On Rhythm and Balance
A conversation with Pegasus Warning
Multi-disciplinary performer and percussionist Guillermo E. Brown on the ways drumming and electronics are deeply rooted in his personal history, finding a rhythm between your work life and your private life, and creating new frameworks to allow people into your creative practice.
Who do you look up to?
My grandfather. I can definitely look to him for that sort of prototype of the type of artist or even the man I want to be. He was the first person, besides my mom, to encourage my drumming and rhythmic sensibilities. He was a drummer. My mom had a holistic approach to parenting, which meant that she didn’t separate parenting from dancing or drumming or singing.
But my grandfather was the first one to sit me down with a drum and actually play. To actually play drums with me, together. He was also an electrician. We made little buzzers and things with batteries and he showed me how to solder. There’s a clear, direct link between my grandfather and the studio that I see before me now. Those combinations and hybridizations of electronic and acoustic instruments, and drumming, and those aspects of play – are so intrinsic to my identity as a human being and as an artist. I definitely can trace it back to those early moments we shared together. Absolutely.
Where did you grow up?
I grew up in the tri-state area of New York. I spent summers in Washington D.C. with my maternal grandparents. The same grandparents that nurtured my drumming. (They also taught me how to love the outdoors, about gardening and cooking, and baking with my grandmother). I definitely see myself as a New England-born kid who grew up a stone’s throw away from New York City. Close enough to NYC that I could get there very quickly, and far enough away that I had space and room and trees and a place that was just for making noise.
What’s your family like?
I consider myself Afro-Latino and Caribbean because my father comes from Panama. Relatives of mine were in Barbados and Jamaica, before they went to Panama. I consider that cultural mix, from the Caribbean Islands and from Central America, a crucial component of my cultural strategy. That’s like, my cultural coat of arms. My mother’s side of the family is American, and I’ve been trying to discuss our history on my mom’s side of the family, because we’re an African American family with all sorts of shades.
I always find that I’m asking myself questions like: How does my drumming sound? How does my particularly experimental approach to voice work sound, in an essentially human context? How do I create a platform that’s bite-sized enough for people to become interested? How do I cultivate a desire from audience members, to engage with my work more than the next wave?