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| I am Ian Rodriguez. On my 16th b-day my father baught me my first guitar which was a Samick nylon string classical guitar. It was on a Sunday so all the big music stores were closed. What I really wanted was a steel string acoustic but I just couldn't wait one more day so we ended up in a store that was wiling to sell us the Samick. The first few months were perhaps the most persistant in my musical career as far as practising goes. I practised day in, day out. I impressed my peers to such a level that no one believed that I had been playing for meer months. My 'mentor', although he hates when I call him that, was none other than Paul Commisso. He taught me the basics and quite a few, rather simple, Led Zeppelin songs. I loved it but I could never compare myself to the highschool greats that inspired me at the time. By the time I was 17 I revived a close friendship I had with my cousin Dilly, with whom I was really tight with as a kid and as a young teen. We hit it off immediatly as I showered him with the glorious stories of rock n' roll music, the beauty of playing music and most of all....playing in a band. Dilly's best friend, Jorge Gavidia, tagged along and they both found themselves craving for more, as did I. One particular event which I will never forget was when I first lent Dilly a The Doors tape and Jorge a The Jimi Hendrix Experiance tape. So I decided to form a band. Dilly, Jorge and I found ourselves frequenting many parks around the city. Jorge had bought himself an acoustic guitar and Dilly had a small pair of bongos. We would smoke stuff and jam throughout the day, into the evening and into the night. I was finally serious about getting a band togethor. I scouted a great talent form my highschool named Simon Slizys. Perhaps one of the greatest pianists to attend our highschool. He caught my ear one day as I roamed the halls and heard him playing G'n'R's November Rain. I instantly knew that this was the guy. I eventually had a chance to speak to him and offered him a position in our band. He was exhilirated and even offered to audition for me. I agreed and we went to the music room where he played a piece of classical music. Impressed I was. I was a little uneasy about bringing Simon to our first rehearsel considering that we were all beginners and he was a grade 10 pianist. We didn't have any ideas about playing in keys, singing in tune, time signatures and music theory in general. But we all got along very well and things went smoothly. A factor that has certainly played a big part of the life of Black Lotus has been the issue of financial instability. Especially in my case. Prior to Simon's recruitment we had no equipment of our own. Or barely. Dilly managed to get himself a Yamaha jazz kit, which he still owns today. Jorge bought an electric Fender Stratocaster, which he still owns and uses today, and a Fender amp. I bought myself a Fender acoustic amp, which I still own, and installed a fishman pick up into the Samick (which ended up giving me a hell of a lot of problems. Thanks to Steve's music store). Fortunatly Dilly and Jorge joined another band called Ultra Violet whom were a bit more serious and had some relativlely good equipment. Better than ours for sure but that doesn't say much at all. They would jam in Dilly's basement and I would show up at the end so that we could jam after they left. Then we would indulge in using their stuff. 1998 brought about the birth of Black Lotus. I coined the name, Simon was officially in the band and we started working on songs. Up to this point I had always either been the singer alone, or the singer and acoustic guitar player. Trying to live up to my hero Ian Anderson. We eventually realized that we needed a bassist so I started thinking of a possible contender. I though of my old school chum Saul Alvarado. He seemed to show extreme interest and instantly sought out to buy the best damn bass equipment he could afford. Perhaps rather ironically he spent the most money out of all of us. He bought himself a nice Trace Elliot bass amp which I recommended after learning that Ian Anderson used a Trace Elliot acoustic guitar amp. He then bought an Ibanez bass and eventually went as far as buying a really expensive acoustic bass which I recommended telling, him that he would need one for when we went to play in the parks during the summer. So now we were five. The others, particularly Simon, were a little skepticle about Saul's draft. After all, Saul had absolutly no experiance in music whatsoever. Saul made it to about three jam sessions before he stopped showing up all togethor. He just dissapeared and left us hanging high and dry. Perhaps this was a good thing because he left us all his equipment and- Thats's right. He left us all his equipment. Minus the acoustic bass which proved to be far less necassary than we thought. So we didn't have a bassist but we did have a bass. I finally realized that playing the acoustic guitar wasn't as demanding as playing the bass. Especially since we had a keyboard and a guitar which proved to be a sufficient rythem and lead section alone. So I picked up Sauls bass and didn't put it down again for a good two years. We began playing songs under the name Black Lotus which I withdrew from my favourite movie, Conan the Barbarian. We began by playing strictly covers. Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Deep Purple and many, many more. As you can see, the classic rock roots go far back into the very roots of Black Lotus' origins. During these times I hated new rock. I hated 80's rock, punk, metal...anything that wasn't classic rock. Mainly through the inspiration of my father. Not that he hated these genres too. It was just that I grew up listening to and loving his records. Despite opposition from the other members, I was strict about playing only covers. I felt that we had a long way to go and develope before we could undergo the task of writing music. Something that I saw so far away and distint at the time. Something that I later realized was there from the very beginning. We finally started gigging and made a reputation at our highschgol. We played at three consecutive year-end assemblies and development was easily noticable. At the first year-end in 98' we played Jethro Tull's, Aqualung. The performance was alright considering that it was the first time we played to such a big crowd. I think everone justifiably saw us as the 'new' group. The 'different' group, an aspect that has always been a part of Black Lotus. We were the group that still had a long way to go...... At the year end of 99' we played Deep Purple's, Child in Time. We really impressed everyone as we had developed into a formidable band. We were finally getting somewhere as a tight 4-piece. We were all great at what we did. Jorge proved himself on his stratocaster and Dilly was quickly on his way to becoming one of the best drummers in the city. Simon overcame his fear of soloing and became an integral part of the creative mechanism within Black Lotus. I was overcoming my even greater fear of singing as I slowely began to master my voice. At around this time Saul Alvarado, whom had left the band awhile back, began to nag that he needed his stuff back because his mother wouldn't leave him alone about it. So after many avoidances we had to give it back. 2000 saw a huge change in our performances. We were no longer cowering behind our instruments in front of big crowds I had finally learned to accept new rock and I began listening to some of the greatest bands I had missed out on in the 90's. It was none other than Saul that played a big role in this change. Most notibaly I hold him responsible for exposing me to the music of Tool. Something that would change the face of Black Lotus forever. I also became a huge fan of Rage Against the Machine so we decided to play a few RATM songs at that years outdoor festival. 2000 also saw Black Lotus finally start working on originals. We wrote a few songs and played some at the event. We were allowed to play more than one song at this years event. Our final event at the school. We moved, jumped, and played with the crowd. A huge difference to the two previous years. We spent 2000 writing music and playing a lot of shows. All over downtown TO and for big companies like Supernova and Ice Conerts. This was perhaps the last year of the original Black Lotus in it's original nature. Most of our songs were written during this time and things seemed to be going smoothly for Black Lotus. In 2001 I bought my sister her first bass. I can't even remember what the mark was but it was cheap. Jorge had already managed to get a Yorkville amp to replace the Trace Elliot which Saul had taken back. Although she was young I saw a future in my sister. And for her age she learned quickly and easily. My sister, Miroslava Rodirguez, had become a huge fan of Red Hot Chili Peppers which proved to be essential due to her admirations of the great bass player, Flea. I taught Miro a few songs so that she could play with the band. I brought her along to our jam sessions and she did a pretty good job keeping up with us. Simon was again taken back with my idea of bringing in my sister. Quite possibly the experiance with Saul made him think twice about bringing in another novice. Jorge seemed to feel this way too or perhaps he was having other problems at the time and the vibe just wasn't right within the band. Atleast, these were the feelings I felt at the time. Nevertheless, we continued to jam, practise, write music and play shows. My sister did a great job, however, the musical direction I was taking the band was a whole new thing for Black Lotus. That may have been the deciding factor for things to come. May have been? It must of been for a year later, in 2002, Black Lotus finally broke up. Simon and Jorge, perhaps but not necassarily in that order, parted ways and pursued their own musical careers. Dilly and Miro decided to stay. This proved to open the path further for Black Lotus as we were now able to play more metal and contemporary rock. Being the three band members with the most in common we proved to be a formidable three piece power house trio. That and the fact that we were family. So in 2003 the 'New" Black Lotus was born and we continued to play shows in and around Toronto. Our power house trio was captured on one CD from a live show at Reilly's. The quality isn't good but it is better than nothing. In 2004 we dwindled down to a two piece consisting of my sister and I. Sadly, Dilly decided to leave the band and pursue his musical career. Luckily we recruited the drummer from the band that we probably had the most shows with since we started; Insubordinate. Mike Petroianu was happy to help us out. He obliged to drumming for our recording sessions and for that we are very gratefull. Mike eventually went back to his old band Mute, now known as St. Anthony's' Fire. Later on in the year we recruited Lenny Isac who was, at the time, playing in his own band called Corporate Riot. I met him through his singer Rodrigo Raquio with whom I had a brief friendship with. I met Rodrigo at Jorge from Eukillia's farewell party at Club Rockit. The farewell party I actually attended with Mike Petroianu when he was still drumming for us. Lenny proved to be a great kid and played our first post-dilly show with us in the summer. He also recorded two songs with us with Eric and Compansion Studios. Late 2005 saw the return of Dilly to the band and the addition of a second guitarst by the name of Mike Santoro. Mike was actually brought in through Miro. He shared the same admiration, fascination and respect for RHCP that Miro had. Mike served Black Lotus well and remained in the band for several months. Eventually in 2006 Mike left the band. In 2006 Black Lotus also returned to the studio and recorded 3 brand new songs. In 2007 a new band member and guitarist was introduced to the band again by Miro. His name was Eric Rivera and he was more metal inspired than the previous members of the band. Eric stayed for a few months and played a few shows with the band before departing from the band. Today, in 2008, the band remains a 3 piece and continues to grow musically. |