Jazz Radio: Santa Baby
Dylan Villarreal isn’t taking himself too seriously. When I sit down with the Deep Cuts bassist and artist behind Jazz Radio, he’s surrounded by pads, pedals and instruments stacked 20ft high in a south-east Houston studio and recording a sexed-up cover of “Santa Baby” just in time for the holidays (check it out below).
The Houston-native greets me in a mid-range drawl, “Grab a beer man, sit wherever,” and tip-toes over chords to accommodate his offer. I find a folding chair in the midst of the musical melee, crack a cold Lone Star and take a look around the room. The interwoven instruments and tangled cables lining the studio floor match the messy mop and manic mood draped on the man in front of me. I interrupt his process to pick his brain for a few moments about his music, his city, and his upcoming Jazz Radio album, Marmalade, set to drop March 29, 2019.
On the set of a video shoot in anticipation of upcoming Jazz Radio album, Marmalade
CC: What’s the story behind the name of your solo project, Jazz Radio?
DV: The name Jazz Radio stems from the relationship I have with my father. When I was a child he would put on a satellite radio station simply called “Jazz Radio,” and that was a way that we bonded: through music. He engineers it, he mixes it, and for that reason I can’t even call it a solo project, really.
CC: What should people know about you/your music?
DV: There’s a lot of frustration, but there’s a lot of love. Even though there’s a lot of anger, there’s a lot of simple frustrations that we deal with in relationships..that we deal with in our everyday lives..that we deal with in break-ups, that we deal with in love. I guess that just because it can sound angry or it can sound frustrating doesn’t mean that it stems any less from a genuine part of our being; or at least mine.
It’s all just really honest to me.
Jazz Radio’s new holiday cover puts the “porno” in “Christmas.”
CC: What’s your favorite instrument in recording and what’s your favorite part of your musical process?