Gens: a rock family

In the corridors of the "Victoria de Girón" School of Medicine, the students talk about the rock band that would be performing in a few hours. Over time, they gather in front of the theater door. Inside, Carlos Rodriguez —drummer and current leader of Gens— and the rest of the musicians prepare the instruments; they try to overcome logistical ups and downs so that the music is heard as well as possible. The quality of the sound and the instruments are not in their favor, but when have they believed in obstacles?

It was January 4, 1980, the date that marked the birth of Gens. 

“The theater was full, we even took a long time to open the doors and they nearly knocked them down. They wanted to take seats closer to the stage. When we opened it was an avalanche of boys”, says Carlos. Gens's idea began to take shape in his mind since high school. However, it was not until he started working in the Teaching Department of La Girón that the opportunity to create the band arose. He remembers that he offered to give that concert and got the green light. 

The repertoire of that first show included, above all, covers of the Beatles. “One of the characteristics that united us is that all the musicians were Beatlemaniacs”. A devotion that lasts until today because, despite the fact that the line up of the band has undergone some changes, that seems to be one of the bridges that unites its members, generation after generation.

Precisely that generational notion comes with the origin of the name of the band. If you ask Carlos, he will say that the "gens" in Ancient Rome was a society made up of several families who had ancestors, customs and territories in common. The people who made it up had to help each other and, when they died, they kept the same grave. "That was the idea, that this spirit reigned in the band," he says. 

The first Gens family, then, was made up of Roy Rodríguez (bass), Ismael Martínez (keyboards), Rubén Martínez and Dagoberto Pedraja (guitars), Alexis Morejón and Gustavo Fernández (vocals) and Carlos Rodríguez (drums).

Genes, first generation. Photo: Courtesy of the band.

From the Beatles to Silvio… to Gens

In the 80's they didn't stop. They played up to four times a week. The Vladimir Ilich Lenin Vocational School, a nursing home, the Plaza House of Culture were some of the settings. The latter was his headquarters; there, on the third floor, they had a rehearsal room. It was a time when their live shows also reached other provinces, especially Matanzas and Pinar del Río.

For five years they won the first prize in the modern music category of the National Amateur Festival. Still, they failed to be recognized as professionals and had to keep their other jobs. Ismael was a student at the Faculty of Mathematics and Cybernetics; Roy, economist and worked at the Pan y Dulce company; Alexis, ICRT stagehand; Dagoberto, professor of Literature; and Carlos worked at the Girón at the same time that he studied lyrical music at the Ignacio Cervantes Conservatory and did his degree in Physics.

“We were all workers, all of us. It really was a sacrifice, you cannot imagine that double life”. However, they were happy. In the words of Carlos, “very happy”.

On the other hand, they were eager to play their own numbers, but how to get them to reach an audience that consumed, above all, Anglo-Saxon and British rock? They found the way. Like a tunnel that would unite Yesterday with I was born guilty, the new trova and Silvio Rodríguez appeared. Gens came to make rock and roll arrangements for more than thirty of his songs.

One day Carlos took a cassette with versions to the theater on 23 and 12, where Silvio was rehearsing with AfroCuba. It was the first time they discussed the matter and when they premiered the arrangements at the Medicine school, Silvio attended. Later, he gave them an unpublished song, only performed until then among friends so that they could premiere it: olivia.

“Between col and col we played our songs and many people thought they were Silvio's. In other words, we were healthy a bit opportunistic”.

They even performed a concert called From the Beatles to Silvio, where they played thirty-odd songs, including their own. Carlos says that this was not common at the time, while most only reached 12 numbers, they played for three and a half hours straight. “And the public realized that, people are not stupid. I remember that the gardens of the Teatro Mella were filled with Chileans who lived in Alamar —when that was the dictatorship in Chile—, and, girl, when we played Santiago de Chile what was formed was tremendous”.

blessed radio

The recordings that still exist from those times are kept by Carlos in his house. Among them, two Beatles numbers, something and I´ll be back, played live at the Teatro América and recorded by the sound engineers themselves. Others were made with a double cassette recorder in the rehearsal room of the Casa de la Cultura. Gens' songs were first heard in Villa Clara and Cienfuegos, through the CMHW and Radio Ciudad del Mar. Later, Radio Progreso, Radio Rebelde and Radio Ciudad de La Habana — where Dagoberto worked, who He sent copies of those tapes to his fellow radio fans. Throughout the country they were heard in the hit parade of the time I was born guilty, toast to the few, little prince and What do you understand by love?

Thus his popularity grew among rock enthusiasts. It was the time when they were constantly invited to the Ramon Program, created by the poet Ramón Fernández Larrea, to whom the jingles. When it celebrated the anniversary of its creation, the celebration culminated with a Gens concert at the Pabellón Cuba, so crowded that they had to close 23rd Street because the public occupied even the opposite sidewalk. 

In the late 1990s, Gens toured twice with the Moncada group, province by province, from Havana to Santa Clara. There were also other groups such as Monte de Espuma and Manguaré, everything that was most heard in Cuba at that time. Dagoberto says that Jorge Gómez, director of Moncada, had them open the concert in Santa Clara. There were almost 50 thousand people. The musicians did not expect such a good reception.

