{"id":255913,"date":"2025-09-26T10:42:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T10:42:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/255913\/"},"modified":"2025-09-26T10:42:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T10:42:15","slug":"john-reis-is-headed-to-the-san-diego-music-hall-of-fame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/255913\/","title":{"rendered":"John Reis is headed to the San Diego Music Hall of Fame"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"John<\/a>John Reis, a 2025 San Diego Music Hall of Fame Inductee, is photographed at his home in the South Park neighborhood of San Diego on Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025. (Photo by Vito de Stefano\/Times of San Diego)<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I should be in the Hall of Fame of Confusion,\u201d John Reis says with humility and humor as he speaks about his induction on Saturday into the San Diego Music Hall of Fame<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But if Reis routinely wreaks confusion, it\u2019s ultimately a good thing, because it stems from his involvement in a bounty of different projects simultaneously.<\/p>\n

Since forming his first band, Coitus Interruptus, as a 10th-grader at San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts, Reis has played in more than a dozen local groups \u2014 most notably Rocket From the Crypt and Drive Like Jehu, whose hard-charging rock & roll cut a swath across the bountiful 1990s alt-punk landscape and helped define San Diego\u2019s contribution to the era. Then he started a record label, Swami Records, which is still active around 100 releases later. Then came Hot Snakes, a collaboration with his lifelong friend Rick Froberg<\/a>, which eventually landed on influential indie label Sub Pop.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also produced more than two dozen albums, not only for his own bands but for prominent acts such as Superchunk. Then there was his radio show Swami Sound System, which ran for many years on local FM station KBZT. And he was a co-owner of Bar Pink in North Park, until the pandemic brought its 2020 demise<\/a>. To add one more layer of confusion, Reis has a bunch of nicknames: Swami John Reis, Speedo (from his Rocket from the Crypt days) and Slasher (from his time with yet another band, early 2000s rockers the Sultans).<\/p>\n

Reis is so obviously one of San Diego\u2019s most accomplished musicians that it\u2019s almost surprising it took the Hall of Fame seven years to induct him. The awards show, which began in 2018, has previously honored<\/a> 37 local luminaries, including Jack Tempchin, Jason Mraz, Lou Curtiss, Candye Kane, the Beat Farmers and Cindy Lee Berryhill. This year\u2019s class features Reis, Rosie Flores, Bart Mendoza, Bog Magnusson, the Dinettes, Kamau Kenyatta, and Eulogio \u201cThe Soul Man\u201d Fos. (The ticketed ceremony<\/a> is at 6 p.m. Saturday at Vision Center for Spiritual Living.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI am honored, and the other people that are being inducted are very much worthy, in my opinion,\u201d says Reis. \u201cAnd it\u2019s a good opportunity to be thankful for the people who have really helped me. There\u2019s so many people that I owe so much to.\u201d<\/p>\n

San Diego\u2019s music community also owes a huge debt to Reis, a native son who never left town and instead helped build the city\u2019s scene into something in which he clearly takes pride.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That it took the Hall of Fame seven years to honor him \u201cis more a testament to just how much interesting and creative music has taken place here in San Diego,\u201d Reis says. \u201cIt\u2019s a good community of people happily living in the shadow of our big brother to the north. Los Angeles is the entertainment capital of the world; you have an industry there, and it tends to neglect what\u2019s going on here. And that\u2019s what creates a cool petri dish for interesting things to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reis says he\u2019s appreciated all the ways he\u2019s been involved in San Diego\u2019s music community, but playing in bands has always been his most gratifying role. \u201cThat expression is personal,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m doing something that feels like being who I am. Even more so playing guitar than when I\u2019m singing. When I\u2019m not being a dad and a boyfriend and a friend and a person in the world, the thing that defines me most is my connection with the guitar.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut they\u2019ve all been fun. The bar thing, I was one of six partners, so I can\u2019t claim that that was all me. But it was a great thing to be a part of. The radio show came at an amazing time, because I wasn\u2019t playing music. I was waiting for my kid to be born, and I was trying to figure out a way to continue to be involved in music.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the keys to his success is his willingness to put in work beyond\u00a0 playing onstage or recording\u00a0 in the studio. \u201cI enjoy all different aspects of playing music,\u201d he says. \u201cI enjoy putting on shows. I enjoy producing records. I enjoy talking to pressing plants and graphic artists and putting the pieces together and making a record. I enjoy talking to distributors, and I enjoy writing music. I enjoy rehearsing just as much as I enjoy performing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reis is as busy now as ever. He has a new album, Time to Let You Down, under the name Swami John Reis that he\u2019ll soon be supporting with a tour. Rocket From the Crypt played earlier this month in Los Angeles and continues to do occasional gigs, including a local Oct. 24 show at House of Blues. He also plays with the band Plosiv, which is working on a new album, and has been touring as a sideman with Me First & the Gimme Gimmes. He runs a recording studio, City of Refuge, and plans to issue six releases on Swami Records this year.<\/p>\n

One band that\u2019s no longer active is Hot Snakes, which sadly came to an end when Reis\u2019s childhood pal Froberg died in 2023 of an undiagnosed heart condition.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no way we could continue as a band. He was such a large part of our collaboration,\u201d Reis says, \u201cWhen he passed, I lost such a great friend, someone who\u2019s been closer to family than a friend for the last 48 years. But I also lost someone I was really reliant on, in terms of the things that we did together. We made music together that neither one of us could have made without the other person.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a great artistic relationship, and we really agreed on almost everything. There were never creative differences, and he enabled me to explore things on the guitar that I would never have attempted if I knew I had to be responsible for writing words and vocals to it. It was a sense of freedom that I had working with Rick where I could pretty much do whatever, and he would make sense of it and turn it into something that was beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n

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