On November 10, 2009, I sat down for a mug of tea at the Cafe International with Theresa Perez, creator and host of T-Licious Thursdays at the Duboce Park Cafe (which I will be reviewing this week). We talked about her writing process, her educational background, her family, and what it was that inspired a nice girl from West Virginia move out to the Left Coast.
Five Fast Facts
1) Full Name:
Theresa Perez. (No middle name.)
2) Nick Names:
Growing up, her family called her “Tere” (pronounced TEH-reh). Jokingly, her friends will call her “T-Lite” or “T-Licious,” “Lady T,” etc.
3) First Live Show:
The first full-blown concert she remembers going to was Santana in Florida with her mom. But, growing up, her mom worked at what was then the Sheraton Hotel, and so she got to see a lot of local live performances there.
4) Favorite Karaoke Song:
She only did karaoke once, and she sang “Get Into The Groove.” (She loves Madonna.)
5) Who’d you most want to collaborate with?
Tori Amos.
The Interview
The Scene: So, you mentioned Tori Amos. What about her music speaks to you? Is it the lyrics, or is it the journey of the instrumentation?
Theresa Perez: Mostly, it’s the truth. It resonates with me — at least, it did a lot in my adolescence. A lot of times I didn’t understand what she was saying. I remember trying to figure out, “What does she mean? I don’t get it.” A lot of times my ears wouldn’t grasp the meaning behind her words. But, whatever it is — the way she sung it, and the way it was played on the piano — it always spoke to me…after a while! A friend gave me a disk of hers, and it took a few listens. At first I thought, “This is too weird.” It didn’t remind me of anything.
TS: Let’s talk about your background a little bit. You started playing guitar when you were 11. Did you pick that up because one of your parents was also a musician?
TP: No one in my family played music. My grandfather, as a hobby, played the accordion, but I never in my life saw him actually play. As far as my mom tells me, he was the biggest proponent of getting me started on the piano. He really pushed my mom to get me started with piano lessons when I was eight.
TS: So, you started with the piano, then?
TP: Yeah, I started with the piano — lessons once a week, you know, classical, and I loved it! I adored it! I was already writing songs pretty much right away — not vocal songs, but instrumental. And probably by the time I was 10 I started getting really fascinated by the guitar. I listened to a lot of rock ‘n’ roll music — classic rock, like The Doors, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix — and both of my parents, they loved that music, too. And the heart of that music is pretty much the guitar (besides the vocals). It just really spoke to me, and I said (to my dad, I think) that I really wanted to play the guitar. He said, “Well, you have to find affordable lessons and an affordable guitar, and you have to agree to keep practicing and playing and taking lessons on the piano. You can’t stop.” And that totally worked for me. So I did; I found lessons close to my house, and the day I had my first lesson, I was really sick ’cause I got the ‘flu. But I was so set on going, there was nothing that was gonna stop me. So, I made my dad take me to my guitar lesson and he had to pull over so I could vomit (excuse me). I was so sick, but I didn’t care! I still went to the lesson, and I had so much fun! And, you know, I think having the background on the piano, it was easy to pick it up, and it just allowed a whole other form of expression that I just loved.
TS: So, at what point did the vocals come into it for you?
TP: (I’m rolling my eyes ’cause it’s really comical.) I also really loved Mariah Carey, so I’d sing along with her on my little cassette player under my breath. I was really shy to sing, and with good reason, ’cause I really couldn’t sing at all. And I didn’t grow up in a choir; I never sang at school, and my parents didn’t sing, so I really had no exposure to it. And whenever I would sneak out a note or two, my mom was, like, “You know, you should stick to the guitar.” But, one day I was with a friend of mine who also played and sang a little bit, and we were, like, 11 1/2. And we were, like, “Let’s write a song!” So, we got our pen and paper, and I put some chords together and these lyrics. And I also liked Nirvana a lot and grunge music, and the thing is you don’t have to be such a great singer to sing grunge music, so I was kind of coming at it from that angle. “I don’t have to be a good singer. I can still say what I want to say over my guitar chords.” So, I did, and I wrote my first song, and I thought, “Wow, this is something I can do now!” And I loved it. But I was terribly shy. I didn’t want to perform my songs for anyone, other than my friend.
TS: So, you felt comfortable singing in front of your friend?
