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Rehearsal space, studio, vessel and abode Diego Garcia's boat is the home base for his new album, as well as his musical life as the seafaring Spanish guitarist Twanguero.

- GARY GRAFF

IF YOU WANT to find Diego Garcia these days, head to Marina Del Rey in California and look for the boat studio where he makes his home and whose name, Panamerica, is also the title of the award-winning Spanish-born guitarist's latest album under his performing moniker, Twanguero.

"It's like a small apartment for me," Garcia, 48, explains. "I purchased it because rehearsal rooms are so expensive here in Los Angeles; it's almost like renting an apartment on top of whatever you're renting to live in. So I decided to buy a boat. It's way cheaper.

"I know Bob Dylan used to have a boat here, like two slips away. So if it was good enough for him..." Although it's no competition for the larger yachts that populate the marina, the Panamerica is a kind of all-things proposition for Garcia. "We can have a studio here, we can rehearse the band here," he says. "It's inspiring when you watch the sunset over the Pacific Ocean when you're playing a guitar and smoking a joint or something." Equally inspiring, he adds, "There's a small community of musicians here in Mariana del Rey: some people from Argentina, some people from the Congo... a lot of places. We have friends, we have jams.

People here in the marina know us. They like when we're playing. When we're playing some cumbia or something, all the Mexicans that come to work on the boats love that music. So it's good." Indeed, it takes a village - in his case, a global village - to make Twanguero's music. His output over seven albums has been shaped by his travels, logging time in Buenos Aires,