Kinky talk 'Barracuda,' Nic Harcourt and the Latin scene

The newly opened Club Nokia, part of that bright and shiny L.A. Live complex in downtown, will host its first Latin music performances this weekend. 

Latin Grammy winning duo Calle 13 headline Saturday night's intimate concert, which also features  electro-funk rockers Kinky, who are based in Los Angeles but hail from Monterrey, Mexico. Pop & Hiss caught up with lead singer Gilberto Cerezo, 29, and keyboardist Ulises Lozano, 37, while they were promoting their fifth studio album, “Barracuda,” in Hollywood earlier this week.

So, where did the name Kinky come from?

Gilberto: It's kind of a twisted way to see a lot of the Latin rhythms that we use. We try to twist it and twist it and twist it. We apply that to the music, to my hair. It's a sexy thing as well.

It's probably safe to assume that the first time a lot of people in L.A. heard about Kinky was listening to KCRW's "Morning Becomes Eclectic.” Nic Harcourt was a big supporter. Did you hear he was leaving the show?

Gilberto: Really? He was like a godfather for us in Los Angeles. I think he's one of the main reasons that we are here. It's a really important radio station. Surprisingly, he liked us and he opened his door to us. We were doing his show in 2002, playing live. He even brought us to one of the biggest shows we did in the area. We were playing with Beck and Norah Jones when we were no one.

With this new album, you guys have some collaborations with the DJ world, such as Money Mark. What's the direction you were thinking of going in "Barracuda," and within the Latin music scene as a whole?

Gilberto: I think the main extra thing that Money Mark brought to our formula was to bring more of a songwriting context. With him, we were composing on a guitar and trying to get more into the writing as a song, because we were more used to making music more in a jamming kind of way. This was more structured.

The Latin scene is growing and getting diverse. At the beginning, we only had like five or six bands that were representing the whole continent. And now we're having a really prolific time when every city has its own really big band, and everybody's playing everywhere. There's a lot of festivals too.

In our hometown, Monterrey, we used to see one concert every year. The Scorpions came in the '90s. So at that time, it was really late, old acts.  They came to town when they were off the map everywhere else.

Now, everyone is coming to Monterrey, you know. MGMT and CSS came to our hometown. It's a healthy time for being a musician in Mexico and representing the Latin culture. We have the punk scene, the dance scene and the alternative scene, and everybody's sharing their stuff, and everybody's doing it right.

What do you think helped bring the scene you came from up to speed? The Internet?

Ulises:  I think that helped a lot, of course, because you can spread the word of a good band. Also, I think in Mexico, when the big bands maybe were coming from Mexico City or the capital, now, suddenly, different cities started bringing some very good acts as well. More acts, not just from Mexico City, started to get known because of that and not just being focused on the capital.

Gilberto: Also, Spanish-language music, I think, is really well positioned on the map now. Before, when you were singing in Spanish nobody paid attention to it, and suddenly it developed into something really important. I think now it's an important fact that we are singing in Spanish and actually saying something important.

The U.S. definitely has an increasing Spanish-speaking population. But, Kinky is also known for being a bilingual band.

Gilberto: Yeah, we've been doing it since the first album. Monterrey, Mexico, isn't a border town, but it's pretty close to Texas, so, yeah, a lot of information that came to us came in English. Most of the people speak English and Spanish as well. I think it was just the natural thing to do, and try to be as honest as we can be.

What acts of the past most resemble where you guys are at today? Was there a path you guys were following?

Ulises: It's very, very wide, because we're a five-piece band and each one of us has a very different kind of background and taste in music. And in a way, it looks like it could  be  an obstacle to try to blend all those different styles of music. Trying to blend that information is kind of a challenge and having all that wide variety of styles, it's difficult to follow a path.

The Kinky sound has influences from very minimal electronic albums, to techno, to ranchero and Mexican music like norteño. When we go to Brazil, we have so many influences from Brazilian music as well, or Cuban music. British acts as well. We love all the British scene, and even the modern scene right now. It's overwhelming sometimes trying to pull together all those influences into one album.

Why do you call this album “Barracuda”?

Ulises: When we name an album, I don't think we name an album because of one song. We try to capture the different behaviors, or it could be different adjectives, for an animal. In this case, the barracuda, which is a very unpredictable animal, mysterious in a way, and a very furious animal as well. We think our music has all those characteristics.

So, it's not like you guys have a special thing for the rock band Heart?

Ulises: We love Heart as well. I like that song.

-- Camilo Smith

Calle 13 with special guest Kinky, Club Nokia, Saturday.

Photo courtesy Kin Kon Records