#but yeah the story is titled after the band that forms later on and we've still got a while to get there

[melien]

🎂🎂🎂

[sinceileftyoublog]

¿Qiensave? Interview: The Wu-Tang Clan of Cumbia

¿Qiensave?

BY JORDAN MAINZER

What happens when a group of teenagers are raised on traditional Mexican cumbia in the morning and discover punk rock, reggae, and hip-hop in the afternoon? Eventually, something resembling ¿Qiensave?, the Salinas, CA-based quintet that has been playing together for almost two decades. The band, consisting of four Cortez brothers--rhythm guitarist Carlos, guida player/keyboardist Mario, drummer Ricardo, and bassist William--and their friend, lead guitarist Alejandro Gomez, formed in 2009 but didn't release their debut album Mujer until 10 years later. It took them time to combine their influences and hone in on a sound. "We came back full-circle," Carlos told me over the phone earlier this week, "and it emulsified into what it is right now."

After Mujer, ¿Qiensave? dropped a few singles, some originals and some covers, and in 2022, the El After EP. Last year was the group's biggest so far, thanks to two collaborations that came out within days of each other yet couldn't have been more different. The first was Reanimación, a remix album created in tandem with nu-cumbia artist El Dusty. The second was Wake the Dead, a record made with Americana singer-songwriter Chuck Prophet that stemmed from jam sessions and became a larger symbol of Prophet's turn to uplifting music in his successful fight against cancer (and that we profiled last month). Later this year, ¿Qiensave? will properly follow up Mujer with an album titled Y Así La Cosas. Next week, however, they'll play throughout Austin, TX as an official part of SXSW, the band's first time performing in Texas, let alone at SXSW. And not only do they hope, like many at the legendary fest, to find a label to work with, but a producer to help them finish the record. "Our management, because we produce a lot of the projects ourselves and are self-funded, have to remind us to network and find distribution and a label, even if it's on the tail-end of putting it out," Carlos said. "For us, [what's important is] collaboration and new people to work with."

Though ¿Qiensave? have existed longer than have most bands playing at SXSW, their touring has been limited to California and Arizona, save for a handful of gigs in Mexico and Colombia. "We're really looking forward to being in Texas and exploring different parts of the country, connecting, and meeting new artists," Carlos said. "That's really important for ¿Qiensave?." Their writing and recording process is democratic, Carlos leading on coming up with a record's theme but everybody supplying songs. (Every member but William sings.) What the Prophet collection brought, and what ¿Qiensave? wish to include more in the future, are tales that reach beyond their immediate world. "The more we get to hear different stories, the more we can share that voice," Carlos said. "We take a lot [from] the stories of life. Every album we create turns into a book, every song a little chapter. If you really pay attention to it, you'll get the whole story." They don't rule out taking the reigns away from Prophet on their next album with him--meaning this time, he'll try to find a way to fit in on their cumbia songs. For now, ¿Qiensave? have their eyes on Texas, the latest stop in their melting pot of a journey.

If you're in Austin next week, you can catch ¿Qiensave? on March 12th at Hotel Vegas (at 1:00 AM on the 13th), March 13th at Lamberts at 10:00 PM, and March 14th and 15th at The Continental Club at 2:10 PM and 4:15 PM, respectively. (They're also playing the Joshua Tree Music Festival in May.) Below, read my conversation with Carlos, edited for length and clarity.

¿Qiensave?

Since I Left You: Are you preparing for the shows coming up next week?

Carlos Cortez: Yeah, we've been getting our setlist ready and preparing. [Mario and Alejandro] are coming back from tour in the UK with Chuck Prophet. It's the last leg of the UK tour. They'll be joining us this weekend, and then we're hitting it again for another couple hours of extensive rehearsal.

SILY: Are you going to play a similar set at each show or switch things up night by night?

CC: We're gonna play it by ear. We have three setlists that we created in preparation. When they hit us up for SXSW and asked us to be an official artist, they didn't give us the set times or details, so when we got the news, we prepared three different sets. We're gonna practice those three sets, and it will [all] get mixed in depending on how we feel.

SILY: Are you playing anything unreleased from your upcoming record?

CC: Yeah, we'll be playing one of the singles that's coming out. We like to test things out...we want to get the feel for how people will react to it.

SILY: Do you play any of the songs from Wake the Dead without Chuck, or do you have to have him there?

CC: We haven't explored that...there are a couple songs, though, we really enjoy and like that we'd like to incorporate in the mix.

SILY: You're a cumbia band that experiments with and expands your sound to different genres. How do you approach a crowd that doesn't know you at all at a huge festival like this?

CC: The beauty of ¿Qiensave? is that we're kind of like the Wu-Tang Clan. Each member has a different style that's really strong, which embeds itself into the cumbia we have. It's a variety of flavors of reggae and rock. It usually translates when we start playing. Some of the elements we've all been influenced by are pretty accessible. It helps set the tone. It makes people move.

