Chicano Batman
Interview by Rowland Akinduro photo by Lunafora
Rowland: How would you guys describe your music to someone who’s never heard your shit before?
Chicano Batman: Capirotada!
Bardo: Okay, Capirotada is a Mexican type of food. It’s actually like a dessert, and they put all kinds of goods. It’s like they put a bunch of bread, cheese, ice cream, and they put it in the oven for hours. And it comes up — well my aunt puts ice cream in it.
Eduardo: Raisins, Coconuts, plums it has everything and everyone has their own twist.
Rowland: So an amalgamation of the sweet stuff.
Bardo: Yes, exactly.
Rowland: Good stuff. I was listening to your songs and I noticed there’s a lot of very soulful elements to them. You’d say, is that the driving force behind your sound?
Bardo: I think it’s four of us, so we all have different drives. But I think we kind of all settled on this aesthetic of soul music and how soul music has basically wrapped its arms around the world. Whether it’s from Latin America, whether it’s Asia, Africa, etcetera. Soul music has influenced each other throughout — soul music has traveled the world, and artists have influenced themselves collectively throughout the centuries. James Brown influenced people. May have influenced somebody like… Give me somebody. Who James Brown might have influenced. Somebody —
Carlos: Fela Kuti.
Eduardo: Exactly. That’s a good example.
Carlos: He takes the sound and flips it and makes it his own thing. That’s just, what’s happening. Soul music we’re influenced by it and it just does that.
Bardo: Yeah and Fela Kuti also influenced Lisandro Meza in Colombia. They do a track and just cover a Fela Kuti track or an Afrobeat track or whatever in the 70s.
Rowland: So the influencers of the influencers.
Bardo: Yeah exactly.
Rowland: And it keeps going.
Bardo: Yeah and we kind of like, really kind of focused on late 60’s and 70s music.
Rowland: Which in that era to me I feel is really quality versus quantity oriented. Would you guys say that you have that aesthetic to yourselves? To your sound?
Bardo: Yeah definitely. It took us a long time to put out this last album that we just finished, and we put a lot of energy into making sure that the sounds were right. We worked with a producer from New York his name is Leon Michels. He’s part of the Menahan Street Band. That whole Daptone Records crew who he has worked with in the past. So those guys have definitely been studying that sound for a long time. The gear that they have in that studio is of that aesthetic. You know what I mean? That’s what they focus on. They put a lot of energy into making sure they get those- and craft those sounds.
Bardo: So we were very lucky to have connected with them. To approach the aesthetic that we’ve been working at for a long time now.
Rowland: And this is the first time you’re working with him?
Eduardo: Our first album was a late 60s exploration and now we’re about 1974. If you want to talk about-
Rowland: Timetables. Time scale?
Eduardo: Yeah. Exploration. Wild. Wilderness. You know, adventures and how we’re honing in on the dimensions of our latest album.
Rowland: And you have some experience in production as well, right? In producing other bands and- Is that something that adds to your own sound? And maybe talk about the experience with that.
Bardo: Sure.
Eduardo: Yeah. I mean, we all have gear we use to record. We’ve been doing it for a long time our first album we recorded at my house down the street, when I lived here. That required Gabriel to bring all his microphones and all our collective instruments. The second album was the same way. We recorded it at his house, we brought in everything we got. It’s just like every damn cable. Every adapter we had. So by the time we’ve come to this level, recording the last album, we had some experience in terms of mic placements but I think we focused on arrangements.
Bardo: Arrangements.
Eduardo: Arrangements is key. Simplification. Letting harmonies pop out. I think in this album we’re more focused as musicians than we are as engineers, as producers considering we’re working with a hot team with Leon Michaels as producer as Bardo was saying.
Rowland: I was watching an interview with Keith Richards and he was talking about how even just that space, the space between sonic arrangements like you’re talking about like melodic compositions is super important. That air. When I hear your sound I kind of hear pauses in the right time. It’s not constantly filled with unnecessary-
Bardo: Yeah. I feel like that’s always a constant challenge to get the vibe. Like to get a particular feeling you know what I mean? It’s always about different feelings. For all of us it is. I mean, yeah for this record we’re definitely approaching different songs with different feelings. Like we have one song called La Jura which is a slow build. We have like- it’s just guitars. You know what I mean? And then the beat drops a minute later. You know what I mean?
Bardo: So we definitely play with that, there’s all kinds of vibes but you know. Chicano Batman is about continuously delving into different vibrations and feelings.
Rowland: How has it been dealing with stereotypes?
Bardo: It’s been rough. It’s been a constant — I mean, our name is Chicano Batman so… Obviously a lot of people take that as face value. You know we’re artists right? So we’re working in the world of ideas. So… You don’t know how somebody’s going to interpret you. You have no idea, so obviously we get that because of how we look.
Rowland: Like a gimmick flack and then all of a sudden they realize they’re exposed to this whole different world once they hear you.
Bardo: Yeah. Hopefully. I mean that’s what we’re working towards.
Eduardo: But you know that’s good man. You know, I think that’s a positive thing. When somebody comes at you with judgment on who you are it exposes more about who they are. You know? Without having to have listened to anything. So it just talks about- it just starts rooting people in their own perceptions of reality. The reality is there is a lot of people creating beautiful art. Creating a lot of beautiful novels, contributing to the world of philosophical frame of thought in our position today and I think that if people aren’t ready for that they have a lot of work to do themselves. Despite whatever color, or gender or orientation we are. It’s all contributing to this bigger thing. You’re either ready for it or not but if you’re not, you’re going to be left behind.
Rowland: You believe in aliens?
Eduardo: Hell yeah.
Rowland: Collectively?
