Musician Luis Illades has lived in New York City and traveled the world as a member of two legendary San Francisco-based bands. He’s now a Cool Spring resident, and once again the creative juices are flowing.
By Matt Morrissette
Moving from Wilmington to Philadelphia or New York City is a common rite of passage for many who grow up in the friendly but occasionally claustrophobic confines of Wilmo (though the city seems to have a tidal pull that brings many right back). But the NYC to Wilmington maneuver is rare indeed.
During the uncertainty of the global pandemic in 2021, musician Luis Illades and his life partner, Benjamin Reynaert, an editor and creative director, pulled the plug on 30 years of living the big city life of tiny apartments and skies obscured by skyscrapers. They moved operations down I-95 to Wilmington’s Cool Spring neighborhood.
Why Wilmington? Despite having no specific ties to the area, they had a positive feeling about the city based on a visit years before — an evening that involved a nice meal with friends and a walk along the Riverfront on a clear summer night. They also had some specific infrastructure-related requirements for a new home base: within two hours of NYC (work reasons) and easy access to an airport and trains. However, the ultimate decision was more instinctive and esoteric.
“The first thing I always ask myself is: ‘Is there a decent record store and coffee?’” says Illades, only half-joking. After stopping by Squeezebox Records, Goodboy Records and Brew HaHa while looking at houses and evaluating neighborhoods, his concerns turned into excitement.
“The block we ended up living on instantly felt like home . . . with queer people, community gardeners, music nerds, a joyful African Union church, and Spanish-speaking flittering about the air,” says Illades, referencing their little corner of Franklin Street in Cool Spring.
It’s only natural that Illades would emphasize the presence of a good record store. Music has been at the center of his life for three decades. Illades has been the drummer for two legendary San Francisco-based bands — the groundbreaking queer punks, Pansy Division, and the reunited ‘70s art punk band, The Avengers.
Illades was born and raised in a bilingual household just south of the California border in Tijuana, Mexico. In the early 1980s, he and his family moved to San Diego, where his Mexican heritage collided with the irresistible force of the current American pop culture.
“The Rambo, Reagan and Michael Jackson of it all” says Illades.
This cultural pressure cooker created a sensitive preteen drawn to the arts.
“It all began with curiosity, hyperactivity and a general sense of otherness,” he says. “I mean, that’s the trifecta for an emerging artistic teenager.”
Illades’ chosen outlet for these artistic leanings was to bang the heck out of his drums in some of the scrappiest punk bands San Diego had to offer. Though none of these bands went on to top the charts or have their songs featured in Volkswagen commercials, it was during this time that he interviewed the members of Pansy Division for a local San Diego weekly ahead of one of their shows.
He was subsequently asked to join the band as a drummer. So, Illades packed up the few belongings he had and made the trek to San Francisco to join the circus that is rock-and-roll.
Formed in San Francisco in ‘91, Pansy Division was one of the first (if not the first) openly gay rock bands featuring primarily gay members singing unabashedly (and often hilariously) about queer themes and concerns. They were signed to the independent record label, Lookout! Records (home to Operation Ivy and pre-major label Green Day) in 1992.
Over the course of a 30-year career, the band has released 10 albums, played venues ranging from basements to stadiums as Green Day’s opening act, and was even the subject of a documentary entitled Pansy Division: Life in a Gay Rock Band released in 2008. Currently, the band is still going strong and this fall will be touring the east coast of the U.S. and Canada.
It can’t be overstated how ahead of the cultural curve the band was in being so open about their sexuality.
“This was a time when no one in popular culture was out of the closet — not Melissa Etheridge, not Michael Stipe (of R.E.M.), not Ellen DeGeneres, no Will and Grace on television, none of it,” says Illades. “Gay sexuality was simply not discussed outside the context of social condemnation or AIDS-related political survival and necessity. Discussion based in celebrating personality, day-to-day experience, and the lives of the community (including sex) was important and new.”
It was through a bandmate in Pansy Division that Illades obtained his other long-term drumming gig, with The Avengers. Breaking onto the music scene in the late 1970s, The Avengers were one of the first punk bands to feature a fierce female front person in Penelope Houston.
Despite breaking up before the release of their first record, the album still became an influential touchstone for generations of punk bands that followed. In terms of rock lore, the band’s place in history is cemented by opening the infamous final show of The Sex Pistols’ American tour at San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom in 1978, at which Johnny Rotten spoke the immortal words “ever get the feeling that you’ve been cheated?”.
Illades was initially enlisted just to play a few reunion shows to launch the re-release of the first record, but that handful of shows turned into more than 20 years of consistent touring with a band that influenced him to play music in the first place.
After 30 years behind the drum kit, Illades felt a creative twitch following a period of musical downtime, during which he focused on pursuing further education in his day job as a psychotherapist practicing in both New York City and Delaware. He realized it was finally time to step to the front of the stage as the singer, songwriter, and leader of a project, and to do so in his native tongue — Spanish.
Having made rough demos in the mini studio at his home in Cool Spring, Illades enlisted the help of musician friends from all over to flesh out his ideas. Calling the project VIDA VELLA (which translates to “life is beautiful”), Illades and his collaborators recorded an album earlier this year in Leon, Guanajuato, Mexico (which in a beautiful coincidence happens to be the birthplace of his parents). The studio is run by a former intern of the late Steve Albini’s legendary Electrical Audio studio in Chicago. The record will be released in early 2025.
With a few years under their belts in Wilmington, both Illades and Reynaert have found their respective grooves in the city. Slowly but surely, they have discovered like-minded creatives in the various nooks and crannies of the community and cool places in town to dig for their next book or record.
Though they still find themselves rushing to the Amtrak station, the 4th Street bus station, or to catch a plane to who knows where, they always return to their beautiful old home in Cool Spring. There, they have discovered a sense of relief and peace.