“Either you control your future or you become the victim of the future someone else created for you. With an eerie feeling in my gut I continue to meditate, to try and find some kind of balance, a middle ground, a little correlation between this ever growing driving force that continuously exposes my true feelings and today’s contemporary pop culture. Because what we need to do is to somehow…get inside.” – Arturo Dickson
Suns of Beaches – history in the making…
Originally founded by Arturo Dickson and Charles Garmendia, the band is the convergence of four minds that have something to say, nothing to brag about and everything to lose. Charlie beats on his drum skins with all the strength he can possibly channel through his arms. David seamlessly strikes at his guitar strings as he looks around in approval of the sounds coming out of the cabinets and speakers. Gio claws at his bass guitar and drinks out of his beer can after mumbling some remark about the efficiency of the beverage and finally Arturo delivers the lyrics that blend in with the music to complete the cycle.
You could say everything for this band started around 2006, although Charlie and Arturo claim they’ve been, and I quote “doing this since the dawn of mankind.” Arturo and Charlie left the security and lifestyle of their island and hometown of La Romana to pursue their musical career in New York City. They went there with the dream of making enough money from music so that they NEVER have to work day jobs.
Reality check: Three quarters of the band work in retail places like Guitar Center and Urban Outfitters to make ends meet (afford junk food and liquor, I am told). Charlie even sold hot pretzels out of a basket at the Giants Stadium in New Jersey.
They moved to Brooklyn, right in between Bushwick and Bed-Stuy, for better or worse in an apartment building on a street named Malcolm X Boulevard in a mixed latino/black community. Ever since then, they’ve been perfecting and shaping their sound. They record and practice in their own hand built studio at the basement of Myrtle Dynasty, which is also home to David and Gio, a place close to the Marcy Projects, where guys like JZ, ODB and Wu-Tang Clan used to hang about.
In a practically non-existent or what they themselves call “an illusion of a scene behind the pop fad” we patiently wait for their upcoming first effort. An eleven track LP recorded entirely in the Dominican Republic with the help of Nelson Garcia at La Viuda Negra Records, currently in the process of being taken overseas to be mixed and mastered.
We sigh in relief at their live gigs when we hear that solid wall of catchy guitar riffs and vocal harmonies that don’t need to hide behind some cheesy single-fingered keyboard player. If you have a chance to come down to Santo Domingo’s Hard Rock Cafe on Thursday, December 3rd, you won’t regret it for good music is what moves the soul…and, unless you are soulless, which we doubt very much, you won’t let this great opportunity for a refreshing evening pass you by!
Charles Joseph Garmendia Lopez-Castro
Born in Miami on May 14, 1986. Grew up in La Romana, Dominican Republic. Met Arturo Dickson during his high school years at the Abraham Lincoln School. He describes the first time he played drums as “a feeling you can only feel once…everything happened unplanned, I enjoyed stripping naked and breaking a sweat while annoying the hell out of the neighbors”. In high school he was part of a comedy band named Shoebox where he and Dickson played together. They also made short films. After high school he moved back to Florida to attend FIU college, which was more of a “general knowledge place which I took advantage of” he explains. In 2007 he moved to New York City along with Dickson and starts a failed project which later gave birth to the Suns of Beaches. He is the drummer, multi instrumentalist and also writes with Dickson.
Influences: Andy Kauffman, The Beatles, John bonham, Peter Sellers and nature.
Arturo Emilio Garcia Dickson
Born on the 5th of September in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. He was briefly raised by his grandmother in the capital but then went off to the Southeast coast to live the rest of his teenage years in La Romana with his mother, a place which he recalls as “a small town full of crazy people with honeycomb warmth and familiarity in everything.” He is self taught regarding all of his musical talents. He can play almost any instrument, although not properly as he himself humbly puts it. He first picked up a guitar at the age of 10 in some sort of school to build concentration for kids with ADD. After high school he went on to college for a business degree and soon dropped out to play music. In January 2007, he and his almost half-brother by then, Charlie, moved to NYC to attend the New York City Institute of Audio Research. He is the guitar player, composer and lead singer in Suns of Beaches.
Influences: Bob Dylan, Hendrix, Syd Barrett, The Kinks, Kubrick, Monty Python and tons of books.
Suns of Beaches will be at the Hard Rock Café, Santo Domingo
Thursday, December 3 @ 8:00 pm
Free Entry
Spanish
