Cochemea Gastelum or Cheme as he is best known to fans, has been a fixture on the jamband scene for the past 15 years. The San Diego-bred alto saxophonist first made a name for himself as a classic member of Robert Walter’s 20th Congress—and branded himself as a solo entity through a series of sit-ins and side projects with a range of groove artists. Shortly after relocating to New York in 2002, Cheme also quietly started work on his first solo album The Electric Sound of Johnny Arrow , an upbeat medley of soul, funk and electronic sounds. The saxophonist finally released the project in late 2010 while on the road with his current band, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings.
Cheme recently sat down to discuss his first solo album, involvement with the Daptone community and future plans for Robert Walter’s 20th Congress.
After years of jumping between bands and session work, you recently released your first solo album. When did you first start working on The Electric Sound of Johnny Arrow?
Well, it’s gonna sound crazy, but probably about eight years ago I would say [laughs]. But it wasn’t consistent because I’ve toured pretty heavily, so I’ve been on the road the whole time. I’ve kind of just been tracking here and there from time to time. There’s only been a couple of songs that have survived because I record all the time so I have tons and tons of material that I scrapped over the years. It wasn’t until about three years ago that I put the entire album together. I wrote probably half of the record in that time period and finished a bunch of songs that I had started but never finished. I just kind of touched up the ones that had been sitting there and laying around. I think stylistically the album has two different vibes because—during that time—I was into different shit. So it represents two different eras in a way—even with the musicians. Some of the earlier songs have Joe Russo and Brian Jordan (Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe) and some of the musicians I played with in Robert Walter’s 20th Congress and then the later stuff involves Dap-Kings and Antibalas, who I play with now.
It must have been a trip to revisit material you recorded eight years ago. In a sense, it gives you a chance to critique your own work with something of an outside perspective. What did you notice most about how your sound has changed in that time?
I got into some of that glitch-y kinda shit a few years ago. It was really fun, especially when you have a laptop and you’re just playing around. I was really into stuff like The Books, and I had all these songs that were electronic-based. As I progressed, I realized that sound wasn’t really what I was going for. I’m not an electronic artist. I’m a musician. I like music that comes from the ground up—that’s organic and has a natural feel—even though in the process everything’s tracked because I recorded a lot of the album by myself—on my own gear—in my studio. But, even then, friends would often come over and we would collaborate.
I’m not really an electronic artist: I don’t want a laptop on stage. I think that stuff’s really interesting to listen to and I go through periods where I listen to it a lot, but that would be the biggest change I would say to my sound over the years. I also noticed that I’ve gotten into sounds that were definitely more percussion-heavy with a Latin-Afro influence. That sound just kind of took more of a predominate factor in the music.
You mentioned your involvement with the Antibalas/Dap-King family. Not only have you played in those two bands, but you have played in a number of related Daptone projects. How did you first get involved with that community?
Well, it’s a really interesting thing. Back in the day, Antibalas and the Dap-Kings were pretty much the same band with interchangeable band members. It’s all just a big family and, as the two bands progressed, they did their own things. My involvement started back around 2005. Robert and I had just parted ways—he was doing his thing and I was just booking any gigs I could.
I got called as a sub for [Daptone band] Sugarman 3 on the baritone, which I never even played. I’m a straight alto player. The whole time, that was my main act and then they called me to audition. It is a funny story: A friend of mine played guitar in Sugarman 3 and they were looking for a horn player. They were leaving for a month-long tour the very next week and had auditioned a lot of people and no one really worked out. My name got thrown in there as a baritone player. Neal Sugarman and the band’s trumpet player Dave Guy knew me and they called me in for an audition. They had this old cracked out baritone just laying in the corner [laughter], and I told one of the dudes, “’Man, I’ve never played this before’ and he was like, ‘Aw, don’t worry about it, just blow really hard.’” I did that tour and then Neal Sugarman had his first child so he couldn’t really tour during that time. I ended up actually working a lot with them on session work and all these side gigs—they just grew into my circle of musicians. I played some shows with Antibalas and then I started playing with [Antibalas affiliate] Budos Band. I also acted as an understudy in the band for Fela! the musical, and, in the past year or so, I started going full time with the Dap-Kings. It was very organic.
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