TP: Yeah, it was more intimate, and I liked to record myself. That started right away. As soon as I started writing — even with the piano when I was really young, 8, 9 years old — I had a little tape recorder and I always recorded my songs. I loved writing something, playing it, and then hearing it back and letting it evolve from there. So, from 12 to 16 was very much a time of becoming comfortable with myself and my own voice, and finally when I was 16 I decided to take vocal lessons. And now I was living in West Virginia and I took vocal lessons from an opera teacher, a really sweet, sweet woman. And, what can I say? I’m definitely not an opera singer. It definitely helped me learn about my voice as an instrument.
TS: So, what range was she training you in?
TP: According to her, at that time, I was a soprano. And then, later I became an alto.
TS: So, then, you started gigging around the time you started voice lessons, right? How did that come about?
TP: When I moved to West Virginia, I was living on this farm commune thing, but not weird! Living there in that community, I started playing with a lot of other people; I started jamming a lot with the guitar and vocals and drumming a little bit here and there. I had a lot of instruments. Over the years I collected a lot of percussion instruments, guitars…I had a 4-track recorder. So I jammed a lot with people in my community, and I also started recording a lot. I lived really close to a college town called Shepherdstown — a very sweet town. And I hung out there a lot and I became friends with the musicians there, and they were all older than me, in their 20s, and I was 16, but we got along well. So we’d jam together. And I don’t know how it initially came about, but, you know, I had been giving piano recitals since I was a little girl; I had that exposure to performance. And at some point, I think someone invited me to play at the local bar. (The town was kind of tiny, so there was a Main Street and two bars.) And one of the bars — I don’t know if they were bending the rules, but they let me perform, even though I wasn’t 21 yet. So, I played with a couple of ensembles, and with a friend, Kelly Cornelius, who played tabla and drumset — very cool music! And we’d have so much fun.
TS: At that point, you’re, what, a sophomore or junior in high school, right? So what made you look at Berklee [School of Music]?
TP: Well, my family’s from the Dominican Republic, and I was visiting my father there one summer, and a really good friend of his was a musician. (And that’s another side of my musical encounters, is that when I go visit my dad, I would hang out with the musician folks down there, and I did a couple of recordings. They were very welcoming and inviting.) So, on one trip, a friend said, “Have you thought about going to the Berklee College of Music?” And I had never heard of it. When I got back to the States, I looked up Berklee on the Internet, and it looked amazing. The programs immediately spoke to me because they allowed for something other than classical music or strictly jazz. And I have great respect for both of those traditions and the schools, but the truth of the matter is that I wasn’t a really strong classical musician, and I definitely wasn’t a strong jazz musician at all. So, I just knew that my passion…it wasn’t in those [other] places. At the time, I knew I didn’t want to go to a liberal arts school. The only thing I was interested in learning about was music. And my other option was to go to New Zealand and do organic farming.
TS: Oh, wow! So, as a sort of outcropping of living in the communal experience? Was there a connection between the two?
TP: Well, not to a specific place, but a friend of mine that I knew from the area had been involved in a program called “WWOOF” [World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms]. It’s a cool network all around the world where farms become members of the network, and then say you want to go do this, then you become a part of the network, and then you have access to the list of all the farms on the network, and you can basically call them up and say, “Hey, do you have any jobs in the area?” So, they’ll basically give you a job to do and they’ll give you room and board, and they don’t pay you, but you get a place to live and eat. So, it seemed like a cool thing to do, and I wasn’t sure yet what I wanted to do. So, those were my options: music school or organic farming. And I wanted to go to New Zealand, for some reason.
TS: So, what, then, made you decide to do the music thing and not take, like, a year off and try the organic farming thing?
TP: What I did was I went through the process of applying [to Berklee], and got accepted, which was great, and I was happy but I was still unsure. And at the time, I had a book about palm reading, and so I remember getting into my car one day and looking down at my palm, and I don’t think the lines actually said anything; I just remember that was the moment that I decided that I was going to go to school, while looking down at my palm. And something in my heart was just, like, “No, Theresa, you need to go do this.” So, I said, “O.K.” And then I remember thinking, “I’m always gonna remember this moment.” So, that was it!
TS: So, then, Berklee is in Boston; how long were you in the New England area?
