BIO IN BRIEF
Jeffrey Beringer is a local San Diego artist who
combines an outlandish, almost theatrical performance style with
electronic and acoustic grooves. He is known throughout the
border region as "Mono Mono," the crazy gringo who dances with
inflatable monkeys, sacrifices virgin pinatas, and covers crowds with
confetti and exploding foam at his shows. Some of his more
notable projects include "Genie in the Desert," a tribute to illegal
immigrants, "Raise Hell, Raise Babies," an electronic, danceable
ode to classic stories, "Amor en la Frontera," a multi media
Spanish language production that includes a cast of over 20 people, and
"VOTE SANTA,
NAUGHTY OR NICE?" a collection of political Christmas music.
In
2006 Jeffrey is focussing on "The MONO MONO International LOVE Tour."
The show revolves around a collection of racy, scandalous,
eye-opening songs that attempt to help
people acheive spiritual enlightenment by shocking them into a liminal
state of pure consciousness. It includes hypnosis,
full nudity and a complete lack of inhibitions! The tour
will span both coasts of the USA, Mexico, Spain and about ten cities in
South and Central America, and is projected to start this summer.
Jeffrey has performed at festivals and sold out
venues all over The US Southwest and Mexico, including Mexico City,
Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Puebla, Guanajuato, El Paso, San Diego,
Tijuana, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. Locally, he has been featured
in the SD READER, City beat, The Local 94.9, Notivisa Buenos Dias TV
12, La Frontera, El Puente, UABC Radio and Radio Organyka, and has been
in too many media outlets in other cities to mention them all
here. He was the featured performer at the 2006 San Diego Latino
Film Festival music showcase, The Imperial Beach Art Jam, The Cesar
Chavez Festival, and the SD Pride Festival, and he has shared the stage
with well known Mexican groups Kinky, Faca Faca, Los Pegajosos and Los
Guanabana.
WANNA KNOW EVEN MORE?
I LIKE TO GIVE YOU WHAT YOU WANT!
HERE'S AN EVEN MORE DETAILED BIO.
If
you've read this far, than you either want to know more about me, or
else you just clicked on the wrong link......oooops. Well either
way....keep reading....you won't want to miss the story of my life....
I am a modern day renaissance
man. A jack of all trades. "31 flavors and then some," in
the words of Ani DiFranco. A lover of cultures and the exotic.
I am an artist, an activist, an entertainer, a
traveller. A true original. The mother lode.
I currently live in San Diego, California, in a
cute little cottage. I won't live in an apartment because I don't
want to hear people humping on the other side of the wall, or children
jumping in the room above. A musician needs a certain amount of
quiet in his house. My back porch is my studio and it overlooks
my little back yard, where I keep two bicycles and my surfboards.
There are some cats out there who sneak in my house and pee if I leave
the door open. Sometimes I do.
My original plan was to become a
filmmaker. I was raised near Philadelphia, and went to a small
Quaker college out there. The Quaker thing was purely
coincidental....I had no Quaker leanings before college.
But their concept of "the inner light" and social responsibility really
resonated with me. Quakers are all about making a difference in
the world. I started a filmmaking club and my dream was to make
docu-dramas. Movies that would really make people think.
After college I moved to San Francsico and got involved in the local
filmmaking scene. But San Francisco is a hard city!
Until San Francisco I always thought of myself as sort of a
freak. It was a total shock to be the most "normal" person in the
city. So I had to leave. The competition was
just too great. I moved to Mexico and learned Spanish. I
figured I would go to the border once I mastered Spanish and make a
movie about the Maquiladoras....you know...the factories where Mexicans
assemble products for foreign owned companies at slave-wages.
I made it to the border....San
Diego. But I was broke. I worked odd jobs until
I finally got a gig as a Social Worker spending tax dollars all day
long. It was like being Santa Claus with lots of
paperwork. I decided to
save money. I bought a pickup truck for $1000 from a cash
advance on my credit card and lived in the back for seven months and
ate peanut butter and jelly until I had saved ten thousand
dollars....which is what I used to pay for my studio.
I started learning how to do music on my
computer for the soundtrack of the movie. And I got so into it
that I still haven't gotten around to making the movie! I'm
already on my fifth album and it is like an addiction.
