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“
”
To be a 23-year-old band that
can still sit in a room and make
each other laugh and have dinner
together and be family together
is an accomplishment.
song, but you guys gotta take
out that Spanish section,’ ” re-
calls Bella. “And Spanish radio
was like, ‘Hey, we love that
jam, but [not] the rap. Then
fast forward to when you’re
listening to ‘Despacito’ for the
millionth and six hundredth
time. (Laughs) People like
Ricky Martin or Shakira made
the music and the language
not that big of a deal where for
a hot second it was. We mainly
missed the boat on that, but I
guess if anything, there’s been
some cool progression. Take a
song like ‘Havana’ by Camila
Cabello, who’s half Mexican
and half Cuban. I dig the
groove because I can relate to
it to in a certain musical way.”
Another massive compo-
nent of Ozomatli’s past and
present puzzle is its members’
unflinching incorporation of
socially conscious subject mat-
ter into their songwriting. That
component certainly helped
define how different the
self-titled debut came across
at the time, while the current
social and political climate is
just as ripe for the picking.
“I think there are two
reasons why that’s always been
important,” notices Bella.
“I think it comes from the
upbringing of some of the
people in this band, who either
had political parents or were
immigrants, and second, we’re
talking about post-riots LA,
and a lot of things were going
on in that mid-’90s era [when
we were getting started]. We’re
re-releasing ‘Coming War’
from the first record and we’re
talking about all these things
that really resonate right now
in 2018. Then the next album
we had after the self-titled
one was called Embrace the
Chaos, which wound up being
released on 9/11, not to get all
crazy conspiracy theory on
you. (Laughs) Everything we’ve
ever supported, whether it’s
women’s rights, immigration
rights, even just going to or-
phanages and supporting mu-
sic programs, resonates with all
the members of the band.
“We can do whatever we
want at this point. We’re a
23-year-old band, so it’s not
like we’re coming out in tight
pants and doing dance moves,
man. We realize that at this
point we’re kind of elders in
certain ways as far as the scene
here in LA is concerned. To
be a band that can still sit in
a room and make each other
laugh and have dinner to-
gether and be family together
is an accomplishment. We’ve
had each other’s backs forever,
we’re still creating music, and
there’s still that want and that
need. And people still show
up, so I can’t complain!”
Andy Argyrakis is a Chicago-based
writer/photographer whose credits
include the Chicago Tribune, Chicago
Sun-Times, Daily Herald, Daily Journal,
Illinois Entertainer, Hear/Say Now,
Concert Livewire, Chicago Now,
Redeye, Metromix, Paste, Down Beat,
, , Fuse TV, UP TV,
Pollstar, and Celebrity Access. He also
is the founder and content curator for
.
RAVINIA MAGAZINE | JUNE 1 – JUNE 17, 2018 18