Maskhera is one of the more influential Venezuelan metal bands on the more contemporary groove/thrash metal side of the spectrum. What’s interesting is that the band keeps reinventing itself. It is exactly this drive to get better and more interesting that drummer Jesús García – who is Venezuelan, but didn’t join the band until it had relocated to the Colombian capital of Bogotá – enjoys so much about playing with the band.

The Rush artwork hanging in the background during our Zoom call betrays that García has a slightly different musical background from the rest of Maskhera. “It wasn’t until I joined Maskhera that I started playing in a more aggressive kind of style”, he confirms. “I used to have very different bands back in Venezuela. I used to play with progressive rock bands in very different styles, like Rush, Symphony X, Dream Theater, Circus Maximus, Yes, Marillion… All kinds of progressive music.

So joining Maskhera was awesome for me. Adapting my style to them was great. Also, I am the fifth drummer of the band, so I needed to learn and play those songs, learn the styles of the previous drummers, and adapting my style to them. Also, the band has changed a lot through the years. The first album, ‘Caracas’ (2012) sounds very different from ‘Nemesis’ (2015). The band started out as thrash and groove metal, then it went a little more technical on ‘Nemesis’.

The thing is: all of those changes are made by different drummers. Maybe you can compare it to how Megadeth sounded very different with Nick Menza than they did with different drummers. You can feel the change. Vinnie Colaiuta: you can feel the technicality behind the songs they recorded with him. It’s been a learning process with Maskhera, but you grow with them. We tried different sounds and different styles of playing, and they love that. It’s an honor for me to play with them.”

Creating an Experience

“Back in Venezuela, I met Walter (Gangi, Maskhera’s singer and guitarist) when I was very young, because he used to work as a producer on a rock TV show, and he invited my band to appear on that show. I was 17 years old or something like that, and I was playing drums in a nu-metal band called Drogui 65. We were interviewed on the show.

At that time, Walter was playing with a different band. He introduced me to it, but to be honest with you: I wasn’t really into it. I was doing other things. Later on, a friend of mine told me to listen to Maskhera, because it sounded closer to bands like Sepultura, Pantera and things like that. They were very good. Since I was with this nu-metal band, the probability of sharing the stage with Maskhera was not too high, because at the time, that was not something you wanted to see on the same stage as a thrash metal band, haha!

‘Nemesis’ is a more complex album, and you can feel that the band found their own sound. A strong sound. The audience showed that they love that sound. Walter and Jeff (Sánchez, Maskhera’s guitarist and second singer) are the masterminds behind all the songs, and they want to create an experience. Not just an aggressive song, or a melodic song: they want to let you know that they are doing something very special for the crowd. And I love that. When I joined the band, that was something significant for me.”

Receiving the Approval

“When I came to Colombia about eight years ago, they were looking for a new drummer. It’s a funny story, because I didn’t even know they were planning an audition to play with them. A good friend just asked me whether I wanted to play with them in the studio. Yeah, of course! I thought I would just be playing with a bunch of friends, but then Jeff was there, and they said: no, we want you to play with Maskhera! We did the rehearsal, the chemistry was really good, and I joined the band.

They were free to try any other musician. It didn’t have to be someone from Venezuela. They used to make fun of me because all of them are from Caracas, the capital, and I am from the northeast of Venezuela, from Margarita Island. People from Margarita are fun and loud, and we used to speak in a very specific accent that everybody thinks is funny, and we use a lot of weird words that people don’t quite understand.

When we recorded the stream for Venezuela Metal Fest set, I was new in the band. At that moment, we had only played four or five rehearsals together. They gave me ten or twelve songs, and then we took the songs we could play together the best to put that on video, and it was awesome. It was very fun for me. When Walter said ‘welcome to Jesús García on drums’ in the middle of the set, I felt proud.

Afterwards, I asked Rony (Borges, García’s predecessor as Maskhera’s drummer) how it sounded, and he said: you played the songs perfectly, and you also brought your style to it. Receiving that approval from him was amazing.”

Gradually More Complex

“I started playing drums when I was 12 years old. At the moment, I’m 39 years old, so I already have 27 years of experience playing drums. When I just started out, I started by playing rock. At the time, I was listening to things like Korn, Limp Bizkit, Rage Against the Machine, System of a Down. So I tried to play those songs.

But then, I gradually started listening to more complex music. That started with Fear Factory and Mudvayne, but then, when I was a kid, there was a guy selling records and CD’s, who recommended things like Meshuggah and ‘Moving Pictures’ by Rush. That was really something else.

When I was 13 years old, or maybe 15 years old, a guy told me he wanted to play music, and asked me if I played more than just rock music. That’s when I started playing timbales and congas, and I brought those elements to the drum set. That was also fun. I started studying different drummers, like Horacio Hernández, Thomas Lang, Vinnie Colaiuta, Virgil Donati, Dave Weckl… There was a huge world of drums out there, and I wanted to learn more about it.

Also, I listened to music that was created without drums. And that’s fun too, because you can be thinking creatively about what you would play on it. Your mind is going to enhance a little bit if you constantly push yourself a little bit outside of the limits of the common things you play all the time. It’s a lot of fun.”

Need to Work on It

“Venezuela didn’t have many prog bands at the time, but there were Venezuelan bands that I enjoyed. For example, there is a band named Guaco. They played gaita music in the beginning, but they evolved into tropical music. It’s weird, because it’s like salsa, but it’s not salsa. It sounds a little bit like reggaeton, but it’s not reggaeton. Also, they use a lot of jazz elements. So if you want to play that kind of music, at least on the drums, you need to work on it, because it’s really difficult. I love that band.

