The Krayolas Interview: SXSW 2010

In 2007, the Krayolas returned from a twenty-year hiatus with their hit "Little Fox." The group, which originally formed in 1975, hit the ground running and have released three full-length albums since their triumphant comeback. Spinner recently spoke with lead singer/guitarist Hector Saldana about their plans to premiere their new album, Americano, at SXSW.

How did the Krayolas form?

It's a band I have with my brother; we formed when we were in high school. We were a teenage power pop band. We came together with a real good friend of mine who played guitar and another friend of mine who played bass, and we started playing night clubs when we were really young. It's still my brother on drums and Van Baines on guitar. I'm the lead singer and I play guitar as well. We've had different bass players over the years, but the core group is the same.

How did you choose the name the Krayolas?

I was at my girlfriend's house, and we were trying to think of a name that would be kind of cool. We were just naming anything off the wall. We were in this little side room, and there was a box of Crayolas there, and I said "Crayolas!" and she kind of dug it. I said, "Well, we'll make it with a K," and it just stuck. Well, I told the band what we were going to call it and they just hated it. They were like, "You're crazy!" I always thought it would be a good name because it would get a reaction and because people would either hate it or love it, but I always thought people would remember it.


Rumor has it that you spelled it with a K because you're a big fan of the Kinks. Is that true?

Oh yeah. We're big Kinks fans and Beatles fans. When we started off, especially here in San Antonio, it was rare; we were sort of playing that Brit pop, you know, like the Who, the Stones, and the Kinks, and that was kind of our sound. And we did it with matching electric twelve-strings. We were sort of out of place. It was all happening as Willie Nelson was coming to the forefront -- the whole cosmic cowboy thing was coming up -- and we were doing our thing.

How would you describe your sound?

It's changed; it's more lyrical now. Before it was very teenage lyrics; now the lyrics are very much about -- I guess they always were -- about our hometown. We had songs like "Alamo Dragway," which is a racetrack here, and songs about different streets, so we kind of wrote about our environment. But as we got older, and maybe with my newspaper writing, the subject matter has changed. So it's less love songs now, and it could be about anything. I guess I didn't answer your question about our sound. I would say we're a rock n' roll band. We're a garage rock band; that's what people always call us, and I think that's probably pretty accurate.

What are your musical influences?

I would say people like Carole King, the Shangri-Las -- I love them; you know, I love that dramatic stuff. I love the Phil Spector sound as well. So those are big influences. Bob Dylan, of course. The Byrds. I hope that doesn't sound too old fogey-ish, but that's music that I love.

The Krayolas stopped playing in 1987 and started playing together after releasing a compilation. What brought you back together after a twenty-year hiatus?

Well, the true story is that we made two albums when we were together, really just one vinyl album, and the tapes of those were disintegrating. When we were young -- I mean, real young -- we made all these 45s, and so we did a compilation project in 2007 called Best Riffs Only. Augie Meyers heard it; he loved it, and he said, "Hey, I got a song for you." It was a song that he had written for the Sir Douglas Quintet in '67, and he had a demo of it, which was amazing. I told him that he should just release the demo, but he said, "No, I want to release it with you." So we really had not even intended much more than to put the old records out on the CD just to save them. There really was no plan; we just slapped an old picture of the group on it, and put it out. We were kind of happy just to do that. So all of a sudden I'm singing the song that was intended for Doug Sahm, and he's playing Vox organ and then we had a hit on it. So that's what set it all off.

Is there a core idea behind your new album, Americano?

On a couple the idea is that San Antonio is home. There's actually a song on the record called "Home," which I'm really proud of. It's a real simple story about a woman on a bus, but -- this may sound like a weird connection -- but it touches on these issues of immigration and prejudice. Sometimes with all the rhetoric you can really stereotype people and there's all this fear-mongering. The song is just about a woman riding the bus, so it's like "Is this really what you're saying is the problem?" It's an interesting song; it's the one ballad on the album. And then "Americano" is sort of about the same thing -- it's about getting along with our neighbors and blurring the lines. The idea is that we're all Americanos, because you know the word Americano means "American;" it's just the Spanish word for "American."

Who are you looking forward to seeing at SXSW 2010?

That young group out of Seattle [Visqueen], NPR was real big on them. They're playing on Wednesday at Stubb's. I'm looking forward to seeing that new group that the Dixie Chicks have [Court Yard Hounds]; they're going to be performing at Antone's. I think that's going to be great. Also, another one is a performer/rapper out of Chile; her name is Anita Tijoux. She's amazing. She's going to be making her American debut at SXSW.


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