We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Guillermo Bordarampe. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Guillermo below.

Hi Guillermo, thanks for joining us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

While I was attending 8th grade in Buenos Aires, Argentina, I heard The Beatles for the first time and that was it. We started forming a few bands with a couple of schoolmates, until at the end of high school we put together “Arco Iris”, a rock en español pioneering rock band that became very popular in Argentina in the 70’s. Form then I’ve been a musician my entire life.

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.

As I mentioned before The Beatles were my original inspiration. I feel very fortunate having lived during that period of time with all the great bands that came after The Beatles, meaning Traffic, Rolling Stones, Cream, Hendrix, Pink Floyd, etc. It was a great and very powerful moment that inspired us and gave us a lot of hope for a better world. With “Arco Iris” we started developing our own musical language blending traditional rock with ethnic rhythms and chord stractures from Argentina and South America, with Gustavo Santaolalla, who was our main composer. After coming to the USA in 1977, with Ara Tokatlian, who plays woodwinds, we put the band together again here in Los Angeles, playing at a lot of jazz clubs and other venues, featuring some great local musicians such as Chester Thompson and Alex Acuña on drums, Milcho Leviev and Billy Childs on keyboards, etc. In 1982 I left “Arco Iris”, and I founded “INCA, the Peruvian Music & Dance Ensemble”, which is still going strong to this day. We perform at theaters, universities, colleges, schools, parks, libraries and private events, having toured the west coast and the mid west. With “INCA’ we perform all styles of music and dances found in Peru, native Inca (Andean style), Hispanic influenced (Ciollo style), Afro-Peruvian from the southern coastal areas in Peru, and Amazon jungle area. We do a lot of school, library and park performances being booked by The performing Arts Center of Los Angeles County (Music Center). INCA is a 501(c)(3) non profit organization and receives grants from the City of L.A., the L.A. County and the State of California. INCA’s music can be found on Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music and many videos can be seen on YouTube. I also have my own recording studio, Delmate Productions in Silver Lake.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

When we started “Arco Iris” in Buenos in 1968 and recorded our first album, I was going to the University of Buenos Aires studying chemical engineering, which I was pretty good at, but when the band took off I decided to drop out of the university and devote my energy and efforts to music and the band, and I can say that I don’t have any regrets for that decission.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

The music business has changed dramatically in the past decades with the advent of the digital technology. On one hand it is a lot easier and cheaper to record music digitally (there are a lot of great platforms for that such as ProTools, Cubase, Studio One, etc) and basically anyone can put a song together using prerecorded loops, phrases, drums, chord and melody patterns, even if they don’t play any instrument, but the quality and content of popular music has gone downhill, and it’s very difficult for new artists to make a good living with their art. Clubs usually feature 3 to 4 bands per night and they only pay each band for the people who came to see them, so they make only pennies, and it takes a lot of effort to build a following. One has to master all the social media platforms and hope that something catches their interest. Record labels don’t foster and nurture artists the way they used to. Also for non profits such as INCA, the grant sources are not that readily available.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.facebook.com/INCA, and www.delmate.net
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/INCA

Image Credits

Images are of Guillermo Bordarampe and INCA, the Peruvian Music & Dance Ensemble. Photos taken by Joyce Bordarampe