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| OYE | OPEN YOUR EYES | |||||||||
| OYE MAGAZINE | ||||||||||
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Ride of a Lifetime Los Lobos celebrated its
30th anniversary with the release of The Ride
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When the sun finally rose over Chicanos in the late 1960s, the grandsons and daughters of Mexican braceros from three-generations ago stared wide-eyed into the light and let Huitzilopochtli, the fabled Aztec god of the sun, lead them into an era of cultural renaissance. Remembered as el movimiento, the Chicano movement inspired new ideas about self-identity, the preservation of culture and the rediscovery of Mexican history. The movement gave rise to such cultural icons as Corky Gonzales and Cesar Chávez, the student political group MEChA, and the paramilitary community group, the Brown Berets. It was a time of new beginnings. In East Los Angeles, another group formed as a result of the movement. Unlike other Chicano bands of the time, Los Lobos del Este de Los Angeles (as they were originally named) had no political agenda and instead edified a harmonious message of pacifism, optimism and cultural eulogy through music. Poetas of the street, Los Lobos exemplified the romanticism, folklore and social strife of the era without imposing nor promoting ethnocentric separatist ideologies. Like Bob Marley, another purveyor of peace and unity, the message was and always has been one love. Now, 30 years later,
the song remains the same. The beginning of this year marked the 30th
anniversary of the little band that could. Band members Louie Perez, David
Hidalgo, Cesar Rosas and Conrad Lonzano all metand later formed
Los Loboswhile attending famed Garfield High in East L.A. Since
then, Los Lobos have been on a musical pilgrimage that has spanned performances
at weddings and backyard parties to shows around the world. It is no coincidence
then that the legendary band titled their 12th studio release The Ride,
in reference to the never-ending journey they have been on since their
teenage years. The band released
its first album, the traditional Los Lobos Del Este De Los Angeles, a
collection of boleros and rancheras, in 1977 on the New Vista Label and
then in 1983 signed to Slash Records where the band met current saxophonist/keyboardist
Steve Berlin. Los Lobos first record on the Slash label, the seven-song
And A Time to Dance, earned them a Grammy for the song Anselma
and set the eclectic precedent for albums to come. Produced by T-Bone
Burnett, the album incorporated Burnetts signature Tex-Mex sound
(a sound that Los Lobos would later become synonymous with), bar-band
blues rock and, of course, Mexican music. It also featured a cover of
Ritchie Valens 1958 hit Come On Lets Go, which
would later prove to be serendipitous. While on the road in Santa Cruz in support of 1984s critically acclaimed How Will the Wolf Survive?, the bands first legitimate full-length album, Los Lobos were sent a note backstage informing them that the Valenzuela familyas in Ritchie Valenzuelawere at the show and wanted to meet the band. Surprised and honored by the gesture, Los Lobos agreed to meet with the family of the legendary kid from Pacoima. The Valenzuela family ended up inviting Los Lobos to their home in Watsonville, California the following day for lunch where they shared family stories with the band. Los Lobos were told that a movie about the life and tragic death of Valens was already in the works with Taylor Hackford (Bound by Honor, The Devils Advocate) set to produce and Luis Valdez (the man considered the founder of modern Chicano theater) brought in to write the screenplay and direct. The Valenzuela family agreed to release the rights to the film only as long as Los Lobos covered the songs for the 1987 film. The result was a #1 hit for the Los Lobos rendition of a 150-year-old folk song, La Bamba.
Instead of riding
the wave of success from their work on the La Bamba soundtrack by releasing
a more commercial album, Los Lobos headed in the opposite direction, returning
to their roots to brave the release of La Pistola Y El Corazón
the following year. The album garnered Los Lobos their second Grammy for
Best Rock Performance By a Duo or Group. After quietly releasing The Neighborhood
in 1990, Los Lobos released what many critics believed to be their best
album in Kiko (1992), an honest and compelling interpretation of different
social issues that brought awareness to homelessness, child abuse, alcoholism
and rape. 1995 saw the release
of Papas Dream, a childrens album that further demonstrated
Los Lobos innate knack for stretching the dynamics of its ingenuous
songwriting. The following year, Los Lobos hit soundtrack gold again,
with their third Grammy win for the instrumental track Mariachi
Suite from the film Desperado. And in 2001, the band rekindled its
relationship with Robert Rodriguez by composing songs for the Mexican
directors high-action kid flick Spy Kids. In addition to composing
films, Los Lobos were offered and accepted the job to write and perform
the original theme song for the Warner Bros. network series Greetings
From Tucson and scored all ten episodes of the short-lived comedy-drama.
