SM FAMILIA IS...

El Gato singing at San Diego's premier venue Winstons Beach Club

"Estuvo increibleeee!!" - ColectivoLive

SM Familia is a collective of colleagues brought together by El Gato to create a sound that has not been often heard.

SM has slowly become one of San Diego's premier Roots Reggae backing band for many legendary Jamaican artist like Sister Nancy, Michael Palmer, Eek A Mouse and more.  During this time, they were finishing singles, and wrapping up some music videos that have been very successful on the largest Reggae Publication, ReggaeVille.

As they defined their sound, these guys have been blazing the trail to put more latin flavor into our amazing reggae scene.  Opening for bands like Cultura Profetica and Residente, it's allowed a new audience to be captured by the infectious grooves and strong lyrical content of singer El Gato.  We are getting ready to start touring to bring this vibe to YOUR TRIBE!  Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and put your email on the homepage to sign up for our mailing list where we always put exclusive footage, music, and content you won't find anywhere!!

THE BIG CHEESE...

Bass player rocking the Steinberger pointing like a musical weapon

MEET EL GATO

Where do we start...

El Gato is a multi-instrumentalist born and raised in San Diego.  Since a youth in middle school, he started in the music world by means of playing trumpet.  Soon after in high school, learned drums, guitar, bass and piano through becoming part of many punk/reggae bands through his high school times.

Unfortunatlely not making it to college, life made Gato become a full time worker in order to make ends meet.  Growing up in Escondido was not the easiest for Gato as he had to live on his own by 17 and only way to survive was to make money and put a roof over his head.  

During this time, music was there to help him find comfort in such a crazy world.  In that, he started to write music and find musicians to play with.  With the aid of one of his day one friends, they started becoming a full time punk/reggae band following in the footsteps of one of their biggest influences, Bad Brains.

Going through different genres, styles, band members, and mental states, they eventually created a soul RnB band named Soul Malady.  They were a female fronted band, and they released a couple of albums which did very well.  After a few years, they started to get real deep in the reggae scene.  After a few creative sessions, they wrote some reggae music with Gato's culturaly hispanic roots.

This journey is what led to the creation of SM Familia