TP: 3 1/2 years.
TS: So, just for school. You majored in Contemporary Composition?
TP: Contemporary Writing and Production ["CWP"]. And in my last semester I actually switched to Professional Music. Basically, at the time, if you switched majors like that at the end…it got me out of a couple of classes I didn’t want to take, and I was still able to graduate. So, the trade off is that my diploma says “Professional Music,” but 95% of the classes were in CWP.
TS: So, what was your takeaway from that? Did you build up a network of fellow composers and musicians while you were there that you were able to branch out to in the real world, or did you decide that was the end of that chapter and you were going to go find what it was you wanted to do now?
TP: Both. It’s part of my personality. As much as I can decide to go do things and then do them, I also have a very go-with-the-flow kind of approach to my life. I went to school, and I met some of my best friends, both musically and in life — just really great friends. And, of course, a lot of doors have opened for me. And the experience I gained! In a short amount of time, I’ve definitely been exposed to a lot of things. And then I finished school, and where do I go now? I didn’t want to stay in Boston, I didn’t want to move to West Virginia, I didn’t want to go to the DR (Dominican Republic). So, I went to visit a friend in San Francisco, just to visit. I wasn’t even thinking, “Oh, let me check it out to see if I want to live there.” And when I was on the plane, I was at a window seat, and there was moment when the wheels hit the tarmac. And precisely in that moment, I heard a voice inside of me say, “I’m home.”
TS: I love that!
TP: And tears came down my eyes — I hadn’t even gotten out of the plane yet. Long story short, I went back to Boston, and four months later — whoosh! — I came back here.
TS: So, did you crash with your friend for a while, or did you have to find a place to crash?
TP: Well, I have a meditation practice, and the meditation that I practice has two main centers in the United States. One is in Upstate New York, and the other one’s in Oakland, California. And I always knew it was in Oakland, California, but I never knew that Oakland, California was so close to San Francisco. So, [on that first visit] when I got off the plane and I was on the BART going to the Mission where my friend was staying, I remember looking at the map on the BART station and here’s the city called “Oakland.” And I always thought Oakland was really far north, for some reason — I didn’t know anything about California! Then I looked at my friend and was, like, “Is there another Oakland, California?” And she was, like, “No, that’s Oakland. It’s, like, a 15 minute ride away.” And I was, like, wow! ‘Cause the backstory is that I really wanted to live somewhere where I could practice meditation; I wanted to be in that environment – it was an old wish of mine — and I just hadn’t seen the way for it to happen (I didn’t want to go to Upstate New York). These two things came together: the desire to live in the Bay Area, and the meditation center. Basically, what I did was, when I got back to Boston, I applied to live in the center, and I was accepted, so I came to the meditation center and I stayed there about six months.
TS: And did you move into the City at that point?
TP: No. I stayed in Oakland. I found a lovely community — a large, lovely community. I just moved to San Francisco in August. And I assumed that the move would be like nothing, but the truth is that it’s very different living in San Francisco. It’s really a different city, you know? So, I’m really getting used to it.
TS: So, let’s talk a little bit about how you got involved in the local music scene. Did you start looking at ads? Did you start going out and checking out venues? What was your approach to getting involved?
TP: When I first moved, I had my friends start to take me around to lots of venues. I remember going to La Pena a few times. It’s so very communal, it was like, “Ah! I like this place!” But when I worked at Cafe Gratitude in the Mission, I met Michael Franti. I was a line cook, and a waitress [there] knew I was a musician and introduced me to him, and he liked my music, so he invited me to play at The Fillmore. I don’t think he does it anymore, but he used to have a festival at Thanksgiving time. They had bands, and then they had what they called “‘Tweeners” — actually, Rupa and the April Fishes were another ‘Tweener at the time. So, I kind of went from knowing zero to being introduced to a higher level of the music scene, but I didn’t know it. And then, from there, it was the full process. I went through the weekly papers, and I started e-mailing people, which kind of worked and didn’t work. It was really hit or miss. I played at Studio Z [now closed] one time, and, you know, I was invited [to play] a lot ’cause I moved out here and was the new person, so a lot of times they just invited me to play the show. And I’m still learning.
TS: You talk about your discovery of Brazilian music on your Web site. Where in this whole process did that really come to the fore for you?
