Singer, songwriter, producer, guitarist, drummer and horticulturist, WALTER SALAS-HUMARA reflects a diversity of musical inspirations and experiences which mark his sound as unique. For Salas-Humara, one can cite everything from the musical gatherings of his expatriate Cuban family to the Velvet Undeground to Big Star to Pavement. Paul Ioro of Cash Box and Downtown writes that his work "is noted for its casual brilliance, its offhand catchiness, its ability to be marvelously artful without being arty," and L.A Weekly's Robert Lloyd waxes that Salas-Humara's songs are "as straightforward, physically affecting and musically uncompromising as can be found anywhere in the American pop underground."

Walter Salas-Humara was conceived in Cuba, born in New York City, and grew up in South Florida. At the age of 7, he started playing drums after seeing a GENE KRUPA impersonator on a streetcorner in Miami's Little Havana. By highschool, he'd worked in everything from free-jazz combos to disco bands to an act playing cruise ships, but it was the proverbial trip to Colorado at age 17 that probably changed his musical perspective most. "That's where I started playing guitar," he explains, "I started writing my own songs right off the bat, because I figured without my own songs I'd be doomed to a lifetime of playing proms in Saskatoon".

Studying painting at the University of Florida, Salas-Humara formed The VULGAR BOATMEN. Local critics hailed the band as "grungier than a gym-bag". In various line-ups and permutations, The Vulgar Boatmen became one of Gainesville's top local attractions, combining their original songs with film montages and slide projections. Salas-Humara's university career ended abruptly when MARCEL DUCHAMP appeared before him in a vision and sais : "Les peches marchent dans la rue". He left The Boatmen (they have gone on to release two fine albums, the first of which Salas-Humara produced, and are about to release a new one on Blanco y Negro which Salas-Humara sings on) and full of idealism moved to New York City to be an artist. Two years later Walter Salas-Humara was driving a truck and had started a band, The SILOS, and a record label, RECORD COLLECT.

Over the years THE SILOS have released five albums, About Her Steps (Record Collect, 1986), Cuba (Record Collect, 1987), The Silos (BMG, 1990), Hasta La Victoria ! (Normal, Germany 1992) and Diablo (Normal, Germany 1994). In 1988 The Silos won the Rolling Stone Critic's Poll for Best New American Band and Bill Flanagan, the editor of Musician wrote : "Someday we'll brag about seeing The Silos to our grandchildren. They're that good". 1988 also marked the release of Walter Salas-Humara's first solo recording : Lagartija. The Catalogue commented : "Lagartija is an other sterling surprise - versatile, a bit too slippery to pin down but has devotion without sentimentality, sentiment without insincerity, sincerity without sediment". 1990 heralded a major label album debut and Stephen Holden wrote in The New York Times, "The Silos represent "alternative" rock at its most compelling. The bands austere style inflects the astringent twang of The Velvet Underground with the drone of R.E.M. and adds countryish echoes that recall Gram Parsons. Mr Salas-Humura, whose enigmatic lyrics are so plain-spoken that they have oracular overtones, said he would rather not explain his songs because he found his own experience of music diminished after being told what was in the songwriter's mind". The same day, Bill Perry exclaimed in the Gainesville Free Press : "This band kicks more butt than buckshot in a turkey shoot !". The Silos spent most of 1992 touring in Europe behind Hasta La Victoria ! album, where their frenetic live shows drove audiences to break out in hives, throw money, speak in tongues, and have multiple orgasms. In 1994, in addition to their usual world-wide tour schedule, The Silos wrote and recorded a new album, released under the title Diablo in Europe and Susan Across The Ocean in the U.S. 1987's ground breaking Cuba album was also reissued at this time and contains several tracks not available on the original pressing.

Salas-Humara enjoys getting out and doing solo performances, about which Rob Patterson of the Austin Chronicle muses : "Salas-Humara writes his songs the same way a Zen master fashions koans, striving for simplicity while nonetheless being potent enough to send you reeling out into the mystic. His impromptu show at the South-By-Southwest music Conference was one of the most talked about sets in the whole festival". Normal's Return To Sender label released a limited edition CD of one of these acoustic live sets in 1994 entitled Walter Salas-Humara, Lean.

1995 begins with Salas-Humara touring, as always, solo and with The Silos, and writing and recording songs for a new solo album, RADAR, due out in October. The Radar Tour will begin in Atlanta on October 25 and continue on the East Coast and in the MidWest for the rest of 1995. January 1996 will be the West Coast and South West, February and early March will be Europe. Late March - Australia, and April/May will find Walter back in the NorthEast and MidWest.

Few words about RADAR : On his second solo album, Salas-Humara fuses his oblique story-telling with the gamut of guitar styles, some deliriously noisy, others gloriously beautific. The soaring violin of Mary Rowell, the fluid bass of Tom Freund, the gothic organ of Jeff Muendel and the freaky guitar of Kevin Salem are also featured.
To imagine this album, imagine you are playing the drums in a dark and smoke filled room in the South. Some people are dancing, some have problems they don't even know about, some are vaguely familiar. Blessed with right RADAR, it would be possible to deduce the shifting of their points of view by the shape of the sound returning to you. Try this at home : Howl out the window at the world. Listen for the reflections. Scream very loud. Make bigger waves. This way you can be sure.