Note: To listen to Eddie Diazmuñoz play as a member of The Capote Flat, click here and here. To listen to him play solo, click the OG audio icon at right.

THIS PAST SUMMER, junior Eddie Diazmuñoz got into his car and, with his drum set in tow, drove by himself for the five hours that it takes to get to Iowa.

When he arrived he had a goal in mind: for his new band, The Capote Flat, to perfect and then record their first full-length album.

The catch? They only had a week to record the album, and this was the first time Diazmuñoz was playing the songs with his bandmate, Zac Craven.

When I sat down with Diazmuñoz to ask him about The Capote Flat, his life as a musician thus far, and his goals for the future, he was absolutely glowing.

He has good reason to: he’s 16, and he’s already recorded a full-length album and, in just a few months, sold about 70 copies.

A Few Years Back …

Eddie was in a band called Self Assembled when he arrived at Uni as a subfreshman. Gargoyle photo by Sindha Agha (click to enlarge)

When Diazmuñoz arrived at Uni as a subfreshman, he was in a band called Self Assembled, which he had formed as a student at Edison Middle School in Champaign.

I remember paying a few bucks as a subfreshman to purchase the demo, which consisted of four songs that the group had written. The CD came in the kind of thin, plastic case you can buy at Walgreens, and the cover looked like it was printed from someone’s personal printer, yet we were all pretty impressed.

It made sense; this was a group of 13- and 14-year-old boys who had created a band that actually had a name and existed in the world outside of someone’s unused garage. Self Assembled was already playing some concerts at local venues and had a fairly large fan base from all of their middle school friends.

So when Diazmuñoz came up to me in the hallway a few days before our interview and handed me his new band’s debut album, titled “Dream!,” I was, understandably, surprised.

For lack of a better word, the CD itself was so official looking. There were 11 songs, bios of Diazmuñoz and Craven on the inside, a professionally printed cover …. I stared at it for a second before I realized that this was something way more serious his eighth-grade group.

The Creation of The Capote Flat

Self Assembled disassembled when member Zac Craven moved to Wisconsin (and eventually to Iowa). Gargoyle photo by Sindha Agha (click to enlarge)

The Capote Flat came about as a result of Self Assembled breaking up, Diazmuñoz explains to me somewhat plaintively. The group, consisting of Diazmuñoz and three of his other friends, parted ways when Craven, the guitar player, moved away to Wisconsin (and finally to Iowa).

“I’m kinda sad about it,” Diazmuñoz says, sighing. “I love those guys, all three of them. We worked very well.”

He pauses and shrugs.

“For being like 13 or 14 and playing concerts and having a demo — that’s pretty good. Then, one day, Zac just broke the news to us that he was moving to Wisconsin.”

Although Self Assembled broke up, with a quick revival under the name of Quincee Loves The Liar, it wasn’t at all the end for Craven and Diazmuñoz.

“When he [Craven] moved to Iowa, he still wanted to be in the music,” Diazmuñoz explains. “He really liked me as a drummer, and we worked together well, so he just started to write a bunch of stuff alone. And then he was like, ‘We should start a band. I know it’s going to be hard, it’s going to be hard work, but we should start it.’”

For three months Craven wrote music by himself before Diazmuñoz got a chance to hear or play it. When he was finally able to hear the music, which was entirely written by Craven up until that point, he added in the drum parts.

With the aspiration of success for his new band and an accumulation of fragmentary songs to work on, Diazmuñoz began to take his drumming to a completely new level.

“This year I’ve played more intensely than ever,” he says. “Zac is the one that makes me take it more seriously. He’s going all out; he really wants to get our name out there and get people to listen to us.”

The Process

After he settled in Iowa, Craven began working again with Eddie, and The Capote Flat was born. Gargoyle photo by Sindha Agha (click to enlarge)

This past summer, the two were finally able to get together as a band and create their debut album.

After arriving in Iowa, Diazmuñoz went to St. Louis with Craven to record the album. The recording process, Diazmuñoz says, was extremely stressful.

“We already knew the songs. We already knew how we wanted to do everything. We just had one week to record 11 songs. It was $1,500 to get recording space. We wanted to get it perfect,” he says.

Every morning he and Craven woke up at 5 and arrived at the studio by 5:30 for six-and-a-half hours straight of recording.

After the album was finished, the two focused on publicity. They created a MySpace page for the group and requested that their music be made available on iTunes. Nevertheless, the group mostly got their name out by word of mouth, Diazmuñoz explains.

I ask Diazmuñoz how he and Craven could possibly maintain their motivation considering the music industry of today, which is flooded with do-it-ourselves independent bands. I point out that it seems like everyone wants to make music these days, and that anyone who wants to can. With social networking sites that host pages for bands, like MySpace, it’s so easy to circulate your music.

“I guess it’s just who wants it more,” Diazmuñoz states simply, with a hint of nonchalance that tells me he’s not too worried. “It is hard getting your name out of there. I just want people to listen to the music, to listen to us. If one person listens to it, we want them to tell two people. It’s worked so far.”

