“While living in Philadelphia and out shopping for music, just browsing, I happened to come across the Caifanes CD El Silencio. My first thoughts were: how cool is this, a rock band that sings in Spanish”, and that’s how Ric Fazekas, “El Padrino”, as he is called by the many bands he has mentored, began his love affair with Spanish rock and “alternativo” music.
In his recently released book “Valley Blvd. Cruisin’ Rock To Alternativo: The Padrino Tales”, Fazekas tells us fascinating stories about his career in music and most importantly, his career with Spanish alternative bands like Pastilla, Maria Fatal, Los Curanderos, and Chencha Berrinches, to name a few, but Ric also tells us about his life in music prior to discovering Spanish rock and he regales us with stories about the Monterey Pop festival, being friends with Janis Joplin or meeting The Who’s drummer, Keith Moon.
“Valley Blvd. Cruisin’ Rock To Alternativo: The Padrino Tales”, was co-written with Fausto Chavez, who began the process through a series of interviews in which he was able to extract some of the most interesting and fascinating tales about Ric’s life in music.
In an interview with Al Borde about his book, Ric explained: “I did not want to sound professorial or scholarly, I wanted to make the reader feel as if they were just listening to me talk”, and Ric and Fausto certainly achieved that. As I read the book, I loved the way the stories flowed and it did make me feel as if I were sitting in front of Rick listening to him telling me the stories.
If anyone is qualified to write a book about music, Ric Fazekas certainly is. During his college years at UC Riverside, Ric worked for the radio station at school and became an influential figure in paving the way for album rock and breaking new artist in the L.A. market. Ric later went on to work for influential record companies on which he helped break new bands like ELO to U.S. audiences. Fazekas has also worked on record promotion, tour management, promoter and record producing.
Several books have been written about Spanish rock, but most of these books are filled with superficial stories about the “big” names like Café Tacuva, Caifanes, Soda Stereo, etc. Ric’s book on the other hand, gives you a behind the scenes look at the struggles and successes of the bands, and the good and bad about the music business, so if you are a music fan, or you have a band and want to know more about how to survive in the music world, this book is a must.
“Valley Blvd. Cruisin’ Rock To Alternativo: The Padrino Tales” can be found on Amazon.com on paper back as well as digital form for Kindle.
Image Credits: The Padrino Tales by Ric Fazekas..
