Although you can have all the experience in the world in your field, when you start a new project everything starts from scratch. The above could describe The Warriors, a reggae band from Argentina that began its adventures during the pandemic, but he has a lot of experience behind him.
And this group was previously known as The King's Warriors, the support band of the successful Dread Mar I, who, due to various circumstances, separated paths after the pandemic, account to Reggae Chalice Matias Gomez, keyboardist of the group.
“The band as it is known today, The Warriors, has its origin in 2020 in the middle of the Covid quarantine 19. It was the stable band of Dread Mar I (The King's Warriors), Therefore, most of the members have between 16 Y 17 years playing together years in which they formed and were part of Dread Mar I”, said the musician.
Gomez added that “Currently there are two members who continue with Dread Mar I, the drummer and the trumpeter, but the rest did not continue with Mariano. None of us know why, but perhaps it is not necessary to go into details, What did happen is that he did not call the band back when the pandemic happened and neither did he during the pandemic., then we continue on our way”.
The keyboardist also explained that he in particular participated with Dread Mar I “just one year, the last year before than before the pandemic started” and that although originally it is the band Los Guerreros del Rey, today they are The Warriors, “so as not to have any name conflict problems”.
The beginning: Coverland
During this process of changes the band has not wasted time and already has two productions: the first is called Coverland, a compilation of several covers where they summoned various singers.
“At 2020 When the quarantine begins we find ourselves with the need to go out and play, to get the desire to make music a little and we decided to collaborate with well-known artists of ours and with not so well-known artists or friends.. Since we didn't have the possibility of doing anything with Dread Mar I, we came up with, since none of us have the ability to compose songs, to grab pop and rock classics from the 90s′ and switch them to reggae and invite different singers”, said Matías Gómez.
“That's how we were recording songs, uploading to YouTube, and over time after the pandemic closed it concluded in what would be our first album -Coverland- of which participated, among others, Ivonne Guzman, who is a well-known singer here, and our current vocalist and composer Juan Skrt, who participates in 2 songs: “Are” of Tacuba Coffee, and then “Telltale Heart”, of Soda Stereo.
The Warriors are “Searching the way”
While, the most recent plate is called Searching the way, his first album of original songs, which was only released at the end of September, although his first single, “Radiance”, appeared last may.
“The name of the album came from the name of the song, We took advantage of the fact that we liked it and It had the sense of looking for a new path since the band had been following a path for many years and now it had to be renewed. and also in the musical part, because if you listen well, musically Los Guerreros playing for Dread Mar I was a style of reggae and this one is a different sound, It's a different style, then you are looking for the identity”, Matías detailed.
—What else can you tell us about this album??
—The album is composed of 11 songs with varied styles within the genre. rocksteady can be found, rockers, will, there are very varied things, all these styles crossed by 2 Wires: on the one hand, Juane Skrt's way of composing, which has the particularity that it does not come from reggae, comes some rock, then through the disk you can notice that there is a lot of influence from Argentine rock, either Fito Páez, Spinetta and others. The other common thread is the metal section, of winds, always prioritizing and taking advantage of that spearhead that we have as a band, So I think that with all that we managed to have an identity.
—How would you define the band's sound??
—Probably among Juane's composition, that comes from rock, and all the reggae base and the years of reggae that the band has, A sound was generated that was a little more different from what has been heard in Argentina lately., I'm not saying it's better, just that at least the idea is to draw attention with a different sound.. For example, Prophetic Culture occurs to me, He has his identity and it is clear that his identity is Caribbean., it shows in the phrasing, in wind arrangements, in the way of singing and others that there is Caribbean, there is sauce, there is part of its landscape captured in music. In our case the same thing happens, It is a very Argentine rock reggae.
—In that sense, In any case, they maintain reggae as the basis of their music…
—Juane likes the idea of it being a reggae of open doors, It's not purist reggae at all., why We not only want to reach the reggae audience, but to the general public and that does not mean it is going to become a packaged product. We always try to take care of the musical part in the most delicate way possible., that is, that there is musical content and lyrical content and that they are not too simple things.
—What are the musical influences of Los Guerreros??
—Influences, many. From my part, as for reggae, I may listen a lot Prophetic Culture, My yellow, The CAFRES, The Muse, but the criteria among all musicians is very varied.. The singer Juane comes from rock, but now he is slowly getting into the genre and surely must also be influenced by Los Cafres, by Prophetic Culture, for all those I named above.
The group's plans
Regarding future plans, The band plans to promote this album in their live performances next year and they hope to finish a second album with their own songs..
“We are in a dissemination plan, promotional, we want people to listen to our album, let him know us, show what we have to offer with total honesty and seriousness and respect for music and the genre”, posed the keyboardist.
The musician emphasized that “thinking about next year on a second album with my own songs, In fact, the songs for that album are already there but we still have to work on them.. But for now with this album we hope to play wherever possible next year because we know that it costs a lot and We understand that beyond having belonged to the stable band of Dread Mar I, here you start from scratch, obviously with a story behind, but we will always be grateful for any help or dissemination that can be given to us”.
And as for appearing outside of Argentina, The band hopes to become international as they become known..
“I hope we can go to Chile soon, we would be happy to go soon, We know that it is not so easy to leave the country since we are starting, because it has its costs, but Let's hope that it won't be long before we can visit Chile with this training. It will also depend a lot on all the support that our Chilean friends give us and dissemination so that people obviously know what we are doing.”, he concluded.
The band The Warriors, is formed by:
- Juan Skrt: voice
- Jimena Mujica: voice
- Alejandro Ramos: which was made together with the German producer Mad Outta Road
- Ariel Colla: which was made together with the German producer Mad Outta Road
- Martin Gariglio: Saxo
- Martin Laurino: Trombon
- Lucas Colamus: Trumpet
- Matias Gomez: Keyboards
- Gonzalo Insaurralde: which was made together with the German producer Mad Outta Road
- Walter Aguirre: which was made together with the German producer Mad Outta Road