Also, there is a band called Desorden Público, which is ska. Normal ska. Fun ska. I love them. And there is a really, really good rock band called Candy 66. I had the honor of sharing the stage with them when I was playing in Venezuela with Drogui 65. We shared a lot of stages. I love them.

Maskhera recorded the song ‘Hasta Siempre’ with Jean Carlo De Oliveira, the singer of Candy 66. He is the guy with the big glasses. He’s a really good friend of the band. We wanted to share that song with them. Walter told me once that he had the idea to have him guest on one of our songs, and when we saw the opportunity to do it, we did that song with him.

There is a lot of talent in Venezuela. I have played drums for a lot of artists, and I went from reggaeton and merengue to death metal. As long as I enjoy it, I don’t care about what style it is. I care about the audience: if everybody’s happy, I’m happy. That’s the main thing about music. And I think that’s the most wonderful thing about it.”

Equipment to Play Better

“Working on my technique was a big thing when I joined Maskhera. For example: on the new recordings we are working on, there are a lot of blastbeats. In the progressive environment, those are not common. And there’s a lot of high-speed double-bass stuff. It’s rather interesting that I can adapt myself and follow their path or play my own style. Most of the time, we end up mixing both styles, and it sounds great.

Also, when you play with Maskhera, you have a lot of equipment to work with. We have visuals on screens behind us, so we need to play perfectly if we want to provide a really good show. If you just play tropical music, you need to forget being so tight a little bit. There is no metronome, click track or backing track. You need to follow the bass, follow the percussionist, the piano: everything! There are maybe ten, twelve musicians playing at the same time. I’m not saying one is more difficult than the other. It’s just different.

When I joined Maskhera, it was a huge responsibility. Rony, the drummer who played with Maskhera before me – he still is a really good friend of ours – was the one who brought things like the click track and the backing track to the band. So the band was used to that. And they said that kind of equipment makes them play better, because they are able to add additional elements that we cannot play ourselves.

So when I joined the band, I wanted to be able to play with the click tracks, the backing tracks, and video. I thought it was a really good to do that, because everything will be perfectly linked to the music.”

Aiming to Be Good On Stage and Offstage

“Also, I am always willing to improve my sound. After all, what is rock music without really good-sounding drums? Using triggers has helped us sound very, very professional. That’s the thing: you want people to know that you are professional. You want to bring the sound and a very professional look in. It starts with the music, the flow, and what you are trying to let the people know. We have our own sound engineer, who is almost like a musical director for us, our own equipment, the visuals…

We always try to keep our sound the same as much as possible. No matter what. Whether it’s a small stage in a bar or a huge festival like Rock al Parque. That is why we always bring our case with backing tracks and triggers and all that. We used to call it the Maskhecase. Also, being professional isn’t just about the music. It’s about being good with people who are there to help you, to make things easierfor you. It has always been our aim to be really good on stage as well as offstage. No matter what.

I have a huge collection of snares. When I play with Maskhera, I need the biggest, loudest one. And when I play tropical music, I normally use thin piccolo snares, because it sounds more like timbales or other types of tropical percussion instruments, and you can mix with those sounds. Also, the tuning of the toms and the bass drum is quite different. You don’t need those hard-hitting sounds when people are dancing, haha!

Fortunately, I’m the kind of musician who wants to play everything. I would love to have a huge library of different styles I can play, so I can pick and choose which ones I’m going to use. That’s probably why I like progressive music so much, because you can basically do whatever you want, haha! It’s going to sound different, and people are going to be interested in it. I love that.”

Life in a Bag

“The situation that encouraged a lot of people in Venezuela to leave the country happened to Maskhera as well. Also, we were looking for opportunities outside of the country. My situation was very different from Walter’s, for example. Walter came to work in Colombia, because he worked for a TV channel, and someone gave him the opportunity to work in TV production in Colombia. For me, and I think it was a similar situation for Jeff and Paul (Quintero, bassist), I felt like there was no opportunity to grow in Venezuela.

It was very difficult for me, because I left a lot of things behind. Basically, I put my life in a bag and said: I’m going to Colombia just to see what will happen. In the beginning, it was really difficult. It was a rough situation for me. But in the end, you can get used to the life in a different country, and I started to enjoy it.

Many changes in Maskhera history are related to people who want to take on opportunities in a different place, and see what happens if they go to a different country. Eventually, everything went better. At least for me. In the end, you can always learn from those situations. That’s the most important thing for me: to grow, and learn, so you know how to face those situations.”

Closest Thing to Family

“In Venezuela, I had this huge drum set that I loved. It was a difficult situation for me. When the drums were put in cases, I was crying, because I didn’t know when I was going to see this drum set again. And obviously my family. It took me about seven years to see my mom, my dad and my brother again. Here in Colombia, I’m basically alone. The closest thing I have to family here is my dog. Sometimes, he is the one who keeps me from going crazy.

Two or three years ago, we recorded the song ‘Hasta Siempre’ in honor of Walter’s father, Adrián (Gragirena, Maskhera’s original bassist who died in 2011), and other people who were close to the band and passed away. Walter is a really nice man, but when he went through that situation with his father, he closed himself off. And we tried to be there for him, to share, to speak to, to make jokes, whatever is needed for him.

Through the years, all of us went through different situations where we needed to speak to someone. And usually, the first option I think of is the guys from the band. I talk to Walter, Jeff and Paul a lot.”