Under the guise of Juán Tigre, guitarist-vocalist John Maestas crafts a weird and craggy alt-rock throwback, filled with desert imagery and narratives spiked with folklore of the American Southwest. Loping psych guitars lines wander through chirping video game landscapes and denser sonic influences, recalling the movements of everyone from Nirvana to Thundercat. Hailing from New Orleans and developing a reputation for his unusual guitar theatrics and uncanny production techniques in the service of other artists, Maestas created Juan Tigre as a way to explore his own musical creativities.
But the character of Juan Tigre isn’t limited to just music – he is also the main character of “The 100% Believable Adventure of One Juan Tigre,” a graphic novel that follows this protagonist as he explores a fictional world and searches for mysterious keys which hold the power to unlock a very enigmatic past. He experiences various identity crises, deals with the unpredictable actions of fellow travelers and even tries to have a little bit of fun in the process. His accompanying debut album, The Dream Catcher, is due out April 17 via Bubble Bath Records.
With his new single, and album title track, “The Dream Catcher,” Maestas blends layers of echoed vocals with surf-addled guitar lines drenched in stray bits of nostalgia, all moving within the faint expanse of a decadent lounge atmosphere. The song is built from a mass of capricious influences and aesthetics, developing a personality as unique as it is compelling. Maestas draws upon a wide range of inspirations in an effort to create something inherently unpredictable and prone to quick stylistic changes, and his work here suggests a talent for musical subversion that blurs the lines between countless genres.
