Noise Beat Propaganda Interview: SXSW 2010

Posted on Mar 14th 2010 7:50PM by Billy Maupin
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Much like their hometown of Mexicali, Mexico, Noise Beat Propaganda's music straddles the border between two worlds. The band's hyperactive 2009 debut EP, 'We're in Love, Yeah Right,' features songs in both English and Spanish, jumping the line between structure and noise, familiar and peculiar. Before their first trip to SXSW, Spinner talked with bass player Jorge Caro about the importance of ice cold beer and his love of Ace of Bass, MC Hammer and all things '90s.

Describe your sound.

Well, I think we always try to keep some fun and fresh taste in our sound, something to have fun with or enjoy listening to it. It's kind of a mix of danceable rock with some catchy melodies and a peculiar punk female vocal on it.

How did your band form?

Actually, our band has gone through a long list of drummers, beginning in early 2007. It was just Leonel, our guitarist, and our first drummer Ezequiel J. They were just jamming and playing around, and after that they called me to do some jamming. We decided to add one more guitar, (and) we called Alex (our rhythm guitar player). We made some tunes ... but we needed the most important thing: the vocals. We always wanted a girl on vocals. We wanted to give a fresh touch to the band. At that time, there was a friend (Ana Torres) singing in a band called Cancer Bullet ... they were playing a lot in our local scene, but they had just broken up, so we decided to call her and try her to see if she fit in the band, and she did. By the end of 2007, we had a few tunes, and we threw a party to officially present the band in 2008. Since then, the band has been playing a lot ... and we releases our debut EP (last) summer.

What are your musical influences?

We all have really different musical influences. For example, Alex tends to listen to a lot of bands like Radiohead, Sigur Ros ... kind of ambient music. Ana tends to listen to ... Hella, Joy Division ... Leonel is the guy that can listen to anything, as his main musical influences (are) the New Cassettes, Babasonicos, The Mars Volta, PGMG, The Teenagers ... but at the end, we all agree to do something kind of noisy and fun.

How did you come up with your band name?

Well, I think it was that we just needed a name, some name, that could get stuck in your mind.

What's your biggest vice?

Beer, totally beer.

What's in your festival survival kit?

To be honest, we're kind of newbies on this festival thing. We're a really young and new band ... we've only played in some local festivals, and big shows with a lot of bands, but never in a really big festival. But I think a really good survival kit would be a big icebox full of beer, some Tabasco sauce, some food like ramen soup, a good pair of shoes, some sunglasses ... some cigarettes and, of course, some merchandise to sell.

What do you think about playing SXSW?

This is our first time going to SXSW, so we are really excited ... meeting new people, meeting the right people, exposing our music, having fun and meeting people that do this all the time would be a great experience.

What's your musical guilty pleasure?

All of that '90s music that we loved when we (were kids) ... MC Hammer, Vanilla Ice, Ace of Base, TLC.

Beatles or Rolling Stones?

I go for Beatles ... I think the whole band definitely goes for Beatles. Their songs were catchiest and fun.

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