INTERVIEW: Louie Perez on Los Lobos’ new album, ‘Gates of Gold’
Louie Perez, one of the founding members of the influential rock band Los Lobos, has had a thing or two to say for the past four decades. As the lyricist for the group, the musician has crafted the words for songs that have lived on in the collective memory of their dedicated fan base. Now, Perez’s talents, along with the talents of his four bandmates, can be found on Los Lobos’ new recording, Gates of Gold.
The 11-song album, which is the final product of a recording process that began in January, started on a whim. “We found somebody that was crazy enough to give us some dough,” Perez said with a laugh. “We’ve been with this label [Savoy / 429 Records] for just a little bit. … The first record was a couple years ago now … a live record we recorded over three nights in New York City. And part of the deal was the possibility of an option of doing a studio record, so we took them up on the offer. And we began in late January. It took about two and a half months, on and off. That was the impetus right there.”
Perez said that he enjoys the recording process, although Los Lobos have become legends for their live performances, which are numerous on a yearly basis. The band is currently gearing up for concerts in California, Oregon, Texas and Arizona, among other states. The set lists will likely vary, perhaps including several of the new tunes, plus the classics, which include “Anselma,” “Will the Wolf Survive?” “One Time One Night,” “Shakin’ Shakin’ Shakes” and their interpretations of Ricthie Valens songs for the movie “La Bamba.”
“I think performing live is a favorite for us,” Perez said. “I speak for myself. Playing live is very cool. Two hours on stage are great. The other 22 hours just beat the daylights out of you. That’s what we do. We play music on an instrument in front of people, or a few people — doesn’t matter. The studio, again, it’s become an art form in itself. We do make a distinction between the two. We don’t spend a great deal of time trying to figure out how we’re going to record a song that’s going to translate to the live thing. It’s two different things.”
Many of the band’s songs come from creative sessions during recording. They are not pre-written or pre-planned. David Hildago, another founding member, offers the music; Perez the lyrics; and Steve Berlin, Conrad Lozano and Cesar Rosas offer unique contributions that include vocals, some songwriting, expert guitar work and a host of unique instruments. Their genres are varied. Sometimes Los Lobos sounds like a garage rock band, other times it’s more Mexican folk. Blues and soul are never too far away.
“We don’t go into the studio with a stockpile of songs,” Perez said. “We’re a working band. We’re on the road a lot. We’re working on a bunch of other things. We’re not writing all the time. So to get back into that mode is always a little bit difficult. … And we rarely come in with more than just a sketch of a couple of ideas. So we’re writing as we’re recording, which drives songwriters crazy because you’re in the studio, and this whole thing is just an evolving, amorphous sort of thing that’s … almost out of control. Sometimes in the process of writing, things start to take some kind of shape.”
After a record is complete, Perez usually finds himself wondering “what the hell just happened.”
“I think about many things as a writer,” he said. “Your work is affected by things around you, things that you’ve personally gone through, things that you care about that happened in the world. Those things sometimes subconsciously and sometimes consciously make their way into the work.”
Los Lobos are often billed as former regulars of the Sunset Strip, a band with deep roots in East Los Angeles. The band formed in 1972, and the output has been severely, and wonderfully, different. From local rock ‘n’ roll to traditional Mexican music, the tunes are sometimes sung in English, sometimes Spanish. They can be thrillingly upbeat, passionately romantic, blazingly loud and socially conscious. Taken together, they have an impressive, deep catalog of songs that challenge listeners to follow the journey of these five musicians.
“I think the only thing we ever did that was intentional, and even that wasn’t really all that thought out, was back in ’72 when we formed this band and we went from being just local rock ‘n’ roll to put[ting] down those instruments and picking up regional Mexican music, which was almost unheard of for kids just out a couple years out of high school,” he said. “Keep in mind that we made the decision to become rock stars as adults. There was a lot of stuff already going on. We had been a band for 10 years. We already had families and children, and this thing kind of preempted a lot of the stuff kids usually do. We were set on this trajectory, and I will have to say that all of these things that’s happened along the way is just a natural progression, a natural artistic progression.”
The band has found success largely because of the “great deal of faith and trust” among the band members. “Everybody trusts that when David and I go off to write songs for a new record, when Cesar goes off to write his songs, and then ultimately when we all get back and get to the studio to record it, there’s just trust that this is the next musical chapter,” Perez said. “And we know that we have the confidence in each other that the material that’s going to come in, nothing is as subjective as art, but we all have this trust that it’s going to be good, and it’s something that is worth our time and energy to put into the studio. I think it’s all a matter of the intuition we have with each other.”
Perez has been a man of many instruments. He started as a guitar player when Los Lobos kicked off its decades-long career. He then transitioned from electric guitar to “stringed folkloric guitar-based instruments.”
“And then when the band electrified, and we wanted to form basically a rock ‘n’ roll unit, we needed a drummer, and I just, maybe I showed up to rehearsal too late,” he said with a laugh. “I became the drummer; that went on for many years. In a way it was a very punk rock aesthetic.”
Eventually Perez moved from percussion back to the guitar, where he’s normally found today.
“I wasn’t a drummer, [but] I could do it without any sense of scrutiny,” he said. “I didn’t have to worry, oh man, I got to get myself on the cover of Modern Drummer. It never occurred to me. I just serviced the songs. As a songwriter, these are my songs.”
The multiple Grammy winners seem to be living their dream life, and they’ve been doing so for years. “We’ve always worked, and I’ve always liked to make things ever since I was a kid,” he said. “And I found a comrade in that, a like-minded person in David Hildago. We’ve been writing songs since we were … just out of high school practically.”
He added: “I love making things, going into the studio and making new records, and I like being on the road. It’s starting to hurt a little bit, I have to admit. We’re not kids anymore, but we still enjoy what we’re doing. … We’ve been on the road for 30 years now, but we always have to remind ourselves we still have the best job in the world.”
No matter where the musical journey takes Los Lobos, they will always be identified with East L.A. And that seems perfectly fine with Perez. “It informs everything,” Perez said of his roots. “Speaking for myself, it informs all my work. It’s a wellspring for inspiration, and I revisit that every time I write.”
Perez often goes back to the old neighborhood. He still has friends there, although his old family home has different residents and been transformed by stucco. “But it’s still home, and it will always be home,” he said. “And that’s where I’ll end up eventually. My wife tends to think that I’m too morbid, but I have say that I’m going to be 63 in January, which is in five minutes now the way time flies. I mean … when you get to a point when you can actually count how many Christmases you have left, how many summers you have left, how many Januarys you have left, that puts things in perspective, and it certainly makes you prioritize things. And so I think about the neighborhood. I get back there more often than I used to. I try to help out. I try to get in front of kids. I do things not only because I want to go to heaven now because I’m getting older. I do it just because I just feel the pull back to the neighborhood because it’s such a big part of my life.”
Perez and the band will continue to touch people’s lives and bring their unique music around the world. The journey that began in East L.A. continues on.
“It’s wonderful to shake hands with a fan and they say, ‘This particular song meant a lot, got me through a tough period, or means a lot to me,'” he said. “I’m glad that through our live performances and records that we can still touch people that way, and they can still stay with us and still welcome us into their families. It’s a great thing.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
