Considered as the most promising Blues guitarist /singer from the Latin America, Demian Dominguez has captured the Blues music scene worldwide. A native of Buenos Aires, Demian's international tours have taken him to Europe and the Americas.
He recently released his second CD entitled “Devil By My Side” featuring world renowned Bernard Allison along with his own Demianband in the US and Europe. Ucombo Music Reviews editor Meg Dilts had the opportunity to interview him about his musical bringing, early career, and the releasing of his new CD.
Meg: Hi Demian, thank you so much to talk to us. The critiques have called you the most important Blue guitarist/singer who ever emerged from the Latin America and the Spanish cultures. People would think that you were a native of southern United States instead of a native of Buenos Aires if they just heard your playing. How did you get into the Blues?
Demian: I feel so fortunate and happy that the audience considers me this way and I'm very happy about the success that “Devil By My Side” is showing in commentary and reviews.
I arrived in Barcelona 8 years ago but I was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. For me, places mean “the people” and not necessarily the countries so I didn’t feel as though I was pulling up roots in Argentina when I moved to Barcelona. If you are really into the Blues and Rock the South of the USA must be the best place to be since many of my musical heroes were born there and this is the place where the Blues history was written. Playing the Blues is not only about spending a lot of hours practicing but it is a deep understanding about the folklore, the life and the feeling of all of those people who lived in the Southern USA. I started to play the Blues when I was a child of 12 years old and I used to listen to the monster musicians like Johnny Winter, Stevie Ray Vaughan and many others and I was always into the Blues. When I would come home from school, I would sequester myself to play and studio for 8 or 9 hours each day.
Meg: You started your musical training early, what were your early musical training like? Are your parents musicians?
Demian: I always had my mother’s support, my grandmother used to play the piano and my father who was a guitarist, taught me to play the guitar. My father introduced me to really good music. I would practice and play for hours until it started to sound like music. During this period of time I didn’t have a lot of friends and for me it was the most fun to spend the time with my guitar.
Meg: Who do you consider to be the most influential musicians in your playing?
Demian: I give thanks to Stevie Ray Vaughn for being a major influence in my musical career. For me, what was so profound about Stevie Ray Vaughn is that you can hear that he took many influences of the old timers and he created his own style with those influences that evolved beyond and expressed his own individuality. It’s like when you are young and your family offers you advice. You must listen to them and then you take their suggestions and your own way of doing things grows out of that so you build your own thoughts and opinions. To me it is the most important thing to have my own musical “voice” and for that to keep on developing.
I usually listen to a lot of Blues music, Rock and Soul but my biggest influences are among 60′ and 70′ musicians. Those guys were inventing new stuff and they played with such energy and passion by contributing a piece of themselves to every song and every musical note that they played and this is something that I never forget.
Read more of the interview on Ucombo Music Review.
