After focusing on punk and alternative bands, Whittier-based Wiretap Records founders Rob Castellon and Oscar Toledo now want to raise the voices of another community of artists with a new label called My Grito.
“We’re very happy with what we’ve accomplished at Wiretap. But I think My Grito really hits close to home especially now during our social and political climate. We love the fact that we’re giving back to our culture,” said Castellon, referring to their recently launched second label that aims to focus on artists from the Latino community.
Their new second label will not only be looking to sign musicians from the Latino community, but all sorts of other artists as well.
“We’re not just catering to musicians but also to comedians, to artists, to all different kinds of talented individuals like individuals that want to start a podcast that are of Latino descent or targeting the Latino marketplace,” Toledo said.
Toledo and Castellon have about three dozen acts currently signed to Wiretap.
But since that label focuses primarily on punk and alternative music, in order to sign more Latino/Latina acts, they wanted a label that would give them more leeway when it came to artists styles.
“We want to build a bit more of a community (of artists) in L.A. and Orange County,” Castellon said.
My Grito launches on Oct. 30 with the release of the first single by its debut artist, the Orange County based surf/garage band 3LH.
“That’s a big start, giving a band like 3LH a voice,” Castellon said.
“We want to use what we’ve done with Wiretap and apply that to giving back to people like us. These kids are from Garden Grove, and guess where Oscar and I grew up, Garden Grove. These kids literally are a younger version of us,” he added.
For other artists the label will be helping them get much needed publicity, especially during the pandemic when things are much more difficult for artists, Toledo said.
“Artists, painters, they have an amazing talent and they’re ready to go and create art. But maybe they’re not that strong on the business side, maybe they don’t know how to build a website or they’re not correctly using social media to offer up their talent, their work in order for them to make a living,” Toledo said.
The new song from 3LH meanwhile is an upbeat Latin-infused rock tune called “Here’s Johnny,” which was inspired by the horror classic “The Shining.”
The band has been together about 10 years and formed when the musicians were in their early teens. But during their early years the band was more about partying and performing for friends, said Rafa Heredia, the guitarist and vocalist for 3LH.
“Up until the last three or four years we’ve been taking ourselves a little more seriously, taking more pride in putting out more quality recordings. And the fact that My Grito took an interest in it is flattering, it’s really cool,” said the 23-year-old musician.
The band is now working on its debut LP, which will be out on My Grito out in March.
For more information go to mygrito.limitedrun.com.
October 14, 2020 at 11:45PM
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New label wants to give Latino artists a louder voice - LA Daily News
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