Daniel “Dude” Cervantes is a San Diego-based musician who certainly is a melting pot of all that surrounds the area. From the free nature vibe of Ocean Beach to the rugged inland textures of Escondido to the Latin-influenced vibes of the border towns near Chula Vista; Cervantes can be compared to America’s Finest City in the vein of what Lou Reed meant to New York City Yet Cervantes’ has a natural ability to cover vast musical ground in a song-to-song approach that makes each song its own unique statement where genre rules and vocal expectations are thrown to the side.
While Cervantes’ guitar work has helped fuel bands like Mrs. Henry, Chest Fever and Howlin’ Rain – his own musical projects are now coming full circle with that of his band Dude Cervantes. Dreamers (out September 15th via Blind Owl), the sequel to his debut All By Myself, is a record simmering with finely crafted tension.
Glide is premiering Dreamers in its entirety before its release date where listeners can spin this bold musical narrative. A sleeper for best of the year consideration, Dreamers makes like a modern Trout Mask Replica – a bold statement of experimental rock.
“I’d call this record my music journal. My emotions are the narrative.The songs are stories and they are my own.As a songwriter, I need to be free, vulnerable and naked. Shoot from the hip and ask questions later. The anger is my anger, the pain is my pain, the love is my love and the words are my words. Selfless and selfish as an artist wants to be. At least in my opinion,” says Cervantes.
Answering the need to release his solo compositions, Dude Cervantes was born. Recorded by Cervantes on a Tascam 388 and later mixed by Jordan Andreen (Karl Denson, The Damned), the debut LP All By Myself is by all standards a lo-fi classic. Forged in a time of despair and uncertainty, the album plays like a man in a confessional. The one-against-the-world ethos and raw self-reflection make a record both altruistic and defiant. This is no pristine hi-fi experience. In fact, it’s quite the opposite: It’s an album that locks us in the very room in which Cervantes recorded it.
Written as Cervantes lives his troubadour life, the songs on Dreamers were born everywhere from a warehouse in Otay to the Olympic National Park to a wandering trail in the verdant Descanso Gardens. Unlike his work with Mrs. Henry, these songs sing Cervantes’ personal narrative, straight from the heart. Speaking to the core of the human condition, he sings timeless tales of love, life, and loss. Of blues and golden dreams, and of the simple, flawed perfection of family.
Recorded straight to tape, Dreamers represents a leap forward in the songwriting and maturity of Cervantes as a creative artist in his own right, apart from his work in other bands. This is a record for dreamers, it is an odyssey of artistic exploration, and a testament to the value of taking chances. Or as Dude says, “if you like to sleep naked, this record is for you.”
