When the world is on lockdown, you can lament what you’re missing or have lost, or you can start fulfilling a dream.
El Paso native Jaime Cabrera found renewal and a new goal. On Saturday night, people in the Borderland can taste Cabrera’s dream: tequila distilled while music is playing nearby.
The path to El Músico Tequila was somewhat roundabout.
When he turned 50 during the COVID-19 pandemic, Cabrera said, “I kind of had like a little bit of a renaissance period … a little reinvention. I started a podcast.”
Cabrera, who now lives in Long Beach, California, is a creative director for Innocean ad agency. He used that time to “interview creatives from all over the world.”
“And then I wrote a book based on those conversations,” he said. “And I just started getting this kind of like entrepreneurial spirit during that time. And I don’t know if it was the pandemic that spurred it on or what, but I just got really like, ‘Hey, I want to make stuff of my own.’ And at that time, my brother had gone to San Diego for a conference, and I went to go see him and we both love tequila.”
“He turned me on to this website that was called at the time Tequila Matchmaker. It’s now called Agave Matchmaker.”
He added, “We started looking at where all these tequilas were made and the thought just occurred to me like, ‘Why can’t we make our own? There’s a lot of people that are doing it; why can’t we do it?’ ”
Cabrera said, “That’ll be three years in November, I think, almost exactly. And so, then I started doing research on the tequila and how it’s made and the history and all that kind of stuff. And there was one distillery that talked about using music during the fermentation process, and they called it the Mozart Method.
“And they play Mozart and they play Vivaldi and they believe that it creates a better product because it kind of stimulates the yeast. And I really love that idea, but I’m like, I don’t want to do that with classical music.”
Instead, he chose to focus on emerging artists “because I wanted to create a brand that wasn’t just taking, but was giving back, right? So, I’m like, how can I help emerging artists? Because I used to be an emerging artist, right? And I wish that I would have had a brand that was helping me.”
Cabrera has been performing music since age 13 and will perform Saturday at the launch party for the tequila brand.
Starting at 7 p.m. Saturday, tequila lovers can join the party at B-17 Bombers Oyster Pub, 201 S. El Paso St.
Free cocktail for first 50 people in line
“The first 50 people in line will get a ticket for a free signature cocktail featuring El Músico Tequila,” Cabrera said. “And we’re going to do raffles and giveaways. We’ll have our merch for sale. We also partnered with Chuco Relic to do a kind of a custom shirt for our event.”
Cabrera will perform at 7:15 p.m., with Sultanes del Yonke going on at 8 p.m., followed at 9:15 p.m. by Kansas City’s Making Movies, the brand’s signature band for its first batch of tequila.
Admission is free.
Cabrera said drinks at the launch will be from $12 and $14, with merchandise costing $25 to $30.
Tequila was an easy choice for Cabrera.
He said, “So, I love the whole idea of tequila. I love the people that make it. I love just everything that it represents.”
He said planning for the tequila company included featuring artists on bottles, offering website visitors information and music from the artists, as well as musical grants and songwriting camps.
“And so that idea just started building about creating a brand of tequila called El Músico that gave back and supported musicians. And everything about our brand is about music.”
He added, “I’ve been a creative director over probably getting close to 30 years. And so, when I started to think about it, this is sort of a culmination of my whole career, right?
“From being a musician to wanting to create a brand of my own instead of building other brands for other people.”
The Jefferson High School graduate went to the University of Texas at Austin, returned to El Paso, where he worked at KFOX as an editor and then in the promotions department, then moved to California in 1999 to pursue his music career. He is now married with two children.
Cabrera, who is the company’s CEO and chief marketing officer, said one of his brothers, Jesse Cabrera, is a partner in the tequila company. Other partners are Ernest Montoya and Rachael Wibly.
Cabrera has a diverse, creative background, but now, he said, “I want this to be my job. … I want this to take off so that I can focus 100% on this endeavor. But I have been blessed with a lot of great jobs. I still enjoy what I do, you know, creating marketing and advertising for different clients … the biggest one is Hyundai. That’s our big client. I still enjoy that, for sure.
“But I enjoy sort of more of the mentoring the younger creatives and kind of helping them get better at their craft and stuff. But this is what I want to do. Because again, it’s weird: This is a combination of everything that I’ve been working towards. You know, it’s like music, branding, building a brand from scratch, and then the tequila. So, it’s really kind of bringing everything together.”
He said, “This is what all my years of different things have brought me to. And it’s really interesting because my Rolodex just from working with people in different industries has really been helpful.”
One of those people who helped is photographer Joel Salcido, who was born in the Borderland but now lives in San Antonio and Spain.
