Name: Adrian M Quesada
Place of Origin: Laredo, TX
Instrument: Guitar

Who are some of the people you’ve been working with and what are the projects?

Besides day to day Grupo Fantasma music and dealings, my other main projects include Brownout, our GF latin funk side project which is dropping an album this fall on the UK's Freestyle Records. Ocote Soul Sounds is another project I'm involved in, with Martin Perna of Antibalas.  We released one critically acclaimed album on Thievery Corporation's label ESL Music. Our second album drops Jan. 08 and features remixes from Toy Selectah, Quantic and NIckodemus. Also coming in '08 will be my soundtrack/score to director Marcy Garriott's award winning documentary on Texas b-boys called "Inside the Circle", its my first endeavor in the film world and features the ususal suspects (Fantasma/Brownout dudes, my mans Hydroponic Sound System from Dallas, Bavu Blakes, Martin Perna, etc etc). The newest project which is in the beginning stages is an album of psyched out Latin/Brazilian soul jams featuring a few different vocalists, mainly Tita Lima from Brazil (daughter of Os Mutantes bassist and amazing singer) and should be out at some point in '08 as well. The last project is a hip hop album with Pooty Tang and Tatty Poong.

How does someone have a sustainable career in music?

Without sounding too after school special - work hard! There's always someone better and who works more than you, and it's a career so treat it like that and not just something you do as a hobby. Most importantly be honest with your music if you want to be in it for the long haul, trends and fads are easy to spot and easier to forget. If you absolutely love making music like nothing else then that's all you really need to keep you going, everything else will fall into place eventually.

What separates out GF's sound from other bands that play latin music?

The band has the sophistication and arrangements of a "classic" latin orchestra with the rawness and energy of James Brown's raunchiest funk.  That said, we are able to back Prince, Talib Kweli, and Marc Anthony all in the same night (true story). GF operates independently of any trends or fads.

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