Sparkle Motion

Oct. 1, 2010

By Chris Day
Reporter

Four Waco friends that have discussed playing together for years are now making music together in a jazz-influenced progressive rock band called Sparkle Motion.

Sparkle Motion is a four-piece instrumental rock band. Ryan Castillo and Jonathan Lopez play guitar, Beau Robbins plays bass guitar and Eric Morris plays drums.

The four musicians knew each other in high school through the Waco music scene.

For Castillo, music has been a part of his existence since he was born.

"My mom was the key to music at the time. She got me into everything like the funk bands like Earth, Wind and Fire. She showed me the hair metal bands. My mom loved Van Halen and Rush and bands like that," Castillo said.

Castillo's first instrument was the violin, for which he took lessons throughout his elementary school.

"My mom knew I wanted to play guitar, so she got me a Jazzman by Takamine when I was in the fifth grade. My mom was working at Baylor at the time as a secretary. She had a student that played and he gave us the hookup on lessons and stuff," Castillo said.

Castillo continued using school as a musical outlet through high school.

"In middle school, I started playing trumpet, tuba and the harmonic in the school band. In high school I played guitar in the jazz band. A.J. Moore Academy had only two bands: a jazz band and a steel drum band. I played in both. Steel drum was actually my primary instrument at that time," Castillo said.

Despite his musical talent, Castillo was not considering taking music as anything more than a hobby at that time.

"In high school I wasn't planning on doing music. I was still into boxing. My coach was my uncle. He was always pushing me to want to do music because he was into Audioslave and Rage Against the Machine. That... got me into experimental guitar. Tom Morello is really progressive within the style that he plays," Castillo said. "When he died, that's when I stopped boxing and became a musician."

Toward the end of high school Castillo met a kindred spirit in Beau Robbins, who played bass and guitar. The two searched constantly for new music.

"We found so many bands that shape the Waco scene today: Number Twelve Looks like You, MewithoutYou, Tera Melos, The Mars Volta, He Is Legend. We've been jamming together since high school," Castillo said.

Robbins went on to join friend and fellow hardcore enthusiast Jonathan Lopez in the band Cute As A Button.

"I met my friend Colby [Crelia, the band's vocalist] during high school through skating and playing guitar. He opened my eyes to heavy music -- bands like Underoath and He Is Legend, all of the early Solid State bands," Lopez said.

The original lineup of Cute As A Button featured Lopez on guitar and Robbins on bass. Eventually, Crelia quit and Lopez took up both singing and guitar duties. The next lineup of the band included Castillo on guitar.

Sparkle Motion's drummer, Eric Morris, played in Cute As A Button briefly, but he eventually left to play for A Call To Arms. Morris has handled both vocal duties and drums for A Call To Arms at different points.

Lopez, Castillo and Robbins had discussed the idea of forming an experimental jazz band, but the stars had never aligned for them to do so.

"Me, Beau and Ryan were listening to the same stuff and we were jamming and it was sounding good, so we were like, hey do you guys want to do this? You know, be a band?" Lopez said.

Castillo suggested the name Sparkle Motion, taken from the movie "Donnie Darko."

Cute As A button was on hiatus at this point and A Call To Arms had broken up, so they recruited Morris to play drums and the four have been playing instrumental sets for what Lopez estimates as one and a half years.

"I photographed all of them in various bands," photographer Duncan Johnson said. "Except for Ryan. I remember the first time I heard Ryan play though. He was playing this tapping Maps and Atlases type stuff on the acoustic. He's phenomenal. It was cool to see Jonathan make the transition from hardcore vocalist to jazz guitarist."


The band is currently instrumental, but is considering adding a vocalist.

Sparkle Motion is interested in recording some demos in the near future, but can be seen live at local Waco venues. - The Lariat- Baylor University