■aStg. ARTS&ENTERTAINMENT 7
American Indian guitarist writes ‘ethnic metal’
Carlos reflects
culture in music
By Jill O’Brien
Staff Reporter
Although American Indian guitar
ist Paul Carlos’ lyrics don’t always
focus on Indian issues, his music does
refect his culture.
“Instead of saying something the
regular way, I’tn going to say the
same thing through the eyes of a Na
tive American person so it will have a
different imagery,” Carlos said.
“I’m a rock n’ roll musician, but I
still incorporate native elements in
some of the songs. I have one or two
songs specifically about the Indian
thing, but my songs are for everyone.
I call it ‘ethnic metal.’”
C arlos, 28, was bom and raised in
Montreal. His American Indian roots
extend from his mother’s side in South
America, he said.
“I didn’t learn about my culture
until later, but I always knew some
thing was different about me and my
family.”
What he learned about his culture
was from his grandmother, he said.
He stopped looking at his Indian
culture from the outside and started
looking inside himself to understand
it, he said.
“There’s a prophecy from South
America that says one day when the
condor and the eagle meet, there will
be a spiritual re-awakening among
the people. The condor represents
South and Central America and the
eagle represents North America and
middle America. I kind of feel like the
living incarnation of that prophecy,”
he said.
“I was bom in the North, but I’m
from the South. So it’s real odd —
something I feel that is out of my
grasp.”
Interpreting prophecies might be
out of his grasp, but guitar playing
isn’t.
r ■ i ■ i ■
Courtesy Paul Carlos
Songwriter and guitarist Paul Carlos stands between Frank Giroux (left) and Joe Cerrato, members of his former band the
Medicine Men. Carlos has formed a new band, Brother Sun, which is currently in the studio recording.
“Making music is a passion of my
life. I started young and got hooked
and I can’t get unhooked.”
Carlos said his main musical influ
ence was Jimmy Page.
“I’m a diehard Les Paul user,” he
said. “ When I was a teenager, I was
mesmerized by Page and his Cherry
Sunburst Les Paul, and I thought I just
had to have one.”
After Carlos acquired his own
Cherry Sunburst guitar, he formed the
band Medicine Men in 1988 in
Montreal.
Shortly after that, he got what ev
ery rock ‘n’ roll musician dreams of
— a record deal.
He and the band moved to New.
York to begin work on a record for
Savage Records. While there he be
came a spokesperson for American
Indians and other minority groups, he
said.
In 1992 Savage Records released
what was to become Medicine Men’s
first and last album, “Keepers of the
Sacred Fire.”
Carlos dropped the label.
He left partly because of the ste
reotypical image of Indians the name
“Savage” implied, he said. But he
really left the label for a variety of
reasons.
“They weren’t del i vering what they
had promised. What they said and
what they did were two totally differ
ent things,” he said.
He also dropped the band’s name
out of respject for the real medicine
men, he said.
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Making music is a passion of my life. I started
young and got hooked and I can’t get unhooked.
— Carlos
guitarist
- • « —
Now his group is called Brother
Sun, which features Carlos on lead
gu itar, guitarist Doug Caye, drummer
Frank Giroux, and bass player Cristo
Carire.
He said he would have liked to
keep the concept of Medicine Men a
bit longer, especially since he had
some good experiences come from
the music. ,
w w
“When I wrote the song ‘Peace of
the Sky,’ for Medicine Men, back in
1989, I knew what I wanted to con
vey, but I had problems with the lyr
ics. On the last day, in the midst of
recording, it just came out.”
It was an experience he would
never forget, he said.
See CARLOS on 10
■ 1 ■ ■ 1 ~ --i
Second Wind finds new life in the movie business
Shop’s goods seen
in De Niro’s film
By Anne Steyer
Senior Reporter
Like most unknown talents, Second Wind
was “discovered” by the movie-making in
dustry. But unlike most new discoveries,
Second Wind does its work right here in
Lincoln.
The vintage clothing store made its big
screen debut fall of ’93 in first-time director
Robert Dc Niro’s “A Bronx Tale.”
Karen Jordan-Anderson, owner of the
vintage clothing shop at 720 O St., said the
store supplied period clothing for the film.
“Talk about breaking into the business
the right way,” she said.
Jordan-Anderson attributes her recent rash
of Hollywood work to “fate, good luck, good
fortune and someone smiling on me.”
Last year, on a whim, she took a suitcase
full of clothes to New York when she went
to visit a friend.
“1 schlepped them around and sold them
there,” she said.
One of those buyers would turn out to be
Second Wind’s ticket into the movie busi
ness.
When that New York buyer decided to
concentrate on film work, she remembered
the little shop in Lincoln and decided to offer
a job to Jordan-Anderson and her shop.
And the partnership between Hollywood
and the Haymarket was born.
In the beginning, she didn’t take the offer
very seriously, Jordan-Anderson said. But
things began to seem pretty real when the
production assistant of “A Bronx Tale” called
Second Wind about the film’s clothing needs.
“I had no clue. For a long time 1 didn’t
realize what I was getting into,” she said.
What she was getting into was the profes
sion of trying to please people who are quite
particular about details. The production as
sistant even pointed out that “Bob De Niro”
was very picky about how wide the charac
ter’s ties should be.
“I was just kind of like ‘Whoa, this is
serious,’” Jordan-Anderson said. “She said
‘De Niro,’ and I said, ‘Oh, OK, you mean
BOB De Niro.’”
That revelation brought the seriousness
of the job home, she said.
“A Bronx Tale” called for the costuming
of 2,000 extras in accurate period clothing,
Jordan-Anderson said.
It was a large order, but Second Wind had
little trouble filling it, she said.
That’s because the film was set in the
1960s. It’s a period Jordan-Anderson said
was a popular one with her regular Lincoln
customers, so she had plenty of clothing in
stock.
When the film made it to the big screen in
Lincoln, Jordan-Anderson said she was ex
cited to see her contributions appear.
“There was a lot I could recognize—the
people around us (at the movie theater)
probably hated us because we were pointing
at things,” she said.
“The dead guy at the end was wearing my
Jay Calderon/DN
Jenn Phelps, Second Wind employee, holds two as ments similar
to those the store supplied for use in the movie “A dronx Tale."
tic.”
“A Bronx Tale” turned out to be good
exposure for Second Wind. The costume
team who worked on that film moved on to
other projects and have contacted her for
assistance.
The shcra contributed clothing for the
upcoming film “Hudsucker’s Proxy,” star
ring Tim Robbins, as well as the latest from
director Robert Redford, “The Quiz Show.”
See SECOND on 10