My music is about many things. It
is my way of celebrating and challenging the things and people around
me. My first album, "Genie in the Desert," focusses mostly
on the desert and on the Mexican immigrants who try to cross it.
It is also about love and the search for love. Everyone is
on a search for something. I try to capture that idea...the idea
of the quest. My second album is more like a series of stories
and fairy tales...but with a bad ass beat. The third album is all
in Spanish. It is mostly about Tijuana and the urban border
experience. Then of course there is my political Christmas
album...and now I'm working on an album that incorporates world rhythms
with some shocking subject matter...
Much of my music is a reflection of my
personal relationships. I consider myself to be
pansexual (Pansexuality goes one step beyond bisexuality.....it
means being able to be sexual not only with people of both sexes, but
with things that are not people....like the ocean or the
wind....basically.....pretty much everything!) but our society hasn't
made room for pansexualism yet....so I sort of end up in the "gay" or
"bi" box
by default. Alot of my art and politics are
influenced by some of my more unconventional relationships.
The dream of making a movie is still with
me. But I feel that I have some more living to do before I
finally get to the film project. I've been happy with just the
music for now. Music lends itself to a very personal, live
connection with your listeners. Playing in a club, dancing for
people, getting everyone all excited...well...it is a wonderful feeling.
My website originally was just a place to
promote my music, but now it seems to be turning into a place where a
whole lot of things are possible. I try to give other
people a voice on here...perhaps inspired by the old "comment board' we
had in the dining center of my college, where anybody could walk by and
write a note about their opinion an any given topic. Many great
debates happened on there and I suppose I would like my website to
serve the same purpose.
Other artists are finding a home on my
website. Some really inspirational people. This is a
thrilling development, since I think that art is ultimately the "raison
d' etre" so to speak.
And now my activist tendencies are finally coming
to life on here. I've had a chance to dabble in political
writing, and now a political talk show with my brother. It's all
been very exciting.
What else might you want to know about
me? I have three brothers, all on the East Coast. I
lived in Germany for six months. I look best in blue.
I studied African dance, Brazilian dance, Mexican Folkloric Dance and
tap dance at various times...and now my dance style is quite
unique...or so I've been told. I've played classical piano since
I was 15. I love the outdoors and exercise. There is
nothing more exciting than a good discussion about philosophy. My
favorite food is the California style burrito. Here are
some
little blurbs about my art....
Contagious Rhythms + Mind-Boggling Lyrics + Explosive Stage Presence =
Total Entertainment.
You may not know what was missing from music, or that anything was
missing
at all....but if you witness even a single moment of one of Jeffrey
Beringer's
performances, you will realize that you have found it at last.
Jeffrey Beringer is a total entertainment experience. Between his
tight, original sound, outrageous costumes, primal dance moves,
spectacular
special effects, and his poetic...at times political...lyrics, Jeffrey
brings
to music a captivating style that will wake up all five of your senses.
Based
out of San Diego, California, Jeffrey has been electrifying audiences
with
top notch music and one-of-a-kind performances since the independent
release
of his first album "Genie in the Desert" in 2003.
Jeffrey has been likened to the Violent Femmes, the B-52's, Paul Simon,
Erasure and Wierd Al Yancovic. He cites Tori Amos, Bob Dylan,
Ricky
Martin, Julieta Venegas, Shakira, Cat Stevens and Tarkan as some of the
artists
who have influenced his style. |
MONO MONO BIOGRAFIA Y ENTREVISTA...
Mono es
monkey. Mono es musica. Mono es desmadre. Mono es
fiesta. Mono es platano.
Mono Mono es
un musico, compositor, cantante, bailarin, entretenedor, etc. etc.
etc., lo cual radica en Tijuana, MEXICO y San Diego, USA y hace
muchas cosas escandalosas en sus presentaciones y tocadas.