Gabriel: Yeah I guess so. You have to believe in a lot of things.
Eduardo: I think if we don’t believe in aliens we’re ignorant, man. We’re one small little ass rock in a big ass universe. So if you don’t believe in aliens, then I don’t know what you believe in.
Rowland: What is something your fans will be super duper surprised about. About individually about you guys? Like that they wouldn’t normally know about you?
Bardo: That’s a good question. That’s a hard one.
Eduardo: Talk about your three testicles. I’m messing I’m messing.
Bardo: I think that’s what’s going to be surprising to some folks. I think this guy right here as some of the most amazing life experiences that — of anyone that I’ve known.
Rowland: Dos Equis guy got nothing on ya?
Bardo: Yeah straight up this guy is the guy, you know what I mean? He used to be the man with the mullet, now he’s the man with the cut off ruffles.
Eduardo: Wolverine.
Bardo: Yeah man, this guy has been all over the place. He left Colombia when he was young. I mean he could tell you his own story.
Gabriel: Yeah in Colombia I just travel, be lucky to go to Europe and have an amazing experience and discover amazing music over there. Basically. And just develop this passion and get to California and meet these guys that’s like the craziest adventure.
Bardo: He studied drumming in France for five years.
Rowland: Whoah.
Gabriel: Yeah and this guy here-
Bardo: Fluent French. Speaks fluent French.
Gabriel: Amazing to find guys-cats that inspire me every day, you know? Like we discovered new sounds. Like this album, I basically discovered soul music through their own listening experience. For me that’s new but I’m trying to get into that mood and vibe with the old records and jam and all the compositions and bringing it to band. So its like everyday is a different journey here. Yesterday I was in Colombia, right now I am here.
Rowland: Oh wow. That’s awesome. That’s pretty crazy. You guys just came off a tour.
Bardo: We just came back from San Francisco, we played a sold-out in Fillmore. Actually pretty much the whole tour was sold out which was great. We started off in Seattle and so our last show, which was a few days ago Saturday night at the Roxy was sold out.
Rowland: Nice.
Bardo: So yeah it was a good feeling.
Rowland: And you guys have some upcoming?
Carlos: Yeah that was basically — this is basically a little gap we have in the tour but the meat of the tour doesn’t start until the end of the week and that’s when we’re gone for about a month. So the West Coast, which is like a ten day thing and then we tour the whole country all the way back to Coachella. In April. That’s when we’ll be back.
Rowland: How does it feel being vets?
Carlos: We’re probably more seasoned performers I would say. We played on some pretty big stages since then. That just helps you build confidence and also our musicianship keeps getting stronger and stronger and I think we pay attention to more things like production value in our shows now. We’re bringing a three piece back up vocalist this time around. They’re in this band called Seventy Nine Point Five. Basically when we recorded the new album we had these singers from the band Mariachi Flor de Toloache record the backup vocals on that whole record and to recreate those sounds live we were able to get another group of musicians to come in and sing with us. I think just paying attention to stuff like that.
Rowland: What’s the most fucked up thing you’ve seen on the road before?
Carlos: Let me see.
Bardo: Let me see.
Gabriel: On the road, on the road when you’re driving and you see the dead carcasses, all the roadkills.
Carlos: The roadkill on I-10 going to Texas.
Bardo: It’s pretty bad. Coyotes and shit run over.
Eduardo: We could work as a pound. You know like animal control? If we had a side gig as animal control we could be making a good living. Cause we’re on a tour bus.
Bardo: Exactly. Picking it up while as we go down the 10.
Eduardo: Yeah on the 10 freeway.
Bardo: Man we would have that shit full.
Eduardo: I mean do you want deer? Do you want coyote? What you want? What you want? You want porcupine? We got you. What you need? You need rat?
Rowland: What’s the last thing that you guys wanna mention that maybe we didn’t mention in this interview?
Bardo: Our album is out, it’s called Freedom is Free. We released it- seems like a few days ago. It’s out worldwide. You can find it wherever and get your copy.
Eduardo: I think most importantly is to give thanks to the fans because they’re the ones who are putting us here eight years strong. People have a relationship to our band, to us. I think none of this would ever be possible without them. They’re the ones who keep coming, who keep sharing our music to their friends and to their loved ones. And that love just keeps growing and the community just keeps getting bigger. We’re nobody without the help of the people.
Rowland: I have a special question for you guys from Arturo and Erika Castellanos from the 760. They said: “What’s the meaning in the song Balloons? And why the balloon?”
Bardo: It’s really like a simple song. For me it’s about an existential experience. I was just hanging out at the park and I saw a spider just like- actually I didn’t know what it was but it looked just like a balloon flying away. You know? And then I was just staring at it for a long time I was just chilling. Relaxing. You know. Just enjoying delving into my own thoughts. You know what I mean? And then I saw this balloon flying away and the more I stared at it the more I realized that it was a spider. And then I just kind of tripped out on my own, my own thought process.
Rowland: Whoah.
Bardo: You know what I mean? Just like- that’s what I mean by existential. That it’s like your perception, et cetera. You know. Kind of the way like, you see somebody like Aldous Huxley writes about perception. Obviously you have all kinds people who have written it in reference to drugs and to LSD and all those things. Like in the sixties and whatnot. It’s really, as George Harrison would say, it’s in your head. It has nothing to do with drugs you can get on a trip without drugs. It’s just all how you perceive and how you are able to connect with the world around you.
Rowland: Thank you guys very much.
Eduardo: Thank you.
Gabriel: Rowland, nice to meet you.
Bardo: Great to meet you brother.
Eduardo: Thanks I know it was a bit of a mission.
Rowland: You too brother. Labor of Love.
links chicanobatman.com