MARIACHI EL BRONX
befitting their passion. In the same vein, the genre itself – often made fun of in modern culture – bubbled below the surface waiting to be picked up. A serendipitous request for hardcore punk band Te Bronx to play acoustic prompted their adoption of the genre, and two albums in, it’s some of the most exciting role play ever heard…
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You’re plenty busy at the moment – you’ve got loads of dates in the US and Canada to get through before you come over to us in the UK… Yeah, but being busy’s good, you know; I’ve got lots of friends who aren’t busy, so I’m very thankful.
Your touring schedule would be busy enough with one band, but what about two? You know, it’s a strange thing, I mean I think tours are relentless whichever way you cut it, but playing twice cuts down on the downtime. But I’d rather do that than sit on the bus and play video games, or whatever people do – watch a movie or sleep. It’s something we really enjoy doing, and both kinds of music are kinds we really love, so why not play.
Let’s talk about the very really risk on your liver though – it must take a real battering! Hehe, you know, what would a tour be without that happening?!
Yeah, you’ve got to do it so that you can appreciate the sobriety of your older
24 /November 2011/
outlineonline.co.uk
years, maybe. Yeah, well fortunately or unfortunately, those two things go hand in hand and it’s some pretty interesting mornings when the boys get up.
I can imagine! You play some dates as well where both bands are on the bill – how does that go down with fans and how do you mentally switch? Erm, I don’t really mentally switch but it’s kinda the same thing for all of us, you know, it’s like both bands are – I guess – none of us really like one more than the other one. Tat’d really be a question for Matt though, I mean he’s really gotta switch from screaming to singing! I switch from guitar to guitar! Y’know, he drinks lots of water, he doesn’t talk too much, he just gets rested and ready to go.
Mariachi El Bronx came out of something quite unexpected – you came out of your comfort zone and something great came out, something with legs. Would you encourage other bands to step away from what they do every day?
raditional Mariachi bands stand on Mariachi Plaza in downtown Los Angeles, resplendent in Charro suits, waiting to get picked up and hired for an occasion
No. I would encourage a band to do what they feel rather than do what they think they should be doing. For a lot of different people that can be a lot of different things; I say this – through the years there’s been a lot of copycat bands that pop up when something happens or when a certain style of music gets popular, suddenly there’s a thousand of them. Tat’s not good. Getting back to your point, I think that it’s about playing what you really feel inside, rather than trying to emulate your favourite band. Tere needs to be more of that happening, so if that means going on outside of your comfort zone, then who knows what will happen.
Something that I’m really interested in Joby are the opportunities and different directions it has given you. You personally had production duties on Armistice’s output – do you think it’s pushed you further? I think yes and no; I’m doing quite a bit of that in my spare time these days, which I really enjoy, but for me and everyone else in the band, music’s the thing we love – every aspect of it – and to be involved in as many different things and other people, recording, artwork, writing, playing, whatever is something we all really love to do. I feel very fortunate that I’m able to do a lot of that.
So what makes an interesting production opportunity for you and what other things are you involved in? I just did a record for a British band called Gallows –
- Oh, we love Gallows. I just did their album and what else… I have a couple of other British bands coming up that I’m doing that are proving
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