His Rompe Pera does punk with marimba

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The members of Son Rompe Pera have extensive tattoos on their arms, dress in black, and perform on stage with the power of a traditional rock band, but the star of their group is the typical marimba of Mexican folk music.

The group was founded by the Gama Ruiz brothers, Allan “Mongo” the eldest, 34, Jesús “Kacho” the second brother, 32, and José Angel “Kilos” the youngest, 27.

They did not formally study music, they forged themselves to play from an early age. His father was a percussionist, he worked in bars and that’s how they had their first contact with music.

When they were still children, their father quit the night shift and started helping out by playing the marimba in the streets of Naucalpan, Mexico State, where some of them still live and find Chimborazo Street (named after a volcano). from Ecuador), from which they took the title of their second album.

In the group, Mongo and Kacho sing and play the marimba. Kilos plays percussion and does backing vocals. He is completed by bassist Ricardo “Ritchie” López and drummer Raúl Albarrán.

The punk inspiration came from an uncle who had an album of this genre and rock, from the skate scene in the State of Mexico. They also came into contact with rockabilly and psychobilly through their friends.

“But back when we were on those waves, we didn’t want them to know we were playing marimba,” Mongo said.

“For membership in a social group,” Kacho added. “I think at that time the wave of cumbia was not so open; now cumbia i think it’s universal, i think anyone who loves rock and metal beats (loves) cumbia”.

Her late father was born in Veracruz, but grew up in Naucalpan, which is in the greater Mexico City area and isn’t really an area where the marimba is traditional. Over time, they were able to travel to places like the state of Chiapas, on Mexico’s southern border, where there are parks and museums dedicated to the instrument.

“We started to get really overwhelmed,” Kacho said. “When we went to Chiapas, it’s a different wave, the marimba culture is very different… They told us that we had to study a trade, learn to play the marimba and know how to do them.”

The territory of the marimba, an instrument brought to America by African slaves, is not exclusive to Mexico, it extends through Guatemala, Colombia, Panama and Costa Rica. Mongo lamented that you see fewer musicians playing the wooden percussion instrument in the streets these days.

“When we learned to play, we found a lot of friends playing on the street,” Mongo. “Right now it’s very difficult, since the start of the pandemic, a lot of people who played the marimba have gone back to their cities, they got a little lost.”

When their father died, they stopped playing music for a while, but five years ago they picked up strongly and started singing more. His debut album, 2020’s “Batuco,” is a tribute with covers of his father’s favorite songs.

“Chimborazo”, released on Friday, is their second album and except for a song by Los Curramberos De Guayabal (“Toño y el demonio”), all are original songs.

It’s “something of an accomplishment for us,” Kacho said.

“And also for the marimba, because they are not made anymore, there are no original marimba songs anymore,” Mongo added.

“Toño y el demonio”, by the Curramberos, captivated them. Although they didn’t know what artist it was or the name of the song, thanks to the producer of their album, they were able to track it down and include it in their own version.

The album merges cumbia, punk and psychedelia, in songs like “Selva negra”, which talks about different types of jungles, the Amazon or asphalt like New York.

“We really like Peruvian cumbia, it was like making a rola (song) based on that, but combined with the marimba,” Mongo said.

Another of the songs that will surely catch the attention of listeners is “Cumbia is the New Punk”.

“More than anything, it’s the attitude,” Mongo said. “The theme is about someone who is going to go to a concert and they are going to have a good (nice) time. He goes to the street and they see him ugly because of the way he dresses. The same we happened because we still had extravagant dressing stages”.

They also have a “Cumbia pa tu madre”, which they perform with the Chilean group Anarkia Tropikal.

“It’s a Peru, Chile and Mexico style cumbia,” Kacho said. “The lyrics are about enduring, resisting… This song is like for everyone, cumbia for your mother, for you.”

The title “FOOS” comes from an old nickname of Kacho, who was called Fozzie, after the bear from the Muppets. His most recent video is for “Chucha”, a song from the album that emerged from a dream of Mongo.

“In this dream, I dreamed twice… In the first part, I dreamed that I was with my friends from Chile, with La (group) Foripondio, they just said chucha”, he said. -he says. “And from that dream, I remember I went home, I fell asleep, I woke up and there were a lot (a lot) of aliens on the street and people were really mad, they were screaming, I wanted to say a word and they just said shit, so desperate”.

They tried to make the album sound like the band does at their live shows, which include performances at festivals where they often get the crowd dancing, like Vive Latino and Cervantino, where they performed, so they recorded in block. .

The band have also performed in Europe, Latin America and the United States and are set to embark on a US tour which includes dates at the SXSW festival in Texas on March 16 and 17. After that, they will make their Lunario debut at the National Auditorium in Mexico City on April 22. In the summer they will return to Europe.

“The marimba is an instrument you can do anything with, its sound is unique,” ​​Kacho said. “We owe all of this to the people of Africa who came to the shores… The marimba is what has taken us to countless places, it is an instrument we respect and will play until we die .”