Bruno, for starters, could you perhaps take us back in time and tell us how you started out as a musician?
Sergent Garcia: "I started playing music when I was fifteen years old, playing in various punk bands. The first "big thing" - if you want to call it that - I was involved in, was a band called Ludwig Von 88, with whom I played various concerts, right here in Belgium by the way. At the beginning of the nineties Ludwig von 88 was quite a big name in the French alternative circuit. At the same time I was already doing sound system shows under the pseudonym of Sergent Garcia, mainly focusing on Spanish ragga, but when the idea of doing a solo album started taking form I decided to replace the Jamaican rhythms with Latin ones and that's how my Cubano-Jamaican crossover came to be. I then proceeded to form a band, so I would also be able to take the project to the stage, and the whole salsa-muffin hype started."
Is there still room for punk elements in the music you do these days?
Sergent Garcia: "I think there are still some remnants of my punk days in my music, yes. Maybe I'm even more punk now, then I ever was back then? For me it was never about going from one style to another; the convictions I held back then are still the ones I defend today. My music might have changed, but I'm still the same guy and if I tend to forget my past, there's always my son to remind me! (laughs)"
The kind of music you play is often referred to as "musica mestiza", a genre undeniably linked to the Spanish city of Barcelona. Is there also a link between Sergent Garcia and that city?
Sergent Garcia: "Well, as it happens, I've also lived there for a while; it was in the beginning of the nineties, around the time of the Olympics (1992, red.) and Spain hadn't been Europeanized yet. Musically speaking, Spain was still very rock-oriented at that time. These days Barcelona is known as a vibrant cosmopolitan city, but I believe this mestizo music was something that first developed in Paris rather than in Barcelona. In France you had bands like Mano Negra (Manu Chao, vocalist and front man of Mano Negra, relocated to Barcelona in the early nineties thus laying the basis for the later mestizo scene there, red.), Orchestre National de Barbes, Gnawa Diffusion and Sergent Garcia of course! (laughs) Paris, and by extension Brussels, are far more multicultural than Barcelona is, and logically so, as immigration is a relatively recent phenomenon in Spain."
If I say that your more recent albums are more heavily influenced by your travels than your earlier ones, would you agree?
Sergent Garcia: "Oh yes, absolutely. I recorded my first albums in Europe and, although I was influenced by Latin-American rhythms, I hadn't really had the chance yet to travel and submerge myself in the culture. Sergent Garcia allowed me to do just that and put me on a path of discovery to places like Mexico, Jamaica, Cuba and Colombia. My travels have become one big quest in search of great rhythms and their historic and cultural relevance. 'Sin Fronteras' (Virgin, 2001, red.) was recorded in Cuba and Jamaica and 'Mascaras' (Virgin, 2006, red.) in Mexico. It was in this last country that I got fascinated by the sound of cumbia and decided to go and check out the birth place of that genre, Colombia. I've made several trips to that country now and gradually have gotten to know some of the local artists."
Rhythmically, cumbia and reggae have always seemed very similar to me.
Sergent Garcia: "Yeah, I agree. To me cumbia is the Latin-American answer to reggae. They both have the same cadence and tempo, but differ where the use of bass and percussion are concerned; cumbia is influenced by African rhythms, where as in Jamaica it's much more the influence of American soul that has played a pivotal role. The two genres mix extremely well and aren't that difficult to dance to either, which gives them a kind of universal appeal."
Another Latin-American genre that's closely linked with reggae is reggaeton.
Sergent Garcia: "The popularity of reggaeton is often overstated here in Europe. It's hugely popular in Puerto Rico and Mexico, but it's not as widely spread as cumbia. The music of the ghettoes is the so-called "cumbia villera" (typically Argentinean form of cumbia which has its origins in the "villas miseria" or shanty towns of Buenos Aires and is derived from cumbia sonidera and chichi cumbia, red.), a rough form of cumbia that attitude-wise is quite close to reggaeton."
The focus of your music has always been on Latin-American rhythms. Do you see yourself doing an album influenced by African or even Asian influences one day?
Sergent Garcia: "I have to admit that I have a bit of an emotional connection with the Latin-American subcontinent. On the other hand most of these rhythms can be traced back to Africa, so I might end up there one day anyway."
Your music is a mix of styles and influences. Do you consider yourself to be an ambassador of all these genres?
Sergent Garcia: "No, I've never seen myself in that role. I think the musicians from these countries are the real ambassadors. I'm just someone who's fascinated by those rhythms and tries to give them a new meaning and interpretation. I was raised in a multicultural environment - in my family we have Spanish as well as Arabic and African blood running through our veins - and that's probably why I feel so at home in Latin-America, where the entire culture is really based on a mix of racial and ethnic elements. I want to add, though, that somehow I do feel connected with that "family" of bands who try, just as I do, to preserve these traditional rhythms and take them to a new level by integrating them into modern music and offering them to the world."