TP: I really was introduced to it in school. I took a class called “Brazilian Percussion for Non-Percussionists.” (I love those classes, man!) So, I was exposed to all these different Brazilian rhythms and percussion instruments that I got to actually play, and I fell head-over-heels in love. You know, my family’s from the DR, and I grew up listening to merengue and salsa and a lot of Caribbean and latin music, but I didn’t grow up listening to Brazilian music. When I started to hear it and play it in school, it was, like, oh, my God! It still has the latino/African rhythm mixed in with kind of a Spanish guitar, so it has those things which are reminiscent of the music I did grow up on; however, it’s different. First of all, the Portuguese language is gorgeous. And then they have a twist on their rhythms. How do I explain it? It’s like meeting something that’s familiar to you but new at the same time. But really just recently in the last couple of years (2008?) I met some Brazilian people here and was introduced to some more music. And then I pretty much decided, O.K., I’m going to learn how to speak Portuguese. So, I started learning songs, and I have my friends send me songs to learn and help me. So, I practice some things, then meet with them and really get coached. And then I got the opportunity to actually go there [to Brazil] in November of ’08, and the love deepened. And right around that time is when I started to discover myself as an artist — the latin part of my identity — so I really emerged more and I started connecting with a lot of latinos here in San Francisco. I really have been embracing that culture within me and learning more about it. And it happened very organically, and the way that it’s evolved in the last year is that, as I’m learning the language and this culture, it’s obviously infusing very much my music, ’cause that’s part of how I’m learning about it: through the music. And I’m also learning more about my Caribbean heritage and that music, so I’m really focusing on that a lot and wanting to share that for various reasons. I feel almost like it’s my duty or my calling right now.
TS: What would you say your current style is, if you had to give yourself a genre label?
TP: “Funky Latin Hip-Hop Soul.” (I thought about it.) For whatever reason, a lot of what comes out of me has kind of a funk rhythm/bass. And the latin, of course. And then I’ve just been highly influenced by hip-hop in the last few years, so I do a lot of kind of rapping over my songs. And I can’t get away from it, not that I want to. And not that I’m a soul artist like Marvin Gaye or anything, but people have told me over and over again that I sing with soul.
TS: So do you feel, then, that you tend more towards the funk side of music, as opposed to the R&B side of music — just a little more wah-wah, a little more syncopated?
TP: I’m very rhythmic, so, yeah, I would say so. If I were more of a singer, I’d probably do more R&B-style music. My voice so far doesn’t really allow for the things that I hear in my head in that genre, in that style, so I don’t do it as much. And the funkier, syncopated rhythms allow for a certain expression that I’ve been enjoying lately. But, you know, I was reading about genres to let it percolate in my mind, and the truth is that each song would probably be a different genre, or at least it’d definitely be more than one genre. So, when I’m asked overall, I think it’s important to be able to give a few ideas, but I like also to do slower guitar/vocal songs that aren’t funky and aren’t hip-hop, almost a bossa nova flavor, and I do those more when I’m performing by myself.
TS: So, having grown up being a fan of the grunge movement, did you ever experiment with that side of your musicality?
TP: Yeah!
TS: Do you have an electric guitar in addition to your electric acoustic?
TP: Yeah, I have a Les Paul, and I got that when I was 13, actually, and that was my main instrument. So, my grunge phase was more as a teenager. And I actually like to play lead guitar. One day I will go back and re-learn my lead guitar. And then I have the nylon electric acoustic and the steel string electric acoustic. So, three different flavors.
TS: But you’re primarily playing on the guitar now, it sounds like. Do you still do piano?
TP: I do! And, actually, I’m working on a new recording right now, and I play piano on quite a few of the songs. And it’s exciting for me ’cause I really haven’t done that in years — recorded or live! So, I am excited to bring it back. When doing live shows for this album, I probably will have a keyboardist. I don’t know that I’ll actually play the keys myself. But I’m there on the recordings!
TS: So, what is your songwriting process like? How do you approach it?
