Mariachi El Bronx and How Gringos From Southern California Brought Romance Music to the Masses

It’s in a dimly lit bar in the New Orleans’ French Quarter that I’m finally able to speak with Matt Caughthran of Mariachi El Bronx. Away from the tourist attraction that is Bourbon Street, the d.b.a. is a drinker’s bar in every sense of the word. An extensive list of whiskeys and beers lines a chalk board above the bar as old school punk sounds fill the room. It’s the perfect place to unwind after spending a day roaming the streets of the “Big Easy.” It’s also the first place that Caughthran has been able to relax. The band just finished playing a show at the House of Blues earlier that night, though the show itself almost didn’t happen. Poor advance ticket sales put the show in danger of cancellation.

Caughthran is the lead singer for Mariachi El Bronx and the creative mind behind the band’s ode to a traditional Mexican sound. The band has built up a reputation as one of the best live acts touring today. They’re mainstays on the international festival circuit and travel the world playing in front of thousands of people from Norway to Australia and everywhere in between. They performed in front of Jay Leno and David Letterman’s studio audiences and had Conan O’Brien featured in the video for “48 Roses.” However, how the band made the transition from hardcore punk to mariachi music has remained a mystery to me and I wanted to talk about it with Caughthran before diving into discussing the band’s latest record.

What I knew was that the idea to play mariachi music started when the Los Angeles punk quartet known as The Bronx were asked to perform live on Fuel TV. The Bronx had built a reputation as one of the most energetic live bands. It wasn’t unnatural for Caughthran to dive off the stage and sing part of the band’s set in the crowd. So when the producers at Fuel TV asked them to performa an acoustic set, it just wasn’t something the band was really interested in doing.

This was at a time when punk and hardcore frontmen were transitioning to playing in front of smaller audiences with nothing more than an acoustic guitar. Tim Barry of Avail and Chuck Ragan of Hot Water Music found a second life playing country-influenced style of music, even creating The Revival Tour in the process. However, playing original acoustic songs is a way different animal than performing “in your face” punk music with acoustic guitars. It just doesn’t translate.

Caughthran explained, “one of the things we started with the Bronx was that we always wanted the Bronx to be what it is. We wanted it to be nasty and abrasive and punk. Honestly, the whole thing…it’s nothing personal…but that whole Punk Goes Acoustic thing? I hate it.”

“It’s not really our style so we were trying to find a way around it because we didn’t want to ditch the opportunity. It’s not like we wanted to be assholes and say no. We just didn’t want to do it so standard. So Joby (Ford) came up with the idea of doing mariachi because we’re an LA band. We’re kind of surrounded by hispanic culture. It was around me growing up and I know it very well so we decided to go for it.”

While the performance on Fuel TV was the first time that the band played mariachi music, it still wasn’t anything more than a one-time thing. The Bronx were coming off their third studio album and still appeared to have life left as a band. Audiences were still seeking the opportunity to see the Bronx play live, especially overseas in Europe.

However, it started to feel like the band’s days of relevance in the genre were beginning to come to an end. It’s a valid fear as most bands rarely have the long term appeal to make music beyond a handful of studio albums. There are far more forgotten bands than Bruce Springsteens who have the staying power to write and play music for over 40 years.

There’s also the very sobering realization that once the creative spark starts to go out, it becomes difficult to find it again. For a band that prides itself on honesty, it’s hard to come to terms that the best way to keep trucking forward is by faking it. So what started as an opportunity for greater exposure soon turned into a new creative outlet.

“It was just a one off thing and when we did it it was at a time when we were kind of frustrated because the Bronx as a band started to feel stagnant. And it’s a shitty feeling. It’s the worst. And it was starting to happen and when you don’t ever visualize that happening, when it happens you start freaking out because you realize this could be the end.”

Eventually no matter what, the walls start closing in.

“For guys like us who were never really professional musicians, the clock is always ticking in the back of our heads anyway. Like when am I going to have to get a real job? When am I going to have to give it all up and go back to working at Best Buy or whatever? You never want that to happen so when you start to see signs of that, you start freaking out.”

“So El Bronx was a huge escape for us because it started that way and it turned into something that’s a lot of fun and really challenging because we didn’t know how to play this music.”

In the states that border Mexico, it’s hard to not see the influence of hispanic culture. Whether it’s Texas and the creation of Tex-Mex cuisine or areas of Southern California where learning to speak Spanish is almost required regardless of ethnicity, the line between Mexico and the United States is extremely blurred.

However, there is a responsibility to remain true to the culture, especially when it comes to music. Mexico’s music is bound in tradition and reinvention or re-imaging just isn’t accepted. Historically, Mariachi music gained exposure when the style hit urban areas such as Guadalajara and Mexico City. Stylistically, it’s about love and loss. It’s romance music in every sense of the word.

The decision to attempt the very distinct mariachi sound meant that The Bronx needed to stay honest to chord progressions as well as message. Anything but total honesty would mean the difference between homage and bastardization of a beloved sound.

But at its very core, there isn’t much difference between punk and mariachi. Sure, the overall composition is extremely different but the honesty and the heart behind it? It’s the same. For that reason alone, El Bronx became a full-time band.