 "We didn't know we were stuck there with I was born guilty”, says the guitarist, “that they put it on the radio every five minutes. When we started to sing, people took out posters with the chorus, the public sang along with the song. Later, Jorge Gómez, laughing, told us that he had not told us anything to surprise us. In my artistic career I have not felt anything like this yet, to this day.

Not all experiences were, however, so rewarding. Dagoberto himself remembers a "very unfortunate" concert at Cerro Pelado, once they played for the athletes who traveled to the Pan American Games. "There they practically gave us a repudiation rally, because we played rock."

On another occasion, in 1988 or 1989, while they were covering Anabell López at Pico Blanco, a Mexican businessman saw them and liked them so much that he wanted to take Gens on a tour of Mexico. “He did the paperwork, we all got passports, and the Cuban side said no. We would have done our first international tour in the '80s."

rock against time

And the 90s arrived, years in which Gens began to dismember: Ismael decided to stay in Spain, Rubén left rock, Alexis went to Moncada; Dagoberto, after the first tribute concert to the Beatles where they performed William Tell with Carlos Varela, he became part of the troubadour's band. 

It seemed the end of the gens, the family had dispersed and, between so much geographical distance and interests, the ties ended up breaking. However, Carlos and Roy, the only survivors of the first generation, founded the second.

During those years, a pirated disc circulated in the United States with the songs of Gens. La Egrem, knowing the good reception of this album, wanted to re-record and release a compilation of songs. “So it's me and Roy on our own, working with other bands from time to time. I knew certain musicians that I liked. I remember saying 'when I rebuild Gens, I'm going to summon'". 

The disc Against time (2004) was recorded with Roy and Raúl Barroso on bass, Agustín la O Remon on guitar, Juan José Melián singing, and keyboardist Ailén Solanes, current director of Collector. Ailén and Carlos made the bases of the new recordings of the 80's versions, plus new numbers of both that they included in the phonogram. This reached the hands of radio directors such as Juanito Camacho and Carlos Fornés, who broadcast it.

“People started calling and asking about Gens, what was going on, if the band had re-formed, where were we playing”.

Finally in 2003 they became a professional group, and left behind the double life of carrying two or three jobs on their backs. In 2006, on Fridays and Saturdays, the rock began in the Diablo Tún Tún, which became very crowded. However, all good things come to an end and this second family, over the years, also succumbed due to differences between the musicians.

A torturous restart

Although not part of the line up official, Yagna Castillo took over several times as singer of Gens. After the breakup, she was the first to show up at Carlos' house to offer her support.

At that time, she sang for the band of covers Algo Más, which was presented at El Ajillo and the Corner Café. When he became part of Gens, he took several members of that group with him, who returned to nourish the group with young blood. One of them was the current co-singer and guitarist Roberto Rodríguez.

They entered Gens at the beginning of the week and on Friday they performed at Tún Tún. The rock could not remain empty, because they were going to lose it. In rehearsals they mounted some numbers that later, they agree, did not turn out well at all. The haste, the lack of equipment and the youth of the new members played a trick on them. For Roberto it was a nightmare, “but those things are overcome, imagine yourself. People had a super important opinion of Gens, who was a distinguished group. When changing, it was like throwing yourself against the floor.” But those "kids", who still had a lot to grow up, "grew up there". 

Time purged the disinterested and musicians also arrived willing to put hours and effort into it. Based on rehearsals, the band consolidated and came to acquire the sound it currently has. They were joined by keyboardist Amanda Bocalandro, Luis Rodríguez on bass, Jean Morell and Iván Vera, from Zeus, on guitars.

Gens in the Yellow Submarine. Photo: Courtesy of the band.

We All Live in a Yellow Submarine

In the pre-pandemic era, Gens was one of the fundamental bands of the Yellow Submarine. The presentations took place during the week and on the last Saturday of each month the rock Beatlemania with Gens. For Yagna the nights in the Submarine were magical. Singing Beatles songs was his dream; he grew up listening to them and thinks of them when composing.

“Arriving at seven at night for the sound check, talking to Alfonso at the bar, seeing the same faces in the audience. It was very beautiful how those people came to see us every Thursday and Saturday, how they applauded and shouted”. 

Roberto, for his part, remembers the small place on 17th Street with nostalgia now that it has been closed for more than a year. "Don't mention that to me, I'm starting to cry here," he says. The bar was like the patio of his house, he knew everyone, they congratulated him on his performances, they invited him to drinks, they took pictures with him. "It was our little stardom."

Before the park of 17 in El Vedado was named after John Lennon, Gens already celebrated his music in the 80s. So the band has always been present at tribute concerts to the Beatle, as well as the one that marked the anniversary 50 of Sargent Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, held in 2017, where La Vieja Escuela, Los Kents and David Blanco also participated, among other groups and artists.  

As those times of live shows return, Gens continues to make music. The only good thing they have gotten out of this circumstance is the time needed for it. They created a Telegram channel where they published the topics save me and appetite —in soft version and heavy, composed by Yagna—, and the video of Messed Up Fairytale, made with the band's own resources at Carlos' house. They still have to record old songs in the voice of the new singers, release others, and, hopefully, make an entire album and a concert. on-line.

Apparently this rock family, mutilated and rebuilt by time, still has a lot of life ahead of it.