“He was the one that connected me with the people that got this whole thing started,” Cabrera said. “So, without Joel, we may not even be talking. So, just everything, all the people that I’ve met, it’s all coming like full circle.”
First signature artist: Making Movies
Cabrera said Making Movies’ background was key to their becoming the tequila brand’s first signature artists.
“These guys are a Latin Grammy nominated group; they broke out with a duet that they did with Rubén Blades. So, the quality of their music, of their songwriting, of their recordings, I mean, these guys, when they came through, I was like, these guys are the real deal, right? They’re still emerging, for sure. They’re not a household name. But this is like a pro outfit.”
He said, “They’re going to be shooting some videos in El Paso that we’re helping them produce for their new record that’s coming out in October. So, these guys are … hustling, you know, they’re, they’re grinding it out.
“And that’s the level of artists that we want to help out.”
Texas, El Paso play key roles for company
Texas’ business-friendly climate made it easier for the tequila company to get set up in Round Rock, where Cabrera’s brother lives, he said.
And there’s a reason the launch party is taking place in the Borderland.
“There’s just something about El Paso that that’s still home,” Cabrera said. “And it’s just felt right to do it here. I mean, three of the founders are from El Paso, so it just felt like the right thing to do.”
Cabrera said he expects to spend more time in the Sun City.
“The last time I was here, unfortunately, it was for my mom’s funeral last year. But I imagine we’re going to be spending a lot more time here because we just signed on to be the official tequila of the Way Out West Festival. So, we’re coming back in September.”
He added, “We’ve been really appreciative and really kind of surprised at how everybody has just really come with, you know, open arms and helping hands, right? … Everybody’s been wanting to help us. And it just reminded me that El Paso is just really like home.
“Even though I don’t live there, it’s still home. And people have just gone out of their way to be so generous with their time and resources and just wanting to help us. So, I imagine we’re going to be spending some more time in El Paso.”
Plans for expanding tequila business
Cabrera said there are plans to diversify the company’s varieties of tequila from the current blanco.
“So, our plan will be to move to reposado next and then do añejo after that. We also want to start doing maybe even some smaller batches. … Our vision right now is to for a consumer to walk to into a store and see the Making Movies batch and see, you know, maybe there’s going to be a Sultanes del Yonke batch in the future, right? Or there’s going to be a country artist or whatever,” he said.
“Right now, we have one fermentation tank that has our speaker system integrated into it, but we’d love to see like three, so that we’re making three different artists at once. So, that’s what we would love to do.
“For now, people, artists can still go to our website and send us their music and a short note about what they’re all about and we will definitely consider them. But for this next round, we think we’re going to do a little bit more social first. We just haven’t figured out quite the mechanics of it yet.”
Cabrera said, “As we get rolling, our vision is when, let’s say when Making Movies goes out on the road in October to support their new album, is that by that time we have, let’s say we’re working with a Spec’s or a Total Wine and they’re carrying our product. The idea is, ‘Hey, we’re going to bring the artists to do in-stores.
“So, you might walk into Spec’s and all of a sudden you see that there’s a band set up to do a few acoustic numbers. So, while they’re on the road, we’ll say, ‘Hey, Making Movies is playing at so and-so venue in Austin. You know, on their day off, they’re going to come in and they’re going to play a few tunes, meet with their fans, sign some bottles.
“So, we want to do that kind of interaction to bring fans to the liquor store to experience music and to, you know, purchase music in a new way, in a sense, because they’re buying the bottle, right? That’s a new way to connect with the artist.”
Tequila can be ordered online
Cabrera said that right now, “we’re just rolling out. We’re going to be available in California and Texas. We’re working on Kansas City to take advantage of Making Movies’ connection, and then we’ll start to roll out to other states as we go, but people can order it online and have it delivered almost to every state. There are a couple states that don’t allow delivery, but they can go online and order it from our website (https://www.elmusicotequila.com) directly and it gets shipped out to them in like two or three days.
Cabrera said eventually, the plan is to sell tequila packaged with featured artists’ music, with customers receiving the tequila and the album in one package.
“Making Movies will be our first trial at that,” he said.
“It could end up being like a subscription, right, where it’s every quarter you’re getting a new artist, the bottle and the record. So, it becomes kind of like a music discovery platform for fans that love music and tequila.”
The experience has been great, Cabrera said.
“I’m seriously having the time of my life right now. It’s just so amazing to see it all come to life, and we couldn’t be any happier.”
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Get in the spirit: El Paso launch party highlights mix of tequila, music
Reporting by Samuel Gaytan, Special to the El Paso Times / El Paso Times
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Samuel Gaytan, Special to the El Paso Times | USA TODAY Network
