Farmington rock quartet Cinematica prepares for release of 'The Architect'

• "Salem," the first single from the new Cinematica album, will be available April 4 on most major streaming platforms.
• The entire album, "The Architect," will be released in June.
• The group recently decided to pass on a proposed deal with an independent record label out of Los Angeles.

When the members of the Farmington instrumental rock trio Cinematica were walking out the doors of Rio Grande Studios in Albuquerque in 2019, having just recorded their sophomore album, their producer, Kenny Riley, stopped them and issued a request.

It was an appeal that the three musicians — guitarist Brandon Mike, bassist OJ Kaminky and drummer Eddie Jacquez — wound up taking very much to heart.

“He asked us to challenge ourselves,” Jacquez said of Riley, a highly respected producer with two gold records to his credit who spent much of his career working with major artists in Los Angeles and New York before relocating to New Mexico to open his own studio. “He said, ‘When you come back to me for your third record, let’s make a different album.’”

That time came in October 2023, when Cinematica returned to Albuquerque to work with Riley again. But that time, the three-piece band had grown into a quartet, adding Khalie Pioche on keyboards. And Jacquez and Mike had traded instruments, with the former moving to guitar and the latter taking up drums.

Those weren’t the only changes Cinematica made. Jacquez said the eight original songs on the group’s new disc, “The Architect,” are significantly different from the material on the group’s first two recordings, 2018’s “Ultraviolet Waterfall” and 2020’s “The Jaguar Priestess.” Both those earlier efforts were sonically dense, high-concept recordings that routinely featured six- or seven-minute cuts.

“The Architect” sees the band changing its stripes. Jacquez said Cinematica has adopted a more straightforward rock sound, leaving behind the psychedelic style that defined the group on its first two albums in favor of a more muscular but accessible approach. Those seven-minute, haunting landscapes have been condensed to three-and-a-half to four-minute tunes that don’t require the listener to focus quite so hard.

“It took us four years,” Jacquez said, referring to the evolution Riley said he wanted to see from the band in 2019. But with the completion of “The Architect,” which will be released in June, the members of Cinematica — which traces its origins to 2014 — believe they have finally gotten there.

First single due out this week

The first single from the disc, “Salem” will be available Thursday, April 4 on most major streaming platforms. The band recently shot a video for the tune, and Jacquez said he is excited to see how the group’s fans react to the addition of Pioche.

Jacquez credited Mike with making the suggestion to bring in Pioche. The trio had begun performing the new material in early 2023, but it was apparent to all of them that something was missing.

“About six months into trying this out, we bring in Khalie,” Jacquez said. “And as soon as we brought Khalie in, everything clicked. … The songs just started ripping.”

By last fall, the group was ready to record again, and the sessions went well. But another surprise occurred on the band’s drive back to Farmington after its last day in the studio.

The owner of an independent record label in Los Angeles called the band on the road at Riley’s suggestion, noting he had been impressed with what the producer had told him about the group and what he had seen of Cinematica online. Talks quickly escalated, and by late fall, the group was close to signing its first record deal.

More:Farmington rock band Cinematica plans return to stage in May

Jacquez said the advantages of signing would have been significant, as Cinematica not only would have been launched as a nationally touring act, but one that would have had its first European tour planned. For several years, Cinematica has toured regionally, playing dates in Los Angeles, Denver, Phoenix, Tucson, Taos, Santa Fe and Albuquerque. But the label deal would have gotten the group on the festival circuit and vastly increased its exposure to the international market.

But other elements of the deal that was being proposed raised red flags with the band, Jacquez said, beginning with the fact that the label’s owner wanted to change the name of the band. The deal he was offering also would have required the group to sign away a significant portion of its future earnings, even after it had completed the proposed two-album deal.

Ultimately, the members of Cinematica passed, Jacquez said.

“In the end, it didn’t feel right,” he said. “It didn’t pass the smell test. … In the end, we chose ourselves over a two-year deal.”

The experience was disappointing in many ways, Jacquez said, especially because everyone in the group had been very excited about the possibility of performing in Europe. But as Cinematica plots its future and determines what it hopes to accomplish with the impending release of its third disc, Jacquez said he and his bandmates have achieved a level of clarity they didn’t have before.

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“We’ve kind of come to realize that it’s quality over quantity,” he said of the markets Cinematica plans on playing over the next year to support the release of “The Architect.” “For a long time, we tried to do every show that came across our path. But now, it’s the less-is-more approach for us. We’re four friends enjoying playing together and still having fun 10 years in.”

“The Architect” is the third installment in a three-album trilogy that Jacquez, Mike and Kaminky envisioned in 2017 when they recorded “Ultraviolet Waterfall.” Jacquez said everyone in the group considers the completion of the new disc a milestone in the group’s evolution — one that marks the end of an old era, while simultaneously signifying the opening of a new one.

“We’ve come to complete this cycle, which is a big deal for us,” Jacquez said. “So this is pretty exciting for us.

“ … We’re definitely happy, but it’s been a long journey to get here. It wasn’t always roses and blues skies,” he said. “Sometimes, there was turbulence and thunderstorms.”

Cinematica is planning a CD release party at the Lanchpad in Albuquerque on Aug. 3. The details of a hometown CD release party in Farmington are still being worked out, Jacquez said.

Mike Easterling can be reached at 505-564-4610 ormeasterling@daily-times.com. Support local journalism with a digital subscription: http://bit.ly/2I6TU0e.