After making music
together for 30 years, there isnt much left for this band of brothers
to accomplish, even if they insist there is. To celebrate the milestone,
Los Lobos released The Ride, a collaborative record with guest appearances
from a hall-of-fame cast of artist friends that includes Mexican alternative
rockers Café Tacuba, seminal Chicano rock pioneer Little Willie
G, Panamanian actor-singer Ruben Blades, folk hero Tom Waits and singer-songwriting
legend Elvis Costello. The album is icing on the cake for what has been
a remarkable career that seems to only get better with time. So while
the sun continues to shine on the pride of East L.A., the legacy of Los
Lobos, the little band that could, lives on until The Wolves
decide it is time to ride off into the sunset. Open Your Eyes caught
up with Los Lobos drummer-songwriter Louie Perez to talk about their latest
record and find out how the wolf has survived. Looking back on
the last 30 years, bands these days would be lucky to last three years
together. Marriages would be lucky to last ten years. Whats so special
about Los Lobos that you guys could last this long together? Back when Los Lobos
formed in 1973, were there a lot of Chicanos into rock n roll? Was
there a music scene similar to the rock en español scene of today?
Were there any
clubs or any places in particular that embraced Los Lobos early on in
its career? Over the years,
Los Lobos fan base has remained strong. How difficult has it been
to maintain your popularity for so many years? It seems like the
only way to hear Los Lobos on the radio is through college radio stations
and National Public Radio. How long has Los
Lobos been in preparation for this collaborative album? With all the different
influences Los Lobos incorporates into its music, does the band enjoy
complete creative freedom or do the labels ever try to influence you to
make more commercial records?
Speaking of Carlos
Santana, was there ever any pressure from the label to collaborate with
younger commercial artists like Santana did on Supernatural? Explain all the
shifting around from parent label Hollywood Records to their sub-label,
Mammoth Records, and then back to Hollywood. With Good Morning
Atzlan [the album released on Mammoth] there was a boardroom meeting on
Friday, and they decided to shut Mammoth down. Friday we had a record
company, and Monday there was no record company. That got us kind of lost,
so we made our way back to Hollywood. Its a new regime there, and
there are new foot soldiers in all of the different departments. They
seem pretty excited about us. Over the years weve heard plenty of
pitches about how, Were going to do this, or, Were
going to do that. Weve been doing this for 20 years with record
companies, and weve come to understand that you dont always
necessarily get what youre promised. But in this case they seem
to be really working hard. Were there any
collaborations that didnt make it onto the album?
Was there any artist
that you wish you could have worked with on the album but couldnt
get to commit? Tom Waits and Elvis
Costello had to mail in the tracks to their parts on The Ride. How difficult
was it to write songs this way? Without having most of the artists in
the studio, did Los Lobos have to direct any of the artists to how the
band envisioned the songs? Did any of the
artists ever have to re-record their tracks because the music didnt
quite fit the songs? Of all the collaborators
on The Ride, if you could add one of them to Los Lobos, which one would
it be? When Los Lobos
goes out on tour, how does the band plan to perform the songs from The
Ride without the collaborators from the album? After recording
an album of this magnitude, the bands 12th overall, do Los Lobos
still feel as if they have much more to accomplish? As far as this one goes, it is kind of an interesting record because its not like a retrospective in any way After 30 years this is kind of a marking, another kind of place along the road. But there is certainly lots of music left in us. After 30 years it kind of amazes me that were still excited about what we do and very seldom repeat ourselves. We somehow seem to re-invent ourselves to a certain degree every time we put out a new record. We are always challenging our listeners. We are always challenging music in generalnot to mention challenging our own gente, because sometimes they just dont get it. I tell you, I wish we had stronger support from Latinos.
As youve
mentioned, Los Lobos fan base is very broad, with a large percentage
of those fans being non-Hispanic. Does the band make it a point to address
the demographics of its fan base when making an album? After 30 years
as a band, it is surprising that The Ride is the first album Los Lobos
has self-produced. Why did you finally decide to produce an album, and
what were some of the benefits of working with producers on previous albums? Can Los Lobos weigh
the significance of the barriers that Ritchie Valens crossed as a Mexican-American
rock n roll star in the 1950s? Did he influence Los Lobos
at all? How do you see
Latinos in the mainstream media today? Do you think we have reached an
equal playing field, or do we still have a lot more work to do? But as far as a level
playing field for us, certainly theyll recognize us as a market.
Itll happen, but it seems to be inching along. So many of the Latinos
here in the U.S. think that we are moving at a higher rate of speed, but
it isnt. But it will happen. As far as music, its gonna be
a lot more than what we experienced a few years back, which was almost
embarrassingwith the whole Ricky Martin, Latin wave thing. What
was all that about? I had journalists asking, With the Latin wave
thats going on, how has it affected your career? And I was
like It hasnt! To the Chicano
community, Los Lobos are representative of so many things: pride, hope
and culture. When its all said and done, when its time for
Los Lobos to hang it up, how would Los Lobos like to be remembered?
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OPEN YOUR EYES
MAGAZINE © 2004 Tlahtoani Media Group, LLC |
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