John Ayala, Diego Negrete, Dan Sindel
Heavy metal roots run deep in the veins of El Sereno. With bands like Armored Saint (OTES July 2010) and Bastard Son (OTES December 2010) breaking ground in our backyards and garages during the 80’s, I’m excited to add MX Machine to Our Town El Sereno’s music history lesson. I finally got a chance to meet up with Diego Negrete, the bass player for MX Machine. It was challenging for us to meet since he works with a lighting crew that was contracted for the TV show: America’s Got Talent. Diego shared his memories of growing up in El Sereno and how his 9th grade year at El Sereno Junior High and the heavy metal music scene changed him forever.
Diego attended Sierra Vista Elementary before his parents divorced and he moved away to Canyon Country with his Dutch mother. Diego’s dad was born in Watts and was a professor in Chicano Studies who retired from Cal State L.A. “When I was in preschool my dad started taking me to prison rallies for the Chicano movement out at Tehachapi State Prison. A lot of my dad’s actions in regards to his career in the movement was the main cause for my parents’ divorce,” claims Diego. Diego remembers his regular weekend visits to his dad’s house where they would pick up pots of menudo on Sundays from El Tolteca on Eastern Ave. and the family parties at various homes in the neighborhood. Diego’s mom had passed away when he was 12. That is when he returned to El Sereno to live with his dad full time and attended El Sereno Junior High School. He remembers meeting Ronnie Gonzales in Mr. Vervilin’s 9th grade history class where he was turned on to heavy metal music and the culture that came along with it. He was later introduced to Danny Anaya were the 3 quickly became best friends sharing the rock n roll dream. Because Diego was fueled with rage from the recent loss of his mother, he embraced the rebel lifestyle full speed, hanging and playing with musicians whenever he could. In the beginning he primarily hung out and was introduced to the world of metal by “The Gods,” so humorously named by Ronnie for their huger than life image. These “high school” musicians at that time were John Bush, Phil Sandoval, Channing Estrada, Gonzalo, Joey Vera, Henry Anaya and David Avila who were in the local bands Royal Decree and Rhapsody. In 1981, this huge growing multi-generational mob of musicians became known as The Rockers of El Sereno. Diego remembers being in the car with Ronnie and Danny when Dave (Prichard) shared the selected name for his new band, Armored Saint and “everyone started screaming because it sounded so cool.”
Diego’s dad was not a fan of his rocker friends. After an unsuccessful attempt at running away, Diego was sent to Cathedral High School where he graduated in 1984. But that didn’t stop Diego from pursuing his dream. One of the things he’d do after school was to go to Gonzo and Phil’s house. Diego shares, “During the writing of Stricken By Fate, Dave Prichard would sit me in the garage and put his brother’s bass on me, the Rickenbacker, and say play this (he gave me the rhythm) and I would play it and just sit and watch him hit those chords and say oh my god.”
“When I was a growing up I thought I knew rock n roll, like Led Zeppelin and Van Halen, but it was John Bush who turned me on to Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, and it was on vinyl. All of a sudden I’m in this garage with this rock n roll dude who was an incredible inspiration, learning this incredible music. It was a real cool experience to be a part of that,” Diego confesses. Armored Saint by then had graduated high school and started a successful music career. Diego tells me “I started MX Machine with Mitch and Danny but we still had to get through high school. I envisioned a collaboration between us but Danny got tired of waiting for us to get our shit together, so by that time John Ayala stepped in to do the original MX demos but was busy with his own band so Sam Monarez (one of the most amazing drummers I ever played with) came in for a bit at that time. After a few member changes, by the time we got off the ground, the lineup was two kids from El Sereno: me and Danny and two kids from South Pas: Lee and Mitch. Not only were we part of the crazy party metal scene, more epic than the Hollywood scene, we played our first show at The Whiskey and we got signed quickly. We took the quickest deal with Restless/Enigma Records, where Manic Panic came out. We were basically signed based on our party scene. We developed big egos. And when it was time to release our second record, we did the most ridiculous thing in record label history; we went to our label and said we don’t want to be signed.” The band felt that they weren’t getting enough attention paid to them after a year of being signed, especially in the wake of the success of their other label mates Poison and Stryper. They walked away from the label, thinking they had made the best decision, but they went home and never got signed again. Looking back, Diego admits that the band was not good enough to make those kinds of demands. After sealing their fate, they didn’t clean up their act. They continued writing songs for the party and even though the parties ruled, the band was unable to attract label attention. MX Machine continued on for a bit but ultimately the band went their separate ways.