SILY: What are the genres you're most influenced by?

CC: We all bring different elements. I do a lot of the artistic development, writing the songs' lyrics. I'm influenced a lot by poetry and writing. Mario brings a lot of his rock and alternative reggae background. Ricardo and William have strong reggae roots influences and strong Mexican regional background. Alejandro is...a singer-songwriter. All the elements combined make ¿Qiensave?'s sound. You can hear the elements when you listen to each member separately...we all explore traditional music and folk music in our own right, but we're not super traditionalists in any way. We're open to exploring and seeing what we can do with the genre.

SILY: Do the songs on your upcoming album explore any new sonic territory?

CC: Definitely, every time we collaborate. This collaboration with Chuck has influenced my next two albums. There's residue: Things I've learned, things I've absorbed...we like to keep some of the sounds that have been signature, and then we explore a little more and see how it goes. It's always hit or miss. We hope it hits, but it's music: Everybody feels differently about it.

SILY: Is the upcoming album written but not recorded?

CC: We have an interesting process. Everybody brings in different ideas. I'll usually have a theme or idea, and we'll all contribute different songs. Alejandro and Ricardo will throw some from their pocket. We'll pick and choose what lines up with the theme. We'll record demos and split the different tasks. We'll take the main ideas and present it to the producers, who take it to the next level. Right now, we have [some] final recordings and the rest of the album in demos. The demos are pretty strong, but we like to bring in an outside perspective.

¿Qiensave?

[sftswigan]

Manchester gutter punks, The Battery Farm, talk to us about horrific crime inspiring a song and how they just had to form this band...

We’ve got frontman/guitarist Ben from the band.

Alright Ben, can you tell us about the band. Who plays what and how the band got together?

Hallo! We are The Battery Farm, four gutter bastards from Manchester playing gnarly, seething punk rock music.

Ben Corry on Vocals and Guitar, Dominic Corry on Guitar, Paul Worrall on Bass, Sam Parkinson on Drums. Me and Dom formed this band from the ashes of a band we'd previously been in together for 8 years. At the point we formed The Battery Farm we were in a low place, feeling like failures, feeling defeated by this thing that we'd built for years just imploding, feeling angry and scared and hopeless at the utter state of the world. We basically decided to do this in the pub one night when we felt like we had absolutely nothing to lose. It was formed as a desperate reaction to two lives and minds spiralling out of control in a hostile, hateful world.

That must have been tough but, seems like it’s worked out well and the band from what I can tell is going from strength to strength. How soon did you find the remaining members, Paul and Sam? What have they brought to the band?

It has actually. Helpfully, it was a fertile environment from which to create. The first wave of songs - stuff like I Am a Man - are the purest distillation of that sense of lashing out, that sense of desperation we were feeling at the time.

We found Paul pretty much straight away. I'd known him for years through Manchester's Fringe theatre scene, having been in a couple of plays with him. He'd come to see me in a play, I knew he was a musician as well as an actor (although I don't think I'd grasped just how good he is), so I asked if he fancied playing bass for our new band. Sam we actually didn't know before the band, and it took a little longer to get him in. He works for the same company i do and I'd heard he was a drummer, so I got his contact details, asked him if he fancied coming for a rehearsal with us. It all clicked, and the rest is history.

Paul and Sam bring a massive amount to the band. They lift the songs me and Dom write and add a very particular combination of power and melody which you'll be hard pressed to come by very often. They're fucking ace and they know what is good for the song. No ego, no fucking about. They know what's important.

Sounds like you needed that new band to form quickly and to find drummer and bassist when you did you was very fortunate. I watched an interview of you and Dom recently and you talked about inspiration for songwriting and I was interested in where 97/91 came from. When it comes to writing where do you first look to for ideas?

Yeah we did, finding a drummer was comparitively difficult and I think if we'd have really struggled then we honestly would have just given up on it. 97/91 came about after I read an article about the murder of Suzanne Capper in Moston, north Manchester, which is where me and Dom grew up. I'm not going to go into details but if you look it up you'll see that it's the most horrific thing you've ever read. It stuck with me for weeks afterwards, and part of that was because I knew the streets where it had taken place and the community in which it had taken place. The houses it happened in - numbers 97 and 91 - are still there to this day. I got to thinking about why I reacted so viscerally to that story in particular; atrocities happen every day and we don't bat an eyelid, not really. It had such an impact because I was so familiar with the setting, so familiar with the type of person involved. It was too real. 97/91 explores the idea that we make a trade-off in our lives, one which enables cognitive dissonance that shields us from the impact the mass, relentless violence of the world. It also means that when something evil happens in a familiar setting the impact is much greater.