Su musica es electronica y muy bailable. Ama a Mexico y toda la
gente de raiz latino americana y promueve amor entre la cultura latino
americana y la cultura Estado Unidense. Su nombre en gringospeak
es "Jeffrey Beringer" y tiene mucho tiempo haciendo musica y
desmadre. He tocado en muchisimas eventos y ciudades...incluso Mexico City,
Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Puebla, Guanajuato, El Paso, San Diego,
Tijuana, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. He aparecido en SD READER, City
beat, The Local 94.9, Notivisa Buenos Dias TV
12, La Frontera, El Puente, UABC Radioy Radio Organyka, y ha estado en
tantas publicaciones y programas en otras ciudades que no cabe
mencionar todos aqui. Se presento en el 2006 San Diego Latino
Film Festival music showcase, The Imperial Beach Art Jam, The Cesar
Chavez Festival, y The SD Pride Festival, y he compartido el
escenario con Kinky, Faca Faca, Los Pegajosos and Los
Guanabana entre otros.
Por que te
llamas "Mono Mono"?
Pues...antes
me llamaba el "gringo loco"...pero hay demasiados gringos locos aqui en
la frontera... entonces buscaba un nombre nuevo....y un dia fui al
zoologico...y vi todos los monos....y me di cuenta que los seres humano
tenemos mucho en comun con ellos....que abajo de todo somos animalitos
peludos que hacen muchas cosas pocas logicas y muy divertidas...y
despues de ese dia cada vez que veo un ser humano....pienso en los
monos...y no puedo quitar la imagen de mi mente.....bueno....y un dia
conoci un mono inflable hecho de plastico....y nos hicimos MUY
amigos...y siempre le invitaba a mis tocadas....y siempre nos va muy
bien como un duo...y bueno...tambien porque la gente en Mexico por lo
regular tiene mucho dificultad en decir o deletrear mi nombre en
ingles.....lo cual es "Jeffrey"...pero siempre me dicen "yefri" asi me
parecia mas facil llamarme "Mono Mono."
Tocas en Vivo?
Pues....SI!
Toco en lugares grandes y lugares chiquitos....es musica muy movida y
la gente siempre terminan bailando...canto y hago todo un
"performance." Siempre trato de involucrar el publico en mis
presentaciones....a veces les cubro con confetti, serpentinas y
espuma....o les doy juguetes de radio control que pueden manejar en mis
shows....o les doy palos inflables para que se pueden golpear...o
golpearme a mi si les gusta....bueno...nos divertimos muchisimo en mis
tocadas! Debes venir a verme.....
Cual es la
historia de tu grupo?
Bueno....no
soy un grupo...soy solista...pero muchos me invitan a cantar con
ellos...y yo invito a muchos a cantar conmigo...por que siempre es mas
divirtido cantar con amigos....yo tocaba piano desde en tierna
edad....y siempre cantaba en coros....y componia cancioncitas y
poesias....despues de salir de mis estudios...viajaba por todo el
mundo...y pase mucho tiempo en mexico.....y me enamore de la
cultura....entonces decidi que siempre querria estar cerca de
mexico....entonces cuando deje de viajar....puso raices en San
Diego...que es unos 20 minutos de Tijuana....y empece a componer
canciones en espanol para que mis amigos puedan entenderlas....y pues
asi empezo la cosa. He hecho varios proyectos en
ingles....cortometrajes, musica y videos....y tambien en
espanol...hasta todo una obra musical....pero nada igual de loco como
las cosas de MONO MONO....
Cuales artistas
te han inspirado?
La verdad es
que mi sonido viene de un lugar subconsciente y muchas veces digo que
si parece a la musica de otro artista...es pura casualidad....creo que
unos amigos mios me han inspirado mucho...especialmente la Faca Faca,
SHEMM, y Bridget Brigitte...de los famosisimos....diria que
Tarkan - por sus ritmos, Tori Amos - por su piano, Julieta
Venegas - por su rock-n-roll, y Shakira por su letra.
Muchas veces escucho algo y tiene un fuerte influencia pero para poco
tiempo...por ejemplo...escuchaba el disco de "Gypsy Electric" o 'Manu
Chau"...y senti su influencia para unos meses....o a veces voy a un
club...escucho algun rollo nuevo.....de algun DJ...y WHAM!
Ya sale de mi muchas canciones de repente....
Que equipo usas?
Tengo un
Macintosh G4. Hago los rollos musicales en 'Propellerhead
Reason." Grabo las voces en "Digital Performer."
Cuando toco en vivo, uso grabaciones, mi teclado Casio, y mi guitara
electronica-acustica de "Ovation." bueno...y tambien todas las
cosas que compro en "PARTY CITY" y la tienda de un solo precio.....
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