Today we’d like to introduce you to Gabe Lariza.
Hi Gabe, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’ve grown up playing church at a very young age with my cousin and bandmate Marc Encabo. My father taught us both how to play guitar. At this time, YouTube was fairly new and we grew up listening FilAm (Filipino American) artists like Gabe Bondoc, Passion, and Jesse Barrera. I tried my best copy these cool chords that didn’t look like the ones my father taught me, nor did these shapes match up with what my beginner guitar books had. I always wanted to do music, but growing up we didn’t have the resources to pay for music. I didn’t want to burden my parents to ask for lessons, so my goal was to have a stable job. Maybe I could look at music as a fun hobby or past time where I could process my emotions through my hands once in a while, and be content with that. My friends and family, including Marc, Josh Vasquez (my other cousin/bandmate) Eric Hirschhorn, Lawrence Pi, Jay Hemphill, a ton of homies have continually pushed me to consider music more seriously.
A couple years ago in the middle of Covid, I was staying at my cousin’s house for the weekend. I had just gone through a serious break-up at the time, and my friends thankfully let me stay and hang while I gathered my thoughts. Marc at that time was already playing for another church during pandemic. He asked me Saturday evening, “Hey bro, you tryna play some gospel tomorrow? I just got this call to play in long beach and I can’t do it.” I told him “Bro, I don’t even have the right clothes for a Sunday service, a bass, amp, anything. How could I play for a church when I don’t have the right clothes?” He said “Just borrow our stuff. There are two bassists that live in this house.” My homie Jay Hemphill, another incredible artist (@discountart on socials) took me on a Target run to buy some Sunday clothes. I went over all the music that evening we did Blessed by Fred Hammond which was a personal favorite of mine, played Sunday Service at Light & Life West for the first time, and the rest has been history! If there’s one place that will truly teach you how to play with intention, finesse, and overall get better as a musician, it’s playing in church. I definitely have to give it up to my music director and dear friend Darrel Sims as well as the rest of my church family. This community has been so loving and kind. It’s rekindled my love for God, my relationships, and rejuvenated my love for playing music.
Nowadays my commute on weekends from SD to LB has been one of the things I look forward to the most. On top of my weekends, I work full time at Scripps Clinic Torrey Pines in Hematology/Oncology for the last decade. Juggling these two widely different jobs has been a challenge but as long as your heart is in the right place, you keep an organized calendar, and set aside time to learn and internalize your music, its very possible to maintain a full time job alongside your freelancing career. Lately in this past year the homies started this dope collective called the FamJam, at Mission Bay Resort. This has been such a fantastic space where some of the top SD artists, whether they’re instrumentalists, vocalists, rappers, etc. come into this open air space and jam. I’ve been so blessed to branch out and explore these different musical spaces, and the FamJam house band does a great job of switching it up and making arrangements of tunes fresh and unique. It happens every first Monday of the month.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I think the biggest barrier has been prioritizing. How do I navigate music if I have to manage my day to day job? I’ve had to say no often to gigs, especially the calls out of town. There have been times when I’ve had to sub gigs out, but for the most part if I commit to someone, I commit hard. I feel like my hardest thing is the feeling that I’m playing catch up to so many artists who went through musical school, they have so much more facility than I do, and I totally rely on memorization and my ear to guide me through the uncertainty. Once you break out of the initial anxiety and you can feel the pocket in a tune, it gets infinitely easier to maneuver. I consider music to be a shared conversation with your band mates. As a bassist I love thinking about how my playing impacts the tune. Depending on the kind of music and people I’m playing with, I love throwing little jabs and chord subs. Sometimes if theres a particular melody that sounds cool I like to pick those things up and match it on bass because it adds these little things which make the song fuller. I truly love playing with intent, sometimes its not all about the grand virtuoso solos, but doing the small things, making eye contact, listening to your band leader and staying on top of the changes so that when stuff turns into the unexpected, you’re prepared to adjust. These trips to play music have been so restorative to my soul because working my day job in oncology can be incredibly emotionally taxing. My patients go through the some of the worst things in their lives, so I try to be present for them. My job has been so ingrained with the my providers and specialists and I try to make sure that regardless of what I’m doing, I make it count. I started this race rather late and I want to stand side by side by the people I look up to. I want to move with intention. I used to be so thoughtless when it came to my musical choices but now I’m trying to move forward with playing melodically instead of mindlessly.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I work in oncology as an ancillary scheduler, supporting my friend Dr. Darren Sigal, the head of GI Oncology & Research, as well as the Associate Division Head, as well as our Oncology Fellowship Program which supports up to 12-14 physicians who undergo rigorous oncology training before they go off to become attending physicians. I typically work on making the chemo schedules for patients as well as additional imaging like CTs, MRIs, Ultrasounds. I’ll assist them with their disability forms, and more often than not the patients come by my office just to say hi! I love working with them so much, even the crazy ones I get a sense of fulfillment when I can resolve their problems. I always tell my patients that they have enough going on in their lives to worry about, but the last thing I want them to worry about is anything that comes from my office. I’m a resource in my dept to my peers and my physicians. My patients and I share such a close bond, some of these patient’s who I’m very close to ask my about my life, find out I play music, and have shown up to my gigs!
