Meet Tambino
Having spent his childhood and adolescence between Lima and Bogota, and the D.C. punk and New York hip-hop scenes, the sound draws from a unique array of genres—Reggaeton, Shoegaze, Hip Hop, Cumbia, Dembow… The list goes on. The sound, coined “cumbiagaze," is clearly hyper-specific and fiercely personal—without alienating the listener.
Tambino’s eclectic, emotional EP makes me miss New York City. A multicultural tangle of people and tunes that might not have meant to end up on one island, but did, and have infinite stories to tell, sonorously or otherwise. And whether or not you’re from a touchpoint on Kam Tambini’s trail, it’s worth a shot seeing where his music will take you, because we could all use a trip today.
office got the chance to speak with Kam Tambini himself about the new EP, skateboarding, and Shakira.
The complexity and variety of cultural influences are pretty upfront in your EP. From what I understand, much of your references are from your own heritage and experiences. What did you grow up listening to? What was being played at your home?
I was born in Lima, Peru but spent a large part of my childhood in Bogota. Growing up, my mom would play a lot of Peruvian criollo and Colombian vallenato classics. Artists like Chabuca Granda, Carlos Vives, and Cuba’s Ibrahim Ferrer of Buena Vista Social Club. She’d also play more pop stuff like Shakira’s first big record Pies Descalzos, which is actually an incredible pop album.
What is your fondest (or craziest, most memorable) musical memory from growing up?
That would have to be in Washington, D.C. where I spent my teenage years. I got into skating and punk music during that time. We were all huge Dischord Records and Fugazi fans and would see Ian Mackaye often at these free summer concerts that were hosted at Fort Reno. He was always super nice and open to talk and give advice to us kids back then about being in bands and whatnot. Ian and his brother Alec, I think, even let us into the Dischord house once to film some high school project we wanted to do on the label and film some interviews. Still not sure why they did that but it stuck with me.
To build and bring forth such a thoughtful combination of genres seems almost impossible today. But it appears you have done it. How might you describe this unique new genre you have invented?
I think of the sound of the project as a glued-together sonic collage that not only reflects my North & South American upbringing, but also the multicultural nature of New York City—my home for over ten years. It’s like when you’re walking down the street in the city and will hear reggaeton blasting out of a bodega, but then some kids will skate by blasting hip-hop, then you get on the subway and there’s a busker playing guitar, but you’re also hearing rock bleeding out of someone’s headphones. That’s why on some tracks you’ll hear post-punk guitars and synths over cumbia or dembow percussion and hip-hop beats, and others will have softer textures and a more straightforward songwriter approach. It sounds like a mess but it all makes sense put together as one haha. I see it more as (producer) Michael Beharie and I arrived at a new combination of sounds (particularly in Blonde Undone), but I’m happy for people to interpret the songs as they want and take from them what they will.
The music and genre seems very personal to you, yet is so easy to listen to, so intriguing. How do you translate that into something approachable to everyone?
That’s a good question. The honest answer would be: I have no idea. But one rule I always try to go by, that I find makes songs stick, is to make sure every song can be stripped down to just an acoustic guitar and voice and still sound good. If it sounds good like that at its core, then once you add all the other instrumentation you should be all right.
When, and how, were you able to first hear, or see, the truly brilliant overlap between the music you encountered—from DC punk to NY hip-hop, to Peruvian music, and cumbia? Where did the shoegaze influence come from?
For years, I’ve been looking for a way to use Peruvian/Latin sounds in my music, but hadn’t quite found a way in. There had been instances here and there, I used to have a punk band called Fantasmas in NYC early 2010s and we had a Latin-influenced punk song that seemed to connect with a few people. I have to credit my girlfriend Peggy for really pushing me to pursue these cumbia/dembow/etc rhythms over guitars for this new project and producer Michael Beharie for really helping me put the whole sound together. In terms of the shoegaze influences, those came from experimenting a lot with shoegaze guitar textures in Glass Gang, a band I’ve been playing in and touring with for years.
Who is your music for?
It’s for everyone. But I do think it’s important to have brown, black, POC music & art more visible these days, living under this government and the times that we’re currently in. What makes me the happiest is seeing the younger Latinx skater/punk/misfit kids getting into the songs, from what I gather by their comments on my Instagram. Though, I’m not happy that they can all skate better than me.
If you were to give an emotion to this project, which would it be?
One of my favorite comments on the music so far has been from a girl in Buenos Aires who commented on IG saying “no se si perrear o llorar o ambas.” (“I don’t know if I should be grinding/dancing or crying or both.”) So in that vein, I’ll go with: upbeat melancholy?
