We had the opportunity to chat with Mexico City’s Rey Pila, meeting up with Diego Solórzano and Andrés Velasco to talk about recent happenings with the band and discuss the deluxe release of their latest album Estan Strange I.
ListenSD: For the uninitiated, could you introduce our audience to Rey Pila, your sound, and who it is you’re making music for?
Diego: That’s a good question, man. I mean, trying to be honest, trying to give you a straight answer…so I would say Rey Pila is an alternative band, for sure. And kind of experimental, it’s not Aphex Twin, but it’s an alternative rock band, I would say. Maybe you’d find our records in the dance/electronica section as well, there’s a lot of programming, synth lines, hooks and stuff.
LSD: We’ve always thought The Rey Pila sound fit in with dark synthpop/new wave stuff but the latest album, Estan Strange I, leans more into heavier electronica beats. What drove this album in that direction?
Diego: You know, since I was a kid, I was always interested in dance music. I heard dance music for the first time when I was still in elementary school. I remember Daft Punk’s Homework came out and I remember that song Around The World. Back then MTV was a very important taste maker and it was all you had. You had the guys from MTV telling you what kind of music you were gonna like.
So I was into that for a while, I was pretty much in love with Daft Punk since then. I also started trying to discover things that were in the same vein and I started listening to this French DJ, Laurent Garnier. And then I got into the Chemical Brothers. And then I got into Fatboy Slim. And then I got into Basement Jaxx, all the popular ones, and also more underground stuff, like Green Velvet too.
And that was the first period of musicality in my life of music in terms of being actually aware of what I was listening to. Because before that, I was into metal music. And then kind of after exposure to dance and electronica, I was more aware of music.
And after that came the 2000s rock rebirth with the Strokes and Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Interpol and all of those bands. And I guess that’s a combination of both things, of both worlds, you know, early dance music, not even early, more like when dance music became commercial and that rock scene. That kind of New York sound that came out around then.
Back then you were discovering music in a different way, you were more engaged with discovering music. You chose a record for its cover and you wanted to find out who was the singer, who was the guitar player. But I feel that now that’s kind of weird, in a time where we get music in TikToks, such a different relationship. The relationship back then was more intimate and lasting, right?
LSD: What’s it like to play the new songs live? Have you added new gear? Are you changing the way you perform?
Diego: No, it’s the same setup, we just throw more shit into the computer! You know, there’re five of us, but we can’t play everything. So there’re sequences we’re running and we’ve worked on those sequences a lot on getting it right, sounding right. And I’m getting a good computer that can run through a whole show!
Basically we have two guitar players that also play keyboards, a drummer and a bass player that has a synth for some of the bass lines. Sometimes we program in a kick and a snare here and there but it’s basically live drumming.
Andrés: We basically just add on to our set with the new (9:22) music. Just we have a nice repertoire now of four LPs and a couple of EPs. So it’s a nice it’s (9:31) fun now to choose set lists, you know, and rearrange some old songs and bring them forward (9:38) to the current sound of the band, so it’s always it’s always fun to set up and get the new (9:48) songs on a live setting and yeah, and it’s we’re still a five piece, even though there’s (9:58) a lot of electronic elements and influences in the music, it’s still a rock band and (10:05) we like that mix between the electronic music, but you’re still watching a (10:13) rock band with all these other electronic elements, which. we love playing live.
LSD: You’ve had the opportunity to open shows for legendary Argentine rocker Fito Paez in the Zócalo as well as French electronica duo Justice at the Palacio de los Deportes: what were those experiences like, what were the audiences like? Both were massive shows; how different were they?
Diego: Very different. I think that it’s like two worlds. Yeah, you know, like completely different. One is what we were talking about before, dance music, very French house from the French scene with Justice, the continuation of that scene that evolved from Daft Punk. And Fito Paez is an Argentinian pop star. So very, very different!
Andrés: It was a good–, it was a great opportunity for us. We’re thankful for the opportunity to play in the spotlight, because for most of us, that’s the cherry on top of the pie, getting to play in Mexico, in the Zócalo with the flag and everything. And with Justice, it’s such a super cool show, filled with lights, very intense. And we’re good friends with them so it was a whole different thing, because you know them, you can have a drink with them, hanging out backstage with them.
