French singer abandons punk to embrace reggae

M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

For some musicians who started out playing punk, reggae seems to be the next logical step they feel compelled to pursue in their musical careers.

After playing straight-forward punk in their debut album and Give `Em Enough Rope, British legend The Clash made a toe-dipping attempt at reggae in London Calling before making a full-blown reggae assault in Sandinista!.

The Washington D.C.-based hardcore band, Bad Brains, went even further by embracing not only reggae but also its Rastafarian philosophy, alienating their U.S. fans who did not believe that the Jamaican genre could go hand in hand with hardcore.

Also following such a daring musical direction is French singer Bruno Garcia a.k.a Sergent Garcia, who recently staged a gig organized by the French Cultural Center (CCF) here.

Formerly known as member of alternative band Ludwig Von 88 in 1997, Garcia is now a household name in the French- and Spanish- speaking world for popularizing a mix of reggae, salsa, ska and rumba, which he calls salsamuffin.

While here, Garcia put on a rapturous concert for the Jakartan crowd, showcasing his skills by blending all the best elements of South American music.

During the full-house gig, Garcia revisited his punk roots by giving a spirited rendition of Revolucion, a song from his fourth album La Semilla Escondida, which drew on The Clash's Revolution Rock.

"The Clash for me is the major band. They are my all-time favorite band. I saw them six times when I was 15 and I met Joe Strummer before he died and asked him about making a tribute song for his band," Garcia said, referring to The Clash's now-deceased frontman.

Garcia, who learned to play guitar at the age of 12, said watching the Clash and other punk trailblazers perform inspired him to set up a band that would emulate them.

After a hasty audition, Garcia was given the go-ahead to play with Ludwig Von 88 as bass player.

"I did not know how to play the guitar but the band members said it was OK. I played my first concert at the age of 14. It was crazy and I wanted to keep doing this for the rest of my life," He said.

Joining Ludwig turned out to be a rewarding experience, as in keeping with punk's do-it-yourself (DIY) creed, Garcia was forced to master the business all by himself. "Because Ludwig was an indie band, you had to do everything on your own. We organized concerts and released records ourselves. I prepared all the instruments and I was also the sound engineer," he said.

Even though rewarding, Garcia however came to feel that punk was not a sufficient vehicle for channeling his ingenuity and growing political convictions.

"As I traveled, got to know other musicians and a variety of musical styles. At the same time, I also wanted to get my message across to many more people ... punk was not enough. The problem with punk is that you only talk to punks," he said.

After leaving Ludwig, Garcia courted a number of talents from Latin America to help him conceive a new sound that would later emerge as salsamuffin.

On playing reggae, Garcia said that he had merely taken on board all of the influences that had been around him all along. He has a mixed cultural background as his father is of Spanish descent and his mother is French, both with strong musical backgrounds. Garcia also grew up in a multi-racial neighborhood.

However, it took him quite some time before he could reach a mass audience with his reggae invention. "No record company wanted my first record. However, they came back to me in droves after learning that big crowds always turned up at my shows," he said.

And the crowds turned out to be right. In the course of over eight years, Garcia has sold hundreds of thousands of records from his four albums Viva El Sargento released in 1997, Un Poquito Quema'O in 1999, Sin Fronteras in 2001, La Semilla Escondida in 2004, and one greatest hits collection.

All the commercial success, however, did nothing to tamper with Garcia's punk credentials. "I may no longer have the spiky hair but I think I'm still a rebel," he said.