5 Questions with: Hubba

On the heels of his latest release, the Santa Fe musician sits down to talk with us about love, loss, and redemption. Plus: Yeah Yeah Yeahs, a Smiths reunion (kinda) , and more!

Oct 06, 2022

"The past couple of years have been hard," says Jared Garcia from his home studio in Santa Fe, New Mexico. "The passing of my grandfather and the loss of great love weighed on me, and writer's block felt like a gun to my head."

A veteran of the local music scene, Garcia (who performs under the name Hubba) has been in several bands, including Nacosta and Thieves & Gypsys, which he formed in 2011.

The latter became an area favorite, even winning a New Mexico Music Award for best Indie Song for a track called "Take Me To The Sea," but the band split shortly afterward.

Burnt out, Garcia wouldn't pick up a guitar for almost two years. By chance, a former songwriting partner asked him to help arrange a song he'd been struggling to finish. And as Garcia puts it, "the spark struck and floated onto my heart, reigniting my love for making music."

Having helped his partner with their music, it was time for him to face his own writer's block head-on. Gone were the days of distortion and power pop, replaced with writing that tracked in a more reflective direction.

As he tells it, Garcia was looking to "... take a step further in my writing and write pieces like a film or a novel. I want to make people feel something in them when they hear it. I want every tone and every instrument to have intention, purpose, and its own journey to being on track and on the album."

He also channeled that newfound energy into founding Mama Manana records with Kiley Larsen. The label is off to a fast start with the release from Hubba, and more to follow.

It's been challenging but rewarding work for the pair, with Garcia noting, "I think the first thing when anyone starts a business they start with the romance of what they believe it will be like, but often the work effort never follows. I'm grateful to have Kiley. Because we roll the sleeves up and get to work, I feel like our artists will see and appreciate our label and how hard we work for the music we love and what deserves to be heard. "

With the first part of Empty Dreams now released, Garcia has three songs dedicated to his grandmother that are studio ready. That will complete the Empty Dreams project and be released as a 6-track EP on cassette and, hopefully, vinyl.

There are also plans to tour the record New Mexico and the surrounding areas, and he is already planning the next evolution of his sound. Look for that new material by the end of next summer.

Listening to Empty Dreams, a record the label describes as somewhere in an ancient VHS western, dealing with heartache and loss, it's hard not to feel something. If you've ever been to the desert, you can relate to the strange way it feels welcoming and foreboding all at once.

If you've ever felt the loss of a close relative, the three tracks on Side A will take you back to those memories. Listening, one can almost see the Super 8 clips flashing as memories of those no longer with us.

The first few times I heard the lead single "By Your Side," it was playing in the background at work.

I thought it was a love song. In a lot of ways, it is.

Click the record to listen on your platform of choice

You can grab your copy of Empty dreams on Bandcamp. You can also stream his sounds on Spotify, and connect with him on Instagram.

For Mama Manana records and other Hubba videos/work, click here.

5 Questions:

Describe your style in one sentence.

A Chicano soul pop musician that’s found the keys to nostalgia.

Growing up, what was playing in your house?

Haha, Chicano rock, for one, cuz my older cousins were always playing music around the younger ones. But mostly old Spanish gospel music from my grandmother’s little boombox next to her chair.

What are you listening to these days?

Oh boy, a lot of stuff. But…

Bowie, The Marias, Charley Crockett, Charles Bradley, Chicano Batman, Darondo, and Jorge Ben Jor

What are your 5 Desert Island Discs?

Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino - Arctic Monkeys
The Slider - T-Rex
Let It Be - The Beatles
Don’t Believe The Truth - Oasis
Is This It - The Strokes

If you could choose anyone (living or dead) to collaborate with, who would it be?

It’s a tie between George Harrison and Matt Helders. George is cuz it’s obvious. But Matt Helders is just brilliant in everything he’s ever done as a drummer, and brilliant drummers are hard to come by, haha.

Reviews for the latest from Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Tim Burgess, and your dad’s power pop band.
That time Stewart Copeland of The Police made a cartoon theme song.
The usual absurdity that is #musictwitter.

Check it out!

Other Reviews

The Special Pillow- “Mind Wipe”

Imagine a band that sounds like the B52s one minute, and the child of Yo La Tengo the next (YLT’s James Mc New has played with them previously). A group that’s fun to dance to, but also works the phrase antipodean indie upstarts of the ’80s into their Bandcamp blurb. Alright, then.

