ABOUT CORVAN

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Born on the tragic night of December 8, 1980, my father didn't want to have anything to do with me because of the pain caused by learning of Lennon's death, which had occurred minutes before. My father ran away, and we never saw him again. My mother raised me with no musical knowledge (except for '80s ballad singers like Mijares and Emmanuel). Therefore, my first contact with serious music was actually albums by Topo Giggio and The Smurfs.

 

Nah, the truth is, this beginning is just to add drama. My birthday isn't even on December 8, but I prefer to leave it anonymous, and my father never neglected us; he wasn't even a Lennon fan. What is certain is how tragic my first musical contacts were. With that out of the way, let's continue with my mini-self-portrait.

 

I discovered lyrics as a sickly child forced to do homework and school projects in bed. By the age of 8, I had already read everything readable at home. Through reading and illness, I developed a vast imagination that led me to write my first texts at age 11.

 

Around that time, I discovered rock through The Beatles, who left a profound impression on me. The Magical Mystery Tour was the first LP I heard from them. The Beatles would build a bridge to the rest of the musical universe, starting with the Rolling Stones, the Doors, Led Zeppelin, and Pink Floyd, in that order. These bands are still my favorites and which I consider the five pillars of rock, from which much of what we hear today derives. In 1993, the Spanish Rock Boom began, and I immersed myself in bands like Cuca, Caifanes, Soda Stereo, Fobia, and Héroes del Silencio, in that order. This golden age of Spanish-language rock would leave a profound mark on me, as I would experience its explosion firsthand. Shortly after, the alternative rock explosion would begin.

I learned to play the guitar at age 12. My teacher, a venerable old man, taught me the art through boleros and ranchera songs, promising to teach me the secrets of rock once I learned all 654 tones in consecutive order. When I finally succeeded, the teacher taught me how to play "The Pink Panther," much to my amazement, as I was expecting something more like In a Gadda da Vida. I dismissed the venerable old man when he revealed that "The Pink Panther" and "El Rock Del Angelito" were the only rock 'n' roll songs he knew. From then on, I became self-taught, mastering the 654 guitar tones, and began like everyone else at that time, releasing songs like "Creep," "What's Up," and the intro to The Unforgiven.

 

I started my first band at age 14, with two other acoustic guitarists at the height of the grunge scene <see note on Moby Dick>. Shortly after, we bought electric equipment. We raffled off bass and drums, since JF was too good a guitarist to trade instruments. That's how fate led me to learn to play bass, which would prove decisive in my life. I would master the bass over time and develop a love for it even greater than the guitar. The band Moby Dick began in 1995 and ended in 2001 after alternating with Toncho Pilatos and La Dosis, due to the guitarist moving to New York and the keyboardist to France (currently in Montreal).

 

At this time, I decided not to dedicate myself entirely to writing or music, as I preferred to work to live, not live to work. In other words, I decided to dedicate myself to a job that would allow me complete freedom to pursue my passions in my free time, and not to live under the pressure of writing or playing to survive, but to do it for pleasure.

 

After Moby Dick disbanded, I started a Trova duet with JJ, who was the drummer in Moby Dick. The duet had actually begun in 1996, performing songs by Silvio Rodríguez, Fernando Delgadillo, Luis Eduardo Aute, Alejandro Filio, among others. However, it wasn't until 2001 that Polo Corona invited us to open for him at a Bohemian night at the now-defunct Peña Cuicacalli, and that's when the name Trovadictos emerged. The performance was so successful that Polo suggested we look for cafés to play on weekends. After rotating through several venues, we finally settled at Café Don Luis and Café Eco, where we continued playing for several years, forming a three-piece duo with Polo Corona. Trovadictos disbanded after Polo Corona's sudden death in 2003, due to congenital heart problems that no one suspected. He continues to visit us on Bohemian nights under the guise of a firefly.

In 2004, I met a woman with characteristics reminiscent of a Cosmic Feline, whom I would eventually marry after four years of dating. In her, I would find the support and stability I needed to keep from shooting myself. During this time, I completed two collections of short stories, two collections of poetry, and a short novel. In 2005, I was invited to join a new band, Plastic Soldiers, initially to cover bass for a performance, but since almost all of them were songs from the Moby Dick repertoire, which I knew well, after the concert they offered me the position. In Plastic Soldiers, I took up the bass again, and we began performing in different bars, covering songs by the Beatles, Doors, Pink Floyd, Zeppelin, Radiohead, among others. Later, the band began writing their own songs, influenced by these bands. Plastic Soldiers' rehearsals soon became packed, and their songs began to receive good reviews. The band finally dissolved in 2008 after a significant turnover of drummers and the remaining members' interest in other projects.

 

In 2007, I started La Caverna de Corvan, a blog initially dedicated to his own lyrics, but which gradually became a reference point for rock music by adding very detailed album reviews and appreciating his knowledge as a performer, adding context to the album, its repercussions, influences, etc. Little by little, I added, in addition to band intros, a review of the different eras of rock, and lists of the best musicians and riffs in history, which allowed La Caverna to grow exponentially through word of mouth. George Starostin, as a reviewer, was my greatest influence on this project, and perhaps my early writing owes him more than I'd like.

 

In 2008, my first son was born, whom I'll call Risp here. From a very young age, Risp already showed his musical heritage with the drums and by his interest in Beatles songs like Let It Be and Hey Jude. Of the latter, he sang the first verse in English at the tender age of two and a half. At eight years old, he was already learning guitar and can perfectly differentiate AC/DC from the Rolling Stones.

 

 

 

In July 2011, the DMCA shut down the La Caverna space I originally had on Blogger for linking. Faced with the choice of starting over or leaving it alone, I decided to continue on the paid Webs platform, where after two months of restructuring, correcting, writing the missing intros, and re-uploading all the material, I managed to re-upload the blog's previous content in a much more attractive and navigable format.

In 2012, my daughter, whom I'll call Janis, was born. She's now five years old and shows some curiosity/skill on the guitar and bass. I hope to build a small studio at home so I can teach them without potential lawsuits from the neighbors.

 

In 2015, I decided to give La Caverna a new lease on life by inviting three contributors to write for it. Marlaior, from Spain, Homer, from Argentina, and El Hombre Mojón, from Mexico, joined this project, giving more variety to the reviews, covering bands and genres that would have been very difficult to cover otherwise.

 

In 2017, following changes to the Webs platform, which meant the loss of the features that made La Caverna unique, and in preparation for its tenth anniversary, I decided to move the site to Wix, with a more attractive and much easier-to-use platform.

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By Corvan

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