Today we’d like to introduce you to Federico Navarro.
Federico, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I was born and raised in Montevideo, URUGUAY a 3 million people country, way down south of South America.
At the age of 7, I started playing drums encouraged by my brother Alejandro, since he was a drummer too. Around the age of 9, I found an old guitar in my parents closet and I started experimenting with it everyday. For a while, I played both guitar and drums until I decided to play the guitar full time.
Then at the age of 10 my brother rented the movie CROSSROADS and that was it … I would say that was a huge life changing moment for me. That’s when my love for the BLUES really started. Probably 1 year after, I saw STEVIE RAY VAUGHN’S video of the JIMI HENDRIX song ”Little Wing” on TV … absolutely mind blowing and probably my 2nd life changing moment for sure.
But I didn’t knew who JIMI was back then . So a few weeks after that a friend of mine let me borrow a cd of THE BAND OF GYPSYS by JIMI HENDRIX and I would say that was my 3rd and bigger life changing moment . Those first 3-4 minutes of the opening song ” Who Knows ” were going to define my guitar playing forever .
By the age of 14 – 15 I was already playing here and there in the Montevideo scene and that’s when legendary bass player and singer URBANO MORAES saw me playing and called me to join his band. I was 16 years old and that was my first gig with musicians that I admire and now I was playing with them . But it wasn’t easy … had to learn the hard way. For a 16 year old kid who wasn’t fully into Jazz or Fusion it wasn’t easy . That’s when I discovered MILES , JACO , WEATHER REPORT and those JAZZ legends and I started to get into that new world .
My career was growing more and more and I started to get more gigs with different artists . Long story short, that lead me to 2 of the biggest artists in URUGUAY : HUGO FATTORUSO and RUBEN RADA. With RUBEN RADA ( Latin Grammy Award Winner ) we played, toured and recorded all over the world for 15 years.
After the 3rd year of joining the band, in the middle of a Tour in 2005 in Argentina, I started to feel something was wrong with me. A few weeks after that I was diagnosed with Hodgkin Lymphoma , in other words, Cancer . I was 23 years old .
Needless to say that was shocking for my family and I. Probably one of the darkest times in my life if not the worst … Wasn’t easy but I knew inside of me that wasn’t my time . So I never ever gave up . My brother Alejandro accompanied me during the treatment every Monday morning for 6 months . After almost 1 year of medical treatment, I got better and started very carefully to have a “Normal” life . Also I started having gigs again although I was weak and fragile . It took me almost 1 year to fully recover myself .
After going through that experience I decided that I had to record my own music . But it didn’t happen right away … It took me years due to my constant touring life. Finally after almost 10 years I released my first solo album called RENACER ( Reborn in Spanish )
That record opened up so many doors that I wasn’t really aware of . It was also one of the reasons a few people and companies in the US put their attention on me and that’s when I started to think about moving to California . So in 2017, I made the decision of moving to California although I ended up moving in 2018 .
Once in LA I connected very fast in many different scenes either in the Rock scene working with people like ERIC DOVER ( Slash’s Snakepit, Jellyfish) , MATT LAUG ( Alanis Morissette , Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers) , KUDISAN KAI ( Elton John, Chaka Khan ) , In the RnB/ Pop scene with ATHENA RENEE , LOUIS YORK ( Rihanna , Mary J. Blige writers and producers ) , JASON TAYLOR , JEREMY ELLIOT and also in the Gospel scene working with TONY WILKINS . Again , everything was going very fast and I started to get more and better gigs . In 2019 I was about to take off on my first American Tour with American artist RACHEL LORIN, opening up for EVANESCENCE and MASTODON in one of the tour dates. But again tragedy hit me hard and about 3 days before hitting the road I suffered a terrible accident that injured my arm in a very ugly way. I had to go through surgery and of course had to stop playing . I was grateful I didn’t lose my arm … but I was totally heartbroken inside. My future was uncertain …I was a afraid of never playing the guitar again . I was facing hell one more time .
But in the middle of the storm I started to see things differently . The possibility of not playing again made me realize life is not only about gigs and tours and even playing the guitar . Life is more valuable than that. Family is more valuable than that . But also true love is stronger than anything. Beside me the whole time was Brenda, my girlfriend . Sometimes god puts people in your life to teach you things about yourself that you weren’t aware of. She literally saved me …that’s why I can honestly say she is my angel.
After months of recovery and physical therapy I started to play again and my main fear was over … I got back to normal and was doing my thing again.
Today it’s been 1 year since the accident and I can say I’m definitely healed. But not only my arm is healed … My life is healed too. After all I’ve been through, I feel I’m a better human being . I feel like everything happens for a reason even though we don’t understand why sometimes… and I know that for a fact .
One last thing … Don’t take nothing for granted and NEVER give up!
We’d love to hear more about your work. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
I’m a professional guitar player, singer, songwriter and producer . As a session player with touring or recording artists I always try to put my stamp on everything I do .
How can artists connect with other artists?
I don’t personally believe in the word Networking. I would say try to make solid connections with people you love, based on real friendship and not in any other interest.
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
Right now I’m doing a lot of recording sessions , especially with this COVID 19 situation, and online church services at MOUNT ZION BAPTIST CHURCH .We just released our first single with the band Cancel Cult and I’m also working on my new material since I just got signed with INTRU DASH MENTAL RECORDS on my new upcoming solo album. You can find my previous EP RENACER on Apple Music and Spotify.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/federiconavarrotrias/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/federico.navarrotrias
- Other: spotify:album:4PnA1FVl1URqABpVBYv1VS
Image Credit:
Leah Horstman
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