Bruno Garcia is not unknown in the music business. In the middle of the Eighties, the French rock scene literally exploded. Since '83, Bruno Garcia has officiated in Ludwig Von 88, a group which came out of this influence. No Latin rhythm but rather noisy punk rock with lyrics that are sometimes funny but always rebellious. In '88, Bruno released a record with a back up singer from the Berurier Noirs, calling themselves Titi et Nobru.

A fan of Latin music, himself of Spanish origin, Bruno worked on other projects while he was working with Ludwig. He took part in sound systems where he mixed raggamuffin and Latin rhythms. This test was quickly transformed and Bruno appeared on "Tchatche Attack" (96), a ragga compilation where we find "Salsamania" the first official song of Sergent Garcia. Afterwards he prepared a first album that he self-produced which came out in May 1997 on an independent label Crash Disques. "Viva el Sergento" contains 14 songs between salsa, raggamuffin, reggae, between Spanish (for the most part) and French (a little).

The real starting point happened when Sergent Garcia was invited to take part in the Latin Music Festival organized in 1997 at the New Morning club in Paris. In one month and several rehearsals, Bruno put together a group for this performance. Surrounded by six musicians, Sergent Garcia met with true success, which made him decide to continue.

The group was called Los Locos del Barrio (the crazies of the neighbourhood) and comes from the mixed Parisian scene. There is Julien "el galo" on drums, El Vince on bass, Pedrito Lucas on piano, Don toto Ostro and "hermano Soafo" on percussions, El primo David on flute and keyboards as well as El Señor Livan on vocals.

With the group, Sergent Garcia set off on tour for a year. In December '97, we found him notably at the Transmusicales in Rennes, in Madrid and Barcelona as well as at the Folies Pigalle in Paris.

We would have to wait until February '99 to see the release of the album "Un poquito quema'o" (a little burned/crazy) on Virgin records. In fact, Sergent Garcia rearranged eight songs from the previous record and offered nine unreleased songs. The songs were recorded in one week in England. Vincent, the bassist contributed to the artistic direction.

For the resumption of the tour in the spring of 1999, other musicians joined Los Locos del Barrio one of whom is a Cuban singer (dancer), Duni. Sergent Garcia performed in Paris at l'Elysée-Montmartre on November 10th and 11th, 1999. The 2000 tour will go to Italy, France of course, the Springtime music festival in Central France, Le Printemps de Bourges and to North America where Sergent Garcia will perform at the International Festival of Louisiana in Lafayette as well as in eleven other cities-among them New York and Los Angeles.

After wrapping up his series of concerts in August, Sergent Garcia immediately went on to prepare his new album. Some of the tracks having been written while the combo was on the road, Bruno and his bandmates only had to put the finishing touches to it before he could start rehearsing. The album was eventually recorded live in the studio in July 2001. Renaud Letang, who engineered Manu Chao’s latest album, supervised the recording. The single "Adelita" was released first and soon followed by the album itself in August.

Justly entitled "Sin Fronteras", the album featured Sergent Garcia’s attempt at promoting musical and cultural tolerance, the artist preaching in favour of the mingling of genres. Accompanied as always by Los Locos del Barrio, Sergent Garcia continued his exploring of Caribbean sounds, mingling them with African touches. Amadou and Maryam, the Malian singers, whom he had met at the Printemps de Bourges, sang along on one of the tracks, entitled "Seremos". Following the release of the album, Sergent Garcia gave a series of promotional concerts that should benefit the next single "El Sargento".

The band set up on tour again around France, Spain, Italy and Switzerland. Then at the beginning of 2002, they traveled to Germany and Austria and put up a gig for the Fête de la Musique on June 21st in front of the Paris Town-hall. Back on the road they performed in many summer festivals such as the Paleo in Nyon on July 27th.

In search for his musical roots, Bruno undertook to travel to Jamaica and Cuba, where he recorded a new album. In April 2003 he was in Kingston and was working, among others, with Tyrone Downie (Bob Marley’s keyboard player). In May, accompanied by his drummer and co-producer, Ivan Motoya, he was in Santiago de Cuba at the famous Studio Egrem. The result, "La Semilla Escondida", a hybrid album blending reggae, salsa and ragamuffin, was released at the end of September. So was "Long Time", the first single.

Following the release of "La Semilla escondida", which proved to be a big hit, Sergent Garcia disappeared from the forefront of the music scene and kept a low media profile. He did not re-emerge in the music news until 26 November 2004 when his greatest hits were released as a boxed double-CD set entitled  “Best Of Sergent Garcia.” This first greatest hits compilation of Sergent G’s career included a DVD of video clips.

In 2005, Bruno Garcia and his loyal backing group embarked upon a major international tour, playing dates across Spain, Morocco, Germany, Austria, Egypt, Indonesia and Venezuela. They also brought the house down when they appeared at that summer’s round of music festivals (Porto Latino, Les Extravagances, Destination Soleil etc). After this lengthy stint on the road, Garcia shut himself away at his Spanish home, in Valencia, to concentrate on writing material for his next album, "Mascaras." Drawing on his last two years of touring for inspiration, Sergent G. attempted to capture the essence of the urban street sounds he had heard on the road, putting his own spin on these by adding traditional instruments.

Garcia enlisted the services of the Mexican producer Roy Hernandez when it came to the moment of recording truth. Hernandez, renowned for being the musical “mentor” of the famous Mexican rap outfit Control Machete, was the ideal man for the job. Besides being a successful producer, he also had an innate grasp of traditional rhythms such as cumbia and salsa and a real feeling for Sergent G’s raggamuffin. “Mascaras” was finally recorded in Mexico and released on 21 August 2006. The first single release, aptly entitled "Dulce con chile" (Chili sweet), took the airwaves by storm that summer. The album also included a track called "Guantanamo City", a politically hard-hitting song written by Karim Berrouka (Garcia’s old friend from his Ludwig von 88 days).

Following the release of “Mascaras”, Sergent Garcia hit the road again for another tour.

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After a period in the alternative rock scene which undoubtedly brought him an experience by no means insignificant, Sergent Garcia, by converting himself to Latin music has taken the road that his personal identity showed him. The present music situation played in favour of a return to his roots for Sergent Garcia. To the great joy of the aficionados.

August 2006