Efrain ”Junito” Davila is one of those faces behind the scenes that makes many things the public enjoys possible, which has led him to work with big names in the industry who respect his work and know that having him on their teams is a guarantee of success and quality. The arranger, music producer, composer, orchestrator and pianist has honoured us by talking a little about his life and career, something he himself admits that he does not do very often, so we thank him for his trust in International Salsa Magazine to tell his story.

Efrain’s interest in music from an early age

Efrain begins his story by telling us that his house always had tropical music, in fact, his father Efrain Davila was a musician and his mother was a singer, so they took their young son to their respective orchestras’ rehearsals and constantly exposed him to everything about music. However, he did not show much interest in music until he was about 11 or 11 years old, when he started playing with a little piano he had at home. He found the instrument fascinating and very easy to understand, to the point that his father noticed how easy it was for him to play and bought him a bigger piano, music books and several cassettes so that he could learn about that whole world.

It can be said that at the age of 12, Efrain was already a musician and played in the same orchestra as his father, but it was the following year, at the age of 13, that he made his first tour to Panama, which was the first country he visited for work.

An interesting fact we want to mention about the group in which his father was trombonist, Orquesta Xariz, is that it was one of the first Christian salsa orchestras of the time, because back then, this genre was still seen as something mundane and ordinary, something similar to what we see with urban music today. Therefore, it was not easy for people to identify Christianity with salsa, but Orquesta Xariz did it and Efrain learned a lot from it.

Professional start in music

Although Efrain made his first tour at the age of 12, for him the beginning of his career as such was at the age of 15, age in which he was no longer playing with his father, but with other artists in nightclubs. Although he was still a minor, the fact that he was tall and had a little beard helped him to be allowed to perform in those places. By that time, the artist was already being paid for his work and was performing much more often.

Around the same time, he began to make musical arrangements, first for the Orquesta Xariz and then later for other independent artists in New York City. Efrain himself got involved in this area in a completely self-taught way, since he did not want to be dedicated solely to play piano for the rest of his life, but sought to explore what other areas music could offer him.

Already at 20 or 21 years old, he also became interested in music production, to which he has devoted himself ever since.

Efrain as a producer, arranger and orchestrator

Efrain comments that he began to be recognised for his work for the first time thanks to the group DLG (Dark Latin Groove), which was looking for young musicians to join their ranks at that time. It was then that he met Sergio George, the owner of the group, who was the first to offer him his first major opportunity to arrange music for artists signed to great labels such as Sony. It could be said that this was the moment the young man knew he wanted to remain dedicated to this field and, over the years, he grabbed much more experience to the point of dealing with multinationals and artists of great name.

Grammy and Premios Lo Nuestro nominations

Throughout his career, Efrain has been nominated for a Grammy, a Latin Grammy, and a Premios Lo Nuestro award once in every case, he was nominated due to a work made for Prince Royce because he was doing much bachata at the time and, on another occasion, it was together with his friend and partner Guianko Gomez. In that same year, a couple of projects with the Venezuelan group Guaco were also nominated, indicating that the musical elite had him on its radar and acknowledged his efforts over time. 

Although the artist greatly appreciated that his work is taken into account in this way, he is very clear that obtaining prizes should not be his main goal, so he has to keep working hard and not settle for what he has achieved so far. He comes down to “you must not only look into the past, but also into the future”.

Collaborations with great artists 

In the case of Maluma, Efrain clarifies that he did not work directly with him, but covered some of his best-known songs in salsa. However, there have been other great artists whom he does know directly, such as Ricardo Arjona, who coincidentally called him on the day of our conversation to discuss some pending issues.

He has also met and worked directly with Victor Manuelle, with whom he has been friends and worked on his last nine record productions. Efrain says that it is nice working with the Puerto Rican artist because he really knows what he wants. “Many artists today don’t know what they want. They know what they don’t want, but they don’t know what they do want, which makes things a little difficult for me. Artists with long-spanning careers like Victor, Ricardo himself, Servando, and Florentino Primera know exactly what they want, so they are able to tell me what they are looking for in their work,” Efrain said about the topic. 

He also mentioned that he usually has trouble with new artists for the same reason, since being inexperienced, he is the one who has to create a sound or wave from where starting. However, he continues to work with them, but he has to use much more creativity in constantly inventing and creating song demos so that they can see what they like. 

It should also be mentioned that other important artists he is working with such as La India, Olga Tañón, and Tito Nieves.

Behind-the-scenes work

Owing to the nature of his work, Efrain’s face is not as well known to the public as is the case of the great singers and musicians who work with him. When questioned about this, he says that he has never liked drawing attention and prefers to stay behind the cameras as a producer. He acknowledges that there are colleagues who do like media attention, but this is not his case. In fact, he does not participate much in interviews like this or podcasts. He believes that being very famous brings problems and prefers to live in peace and retain his privacy. 

Read also: The composer and singer Carlos Xavier reveals unpublished details of his career