What’s your name then? Oh. And the name of your band…
“My name is Carey but you can call me Kez from Tijuana Cartel.”
And what do you do?
“The style of music we play has always been hard to pigeonhole but we’ve been called indie electronica lately – that’s a good way of putting it. Paul’s flamenco-esque shredding has always been a big part of the sound along with the Afro-Cuban percussion and trumpet. But we really love the freedom that producing electronic music gives you with creating sounds. The quest to make fat beats and craft new soundscapes is just as fun as jamming it out old-skool style but we reckon doing them both together is even better.”
When did you start doing that?
“Tijuana Cartel has been slowly evolving for almost 10 years now although we put out our first real album in 2005. Paul and I went to the same high school and on the side from various rather crap bands we played in, we used to get together and make tunes on Amiga 500s. We could never really work out what was more fun, rockin’ out in front of a big amp or nerding out making beats on soundtracker. So the idea of doing a hybrid thing has been there for a long time.”
What makes you happiest about what you’re doing?
“Paul and I went to the first Big Day Out here on the Gold Coast. That was kinda the first real music festival we ever experienced and I remember watching the bands and thinking how awesome it would be to be doing that. Now I can honestly say it is awesome!”
And what makes you unhappiest about what you’re doing?
“Cheap airlines baggage handlers throwing stuff around! We’ve had 2 guitars, a laptop and a trumpet destroyed in transit so far. I’ve taken to sending one electric down the belt without a case now as an experiment and it always comes out the other end without a scratch! Go figure”
What’s your proudest moment, doing what you do?
“Getting on stage with a band you’ve been listening to for years rates pretty high on the proud-o-meter also. We’ve done some stage jam’s with Salmonella Dub and Blue King Brown lately which I think is the coolest thing you can do for the audience.”
And your least proud?
“Before we afford a decent laptop, we made a computer. The thing was proper ghetto, buttons and lights and wires sticking out. We affectionately named it ‘The Bomb.’ There was a gig at a venue we loved for its festival-sized soundsystem. In the middle of the set, without warning, ‘the bomb’ stopped pumping out beats and spit out the loudest noise I have ever heard come from a speaker. It was pure continuous white noise way above ear damage levels and the sound guy had gone home so we couldn’t shut it off. Most of the crowd and the bar staff had their hands clamped over their ears and one girl was screaming. They still talk about it today.”
When are you doing your thing next?
“You can catch us at The East Brunswick club on Friday July 15. We’re also finishing our new album right now. All the tracks are done and mixed, just a few tweaks to do and they’re off to get mastered. We’ll be doing a full release and tour for that later this year.”
