Ariel and The Hired Guns – Rocking the San Diego Pride Festival

by bill biss

Ariel Aparicio is a husband, father, restaurant owner and rocker. This dynamo of Rock and Roll energy mixed with his fiery Cuban spirit will take the Latin stage of this year’s San Diego Pride festival stage.

 

His latest hit on LOGO is called “Lucille” and is a fun spin through the nightlife scene and a few transvestites along the way. Right in the middle of Pride season, Ariel spent a few minutes on the phone from New York with The Rage Monthly.

 

He’s got a great sense of humor, obvious musicianship and he is furthering exposure to other out gay artists also. For performance time on Pride Weekend, July 17-18, please go to sandiegopride.org or arielaparicio.com.

Ariel Aparicio: I call it Rock n’ Roll. Wow. What a surprise huh? My influences run from classic rock, “New Wave” and punk…it’s all in there. I’d rather just generalize it and call it “rock.”

 

Hopefully those who listen, maybe they’ll come up with their own term of endearment (laughter). It’s constantly trying different things. It probably will never be just one particular sound.

AA: Thanks, now “Lucille” sounds totally different than anything else we’ve ever done.

 

AA: It’s been fantastic. I’m really excited. I’m kind of like a twitter geek and I’m constantly on there and it’s got amazing response. Right after it debuted, it also hit the MTVmusic.com website. It was phenomenal. Just under twenty-four hours, it went to number 21 on the charts. It’s just been great.

AA: The truth is the band is called “The Hired Guns” because that’s what they are. I collaborate really with Steve Dawson who is my lead guitar player. We’ve been a team for seven or eight years now. The rest of the musicians kind of just come in and out.

 

Paul Garisto on drums when he’s available. He is actually a regular member and drummer for The Psychedelic Furs.

AA: I worked at The Pallidium as a busboy and actually, even more interesting, was as a bathroom attendant. That was the best gig I’ve ever had! I made so much money. That’s really where I met so many people…everyone has to go to the john. It was actually the cool place to hang out.

 

People would come down and go into the stall and do their thang (laughter). I always had music blasting. I always brought my own box of music. Literally, I hung out with Boy George many times. Mick Jagger came down once and Andy Warhol always! There were quite a few characters there.

 

AA: “Freedom of Expression” is sponsored by OUTMusic. They are in the forefront of allowing gay artists to be comfortable with their sexuality, basically. The “Freedom of Expression” campaign was a commercial that several out artists did to just do that and express our thoughts freely with our music and our art.

 

To not at all, hide our sexuality. That’s one thing I’m very “pro” on. I hope younger artists today do the same. When I was younger and playing music, I was a little intimidated and afraid to be “out.” Fortunately, I overcame that and it just made me a better person and a better artist. I just hope we can do the same for others.

AA: That was really amazing! Queens Pride was just packed. So many people! I didn’t expect it to be that packed and that hot. They situate the Pride right in the heart of Queens so it felt like it was 120 degrees.

 

I felt like it went on for a mile. I could just see heads forever. Everyone was very receptive and the sound was good! It was a great way to kick-off our Pride tour here.