Jorge "Jota" Mundo performing at a show last December at which he pulled double duty, playing for both Los Pepiniyoz and Ardillas the same night. (Photo by Elías C. Quintana Matias)
Jorge "Jota" Vigilante is one of those impressively productive musicians; he's got his hands in myriad projects and seems to be working all the time. The Puerto Rican musician is nearing a decade as guitarist for garage-punk band Los Vigilantes and also owns a professional in-home studio, El Dorado, which he founded in the fall of 2009. In the past few years, though, Jota's amassed a flurry of additional bullet points on his resume: he's joined two other long-standing, like-minded acts, Los Pepiniyoz and Ardillas, and has recently resurrected his dark noise-punk outfit, EspaZmos.
At this point, to call Jota full-time musician is a bit of an understatement. Music is basically his lifeblood. But the way he actually spends his days might be surprising – as well as a few other tidbits about how he operates. Check out what he revealed to us below.
1. He's not constantly playing music
"I spend more time listening to music than actually playing it," he admits. "People think that I play guitar all day, but I'm mostly listening to music all day, then I'll pick up the guitar at some point at the end of the day." That is, of course, on the days he's not holed up in the studio working with other people's projects.
2. Punk is not his only influence
"Just because I play in punk bands...the kind of music I listen to the least is probably punk. I do listen to punk in my house, but I'm into weird African music, and weird salsa, and shit that people might not equate with playing in a bunch of punk bands," Jota says.
Most Puerto Rican bands are at least subliminally influenced by the salsa they've grown up with and continue to hear on a daily basis, he adds. "People think, you play in a punk band, so they think all you listen to is punk and listen to the Ramones and Motörhead all day, and that's not entirely true," he assures.
3. He collaborates with a range of musicians, not just those in his immediate scene
Independent bands often lend a hand to each other and, as Jota points out, they don't have to hail from the same scene to work together. (Especially in a smaller community, like Puerto Rico.)
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"Bands that you wouldn't think would help each other here do. I work a lot with [psych band] Fantasmes – we don't necessarily fit into the same niche," he says. "I'll need to do some crazy tape loop thing that I don't have the equipment for, and I'll go to Fantasmes and they'll help me out. Or they'll need a specific guitar, like they need a 12-string for their new record – this just happened – I'll go and lend it to them. We bounce ideas off each other, and not just within the core five or six punk bands that always play together....I've gotten ideas from people who play cheesy rock en español and shit. I have to record that in my studio, too, and apart from that aesthetic that I don't like, these are great musicians."
4. Loving every song you create is an impractical ideal
"You don't have to love everything you do. You might write a song and hate it and have it not come out, and then somebody else listens to it and likes it. It's the same thing when somebody else writes a song, and I think it's terrible, then someone else thinks that's a great fucking song. I guess don't judge things prematurely – give things time to breathe," he says.
5. The constant multitasking can be overwhelming
"It's a little bit intense; you're working on five things in one day," Jota says. Being in just one DIY band – the writing, rehearsing, performing and promoting – is plenty work, but Jota's juggling several, and helms his recording studio solo. It's inarguably a recipe for a bona fide stress-induced breakdown, for sure. "I love it, but it's intense, and nerve-racking," he admits.
For more confessions from full-time DIY musicians, read what Alex White of White Mystery had to say in the first installment of the series.
Jhoni Jackson is an Atlanta-bred music journalist currently based in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where she juggles owning a venue called Club 77, freelance writing and, of course, going to the beach as often as possible.
