“We’re two bands now, that’s the long and short of it,” lead singer Matt Caughthran explains. “We love both bands with all of our hearts, and we love being able to play both styles of music and do something different that not a lot of people are capable of doing. So that’s the truth.”
It used to be the case where Mariachi El Bronx purely performed as an opening act for The Bronx. But with both bands enjoying unmitigated levels of success, is it still possible to squeeze both beasts into the one evening? “It’s definitely still an option, we’re working on Bronx IV right now,” Matt reveals. “I’d like to get to the point where we’d do a Friday and Saturday at a club and do one band each night. But playing both bands in one night is an awesome feeling, man, and a cool show. That little run we did around the States and across Europe was one of the raddest tours we’ve ever done. It was gruelling and it was intense, but also the most rewarding when it was all done. We felt really good about it.”
Last time Mariachi El Bronx were in the country, a rather jovial Matt declared to the Melbourne audience something along the lines of, “This is as close as you guys are gonna get to Mexican culture – a bunch of white dudes playing shitty mariachi songs.” While by no means bastardising Mexican culture, Matt remains subdued when it comes to their role as cultural ambassadors. “I like the fact that people are hearing mariachi music for the first time, and if hearing our band makes somebody dig further into the genre and explore a different style of music, then I think that’s cool. I don’t think we’re ambassadors, I think that’s pretty cocky. We’re just doing our thing and having fun. It’s always funny when you go to places on Earth that doesn’t really have any Hispanic culture, like in the UK. We don’t really know what to expect. To a certain extent, we’re almost giving people the wrong idea, that what we’re doing is the first mariachi thing they’ve ever heard. It’s definitely a hybrid, our own version of it. We don’t want to give the wrong idea. It feels good to be out there doing something different, and I think people get stoked to see something different and they want to dive in a little bit and check out some more music, which is always a good thing,” he muses.
Though we’ve been blessed with two Mariachi El Bronx LPs in the past few years, it’s been quite a while since we’ve received a studio offering from The Bronx. As Matt reveals, we needn’t wait long. “For me it’s piling up; we’re in the thick of it right now. I mean Joby [J. Ford, guitarist] is cranking out songs and sending them to me and I’m a little backed up on lyrics right now, but we’re cranking them out. We’ve got about seven songs done and about six more to write and we’re looking at finishing recording it right after we get back from Big Day Out in February. We’re going to be on tour with El Bronx basically until Christmastime and then we’re going to get together with Bronx in the new year and cement these songs and get them to a place where we all love them, and go party in Australia and do Big Day Out and come back and jump in the studio and track Bronx IV,” he states with excitement.
As we wrap up the interview I make mention of the band’s invigorating late-arvo set at the rain-drenched 2009 Meredith Music Festival. It holds up as one of the best performances I’ve ever seen, and as Matt explains, it holds a special place in the narrative of The Bronx. “Yeah, that was an amazing, amazing nightmare. We played right before The Mountain Goats, I believe it was, and I had never really heard of that band. We were all kind of backstage going, ‘What the fuck is this?’ It was raining and it was shitty weather, and you could tell people just wanted to let loose, to go nuts and I could tell before that show. I mean we all knew that it was going to be awesome, and it turned out to be one of the best shows, or experiences, that we’ve had. I think it was just a good one man,” he beams. “It was one for the ages and it’s definitely one for the memory.”