Then and Now

Craven and Eddie recorded their album in St. Louis in one week this past summer. Gargoyle photo by Sindha Agha (click to enlarge)

When I ask Diazmuñoz about his first experiences with playing music, he pauses and tries to remember, finally tracing the first time he played drums to when he was but 4 years old.

“It wasn’t serious,” he laughs. “I just kind of ignored it. Then I went on to playing violin, piano, and, recorder. You know — all the kid stuff that people do.”

Drumming, however, was something apparently he couldn’t avoid doing.

“I found myself all of sudden tapping on desks and stuff, and I was like, ‘Hey, I kinda want to do this.’ Then I told my dad for my 12th or 11th birthday to get me drums, which he did, and I started from there. I took lessons for like three months, and from then on I just taught myself.”

Born in Mexico City, Diazmuñoz lived there with his family for three years before moving to Miami, Fla., where they lived for two and a half years before moving back to Mexico City.

They lived there for four more years, then moved to Tijuana for about two years, where Diazmuñoz started drumming, before they finally moved to Champaign-Urbana.

His Biggest Inspiration

Eddie's father has been nominated for two Latin Grammy Awards. Gargoyle photo by Sindha Agha (click to enlarge)

Most musicians can cite a handful of influences on the spot, mostly big-name artists who they’ve never met but whose work continues to inspire them as they write and develop their own music and style.

Diazmuñoz lists Travis Barker, the drummer of American pop punk band Blink-182, as one his favorite drummers, but when he mentions hip-hop as an influence, he becomes incredibly animated and his awe for the genre becomes evident.

Other inspiration, he explains, lies in the simplest of things.

“Sometimes I drop my pencil in class and I think, ‘Oh that sounds cool!’ Then I try it on the drums, and it ends up sounding really innovative,” he says, smiling.

His biggest inspiration, however, is his namesake: his father, Eduardo Diazmuñoz.

Mr. Diazmuñoz, a classical composer, conductor, and pianist, has served as the conductor of some of Mexico’s most important orchestras: the Filarmónica de la Ciudad, the Filarmónica de la UNAM, and the Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra. Currently he works as professor and chair of opera at the University of Illinois School of Music. In late 2006, he was also named artistic and music director of the Bogotá Philharmonic Orchestra.

Twice Mr. Diazmuñoz has been nominated for Latin Grammy awards. The second time that he was nominated, the day of the Latin Grammy awards fell on 9/11. Due to the terrorist attacks, the awards were canceled. Because of this, Eddie Diazmuñoz explains that he was never able to attend the Latin Grammy awards.

As I gape in awe at his father’s accomplishments, Diazmuñoz shrugs and laughs.

“I never thought about my dad being a composer like everyone else did,” he says casually. “Whenever I would say to a teacher, ‘Oh yeah, my dad’s a composer,’ they would be like, ‘Oh my God! Wow!’ I would be like, ‘He’s just my dad.’ ”

He admits that over the years, as he has become a more serious musician himself, his father has provided invaluable knowledge and insight.

“Now that I’ve matured and realized what kind of knowledge I can get from him, he’s the biggest inspiration,” Diazmuñoz says.

Plans for His Future

Despite his love of music, Eddie's real passion is for graphic design. Gargoyle photo by Sindha Agha (click to enlarge)

Eagerly, I ask Diazmuñoz what his plans for his life as a musician are, but his answer leaves me completely shocked.

His bandmate Craven has no plans for college, Diazmuñoz says, and is ready to devote his life to being a musician. Diazmuñoz, however, is not so sure.

“What I’m feeling is that if this [The Capote Flat] gets somewhere, then I’ll follow it,” he says. “If it doesn’t, then I won’t. I don’t have as much of a passion for music as he [Craven] does.”

What then, I wonder, is his real passion? The answer is graphic design. In fact, if the big break into the music industry doesn’t happen for Diazmuñoz, then he says he’d like to attend the U of I and major in graphic design. In the distant future he sees himself owning a graphic design company or working as an independent designer.

When I ask him how he got into graphic design, he laughs and bashfully replies, “It’s actually kind of a nerdy answer …”

“Gaming!” I blurt out.

“Yeah,” he says. “I used to be on [online gaming] forums, and I would design the little signatures for different users. Eventually I learned all the basics for Photoshop, how to manipulate pictures and stuff, learning from tutorials.”

He’s had a few projects here and there as a budding graphic designer, including designing the cover of “Dream!” and T-shirts for The Capote Flat as well as a few concert posters.

“Who knows, maybe one of these days you will see a billboard and I will have designed it,” he says confidently.

Why, then, does he play drums? What’s his drive, if it isn’t his greatest passion?

“I think it’s like the most intense instrument there is. When I get really into it” — he pauses dramatically — “you know, I take it all out on the drums.”