Monday, April 13, 2009
Mexico City rock group Los de Abajo is set to perform at Ollin Kan on April 30 at the Parque Fuentes Brotantes in Tlalpan. The nine-member band will also help close the festival with a May 9 concert in the Zócalo.Drummer Yocu Arellano talked with The News via telephone about the group's music, movement and the Ollin Kan festival.
What does the name "Los de Abajo" mean?
The name is based on a novel. (Mariano Azuela wrote the novel "Los de Abajo" in 1916, about the Mexican Revolution and the fight to remove Porfirio Díaz from power.)For us, the name means that we're part of an alternative resistance movement. We're trying to protect our own culture and create music that you've never heard before in this country.
How do you define your group's sound?
We're promoting our most recent album as contemporary Mexican music; we call it a "Mexican explosion." The European music scene has called us punk; Americans have called us "salsa ska." But our music can't be easily defined as hip-hop, ska, punk or salsa - it's a mix, with strong Mexican influences.
What are some of the biggest challenges for musicians in Mexico?
In the first place, the youth are very influenced by British and American music, and they have little access to culture here. One of the challenges [for musicians] is to retake the Mexican culture and renovate it as our own.We've always been the spokespeople of Mexican culture, musically speaking. In our latest album, we want to show to the world just what our culture is about, and it's important for us to spread this culture through our music to the youth.
What does it mean for your group to play in the Ollin Kan festival?
It's really important to us to participate in the festival, because Ollin Kan is a scene rarely seen in Mexico. It's the only festival in Mexico that truly brings the "world beat" culture, which had never come to Mexico before the Ollin Kan festival brought it here.
Why does the Ollin Kan festival support alternative music movements?
Because it's very important to support musical resistance movements; they're autonomous movements that require support like Ollin Kan to continue. Who is going to listen to Mexican music if not Mexicans themselves? The majority of people who come to the Ollin Kan festival are young, so it's great that they have access to these types of music, music that you'd never heard on the radio or television. I think it's important for the youth to see that there are types of music other than the groups that are in style now. They realize that other cultures and music exist in the world.
What can we expect from your performances at Ollin Kan?
It will be an interesting month for us, because we're not going to play how we usually play at concerts in Mexico, which is more rock, punk and ska. We'll be playing music off our fourth and latest album, though it won't be the official presentation, so there will be lots of surprises.We'll be playing alongside groups from cities across the country, like Oaxaca, San Luis Potosí and Culiacán, Sinaloa. There will be a great showing of Mexican artists within the festival.-
SPECIAL TO THE NEWS/MARIA GALLUCCI
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