The Vineyard Podcast

Episode 239 : Jess Sylvester #2 (Marinero)

Episode Summary

Field recordings of chill lo-fi beats to study to, Youtube videos with the comments turned off, and a dynamite hot dog. Jess Sylvester (Marinero) Marinero - Taquero (Official Video)- https://www.youtube.com Marinero - Cruz (Official Visualizer)- https://www.youtube.com Marinero - Sea Changes (Official Video)- https://www.youtube.com Marinero - Dream Suite (Official Visualizer)- https://www.youtube.com "As Jess Sylvester finished his Hardly Art debut as Marinero in the fall of 2020, he realized it was time for a change. Sylvester grew up in Marin County, on the doorstep of San Francisco. It was a nurturing community for a high-school punk with a pompadour and, later, for a sober songwriter with a proclivity for moody psychedelia. But he wanted to be challenged and inspired by a new setting and scenario around strangers who prompted him to approach his music in unexpected ways. So in September 2020, as the world continued to reel in lockdown, Sylvester headed several hours south to Los Angeles, a city that, despite the relative proximity, the film buff knew largely from classic and cult films situated there. When he arrived, he kept digging into that cinematic past—Robert Altman’s The Long Goodbye, with John Williams’ classic theme, or classic 90s movies about East LA, many featuring Edward James Olmos. They shaped his understanding of his new town just as it began to open. This is one pillar of the multivalent and endlessly lush La La La, Marinero’s new album about sobriety, identity, and fantasy that is playfully named both for the city that helped shape it and the sophisticated pop it contains. Sylvester wrote about characters outside of himself, whether considering the heroine reckoning with her own version of keeping clean or the screenwriters whose work was deemed communist simply as a political convenience. He linked those songs with motivational anthems about self-acceptance and playful numbers about flirting through food, shaping a 12-song set rich with humor, empathy, and encouragement." Excerpt from https://www.hardlyart.com/collections/marinero Marinero: Bandcamp: https://maringuero.bandcamp.com/album/la-la-la Instagram: @marin_guero Website: https://marinero.ffm.to/marinero_lalala Merch: https://www.hardlyart.com/collections/marinero The Vineyard: Instagram: @thevineyardpodcast Website: https://www.thevineyardpodcast.com Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thevineyardpodcast