Henry Mena
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Henry Mena (born February 20, 1966, New York City) is an American singer/songwriter/guitarist of Dominican descent.
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[edit] Biography
Born in Manhattan's predominantly Dominican neighborhood of Washington Heights, but raised in Santiago, Dominican Republic from the age of 10, Mena was originally a drummer, later switching to bass--and teaching himself to play guitar, as well--while singing in various Santiago-area bands, most notably Sociedad Anonima (1983-1987) and Via Contraria (1987-1988). After moving back to New York City and formally switching to guitar, Mena formed the pioneering rock en español trio La Ruta in 1992, alongside bassist/vocalist Carlos Guzman and drummer Luis Jesús Ruiz, both Santiago natives he'd individually played with during his years in that city's then-burgeoning rock scene.
[edit] La Ruta
La Ruta's original lineup of Mena/Guzman/Ruiz recorded an EP, Amarillo Pollito (1996) and an album ...Adios, Ruperto (1998), the latter being released after Ruiz's departure in 1996. Sessions for a follow-up album yielded another EP: Bailando en la Tierra de los Zombies (2000), which features Guzman's bass playing on one track, with Mena handling bass parts on the rest. Like Ruiz before him, Guzman was no longer a member of the band by the time of the latter EP's release. (All three recordings were released in the U.S. on Mena's 220 Records imprint.) While Guzman contributed to the band's songwriting output during his tenure (1992-1999), Mena was La Ruta's sole songwriter--and only original member--during the latter part of their decade-plus run.
A brief reunion of the band's original lineup was tentatively scheduled to perform selected live dates during the summer of 2007. Unfortunately, Guzman opted out at the last minute, citing scheduling conflicts. It would've marked the first time in 5 years since the Mena/Guzman/Ruiz lineup had performed together onstage, the previous time being La Ruta's 10th anniversary concert in 2002. The band's latest incarnation (Mena, Ruiz, and bassist Alex Guerra) has since decided to perform occasionally and plan on promoting Cables, Cuerdas, Uñas y Palitos, a collection of rarities, outtakes and live material with a tentative release date of Spring 2008.
[edit] Solo career
Based out of Brooklyn, New York since 1994, Mena embarked on a solo career after La Ruta went on indefinite hiatus in 2003, singing almost exclusively in English. His first English-language release was the acoustic EP The Avatar Sessions (2002)--which legendary avant garde guitarist Gary Lucas compared favorably to the late, folk-rock icon Nick Drake--and his first full-length, full-band album Beautiful Insults and Compromises is due to be released in 2008. The album's producers are Mena and Brian Montgomery, whose credits include Steely Dan's Donald Fagen, Ted Leo, John Mayer, Sting, Stone Temple Pilots and all three releases by La Ruta, which he engineered.
One Seventeen Records reissued a remastered version of The Avatar Sessions, including bonus tracks, on December 18th, 2007.
[edit] The Henry Mena Ego Trip
Starting in the summer of 2006, after a few years of solo acoustic performances, Mena began fronting a new band called The Henry Mena Ego Trip, with Hank Gonzalez on guitar, frequent collaborator Alex Guerra on bass and vocals (himself a talented singer/songwriter in his own right who appears as backup vocalist on La Ruta's ...Adios Ruperto and was that band's bassist in its final incarnation), and latter-day La Ruta drummer Jim Jackson--who played on ...Adios, Ruperto as a guest and as the band's official drummer on Bailando en la Tierra de los Zombies--all of whom are veterans of the New York City music scene. Most of the material performed live by the Ego Trip is due to appear on the Beautiful Insults and Compromises album.
[edit] Other projects
Inspired by Lollapalooza, for a few years in the mid '90s Mena put together a popular underground rock en español festival called Alterlatino, featuring bands from the New York area and headlined by La Ruta.
Aside from his own music's close stylistic ties to both power pop and the singer/songwriter vein, the breadth of Mena's musical interests is quite ample, as evidenced by his work with heavy metal act JLS (with whom he toured as bassist/vocalist on the Spanish leg of the tour supporting that band's Serpiente en el Huerto album in late 2001); guest vocalist for latin jazz heavies Sonido Isleño; bassist for electronica artist/producer Nova (currently fronting latin soul act Pacha Massive), as well as fellow singer/songwriter Mark Miranda; and as live guitarist for the aforementioned Alex Guerra, for whom he's also produced some as-of-yet unreleased recordings.
Mena has acknowledged a few of his musical heroes and/or influences at various points in his career: ...Adios, Ruperto contains an instrumental tribute to drummer Stewart Copeland of The Police ("The Returning Adventures of Klark Kent") and the album's hidden track pays homage to Dominican singer/songwriter Luis Dias, whose songs La Ruta frequently covered live. "The Deal" from his Beautiful Insults and Compromises album quotes Jimi Hendrix's "Castles Made of Sand", and an as-of-yet unreleased track by La Ruta is titled "Fanclub", a nod to Scottish power pop group Teenage Fanclub. Also, a longtime goal of Mena's is to record a tropical tribute to his beloved Beatles. He claims their Abbey Road to be his favorite album ("Abbey Road is the standard against which I measure all my aspirations as a musician") and Paul McCartney's "Maybe I'm Amazed" his all-time favorite song.
[edit] Discography
[edit] La Ruta
Amarillo Pollito EP --cassette only--(1996)
Producer, vocals, guitar, bass.
...Adios, Ruperto (1998)
Producer, vocals, guitar, bass.
Bailando en la Tierra de los Zombies EP (2000)
Producer, vocals, guitar, bass, programming.
[edit] Henry Mena
The Avatar Sessions EP (2002)
Producer, vocals, guitar.
[edit] Other Credits
Sonido Isleño / El Asunto (1999)
Vocals.
JLS / Serpiente En El Huerto (2001)
Background vocals.