How can it only be real when you can see it? 97/91 isn't necessarily about the Capper murder itself, but the murder is a jumping off point to explore the faustian pact at the heart of the human condition, the one that keeps us sane but also ebbs away at our souls.

Our ideas just literally come from trying to explain our perspective on the world, we don't necessarily make a conscious effort to look in one place for ideas. We just write about whatever moves us. That can be mental illness, corrupt political systems, or the fact that I've never been to Gorton, which is literally the title of one of our new songs.

I find reading about crime stories really interesting, it’s madness what goes on in this world! This is one I’m not aware of but this must have been difficult to write about with it being so close to home? I love the anger and aggression in your music and lyrics.

You mentioned being an actor earlier, do you think this has an influence on your performance as a front man?

Yeah I went through a short phase of listening to true crime podcasts earlier this year but i had to stop bec it was all too grim. It was difficult to explore the ideas that particular incident led me onto but the endgame wasn't to just write about the murder itself, so I suppose keeping that in mind kept my head clear and made things easier.

Honestly, i try to keep any ideas of acting and theatre separate from the band. The actor thing can be frustrating at times because people conflate that with what I do in the band and think that everything must be a performance of some kind, which it isn't. The whole idea of putting The Battery Farm together was that it could give us an outlet to express ourselves honestly, and to me the stuff I do as a frontman is just an honest reaction to what I'm singing and what it makes me feel. I try not to overthink that aspect of it because I feel like to do so would water it down. It needs to be raw, it needs to be stark, it needs to be reality. If it's an actor's performance I'm not really getting anything out of it.

It’s amazing how reading/listening to one can lead on to another one. But yeah hard to shake off once you’ve learned about them.

You’re performance on stage seems very honest and I love to see in a frontman.

Moving on to the music scene...Manchester in particular is buzzing at the minute. Did the band find it easy to slot in? What’s been your favourite gig up to now?

We did actually. We knew a couple of people anyway from being in previous bands but until now I'd always found the Manchester scene a little unfriendly. It's totally different now. Not only is it overflowing with incredible, original, exciting new bands but it's also full of amazing people, and in the year we've been gigging we've made some wonderful friends. There's a proper sense of inclusivity and community, a lack of ego and aloofness that wasn't there before.

My favourite, and I think the others would agree with me, is our first headline set which was at The Peer Hat last November. It was an Abattoir Blues night and they're always amazing. The venue was packed to capacity and the atmosphere was electric. It was the kind of big, simmering sweatbox that seems impossible to imagine in the current climate. I want every gig we play to be like that one.

Yeah it’s great to see bands appreciating each other’s music and plugging their stuff on social media etc. I love going to Manchester for a gig. It’s a great time for guitar music in the UK at the minute with bands like Idles, Fontaines DC and Sports Team doing really well. And also The Blinders bringing album 2 out very soon!

That gig sounds like a great night!

When all this is over and we get some normality back...what are the bands plans?

Well, we're heading into the studio later this summer to begin work on... something. Beyond that it's hard to say because like everyone else we can't really make plans at the moment. Like everyone else we're pretty much having to make it up as we go along. We do have gigs booked for November and December but whether they'll happen or not remains up to fate. Everything going to plan, we may be in for an exciting end to the year. Maybe.

Gonna be very exciting for all bands and music once gigs/recording etc can happen again isn’t it.

Got so many new bands I want to see. Have you discovered any new bands during lockdown? If not, what have you been listening to?

Lockdown's actually been really fruitful in terms of new bands releasing amazing stuff. I've been listening to a lot of Tinfoils recently, they're a delight! Also been loving new stuff from Cold Water Swimmers, The Red Stains, Richard Carlson Band, The Maitlands, loads of stuff. I've also recently discovered John Shuttleworth, a comedy singer from Sheffield who does weird Phoenix Club-type songs about stuff like margerine and vans. I love stuff like that, real end of the pier nonsense.

I love Tinfoils and down to have them on here in Wigan but then lockdown came. The other bands I’m aware of too but not the solo artists you’ve mentioned.

Yeah Tinfoils are great. John Shuttleworth has been around for years i think. I can imagine he won't be to everyone's taste. Richard Carlson Band are actually named after the actor Richard Carlson, who was in The Creatire From the Black Lagoon. There is no Richard Carlson in that band! They're absolutely ace, they released their debut single a few weeks ago and I've had it on repeat.

I’ll be sure to listen to your recommendations, love finding new music to listen to.

We’re coming to the end of the interview now, I’ve just got a couple of questions. You’ll get two options, you pick one answer...

Winter or summer?

Sex Pistols or The Clash?

Roast dinner or Chinese?

Film or Book?

Winter

The Clash

Roast Dinner

Book

Thanks for having me! Hopefully see you soon

Thanks Ben for taking the time to chat to us. Hopefully we’ll cross paths at a gig soon.

If you want to listen to the band please go and follow them on social media and their music is on Spotify etc.