TP: There’s different ways. Probably my favorite way is spontaneous inspiration, which sometimes happens in the middle of the night, either inside of a dream — which has happened a few times! I’m actually dreaming and I will hear a song or see myself playing a song in my dream, and I’ll wake up and scribe it. Or I’ll wake up in the middle of the night and I’ll hear the melody or I’ll hear the words — early in the morning, before I’m really awake. A lot of songs come like that. And other times, the guitar riff will come first, or the musical riff or musical idea. I’ll be jamming out on either a guitar or piano riff, and I’ll scat some vocals — whatever I’m hearing in my mind — my mouth will open, and literally, whatever comes out…I’m not attached to it; I’m not thinking it’s gonna be the lyrics. But sometimes, whatever happens to fly out of my mouth in that moment, when I’m just literally getting down the musical thought, it fits! So, I’ll keep it. That happens often. My favorite tunes are effortless in the way that I don’t labor over them so much at first. But then there are others…I really wanted to practice my lyric writing, so I got a book by Pat Pattison, and I was going through his book and doing different exercises, and as I learned and as I practiced, I was applying these things to the song. So, the lyrics to that song were labored over quite a bit. That was more like practice. And I liked it and decided to include it in the new recording.
TS: But your favorite is the spontaneous inspirational method?
TP: Yeah, ’cause it’s just more mystical, and I like that. But the truth is that they’re all great ’cause the study aspect is important.
TS: Do you find that one method of writing generates a more specific point of view? Like, if you do a more studied approach, it’s more introspective, and if you do the spontaneous inspiration, that it’s more joyful?
TP: Let me think about that. Hm. I would say that the studied approach tends to be more consciously descriptive, ’cause one of the elements of the study is to really describe things: how they look, how they feel. When it’s spontaneous, it’s usually more a feeling, like, “I feel so good!” or whatever outpouring.
TS: So, you’ve said you’re working on a new album right now. On your Web site it says that you’re hoping to release it in Spring 2010. So, how are we on that? When are we thinking?
TP: It’s definitely on track. Sometime between April and June would be fantastic. The music is done; I’m really in post-production right now. The reason why I’m giving it so much time is because I’m not sure how it’s going to be released. There are so many different ways.
TS: So, then, people will be able to go to your main Web site, which is under construction right now. When do you think that’ll be up and fully functioning?
TP: Let’s say January.
TS: So, they’ll be able to get a link to…you have a CD Baby store, right?
TP: CD Baby; all my stuff is on iTunes; and the MySpace is just kind of…it’ll always have my gigs up there, it always has songs and pictures and stuff. I also have a Facebook.
TS: And if people wanted to get involved and be a part of your street team, how would they go about that?
TP: They can e-mail booking@theresaperez.com; they can contact me through MySpace. And I’m good at answering e-mails!
TS: And is there anyone that you wanna give a shout-out to for being supportive?
TP: Yeah, there’s a few people, actually. I definitely want to acknowledge Ex’pression College for Digital Arts, ’cause that’s where I’ve been doing my recording, and they’ve just been fantastic with me over the years, and continue to be very professional. And La Bohemia Productions is a group of folks here that put on concerts, and we’ve collaborated quite a bit — great people! My friends and family — wow! Really, in the last year, 2009 has been about going deep inside of myself, working, re-learning things and refining some of my skills and coming out…I feel like I’m re-emerging, and I couldn’t've done that without the support of my best friends, really. It’s actually incredible how much I owe this work to them — a couple in particular, but I don’t wanna say their names.
TS: And any final thoughts that you wanna put out there?
TP: One of the big things that I’ve been really contemplating a lot this year has been…I’m a pretty personable person, and I’ve worked in classrooms and with young people, and I’ve worked with audiences — not necessarily in a music context — so I’ve developed kind of a public speaking skill. And, at some point early this year, I really realized that, and I thought that maybe part of the reason why people like my shows is that I’m a good public speaker. But then, I got a little bit pissy about it, and I was, like, “But what about the music? I want the people to be enjoying the music more than my personality.” So, that was when I really started focusing on honing my craft. And then I played a few shows where I basically turned off my personality, and then I felt so empty, so deflated, and I thought, “That sucks!” Sure, the music was good, but I wasn’t connecting well with the audience. So, after a lot of contemplation back and forth…I guess where I’m at with it now is that I can’t separate who I am from my music, and part of who I am is friendly and personable. So, I don’t need to turn that off in my shows. And if people like the music and they like me, great! If they just like the music, great! But if they just like me, well, I guess that’s O.K., but it’s better if they like the music.
