We formed originally in 2007, been consistently playing since then.

How did you meet and when jamming?
Henry: Sonia and I are long time friends since grade school. We started out with Lee (Lisandro Vega) but he recently had to take time off from the band.
Sonia: Scott came around when we were searching for a new drummer. He responded to an ad we put up at Bedrock Rehearsal.
Henry: We had just begun to start to practice there. We were subletting with our good friend Clay from Batwings Catwings.
Sonia: Turned out it worked out perfectly because he already had a space there.

What’s your ultimate goal with music?
Sonia: To be able to tour and do it forever.
Henry: Goal is to be able to reach new ears… to listen to us, just go all the way with it. Play all the time.

Was there a song you wrote when the band started that made you say “This is going to be a great band”?
Henry: The first song we ever wrote—”Hazy”—we recorded it the 2nd week we started playing. When we heard it we all knew this band was something special.
Sonia: It was love at first jam. The sounds just melted together.

Fantastica Bastidas’ “Hue” directed by Vim Crony

What’s the most recent song you’ve written and what’s it about?
Well right now its a lot of instrumentals because we’re just creating but we plan on adding lyrics later. But I guess there is this one song that is finished called “Trolls” which is about breaking free from things that hold us all down. And having fun on the road.

Where can people get your music and what should they be on the look out for?
All of our music is available for download through our Bandcamp. Our latest album is available for purchase at Amoeba music, The smell, and deafrowrecords.com

We are going to release a new full-length LP as soon as next year. And are also currently planning our next U.S. tour for next year. We will also be performing The Smell Shocase at SXSW 2011.

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And don’t miss the show…