As fate would have it, Diego in a post MX Machine venture, produced a hilarious attempt at a rock festival in Palmdale with Adrian Villanueva called Operation Desert Storm. Diego says, “I had to return the rental lights from that event and I showed up at this shop and I looked around and asked the owner if he was hiring. He made me lift a few heavy lighting racks and I was hired on the spot.” Since then Diego has been a lighting guy for a production company whose clients include TV sitcoms and big award shows. Twenty years later, Diego is grateful to maintain his ability to work in the entertainment industry and has since revived MX Machine. They recently performed with Saxon at the Key Club in Hollywood on September 28th and have an upcoming all ages show on Halloween night at The Five Stars Bar in Downtown L.A. Diego wanted to bring the band back in order to showcase its metal history. He’s not in it for the money, but he does want it to be larger than life. Diego feels he’s at a good place in his own life to help people, mainly everyone involved from the beginning and those involved now. The original members have since moved on from the days of early MX Machine. Danny is a successful attorney and a cancer survivor (his brother Henry went on became a psychiatrist), Lee is a forest ranger up in the mountains and Mitch is a music producer. The current lineup is Diego on bass and vocals, Dan Sindel (Stone Soldier) on guitar, and John Ayala (Bastard Son, Lace) on drums. The band has also been in the studio with producer Bill Metoyer working on an EP release for later this year.
OTES: What’s your favorite memory of El Sereno?
DN: Hanging out in my backyard in the red brick house on Round Drive (right under “the spot”), also the hills of El Sereno, and definitely my 9th grade year at El Sereno Jr. High. I cut class, I joined a rocker mob and we ruled.
OTES: Favorite food spots?
DN: A favorite was a quick trip to Manny’s El Loco on Atlantic, La Tolteca on Eastern Ave., and today I still love El Taquito. Also, Hecho En Mexico serves great food.
OTES: You mentioned your first gig performed was at The Whiskey. What was the first gig you attended as an audience member?
DN: It wasn’t a concert, but Beatlemania, a play, that was my first live music experience. My first concert was Judas Priest “Point of Entry Tour” at Long Beach Arena with Danny Anaya, John Bush and Gonzo and all those guys, and I got snuck onto the floor.
OTES: What do you think of the current local music scene?
DN: I noticed how artsy the scene is getting and how it’s moving over the hill from Silverlake and Echo Park. A few years ago I was at a pub down on Figueroa and Avenue 26.
OTES: Footsie’s?
DN: Yea, Footsies, that’s it and I mentioned El Sereno to someone there and a young blonde girl at the end of the counter shouted “I live in El Sereno”, it turns out she lives on Chadwick and loves it. That sort of blew my mind but you know what, El Sereno is a beautiful town. El Sereno is what made me who I am. I see a lot of changes and an influx of art. But because of my job it’s hard for me to get out and see music. But what I see is awesome. What does bum me out is that this valley (El Sereno) seems to be forgotten, but maybe it’s because it’s not known? I don’t know, but it seems that there are not enough resources being used to restore the neighborhood. I see the city not holding up their part. The desperate vibe on Eastern Ave has been there for as long as I can remember and it’s very different than what you get to see on Huntington Drive where the commuters get a different reality, the gangs are still rampant and lack of opportunities are prevalent. But I do give it up to people like you, Liz and Anthony Gonzales and Our Town El Sereno, who are trying to preserve culture and pride for the neighborhood because no one else seems to know it exists except for those who live here.
Diego still visits his dad in El Sereno several times a week in Monterey Hills. Diego lives with his girlfriend, Jennifer, in the Angeles National Forest near Devil’s Punch Bowl.
For more information and updates on MX Machine find them at www.facebook.com/MXMachineOfficial or www.myspace.com/mxmachinemusic.
By Annette Cruz
