Introducing… Beaner

 
Music

Beaner has managed to garner quite a following throughout his time on the dance music circuit. With a history that includes a residency at Bar25 as well as performances at a a wealth of highly respected clubs around the world, we caught up with him after his set at fabric last weekend;

 

Please tell us a bit about yourself; who are you and where are you from?

 

My name is Pablo Ariel Jacob Roman-Alcalá. I make music as Beaner, Skirtchaser, El Frijolero, Khrom Ju, War Vs. Sleep (with C.L.A.W.S.), and some other names. I am from the Mission District in San Francisco. One of the most rapidly gentrified areas in the world. I have been living in Berlin for 10 years. Which is on it’s way to becoming another victim of thoughtless "urban renewal”. Lame.

 

How did you first get into music? Who were your first great inspirations?

 

When I was 7 or 8, I participated in a city-wide open competition for children who were studying various musical instruments. I can still remember the fingering of the incredibly easy trumpet piece I played. I cocked it up, but as a reward my father bought me one album. I chose the first ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic record. I have never looked back.

 

Why Beaner? What made the name stick?

 

Beaner is a slur for Mexicans. I am a Chicano. Part Mexican. It started off as a joke between Eric D. Clark (Whirpool Productions) and I, but in the long run I kept it as a way to reclaim the slur because fucking beans are good and I am proud to be a Frijolero. It is a way to play with and find identity which has been stripped. It is both political and hilarious (admittedly only to a small group of people who even know what it means). 

 

What is your opinion on the current vinyl revival? Do you think that the format still has a place in the modern music industry or should we be trying to move forward with new concepts? Or is this question a bit redundant? 

 

I work at the Oye Record Store in Berlin. I run a vinyl only label (though we do plan on giving all the music, magazines, etc away for free digitally eventually) . I do not want to rehash this topic, but in a world where art is being relegated to being disposable and largely meaningless, should we not do everything we can to establish creative endeavors as meaningful? Why frame the question in relation to industry, even? Industry has no place in creativity. Music is not about making money, it is about basic expression of the human condition. 

 

Are you pleased by the rise of the moustache? Are there any particular styles that appeal to you?

 

If your personality hinges on creative facial hair, you might want to re-examine your priorities. I don’t even have a moustache anymore. That said, producer extrodinaire and winner of the the 2011 World Beard and Moustache Championship Gold, Giovanni Dominice sure has a sick ‘stache!

 

How important do you think the personality that accompanies music is in the success of an artist? Is it harder for less interesting individuals to attract significant attention to themselves?

 

Drive, hard work, tenacity, luck, more hard work, and some talent are what leads to success. Personality doesn’t hurt, but considering how many successful people you find in all walks of life who lack personality, I am gonna say it is not a deciding factor. 

 

How many mobile phones have you lost? Ever thought about putting them on a string?

 

I don’t know. Probably around 8 in a 2 year period. Those were some heavy times in Berlin. I don’t lose them anymore, I have had the same trusty nokia 3310 for a number of years. Snake II puts Candy Crush to shame. My friend Alan Disaster used to tie his hat to his belt when he went out. One time he told me he didn’t make it home from a show he was playing because his hat was dragging on the ground and caught a bush, and he was so drunk that he couldn’t figure out how to move forward, so he just ended up sleeping there on the sidewalk

 

What direction do you see the music industry heading in? Where are you hoping to be in 5 years time?

 

I don’t know, man. I just woke up. This is where normally I would make some kind of off color joke. I just want to keep doing things that I think are good for the world as a whole, and focusing on trends in the music industry doesn’t seem to be the right way to go. I would love to be earning enough to finance more communal/collective projects and to pay the bills without shilling for the Man in 5 years. I also want to open something like Dial House (fuck yeah, CRASS!), go to a graduate school to study anarchist history/anarchist economics, philosophy, the sociology of marketing, and neuropsychopharmacology, and open a sandwich shop called “Beaner Macht Die Sandwiches”. 

 

What would be your dream night out? Who would be on the bill and where would you be?

 

Subcommandante Marcos, The Nekkid Cult of Hickey (with a reanimated zombie Matty Luv), Axel Boman, the (reformed) Smiths singing all their songs in Spanish, and Willi Ninja voguing. We would obviously be in my head due to some heavy psychedelics because that shit aint never gonna happen. 

 

What's your most difficult masturbation story?

 

Probably not my most difficult, but my ex-wife once walked in on me jerkin’ it while I was in the shower. At the time our shower was in our kitchen. I think she wanted to make coffee. Berlin has a lot of non-modernized apartments. We shared a toilet with our neighbor, it was in the stairwell. Imagine taking a shit in a non-heated closet in minus 20 degrees. Life is surreal. 

 

What do you consider to be your greatest non-musical achievement? 

 

Not having kids. Breaking the land speed record. Fitting both fists in my mouth at once. Translating Journey to the End of the Night into American Sign Language. First man to breakdance on the moon. Being nominated for Best Dressed DJ at the Gouden Kabouter Awards at ADE. Sleeping with the enemy. Not killing myself during bouts of depression. All true. I am obviously proud of myself. 

If your sound were a balloon animal, what would it be? Could you make it? (You can't say snake or worm, for obvious reasons)

 

A Zoo!  Despite having worked for a circus when I was 14, I am shit at balloon animals. 

 

What can we expect to hear from you in 2014?

 

Hopefully LOTS! I am trying to start a couple sub labels for La Mission, and La Mission itself should release the remaining 3 (of 5) of our first phase of records/magazines/experimental theater performances. The next one is gonna have a Zimbabwean 1 Billion Dollar bill in each of them. Remix of Quest (Liz Torres) on Third Ear, another Thema EP, another Work Them EP maybe, a techno EP for voodoodown, a song on Junkyard Connections and probably a bunch more I am forgetting. I have been trying to transform myself into a workaholic from my lazy nature for the past few years

 

Anything you'd like to add?

 

Keep being Rad, find a community, have lots of sex, foment dissent, try new stuff in your personal and creative life, light a match after you poop, take everything and nothing seriously, divest from capital, thanks to everyone who has given me opportunities or supported me even if they don’t know it, know your limitations, reach for those limitations, jealousy is a vestigial emotion (we can outgrow it), high fives all around. joinlamission.comPlease don’t give your heart to a world system based on exploitation of the luckless, give your heart to US!