By Jonathan Turner, Hola America
Miami-Dade County in Florida has a population of 2.8 million, a majority of whom are Latino. While the Quad Cities has a metro population of about 400,000, with a minority and growing Hispanic population, Moline native Adrian Guerra is thrilled to find the QC much more active in live music by comparison.
After moving back here from Miami (after nearly 20 years) this past December, Guerra has really enjoyed discovering the local music scene, particularly within the Latino community and beyond. “In Miami, I was involved in helping build and support the local music scene by highlighting musicians and creating opportunities for visibility and connection,” he says.
As a bilingual singer-songwriter, even when it comes to Spanish music in south Florida, “there just aren’t that many places to play,” Guerra says. “I’m surprised. I mean, it wasn’t like this back in the day. Now when I come back now, I see that there’s a lot of places with live music.”
In the past several months, he’s performed at several local venues and restaurants, including Moline’s Mercado on Fifth; and El Fogón and Corazón Latino restaurants (both owned by Roberto Orozco). “I also performed regularly at Baja Tacos in Bettendorf for some time before the restaurant changed ownership,” Guerra says. “Another venue supporting live music in the community has been Creative Signature Cuisine in East Moline, owned by Lizbeth Verduzco Mendoza,” where he performed May 16 for its third anniversary.
Guerra also has been playing regularly at Kelso’s Corner in the Village of East Davenport, Pour Bros. in Moline, and Kilkenny’s Pub in downtown Davenport, as well as a new karaoke bar in Silvis called Encore.
His mother is Cuban and father from Ecuador, and he spent his early years growing up in Venezuela (his father was raised there), from about four to 14, before returning to Moline and graduating from Moline High School.
“I was always involved in music since me and my brother really were always involved in music,” Guerra says, noting in Venezuela, he played the four-string instrument called a cuatro, a small guitar.
“From there, we gravitated towards the guitar because you start listening to your own music, popular music, wanting to sort of like play the instruments that the people that you admire are playing,” he says, noting he taught himself guitar, and formed bands when he was a pre-teen and teenager and wrote songs (he penned his first around age 10).
“I’d listen to rock and pop music, particularly in Spanish. So that’s highly influential for me,” Guerra says, noting he wrote in Spanish and English. “A lot of people, once they start hearing a little bit of criticism, they start shutting down a little bit. And in my case, thankfully enough at that age, I wasn’t really affected much by the criticism. I was more affected by the love of wanting to do it right. You know, so the creative process was enjoyable for me, whether I was good at it or not. Like everything else, once you start doing something, you get better, it’s almost inevitable.”
“Music was sort of my way of communicating, in a way, was my way of saying, this is what I have to offer,” he said. “I know a lot of people back in the day, they remember me basically because I’m the guy with the guitar.”
In 2004, he placed second in the Latin category of the Billboard World Songwriting Contest. Guerra earned his bachelor’s in communications from Western Illinois University in Macomb, where he also played. He had visited Nashville and Miami a few times to check out their music scenes, and moved to Miami full-time in 2006.
Guerra performed and organized concerts in Miami, and started working for a financial services firm (which he continues to do remotely).
“I was trying to be an artist, trying to be a songwriter. I did get involved with groups of other songwriters writing songs for other people,” he says. “But as an artist, I could not find a way to exploit that. There were not many places to perform at, and the music industry was really locked into sort of like just the industry. Like, when you go to Nashville, you have the industry, but you also have music. You go to Nashville, you see music everywhere. People performing in Miami was not like that. Miami was like, you have the industry, and that’s it. You don’t have the live performances.”
There, live music was mainly limited to reggae, and record industry events, Guerra says.
“What I was doing most of the time was, I was doing special events. And in some cases I had to really invent myself, so I would put together these showcases,” he said. “I would go to these places where they normally wouldn’t have live music, but they had the atmosphere.”
“My plan was never really to come to Quad Cities and stay here,” Guerra says, noting he planned to help his parents for a bit and head back to Miami. “Seeing how there’s that much opportunity to perform, there’s that many things to do here that weren’t there before made me think twice. That was worth exploring and sticking around for.”
“Maybe now I can enter the scene and become a part of it,” he says “Put in what I’ve learned from being outside into it.”
“Here I have been able to book considerably given the circumstances,” he adds. “When I was in south Florida, it was not like this at all.”
Guerra hasn’t recorded much, but focuses on performing.
“I wasn’t much of a person that enjoyed the recording process. I loved performing live. I love being in front of the microphone,” he says. “I love connecting with people, with audiences.”
“When you’re singing in front of people, that’s the thing you’re performing. So it’s not really about signing, sounding great and playing the guitar perfectly and everything,” Guerra says. “It’s really about doing something that catches the people’s attention. That’s the main thing. So that’s the main challenge. I’ve met a lot of people who have amazing voices and they have the great equipment, everything, but no stage presence. And no matter how good.”
“The drawback about artists in general, we tend to be very critical about ourselves and about our own music,” he says. “Even though we are confident and we tend to be very careful. It’s really difficult for us to finish something because we’re never satisfied.”
“To me everything sounds better live,” Guerra says. “If I’m sitting here, I sing you one of my songs, I’ll be so satisfied. ‘Cuz I know it’s going to sound so good because I’m singing it right now. But if you tell me, let’s go to the studio and record it, it’s a completely different thing.”
“When you’re playing live, you’re in absolute control,” he says. “You’re in control of your voice, the guitar, the music, the mood, everything. When you’re in the studio, you’re not in control. The producer’s in control, the engineer’s in control.”
Guerra’s upcoming appearances include:
- May 30 — Kilkenny’s Pub (Davenport), 9 p.m.- 12 a.m.
- May 31 — Pour Bros. (Moline), 1:30-3:45 p.m.
- June 12 — Kilkenny’s Pub (Davenport), 9 p.m.-12 a.m.
- June 13 — Jerry’s (LeClaire), 4-7 p.m.
- June 18 — Hurts Donut Co. (Bettendorf) as part of the TBK Summer Concert Series, 6-8 p.m.
Check his YouTube channel.
Stay in the know with stories that matter — visit HolaAmericaNews.com for the latest news, culture, and community updates!
Facebook Comments