“We came to the realization that we had to do it right because of what we are and who we are and how traditional mariachi music is and how much respect we have for Hispanic culture. Even just talking about it, people laughed and said we were full of shit. So we knew that we were going against that and were doing the best we could.”

“We tried to learn song patterns and rhythm structures. For the guys, guitar-wise, they had the biggest struggle and responsibility. For me it was kind of easy…there’s parallels and things that I love about music. The way I write and the way I sing is the same in punk rock as it is in mariachi. It’s just screaming vs. singing. The ideals, the heart, the truth, the honesty? It’s the same.”

It was a year prior when I spoke to the band after Free Press Festival in Houston that I learned that the struggle was bringing a sound to places that have no frame of reference for the culture. While hispanic culture is tied directly into the day to day in North America, it doesn’t exist in Europe or Australia.

To those crowds, the only time they’ve seen guys dressed in Charro outfits are in movies like the Three Amigos. It’s a novelty act and nothing more.

So bringing the band to places that loved The Bronx such as Norway and the United Kingdom was at first met with trepidation by the band. That uneasiness soon faded when they saw how accepting the audience was to hearing a new form of music.

“When we first took El Bronx over to London, we were freaking out. We were thinking they were going to hate it. There’s no concept of hispanic culture there. There’s nothing.”

“When you find out that Mariachi El Bronx is someone’s introduction into mariachi music or even hispanic culture at all and then they start diving into things and you see how beautiful it is, it’s an incredible feeling. The fact that we can be the gateway to that is something that is extremely mind-blowing and amazing and humbling and beautiful.”

“One of my writing goals that I don’t really talk about is that I want someone out there to get something out of a song I wrote the same way that I got out of a song that I listened to growing up. It’s the most powerful thing. That’s the goal. That’s what you want. We care about what we’re doing.”

“What we found is that the world isn’t as cynical as we thought it was.”

“People want to hear new music and learn about new cultures. They want to learn new things. That’s one of the most eye opening things I’ve learned about the world. The world is a way more positive place than we think it is. There’s so much negative shit and you doubt yourself as an artist but it’s all out the window when you show up and people are having a good time.”

“I think the reason it happened is because when you approach something honestly, people get more out of it than you’ll ever expect. When you’re cold and calculating and fake? It only has one outcome. It’s always one dimensional. It’s black and white. It’s simple. When you approach something new from an honest perspective, people can get so many different feelings from it.”

“It’s better than being a fucking pussy or coward or just being another fucking musician who is too afraid to say what they want to say or write the songs that they really want to write because they are afraid of their paychecks dwindling. They are afraid of the crowds diminishing when they go on tours. You have to hang it out there.”

The band’s third studio release “Mariachi El Bronx III” was extremely cathartic for me. I was reeling from the death of my father and beginning to shell up from the world. I struggled to keep my brain afloat after watching a man that I looked up to pass away in the middle of the night.

After first listen, I sent Matt a text telling him that I appreciated the record and that it was a big reason why I was able to begin feeling like myself again. Songs such as High Tide and Wild Fire hit an emotional chord that I hadn’t felt in an album before.

Taking a look at the liner notes and I understood why it hit so close to home. Matt lost his father as well. The album wasn’t just a typical studio release. It was a way for him to heal from personal tragedy.

That also meant that the overall theme and message of the album was far different from the prior two releases which showcased the potentially upbeat nature of mariachi music.

“It’s way darker. For me, lyrically speaking, it’s a really hard record to write because it’s very personal. As the record went along, we were all on the same page. We wanted to branch out and explore different things so musically it was open. The songs that the band was writing were telling me to not be afraid. They wanted me to open up.”

“Before the record, I pulled Joby aside and said ‘for the first time in our band’s career, whether it’s Bronx or El Bronx, I’m socially conscious that there’s people out there that are anticipating this record. I’m really nervous that I’m gonna bum everybody out because the record is too dark. Should I go and rewrite this?’”

“Because a lot of the stuff, a huge thing was my dad dying. He had MS so it was a really hard way to go. He lost his body. He was a great story teller and then he lost his speech. He lost everything. He was a crazy Christian guy so it was really hard for me to watch him hold onto faith while in my eyes God was taking so many things from him and me. It was a really fucking difficult time.”

“On top of that, I was going through my own character issues.”

For the first time in my life, I felt like I was faltering as a man.

“I was kind of an asshole. I became a bullshitter. I had parts of my personality that were fake and that’s not something that flies with me. So when I realized it, I had to change it and fight through it. It was just a really intense time for a lot of reasons.”

“It all came out in the lyrics. I didn’t want it to. When we started writing the record, Ray (Seun) who was still in the band at the time and Joby were sending me basic song structures and everything I was writing was so dark that I couldn’t commit it to record. So I was backed up.”

“They had sent me 10 songs and were like ‘dude what are you doing?’ and I’m like ‘it’s coming, I’m sorry I can’t think of anything.’ I was bullshitting. I had songs written, I just didn’t want them out. It was hard.”

As he finished up his beer, he left me with one final thought which truly resonated with me as both a writer and a fan of the band.

“The fact that people like the songs and dance to them makes me feel better.”