For over two decades the Hoboken NJ group has put out it’s own brand of music that touches on folk, psychedelia, and surf rock. Nice compact pop beats with lush strings and some brass over the top. “Mind Wipe” is the kind of song you listen to once and catch yourself singing 3 days later.

“So Inclined” is a swirling 7-minute field trip that one normally finds at the end of a record not as a centerpiece.

“Organic Panic” is an instrumental that could easily be something from the back of your cool uncle’s record collection or from the stock video footage of a film you got to watch that time you had a sub in high school.

There’s definitely a vintage sound here, but lyrics like Can you prove you’re not a robot?/ Click all the boxes with traffic lights/ You must agree to all terms and conditions/ Purchase not authorized on this device on “Access Denied” make sure to remind you this is a 2022 release.

Faves: Mind Wipe, Red Lantern

The Airport ‘77s-We Realize You Have a Choice

POV: Your dad is in a cover band. They think they sound like Cheap trick, but are really closer to this. The soccer moms describe them as “fun.” Easy to dance to after a few Miller lights, and to be fair the acoustics at the bowling alley bar make ‘em sound great. All in all, some decent power pop from suburban Maryland.

Also: Long live split-flap flight boards.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs- Cool It Down

After 9 years, it would’ve been easy for Yeah Yeah Yeahs to mail it in; to play the hits, as it were. It also would’ve been easy to go the other way and become grievance merchants. The band has always been a little bit restless anyway.

Cool It Down is neither of those things. Sure it rails against climate change and Karen O. sounds as incisive as ever, but the band has managed to thread the needle and make a record that sounds both “like a Yeah Yeah Yeahs record,” and brand new all at once. The performance art chaos is no longer front & center, but the edge is as sharp as ever. No easy feat.

Everything you’ve always loved about the band, but with better lighting.

Faves: Spitting Off the Edge of the World, Different Today TK one more

Tim Burgess-- Typical Music

Former Charlatans frontman Tim Burgess deserves better from me. He’s released 6 solo records, written a handful of books and ran a record label. He’s also hosted, like, 3 million episodes of his Tim’s Listening Party series on Twitter (which are well worth checking out, btw).

He clearly isn’t stuck in 1992. Yet when it comes to him, I am. I find myself using the band’s “The Only One I know” as barometer for everything that’s come after. Charlatans might have a sound that was very much of the time, but at least you know what you're getting. Typical Music sounds like Burgess went to a sound cafeteria and loaded up his tray with one of everything.

Opener “Here Comes The Weekend” is a bop (as the kids say), but after that the potpourri of styles becomes a lot.

Too much bouncing around can keep things interesting. It can also give you whiplash. Bias aside, Typical Things leans more towards the latter.

Faves: Here Comes the weekend, Typical Music

Thoughts on any of these? Any records you think I should review?

What Was On

List of records I listened to all the way through this week. Doesn’t count playlists, listening in the car, etc.

New Order- Technique
New Order- NOMC15
L7-Hungry For Stink
Wire- Silver/Lead
The Police-Ghost In the Machine
The Police-Zenyatta Mondatta
Side Projects-S/T
No Sun-In The Interim
Ronnie Milsap- Best Of
Afghan Whigs-How Do You Burn?
Seaweed-Spanaway
Dry Cleaning- Boundary Road Snacks and Drinks EP
Fugazi-Repeater
Jawbreaker-Unfun
Sweet Trip- Velocity:Design:Comfort
R.E.M.-Chronic Town
Alvvays-S/T
Alvvays-Belinda Says/Very Online Guy EP
Yeah Yeah Yeahs-Fever To Tell
Metric- Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?
Soccer Mommy-Sometimes, Forever
Editors-EBM

What’ve you been spinning?

B-Sides

“It’s shit, but we’ll get through it”

An interview with High-Vis; one of On Repeat’s favorite discoveries this year. Check out my review of the band’s No Sense, No Feeling here (TK link), and look for one on their recent release “Blendings” soon. (spoiler alert: It’s fantastic).

High Vis never set out to mix Factory Records and Cro-Mags, though; it’s just kind of happened that way. When I ask them about the inspirations behind the sound, the band just glance at each other and shrug.