- Henry Mena
Henry Mena (born
February 20 ,1966 ,New York City ) is an American singer/songwriter/guitarist of Dominican descent.Biography
Born in
Manhattan 's predominantly Dominican neighborhood of Washington Heights, but raised in Santiago,Dominican Republic from the age of 10, Mena was originally a drummer, later switching to bass--and teaching himself to play guitar, as well--while singing in various Santiago-area bands, most notablySociedad Anonima (1983-1987) andVia Contraria (1987-1988). After moving back to New York City and formally switching to guitar, Mena formed the pioneeringrock en español trioLa Ruta in 1992, alongside bassist/vocalistCarlos Guzman and drummerLuis Jesús Ruiz , both Santiago natives he'd individually played with during his years in that city's then-burgeoning rock scene.La Ruta
La Ruta's original lineup of Mena/Guzman/Ruiz recorded an EP, "Amarillo Pollito" (1996) and an album "
...Adios, Ruperto " (1998), the latter being released after Ruiz's departure in 1996. Sessions for a follow-up album yielded another EP: "Bailando en la Tierra de los Zombies " (2000), which features Guzman's bass playing on one track, with Mena handling bass parts on the rest. Like Ruiz before him, Guzman was no longer a member of the band by the time of the latter EP's release. (All three recordings were released in theU.S. on Mena's 220 Records imprint.) While Guzman contributed to the band's songwriting output during his tenure (1992-1999), Mena was La Ruta's sole songwriter--and only original member--during the latter part of their decade-plus run.A brief reunion of the band's original lineup was tentatively scheduled to perform selected live dates during the summer of 2007. Unfortunately, Guzman opted out at the last minute, citing scheduling conflicts. It would've marked the first time in 5 years since the Mena/Guzman/Ruiz lineup had performed together onstage, the previous time being La Ruta's 10th anniversary concert in 2002. The band's latest incarnation (Mena, Ruiz, and bassist Alex Guerra) has since decided to perform occasionally and plan on promoting "Cables, Cuerdas, Uñas y Palitos", a collection of rarities, outtakes and live material with a tentative release date of late 2008.
Solo career
Based out of
Brooklyn ,New York since 1994, Mena embarked on a solo career after La Ruta went on indefinite hiatus in 2003, singing almost exclusively in English. His first English-language release was the acoustic EP "The Avatar Sessions " (2002)--which legendary avant garde guitaristGary Lucas compared favorably to the late, folk-rock iconNick Drake --and his first full-length, full-band album "Beautiful Insults and Compromises " is due to be released in 2008. The album's producers are Mena andBrian Montgomery , whose credits includeSteely Dan 'sDonald Fagen ,Ted Leo ,John Mayer ,Sting ,Stone Temple Pilots and all three releases by La Ruta, which he engineered.One Seventeen Records has reissued a remastered version of "
The Avatar Sessions ", including bonus tracks.The Henry Mena Ego Trip
Starting in the summer of 2006, after a few years of solo acoustic performances, Mena began fronting a new band called The Henry Mena Ego Trip, with
Hank Gonzalez on guitar, frequent collaboratorAlex Guerra on bass and vocals (himself a talented singer/songwriter in his own right who appears as backup vocalist on La Ruta's "...Adios Ruperto" and was that band's bassist in its final incarnation), and latter-day La Ruta drummer Jim Jackson--who played on "...Adios, Ruperto" as a guest and as the band's official drummer on "Bailando en la Tierra de los Zombies"--all of whom are veterans of theNew York City music scene. Most of the material performed live by the Ego Trip is due to appear on the "Beautiful Insults and Compromises" album.Other projects
Inspired by
Lollapalooza , for a few years in the mid '90s Mena put together a popular undergroundrock en español festival called Alterlatino, featuring bands from the New York area and headlined by La Ruta.Aside from his own music's close stylistic ties to both
power pop and the singer/songwriter vein, the breadth of Mena's musical interests is quite ample, as evidenced by his work with heavy metal actJLS (with whom he toured as bassist/vocalist on the Spanish leg of the tour supporting that band's "Serpiente en el Huerto " album in late 2001); guest vocalist forlatin jazz heaviesSonido Isleño ; bassist forelectronica artist/producer Nova (currently fronting latin soul actPacha Massive ), as well as fellow singer/songwriterMark Miranda ; and as live guitarist for the aforementioned Alex Guerra, for whom he's also produced some as-of-yet unreleased recordings.Mena has acknowledged a few of his musical heroes and/or influences at various points in his career: "...Adios, Ruperto" contains an instrumental tribute to drummer
Stewart Copeland ofThe Police ("The Returning Adventures of Klark Kent") and the album's hidden track pays homage to Dominican singer/songwriterLuis Dias , whose songs La Ruta frequently covered live, one of which, "Echale Ga'", is due to appear in a 1997 concert version on "Cables, Cuerdas, Uñas y Palitos". (In addition, "Dancing in Zombieland" was once rumored to be the title of a late '90s Luis Dias album. When it became apparent he would not use the title, La Ruta translated it into Spanish--"Bailando en la Tierra de los Zombies"--for their 2000 EP.) "The Deal" from his "Beautiful Insults and Compromises" album quotes lyrics fromJimi Hendrix 's "Castles Made of Sand ", and an as-of-yet unreleased track by La Ruta is titled "Fanclub", a nod to Scottishpower pop groupTeenage Fanclub . Also, a longtime goal of Mena's is to record a tropical tribute to his belovedBeatles . He claims their "Abbey Road " to be his favorite album ("Abbey Road" is the standard against which I measure all my aspirations as a musician") andPaul McCartney 's "Maybe I'm Amazed " his all-time favorite song.Discography
La Ruta
" Amarillo Pollito" EP --cassette only--(1996)
Producer, vocals, guitar, bass.
"...Adios, Ruperto" (1998)
Producer, vocals, guitar, bass.
"Bailando en la Tierra de los Zombies" EP (2000)
Producer, vocals, guitar, bass, programming.Henry Mena
"The Avatar Sessions " EP (2002)
Producer, vocals, guitar.Other Credits
" Sonido Isleño / El Asunto" (1999)
Vocals."JLS / Serpiente En El Huerto" (2001)
Background vocals.Links
* [http://www.henrymena.com Official website]
* [http://www.myspace.com/henrymena MySpace page]
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