INTERVIEW: After 30 years, Ozomatli hasn’t lost any of its social conscience
Ozomatli, the Grammy-winning band from Los Angeles, is celebrating 30 years of musical excellence, and they show no signs of stopping. The musicians in the band are currently touring the United States on the 30 Revolutions Tour, with a stop scheduled for New York City’s Sony Hall on Tuesday, Aug. 12.
Amazingly, the band has stayed jamming and together for three decades. The roster consists of all original members: Asdru Sierra (vocals, trumpet), Raul Pacheco (vocals, guitars), Ulises Bella (saxophone, vocals), Wil-Dog Abers (bass), Jiro Yamaguchi (percussion) and Justin Poree (vocals, percussion).
“We’re busy, which is great,” Pacheco said in a recent phone interview. “We had made a plan to kind of do more than we usually do, to take advantage and celebrate the fact that we’ve been together for 30 years, so that’s kind of fun and getting places we haven’t been in a while. Also, we have a new song coming out July 25 [‘Red Line’]. … That song really concentrates on the working class, working people of the world, and how we think that they’re so important and how we respect that.”
Bella, who joined Pacheco for the interview, sees this 30th anniversary as a celebration of resilience and commitment. The band members are bonded together, and he calls his fellow musicians on stage his family.
“How many bands can say that they made it to the 30-year mark, you know,” Bella said. “Sure there are bands that we looked up to that are kind of our musical uncles like Los Lobos and guys like Santana who are always at it, but when you join a band, you don’t think it’s ever going to last more than a couple years.”
Throughout the band’s three decades, socially conscious lyrics and playing concerts for various causes have been an integral part of the Ozomatli story. Just recently, the musicians played in support of their home city of Los Angeles in light of the many headlines about the Southern California city, including troops being dispatched to the streets.
“Yes, it’s been a part of our DNA from the beginning of the band, since the founding of the band,” Bella said. “When we first started, the majority of our gigs were all benefit gigs to help different causes out, to help different people out, and that ethos has continued to this day with what’s going on currently here in Los Angeles with the ICE raids and the attack on our communities.”
Pacheco added that most of the musicians in Ozomatli still call Los Angeles home, and they definitely think of themselves as a Los Angeles or Southern California band. Their actual music is a mashing up of several different genres, incorporating everything from funk to hip hop to salsa. And, of course, they can rock out with the best of them.
This particular tour has been a special one for the band for a number of reasons. In addition to celebrating 30 years, they are donating $1 from every ticket to mental health causes, such as Sweet Relief and Backline.
“Because we benefitted from it,” Pacheco said about focusing on mental health. “One of the ways we stuck together was to learn and have sessions where we’re able to be with a therapist and understand how to continue to work together for so long. We’re individuals, and we all have gone through [a lot]. The running joke is that this is the longest relationship we’ve been in, each of us, and we’ve all kind of grown up in different ways and different times.”
Pacheco added: “Issues in a marriage, issues in breakups, different issues in substance abuse, and learning how to navigate as humans and as men, and still having a desire to be committed to keeping this a unit, and staying creative and still playing together all over the world — there have been times when we really relied on that as individuals and as a group. And we also see that as important for other people, so I think it’s something that we’ve experienced. It’s helped us to stay together. We feel it’s an important thing for anybody. With all the stress that modern life has with the political issues that are happening, we think that it’s important for people to be able to find a way to be able to address that in their own life, address that in their family life, address that in their professional life, and it just seemed appropriate for us to pair up with that.”
For Bella, this emphasis on mental health is a crucial one. They want to break the stigma and have more people seek help.
“It can be so easy to go down this rabbit hole with depression and anxiety and social media with the news and things like that, and I think when people are at a moment together and celebrating together, you find your tribe,” Bella said. “You find your people, and you find that there’s people there that can support you through whatever you’re going through.”
Bella added: “The thing with the band is that I know if something really, really heavy is going on in my life, I can reach out to these guys and let them know, and they’ll support me for whatever it is that’s going on. A couple years back, I was dealing with hospice and dealing with mom passing away and my mother-in-law. Both were in hospice, and it wrecked me mentally. … Men in their middle age, just men in general, I think sometimes can have issues asking for that help when it comes to mental health. It can be — ‘I don’t know if I want to. I don’t know if I’m that bad,’ or the stigmas that are associated with asking for help. And I think as a band and as individuals, we’re trying to support each other as much as we can.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Ozomatli will perform Tuesday, Aug. 12, at New York City’s Sony Hall in Midtown Manhattan. Click here for more information.
