We caught up with the brilliant and insightful JJ Moreno a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

JJ, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

For most of my life, I had been in the rock scene, making music that had nothing much to do with my traditional Mexican culture. I never saw myself playing Latin music, let alone Cumbia style. And, after many years of being in the Dallas area rock scene, I felt the need to do something different from what was being done at the time. I had travelled to a couple of cities in other states and noticed it was just not Dallas, but other cities as well that played the same songs from 20 years ago. I didn’t feel like I wanted to do that anymore, so I took a risk and started a Cumbia band. That alone is not the risk, many bands play cumbia, but the risk was to do my own music, not covers, which I enjoyed, but got tired of playing week after week. So, I started inviting some friends that were interested in what was being created and that’s how Papi Chulo was born, a Cumbia Artesanal band with a base of Cumbia, dance and Vallenato spices, with electronic, rock, rap and tribal sounds. We have won the 2019 Song Search from “Don’t mess with Texas” Campaign and have recorded one album and 2 singles so far in our almost 5 year life. Travelled to several cities in Texas, Colorado and Illinois. We are enjoying what we are doing and I feel fresh doing the music we play currently, people who don’t speak Spanish are more than welcome as the music puts everyone to dance.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

My family has been musicians/singers for a couple of generations now, so I think I have it in my blood to enjoy and make music. I started playing piano around 7 or 8 years old. When I was in my teens, I picked up the guitar. That was after seeing my cousin Arturo from California play Nirvana, Metallica and Oasis. I felt in love with the guitar, so I changed from being a DJ at bars to learn how to play riffs from those bands.

In Dallas, I created a band named Remoto and after that, another one called Jinete, I enjoyed making our own music in those two bands and had a good following. I also played for a couple of years, from Friday to Sunday in a house band at a bar, so learned hundreds of songs from other bands. If you ask me to play you a few, I may not remember them at all, (facepalm). Remoto won a battle of the bands and won the chance to play at a side stage for Cafe Tacuva, Kinky and La Maldita Vecindad. Jinete won two battle of the bands.

When creating music, my first goal is for us to enjoy what we do, I don’t believe in playing to make others happy if I don’t enjoy first what I do. May be a little selfish, but I do it for the love of music before the love of money. That being said, when I can feel the band connecting while practicing, I see people at our shows enjoying it as well, people can tell when someone is not enjoying what they are doing. You can’t fool the audience.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I can’t be happy doing the same thing forever, I like to create new songs, new sounds, new ventures. I need new challenges and trying to accomplish them keeps me going. I like giving the audience something they haven’t heard before from us, something that sounds different from what we have played before. You must adapt to stay current.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

The first time I played in a band and the song was one that I had wrote, “Verdadero Amor” by Remoto, we were playing it live in Austin, I was so into connecting and playing and feeling the energy from my bandmates that I was not looking up, just my eyes closed and moving to the rhythm of the melody. I was feeling goosebumps in my arms and felt like my mind and soul were outside my body watching over me playing. Once the song ended, I looked up and the audience did not applaud, but their faces showed attention, they became part of the experience we were in, it took them a moment to get out of the trance. I’m usually looking to make those 3 connections, with myself, with the band and with the audience.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://papichulo.godaddysites.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/movimientopapichulo/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MovimientoPapiChulo
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/PapiChuloCumbia
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZcY7fbZ0bW3UK8zB8DGGRw

Image Credits
Concert photos: Instagram @juli.se.va Charros photos: Instagram @emulate.co