I have a quite a few band projects now, JLR (Japanese Lunchtime Rush) has been a massive passion project of mine. We make these fun arrangements of anime tunes and video game music, dosed with a heavy influence of gospel, neosoul, rnb, j-rock, and fusion. I’ve had the blessing of being the band leader of JLR for the last 7-8 years. We’ve had the opportunity to play at various anime conventions across LA county, Anime Los Angeles since 2018 for a number of years now, with two dope singles out on streaming from our live ALA 2024 headliner show. We collaborate regularly with Aztec Brewery in Vista for their Brew Game Plus music festivals and have recently headlined late 2024 which is insane. I’m glad my bandmates indulge the idea of merging music and nerdiness in such dope way, their ideas truly fuel the music and the love of the genre.
Recently I’ve been also trying to explore my sound vocally with another group – GKP (Gabe’s Karaoke Party) This band was essentially made so that my friends and I could get better and more confident at singing. Karaoke Party is because these are tunes we sing at karaoke, because the filipino in me can’t help it. I have INCREDIBLE homies that sing and no one knows this, or they never had a platform to do so. We have a GKP show coming up on 4/29 at Fox Point Farms in Encinitas, as well as a big show opening for Eric Hirschhorn’s band Rebelution on 5/17 in Santa Barbara! I’m so stoked and simultaneously terrified to be opening for these monsters but working with these cats has been such an incredible experience. We opened for them last year, and at that point I still didn’t feel super confident that I deserved to be in this space but my guys keep pushing me to look at singing more seriously. Honestly as I fill this out I’m so stoked I get to play with two of my bands tonight, GKP and Jon August music. Jon August is a filam singer songwriter who oozes soul and creativity. His band is literally made up of the same exact people in JLR and GKP.
I look forward to working with a ton of people but lately I have this cool artist friend HAZL who I’m super stoked to be playing with soon. Stay posted on socials and streaming because her music gives me goosebumps its really cool.
Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
Marc Encabo is someone who’s been in my corner as a child. He’s pushed me to be better that I thought I could be for a very long time, even when I didnt see it. You really need someone like that in your life. Sometimes he’d just book something and challenge me to do it. Josh Vasquez my cousin has been so freaking awesome to play with, his introspection teaches me so much when it comes to living life and looking at music. Eric Hirschhorn a dear brother and one has been so real and true with me, thrown me some massive gigs, this man has done his best to cultivate me into being a better musician and person. Lawrence Pi has been a champion of mine esp in recent years, telling me to go for it, but more importantly telling me hey man, you gotta rest bro. Dayna Alice Austin has pushed me to shine in the spotlight, and has always supported me in my musical journey since we were kids. Theres a multitude of people I gotta give it up to, but my JLR fam, Jon August fam, Shawn Chris, Travis Thomas, Rashaad Graham, so many people.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gabelariza
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gabelariza?mibextid=wwXIfr&mibextid=wwXIfr
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@japaneselunchtimerush9?si=xCC2SLdgAqopx4jJ
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2UWyFPqBOVmoMy7N3ECrcT?si=-yqY3kDsRwC9EAhVCQxb7Q
Image Credits
Brian Figueroa
