Here at TML we keep on honoring Hispanic Heritage Month, and as part of our joined efforts with Alamos wines for their #IAM100 campaign, we sat down with Las Nubes to dig a bit deeper into the influence that Hispanic music has had on their songs.
We met with Ale Campos (Guitar/Vocals), and Emile Milgrim (drums), in Little Haiti, Miami last Friday. For those who haven’t heard Las Nubes’ songs before, the references to Latin culture go beyond the name, some lyrics are sung in Spanish, and there is also a clear influence in the percussion. Imagine if Guided by Voices and Pixies had a baby with Juana Molina or Las Ligas Menores. Weird, right? But pretty cool…
How do Latin Sounds and Hispanic Music in general influence your music?
Ale: I started writing stuff in Spanish one day, I’ve never done it before. I had never felt comfortable with it before because I was really insecure about my Spanish, but Gabriel (former bass player of the band) always reassured me that it was very fluid and I sounded okay. So that gave me the encouragement to write in Spanish. Emile: Salsa, Cumbia, Samba Bossa Nova. I've always gravitated toward alternative rhythms, not like always four by four, but like a lot of cool stuff in five. And that's just sort of a sound and a rhythm that always made sense to me. A lot of our songs are in four, but they change and there are little accents and other added stuff, and also percussion is a big thing for me.
Ale: I think just like mixing all of those influences is kind of where you get Las Nubes.
What do you think is the importance of keeping Hispanic sounds and traditions alive in American music?
Emile: For me, especially because I'm not Hispanic myself but I grew up in the culture because I grew up down here it's about the preservation of these sounds. In the same way, is in certain places, the preservation of languages, and the crossover is significant because it really goes parallel to the crossover of so many folks from Latin America coming to the US. There are so many Hispanic people in the United States, it would only follow that the music and the tradition and the culture. And those sounds become part of the US culture too because that's what our population is made up of. Many years ago it was about coming here and changing your name so it would sound more American. But now it's about coming here and being able to share your culture and share the sounds and the experiences, with people here.
What are some of your favorite crossover artists?
Ale: For me Juana Molina, Lido Pimienta.
Emile: Y La Bamba. I started listening to Juan Molina when I was living in Portland and probably when Segundo came out. So that was like a while ago. And I was like, I love this. The musicianship, but also, I mean, everything, everything about her.
Ale: I just love how she uses all these different rhythms in her music. It's just so unconventional, but it's also so relatable.
Emile: What's really fundamental about a lot of the stuff she does because she's looping, she creates her own call and response, you don't even need instruments to do that. So that's very relatable on a primal level.
Las Nubes is going to be playing at Freakout Festival in November with many great Latin bands. Tell us more about that.
Emile: Os Mutantes is playing… How are we like on that bill!?
Ale: Papi Saicos from Los Saicos is going to be playing. We are super excited about that.
What else do you have in the pipeline?
Emile: We made a new record, and currently looking for new labels. We've been working with these songs in essence for like five years; we wrote one before the first album even came out. So there's a lot, it's very loaded. There's a lot of content and time that went into it.
Ale: We are going to be playing at III Points Festival in October and we also have a show at Lost Boy in December. That’s all we’ve got so far.
About #IAM100
E & J Gallo Winery’s Argentine Wine, Alamos, is celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month this year by spotlighting Latino culture through their #IAM100 program. #IAM100 invites consumers nationwide to share their personal heritage stories for a chance to win a party package and be featured on the Alamos Instagram page throughout September. To conclude the program Alamos and Hispanic Star will donate over 1,000 meals to families facing food insecurities in select cities including Miami, Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Francisco Bay Area, San Diego, and Los Angeles.
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