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In the summer of 2010, Fernando Perdomo vowed, “I’m Not Gonna Move to LA.”
That was the defiant title of a song off his band’s self-titled album, Dreaming in Stereo.
But last night, the singer, songwriter, producer, Forward Motion Records label founder, and tireless local music supporter announced via Facebook that he would indeed be leaving Miami for California. Just not Los Angeles.
“Major news.. with the sale of the Perdomo family house,” he writes, “I am going to be moving .. I’m not gonna move to LA .. but I am gonna move to Reseda, CA (a suburb of LA).”
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Like many Miami scene figures (e.g. Rachel Goodrich and Tristan Clopet), Perdomo has struggled with the limitations of the Miami scene for years. But he always kept the faith.
He gigged a ton around town as part of Dreaming in Stereo and The Joshua Stedman Band — not to mention noise quartet The Emperor’s New Clothes. He started his own Miami-focused label, even as the established record industry lay dying. And he endlessly advocated for organizations (such as the Miami Music Festival and the Florida Music Get-Together) that he considered beneficial to the cause of local music.
And yet Perdomo was often frustrated, maybe even left wondering, like Clopet, whether the Miami scene is a dead end.
On “I’m Not Gonna Move to LA,” he spun that dissatisfaction into a refusal to abandon this city. “Sometimes I don’t think I belong here/Everybody thinks that I’m weird/I don’t make the music that Miami wants to hear,” Perdomo sang. “But I’m not gonna change my location/Even if it kills me.”
Evidently, though, he’s come to a different conclusion now.
Over the last week, before officially announcing his move, Perdomo was obviously preparing for some kind of significant life shift. He suddenly chopped off his shaggy hair and trimmed his long beard. He cryptically quoted Tom Petty lyrics (“There’s a freeway/Running though the yard”) in reference to Reseda. And while hanging out on the West Coast over the weekend, he professed, “I love LA.”
Still, Perdomo insists that he’ll always remain a local guy to the core. “I love Miami with all my heart,” he says, “and I hope everyone knows that I will now be [a] soldier [for] the scene and will find every possible way to make South Florida music global.. 305 till I die…”
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