The following interview first appeared in Estylo's October 2002 issue

BAND OF BROTHERS
Los Lobos Celebrate 25 Years of Recording

By Désirée I. Guzzetta

It seems like just yesterday that a group of young Chicanos from the barrios of East Los Angeles, California recorded their first album, “Los Lobos Del Este De Los Angeles (Just Another Band from East L.A.).” But it wasn’t yesterday—it was 25 years ago. And that band, which wound up shortening its name to simply “Los Lobos,” is celebrating with the June release of its eleventh studio album, “Good Morning Aztlán.”

A lot has happened in those 25 years of recording--or, to be pedantic about it, in the 29 years since David Hildalgo, Conrad Lozano, Louie Pérez and Cesar Rosas (Steve Berlin joined later) formed Los Lobos in East L.A., at the time a hotbed of Chicano pride and protest. The guys patterned the longer version of their name after Los Lobos del Norte, a Mexican norteño band, and began performing wherever they could—at weddings, quinceñeras, and the like. They finally landed a permanent gig at a restaurant called The Red Onion, which they later lost because the owner decided they were too loud.

That turned out to be a minor setback compared to what happened when the band scored an opening slot for John “Johnny Rotten” Lydon’s post-Sex Pistols band, Public Image Ltd. (PiL), at the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles, a former site of boxing matches. The Lobos found themselves on the receiving end of punk rocker hostility. PiL’s audience didn’t appreciate what the long-haired Chicanos were doing and responded by spitting and hurling ever more dangerous objects at them. Ironically, it was punk rockers who later embraced the band wholeheartedly when it opened for The Blasters at another L.A. club, The Whisky. Berlin, who was a Blaster at the time, played with the Wolves for a few songs during their set and wound up joining them permanently in 1983.

Throughout the ups and downs, Los Lobos has continued as a solid unit, much in the same way a wolf pack sticks together in the wild. The comparison is apt. Los Lobos is not just a band but also a family, and better yet, a family that gets along very well. In a recent interview with all five members, they exhibit the sort of easy camaraderie that brothers develop, and they never seem to tire of each other’s company. Which is good because, as Pérez says, “We’ve been connected at the hip for years. There isn’t one Saturday I haven’t seen these guys.”

The band weathered the spit storm of the ill-fated PiL gig with aplomb, and its perseverance has paid off in the form of enormous respect from its peers, exemplified by three Grammys: two for Best Mexican-American/Tejano Music Performance in 1983 and 1989 for the song “Anselma” and the album “La Pistola y El Corazón,” and one for Best Pop Instrumental Performance in 1995 for the song “Mariachi Suite.” In 2001, the band was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Billboard Latin Music Awards. Los Lobos also released a four-CD box set, “El Cancionero Mas Y Mas: A History of the Band From East L.A.,” which included unreleased material and itself was nominated for a Grammy for Best Packaging.

A quick review reveals the band's impressive body of work, beginning with some tracks on “Sí Se Puede” (1976), a collection of United Farm Workers Union (UFW) tunes used as a fundraiser for the UFW. Then came the band’s 1978 debut album, followed by “…and a time to dance” (1983); the critically acclaimed major-label debut “How Will the Wolf Survive?” (1984); “By the Light of the Moon” (1987); “La Pistola y El Corazón” (1988); “The Neighborhood” (1990); the experimental “Kiko” (1992); “Just Another Band From East L.A.—A Collection” (1993); the children’s album “Papa’s Dream” (1995); “Colossal Head” (1996); “This Time” (1999); the aforementioned box set (2000); and finally the new album, “Good Morning Aztlán” (2002). More than 11 albums, yes, but some are EPs and only the studio albums count in terms of the 25-year mark.

While “Wolf” opened the door for Los Lobos, it was their 1987 rendition of Ritchie Valens’ “La Bamba” that brought them into the sunshine of widespread recognition. Of course “La Bamba” also proved to be a double-edged sword; it made the band famous, but it also pigeonholed them in the public’s mind as a traditional Mexican band. However, thanks to “Kiko” and the further experimentation of the later albums, the band was able to dispel all typecasting. The newest album, “Aztlán,” is a return to the band’s roots-rock and is a triumph of the genre.

As individuals, the Lobos have also participated in several side projects: the Grammy-winning Los Super Seven, The Latin Playboys, Soul Disguise, and Houndog. What sets Los Lobos apart from other bands that take the same side routes is the lack of acrimony that tends to result when one member of a band branches out solo. The Lobos have no such insecurities and celebrate each other’s work; after all, wolf packs stick together. Besides, as Rosas says (to much laughter), “We’ve got to pay a lot of money so those stories won’t get out!”

In a more serious tone, the loquacious Berlin explains that “the side projects are another way of having fun. All of them have been ways to get together with friends or other artists and have a blast. It’s not a matter of artistic expression, or stuff we can’t do in our band. There’s literally nothing any one of us couldn’t do inside the group.

“There are no boundaries,” he continues, adding that “there’s never any, ‘Oh, God, don’t bring that crap in here!’ It’s always wide open, and if anything, the more open and wide, the further out you can go. We enjoy making records, and it’s fun when you’re wide open and don’t have any pressure.”

In fact, Los Lobos is so dedicated to music that even without a contract they would continue making records. They would also continue having fun, as is evident in the following exchange between the reflective Rosas and the erudite Pérez (the band members are so close that they often finish each other’s sentences). When Rosas was asked why he always wears sunglasses:

Pérez: Chicks love ‘em!
Rosas: Cuz I’m old! I don’t know, I’ve always worn sunglasses since I was…
Pérez: …two-and-a-half!
Rosas: Two-and-a-half! [Everyone laughs.] I started wearing them early on onstage to help me out with a lot of the bright stage lighting and so forth. I once considered stopping, but it got to the point where if I didn’t wear ‘em, people would say, “Hey, where’s your shades?”

The glasses remain a constant, but the guys have noted changes in their hometowns and the music business the past 25 years. Lozano, who was mostly quiet during the interview, wryly noted about his hometown: “It’s more crowded, that’s for sure.”

In slight contrast, the soft-spoken Hildalgo says, “The neighborhood’s still there; that hasn’t changed too much. Latinos are being accepted more in the mainstream, not because they’re Latinos, but because they’re capable. For example, on the news, you see a lot of Latino reporters, and that’s encouraging.”

Adds Rosas about the neighborhood: “It’s more Latino now than Chicano. It used to be mostly Chicanos. The music we play is more rural compared to what’s going on now.”

Shifting to the topic of the music business, Berlin says, “Years ago, people would ask us who’s coming up after us. I remember at the time thinking, ‘Well, you know, it’s hundreds of them, they’ll be here any minute!’ And it didn’t seem to happen somehow. But now with Ozomatli, Quetzal, and others like them, it seems to be coming back. I don’t know why it took so long, but now it seems like they’re here. That’s the most encouraging change, I think.”

However, other changes in the music business over the same time period are less cheering, according to Berlin. “I wish I could tell you it was an encouraging situation,” he says, “but it seems, if anything, that it’s a time of great upheaval. Unfortunately, not any of it seems to be positive for people to make hand-built, homemade music the way we do. What I’d like to think is that hidden among all these skyscrapers, there’s a room for the kind of stuff we’re throwing out there.”

Next: The course of all modern music was like us, and in the last ten years, it’s taken a horrible right turn and now we’re weird.
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