Mariachi El Bronx

Tue 19th Oct, 2010 in Features

It’s a public holiday in the States and as everyone else on the block is taking the day off to barbecue and get wasted, artist and musician Joby J. Ford is on the phone to Australian journalists patiently trying to explain how a hardcore band known for harassing punters with songs about shitty futures, past lives and knifemen forms a mariachi alter ego. Despite the interruption to the holiday Mariachi El Bronx/Bronx guitarist is in good sprits: “I’m in the music business – everyday’s a day off… or we never get a day off,” he laughs.

The Bronx will be in Australia in February to play at Soundwave and hopefully a few sideshows (more on that later), but before that they’re dropping into play a very special, sold out show at the Melbourne International Arts Festival as Mariachi El Bronx. So just how does a group of hardcore punks known for frenetic live shows (including one in Canberra when Ford injured his back and was forced to continue the tour from a wheelchair) suddenly find themselves dressed in Mexican finery and headlining an arts festival? “It’s weird it,” Ford admits, though he says that “it probably seems like an extreme jump to other people, but to us it’s a type of music that’s around us as much as punk is. The majority of Los Angeles and surrounding areas is predominantly Hispanic, so there’s probably way more mariachi and Norteño radio stations than there is rock and roll or anything like that. “

Though the sounds of Latino music surrounded them in California, it wasn’t until the band was approached to play an acoustic version of one of their songs on TV that the band actually began playing songs in such a radically different style to their three self-titled Bronx albums. “In America in the 90s there was MTV Unplugged that was all the rage and I got so sick of hearing Eric Clapton’s Layla year after year after year. They turned it into this big thing where all these groups would come in and perform acoustic versions of all of their songs and I just absolutely… ah… it just sucked!” Ford recalls with disgust. “ It was a fad I grew tired of; much like any musical fad. That’s always being something I absolutely can’t stand. So it was probably a kneejerk response we worked one of the songs off our second record we just got some friends in and did a mariachi version. It was really exciting. Then we just wrote songs and made a record and that was that.”

While it was a request from a TV that first planted the seed of the band’s new direction, the first release under the Mariachi El Bronx came following another request with the band recording a remarkable cover of Prince’s I Would Die For You for Spin magazine’s Purplish Rain tribute compilation. “I am a huge Prince fan and that was a very difficult song to reign in,” Ford recalls, “but we did it and I’m really proud of that song”. Despite the risk of launching a new sound with such a risky cover version Ford claims that the band never even considered the risk of being perceived as a novelty act. “We never really thought about it,” says Ford, “The magazine approached us about doing it and we just said ‘of course’. We have all been such fans of Prince for so long. I’m not going to say ‘he’s God like to us’ but he’s defiantly in an echelon of ridiculousness. I think it came off extremely sincere; or as sincere as a mariachi cover of a Prince song can be!”

Although Ford had already used described the Bronx as a ‘punk’ band, these’s a long uneasy pause when he’s asked why he thinks other punk acts haven’t done created similar alter egos. Finally he sighs and replies that “It probably goes to what you think punk is…” Rather than getting bogged debating the concept of punk, he quickly regains his verve to broadly declare that “There isn’t another band doing this that I’m aware of. I’m not going to say that I’m an expert on the topic, but people that are way more versed in music than I will every be in my entire life have gone out and researched it to see if there’s another group that’s ever done that. I’m sure there’s been a couple of groups that have done a few numbers in a Latino or Hispanic style, [Beck reworked Jack-ass into a Spanish language Mariachi version and the White Stripes have also recorded a Maraichi version of Conquest ] but there has never really been another band that has had two bands within one that are both actively putting out records and touring that is comprised of the same group of members.”

“As far as grasping for another sound,” Ford continues, “I think there have defiantly been a few punk bands that have gone country or Americana – I’ve seen that a bunch. I think a lot of that is people rediscovering music. When you grow up and you’re involved in punk I think a lot of people have blinders on to what you can and can’t do. In the Bronx we all come from pretty extreme musical backgrounds but we’ve joined together on our love for punk. We play that, but as musicians there’s also that desire to play more and do more. The enjoyment and excitement of music is one of the greatest things in the world. To deny yourself access to every avenue you’re doing yourself a disservice.”