LSD: Did you tailor your set list to each show, each prospective audience? Fito Paez is old-school rock, and Justice is this French electronica sensation. How are those sets different for you?
Andrés: When you’re opening, you don’t have that much of a set time, so it’s pretty important to get to the point quickly. For Fito Paez, we had more of our Spanish language songs mixed in the set list. It was like half and half because of the crowd there, the Zócalo, an Argentine artist. So I think it was better suited for that kind of crowd. And yeah, the Justice set, we pushed more towards the more electronic songs in the band.
LSD: Any plans to tour in the U.S. anytime soon? Who would you like to play with on tour?
Andrés: We are actually thinking that we’re thinking about the U.S. because we got our visas. So we want to make the best out of them. We’re thinking of going to the States to play, hopefully a few shows with The Strokes and then also our own shows. The last time we played in the U.S. in L.A., New York, Chicago, some towns in Texas, we were doing quite well, selling out some rooms. So we want to go back again to see what’s going to happen now.
LSD: If you have your own headlining tour, is there any band from Mexico that you would like to bring with you, or would you have local talent open the shows?
Andrés: We’re still looking at that, obviously, we love a bunch of bands in the States. There’s an opportunity to play some shows with a band called Foreign Air, which we just met and I think it could be a good pairing. And maybe local artists for some of the shows would work. I think we could push in that direction, but we’re still configuring it, you know, get some shows in California, get some shows in Texas, New York, et cetera.
LSD: What can you tell us about the new deluxe edition of Estan Strange I? How do the new songs fit with the original release?
Diego: These are four songs that didn’t make the cut for the first release of the album, and I really like those songs! We recorded with Paul Salva, the producer, who we worked with for other songs for the record. He’s a DJ and was a part of the Diplo/Mad Decent scene back when it started and he really pushed our sound towards that spot that we were looking for, making it more electronic. And it was great working with him, super cool guy and really good and it taught us a lot. It was a great, great lesson.
Andrés: I think a couple of those extra tracks were some of the first we recorded in this album cycle. And they were always at the top of our list, but we kept recording new music and new music and new music, and they just kept sliding down the pecking order. There’s always something you’re a bit more infatuated with, with the newer stuff you’re recording. So I think these got left behind, but we always liked them and we didn’t want them just hanging in the ether. And I still feel like they’re in that same vein and they fit in, so it was a nice excuse to put out that deluxe edition and add those songs and have them complement the original set list which we really like. And it might be cool to set up a couple of those for the live show!
LSD: Have you had anything remixed yet? Have you thought about getting things out to producers to put their spin on things?
Diego: Paul actually made a remix of Alexander, released on the first record, and he remixed that song. You know, we would love (when we play in the US) to actually have DJs opening instead of a band because sometimes it’s too much, you get the same dish twice. So it’s kind of cool to have a difference, you know, like a DJ warming up the crowd.
LSD: So who would you like to remix your songs?
Andrés: Alan Braxe. Who else? Who else, Diego?
Diego: Gesaffelstein. Gesaffelstein would be pretty cool. Jamie XX. Green Velvet, that would be cool too.
LSD: Southern California is a mixed public, Spanish speaking and English speaking. What would your plan be for a SoCal set right now?
Andrés: Play the hits, whatever language they come in!. We haven’t played or recorded music in Spanish in many years. And it was one of the nice additions to the sound for this new newest album. It just felt very natural to us, it feels good, we like how it sounds. We were always kind of weirded out about having an album with both English and Spanish songs mixed,we kind of thought we had to keep those separated. And once we just jumped in and did it and set up a track list, and listened to the album, it held no dissonance to us, it flowed pretty well. I think that translates in the same way to the live show, so for sure, we’ll play stuff in Spanish and have a nice combo there.
That’s the way it feels for the majority of Mexicans: Mexico is a huge and very important market for international bands, and we’re super fans. Most of us don’t really understand whole songs in English, but you catch some snippets here and there, but you get the feeling and you like the music and you find a way to get into it. I think they can all coexist in a good way in a multilingual set list so I think we’ll keep on doing it!
Interview by: Narda and Jesse Crossley
While we’re waiting for Rey Pila to return to Southern California, they have upcoming performances in Mexico, starting with a show on September 19 in Monterrey, alongside Promiseland (NY) and The Shelter at Foro Tims (get tickets), and another in Guadalajara on October 24 at C3 (get tickets).
