Dreaming in Stereo featured in The Miami Herald
Fernando Perdomo’s gringo sound with a Latin beat
By SARAH MORENO
smoreno@elnuevoherald.com
Fernando Perdomo owns a collection of 5,000 vinyl records, rarities of yesteryear that gain value as music turns into a string of sounds lost in cyberspace. When he was 8, the now 28-year-old Miami musician began to dig for treasures at the flea markets of Flagler Dog Track and Tropical Park. That’s how he found The Beatles, The Who, Stevie Wonder, Yes, Chicago, Alan Parsons and Todd Rundgren, who Perdomo opened for at Revolution in Ft. Lauderdale in March. “At 16, I had gathered an encyclopedia in my head of all the music I needed to know,” says Perdomo, who in his solo debut album Dreaming in Stereo, plays guitar, bass, drums and keyboards besides singing his own compositions, in English, without resorting to MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) or any other prefabricated music protocol. During Perdomo’s teen years, his mother, retired journalist Araceli Perdomo, also taught him to appreciate the music of Michel Legrand, the French composer known for soundtracks of movies such as The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.
“I learned to keep my mind open, and that helped me make it as a musician,” Perdomo says. “I have friends who only want to do rock and don’t want to play Latin music or rap.” He adds that at 22 he had the “pleasure” to record with Cristian Castro the album Amar Es, (To Love Is) produced by Emilio Estefan.
`I played six songs, among them the one that made it to No. 1, No Hace Falta [It's Not Necessary],” Perdomo said.
Wearing sunglasses and with disheveled hair, he accompanies Paulina Rubio on the video Causa y Efecto (Cause and Effect), a single from the Golden Girl’s latest album, Gran City Pop.
The sound of Perdomo’s guitar incorporates the Anglo touch in music performed by Latin artists like Soraya, Jeremías and Tego Calderón. His aspiration is to follow the style of guitar legends like Brian May of Queen and David Gilmour of Pink Floyd. “I’m sometimes called a Cuban renegade because I play the guitar like a gringo, though I do have a Latin rhythm,” says Perdomo, who notes he gets very little inspiration from Cuban music. “Maybe the improvisation,” he says.
To preserve his creative freedom, he gave up a contract with a large recording label and launched his own independent project under the New York label Transcendent Music Publishing.
“Dreaming in Stereo has three different styles, and a recording company would not have allowed that. This is an eclectic album with which I wish to show all the sides of my being,” Perdomo said.
The album is now on sale at music stores and iTunes. Themes like Let Me Love You, Decisions Decisions and Lazy show his pop influences. Misery Loves Companies, Steal This Song and Sea Dreams take him to the progressive rock, with long, experimental themes that invite creativity. Amicable and Smile show classical influences. The latter features Courtney Yeates’ cello and offers an optimistic perspective, which Perdomo assumes in difficult times.
This approach, enriched with irony and rebelliousness, streams through the song I’m Not Gonna Move to L.A., in which he proclaims he has decided to stay in Miami and continue his music career despite the adverse environment.
“In Miami there is no music industry in English,” Perdomo said. “The recording labels are Latin. That is why sometimes I feel like a second-class citizen. The showcases are all in Spanish.”
Perdomo believes that “if your music is good, it will reach the right ears.” This persistence and confidence in genuine creativity has led him to wear the producer’s hat. He undertook the production of Boston-born Dominican Lizette Santana’s debut album Aún sueño en ti (I Still Dream of You), Miami rocker Rachel Goodrich’s latest album Tinker Toys, and the upcoming recording of Cuban-American Jorge Moreno.
The other members of his band are bassist Guiseppe Rodríguez and drummer Eddie Zyne, who has played with the Hall & Oates band and The Monkees.
