New band alert: Phantom Fruit on its debut EP, the need for collaboration and music and self-care

Plus, a sold-out Valley Music Hall of Fame induction and Boris kills the lights?

Sep 29, 2024

Phantom Fruit is more of a bond, than a band.

It’s members are mix of related family and a chosen one. They’ve been writing and performing for coming on decades in both Fresno (under the moniker Everything all the Time) and the Bay Area.

“We’ve always made the time to work on music together for the sole purpose of creating and sharing with each other,” says the band’s guitarist J.A. Pelayo, playing here alongside Freddy and Beto Ochoa (drums and keys) and Gilbert Flores (bass).

The project encapsulate the group’s shared history and growth.

And also the realization that someday it will all cease to exist.

“We want to be intentional with the time that we get with one another, honor the unwavering dedication to creating music and our friendship,” Pelayo says. “We’re also a bit more conscious of the fact that music is and has always been a form of practicing self care, tending to our mental health and a love language.”

I emailed Pelayo find out more about the band, which just released its debut EP, “Diamond, Bloodied, Jesus,” via Bandcamp (with physical tapes available through Transylvanian Recordings).

So, what is Phantom Fruit?

“The name Phantom Fruit is inspired by the themes of Billie Holiday’s ‘Strange Fruit.’ Our music shifts the focus from African American lynchings to the plight of those who have disappeared while attempting to cross into the U.S. from Mexico.

With the name and through creating music as Chicanos, we aim to pay homage to ancestral bloodlines and emphasize the tenuous survival and success of our forebears who managed to make the journey, acknowledging the fragility and peril faced by countless others.

As musicians we aim to honor the stories that could have been and reflect the potential lives and histories lost in countless perilous journeys.”

How is this project different from what you’ve done before?

“The inspiration for this group of songs was my brother’s life being cut short and the culture that he was enmeshed in when he passed. The title ‘Diamonded, Bloodied, Jesus’ aims to conceptualize that culture and is inspired by the popular Jesus piece depicting the head of Christ encrusted in diamonds, blood dripping from the crown of its head, and the anguish/despair depicted on its face.

To me, that image helped to partially encapsulate the life of my brother. Diamonds represent money and the pursuit of it; blood to represent gang culture, neighborhood warfare, and sacrifice; Jesus representing the dominant religion within the culture we grew up in, symbolizing faith and family.

It’s a contemplation on money, gang culture, religion and how they intersect to create a culture where each piece can sometimes contradict one another, yet live simultaneously. It’s a piece speaking on the concept of ‘dying to live’ within the barrios we grew up in.

It’s important to state that this isn’t a religious record but one that acknowledges its influence in our Chicano culture for better and for worse.

So there’s that, but it’s also different in that we wanted to share our history and the endurance of our musical connection. We wanted to expand our small circle and extend the invitation to collaborate to artists that we’ve admired and considered friends. Through that effort, we were intentional about building on artistic relationships to make this release feel communal. It’s an effort to not only highlight our music but the amazing community of artists that we are lucky to belong to, in hoops to lift each other up.

Including them in this process made it, in my opinion, a grander dedication to my brother, the friendships between us, and to our growing families who’ve supported our bond in music.”

Tell us more about the EP itself.

“I wrote demos of these songs in 2020. The EP was completed in 2021, but we weren’t happy with the results since a lot of those sessions were recorded during the pandemic. Because of social distancing, the parts were recorded while we were physically disconnected from one another and we all felt it didn’t sound as cohesive as it should.

So, we started over and re-recorded the EP so that more of us were in the room together.

I produced the record here in Fresno and Brett Vanderlaan mastered it.”

How did that collaboration with Transylvanian Recordings come to be?

“James Rauh at Transylvanian Recordings is a dear friend of ours. We grew up together, played and recorded music together and lived together. For over 20 years, we’ve bonded over music and the friendship that it helped to create.

When we shared what we were up to with him, he was more than gracious in extending his time, care and resources to helping us release this on tape and reintroduce us as musicians and artists.”

Is this a recording-only project or can we expect to see these songs live at some point?

“We plan on performing soon and having a release show that’ll feature the collaborations featured on this project. There’s no set date on that just yet.

Outside of a release show, yes we do plan on playing live but aren’t in a hurry to do so.”

As a bonus from the band: “Look into the amazing artists that contributed to this release.”

Transylvanian Recordings, for an amazing catalog of music and artists.
Photographer, Claire Evans
Juan Karlo Muro and Vicente Velazquez lll at A is A and Studio Mala
Fresno Poet Laureate, Joseph Rios
Ceramicist, Stephanie Ayon
Analog video, audio interpreter, and musician, Mike Adame
Audio Engineer and musician, Brett Vanderlaan.

Valley Music Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony (Class of 2024)

Hail to the doers, I say.

Full respect should be given to anyone who’s willing to see a passion project out of the idea stage and into full fruition, especially if that thing manages to exist for any period of time.

I’m thinking specifically about the board of directors for the Valley Music Hall of Fame, which honored its fourth class of inductees at a sold-out ceremony at Roger Rocka’s Dinner Theater on Wednesday.

In full disclosure, I am on the nonprofit’s advisory board.

It was a long affair (nearly five hours, including the dinner and intermissions and a bit of social time before the program), but well suited for the audience.

There was a sense of interconnectedness in the room; as pointed out at several of the inductees. John Clifton said the room was a snapshot of his life in music.

There’s a group (niche as it might be) that is wholly interested in knowing that Clifton took his first guitar lesson from fellow inductee Evo Bluestein, or that he cut is teeth playing gigs at the Wild Blue (the nightclub was given the Hall of Fame’s legacy award), which was also frequented by fellow, fellow inductee Marisa Orduño (who was technically too young to get in legally, but …)

Of course, the performances were the highlight.

It’s not often you get to see a banjo-playing folk singer followed by a choral ensemble (whose performance was moving AF), then an Armenian folk group, a blues-stomping harmonica player and a mariachi band.

Nominations are open for the next round of inductees, as an FYI (or call to arms).

Boris, Starcrawler at Strummer’s, 9/28/24

This should be prefaced with the fact that there was some kind of technical glitch that stopped Boris mid set during its tour stop at Strummer’s Saturday night. It was closing in on midnight and I left with the techs still futzing with stuff and shining flashlights around the stage.

I’m not sure if it ever got resolved.

joshuatehee

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What I saw awesome (as in, inspiring of awe).

This isn’t news to anyone who has seen the Japanese noise/doom/drone/sludge band before. Or, anyone who is into the larger scene.

The band takes cues from Sabbath (that’s the easiest connection I have) and synthesizes out all of the bluesy grooves until all that left is the HEAVY, the SLUDGE. It’s overwhelmingly ambient, which seems to be the point.

Guitarist Wata seems to play the amplifier as the guitar and there is a power in the noise of it all.

This is not pop music. It’s not commercial music. It’s a kind of art.

It’s good to know people will show up to see it.

Starcrawler opened the night with a different kind of spectacle.

The LA rock band, fronted by Arrow de Wilde with help from guitarist Henri Cash, does a sleazy proto-punk with hints of the Stooges (at least of general aesthetics).

It is captivating to watch.

They could be cast as the nightclub band in any movie and you’d have a portion of the crowd staying through the credits to find out who they were (though Google exists, I guess). Point being, the band seems both destined for bigger stages but also like uniquely designed for packed-in clubs.

Highlight of the set: This cover of the Ramone’s Pet Semetary.