Jav Padilla

Javi Padilla is a lifelong San Antonio resident and multi-instrumentalist, and for the past 22 years has been an integral and ever-present part of the city’s vibrant music and arts scene. At the age of 19, Padilla and his first music project, New World Drive, recorded an EP with platinum-selling producer, Ralph Jezzard (EMF, “Unbelievable”) at the famed, Willie Nelson-owned, Pedernales Studios; a later project, the Conflict, earned a sizable local following and shared stages with the Ataris, Yellowcard, and Plain White Ts.

In addition to accumulating a handful of production credits on recordings by the likes of Pop Pistol and Carrie Asher, Padilla is guitarist, co-songwriter, and co-producer of the renowned the Please Help, and considers himself to be incredibly fortunate to have been writing and performing alongside local luminaries, Philip Luna and Juan Miguel Ramos, for the last eight years — a tenure that includes an unforgettable evening celebrating the Beatles with the Youth Orchestra of San Antonio at the Tobin Center. Padilla also covers bass duties for the well-known — albeit currently on hiatus — local contemporary rock ‘n roll ensemble, the Rambling Souls (whose travels have led them across the country and earned them a live appearance on the Covino and Rich show on SiriusXM in Los Angeles).

Now nearing 42 years of age, Padilla is writing and producing his first solo effort (tentatively titled, “A Year in the Dark”) under the artist name, Certain Circles. With this upcoming recording, Padilla finds himself deviating from the palette of the guitar-based rock and roll for which he is known, and plans to chronicle musically his wife’s battle against metastatic breast cancer — as well as the spiritual journey that unfortunate diagnosis triggered — against a mellower, 1980’s-inspired sonic landscape.