[Exclusive Track & Interview] The Bronx Alter Ego Mariachi El Bronx Creates New Genre With The Punk Rock Spirit

Mariachi El Bronx

“ I have a problem. Everywhere I turn there's cold beer.
” Matt Caughthran “I have a problem. Everywhere I turn there’s cold beer.” Emphasizing the point with beer in hand, for hardcore punk rock vocalist, Matt Caughthran from The Bronx, there is nothing more quintessential to the punk rock experience than drinking a beer before rocking out in a sticky-floored dive bar.

Except at this moment, we are sitting with Bronx drummer and percussionist, Jorma Vik, enjoying a temperate Los Angeles night on the patio of a charming Eastside Mexican restaurant. Those beers are Tecates instead of Bud Light and we are talking about The Bronx’ markedly popular mariachi side-project with the àpropos title of Mariachi El Bronx.

When I first saw The Bronx, it was with beer in hand at a raucous, energetic show at a dark dive in Long Beach. When I first saw Mariachi El Bronx, it was with beer in hand at a daytime concert in the parking lot of the same restaurant we were sitting in.  Though met with some initial skepticism the day of that show, El Bronx created the same amount of vibrant energy they did at their punk shows–albeit transfigured into mariachi form.

While the uncommon juxtaposition of brash punk-metal and mariachi seems totally disparate, the bridge between those two musical worlds is less tenuous than one would expect. Performative passion (and beer drinking) persists regardless of what format the music is in, as long as the players possess that radical vitality necessary to pull it off. They do, and they did, and that is what makes Mariachi El Bronx so innately punk rock.

“We had no idea how to play it at the time. We got Mexican instruments and played them like white boys and we were like, ‘Ahhh. It’s mariachi, right?’,” recalled Vik when asked about the genesis of the Mariachi El Bronx sound. “ From the get go, Bronx has been trying to get our point across that we want to be able to creatively do what we want to do. We never wanted to write the same record over again.
” Matt Caughthran

“It was a style of music that we were all familiar with just by living in L.A. It didn’t feel like we had to reach very far. It wasn’t like we were doing something so foreign to us. “

“It came pretty easily…It wasn’t like we felt the need to start a whole new band. We just did one song. It was fucking a blast and then it just kind of snowballed.”

Part of the creation of Mariachi El Bronx was as an appropriately punk rock reaction to requests for The Bronx to play acoustic sets. Instead of going the typical folk route, The Bronx followed-through on a suggestion from their guitarist Joby J. Ford to try doing something completely out of the proverbial punk rock box–mariachi.

Caughthran elaborated, “When we did our second record…our Island major label record, we got our first taste of doing television stuff…That was when it became popular to do the stripped-down rock thing. You know, like the folk approach to everything.

“It was just something we weren’t into doing. A lot of programs wanted Bronx to go acoustic…Bronx would never be like that. It’s a loud, aggressive, abrasive band and we didn’t really want to change that.

“So Joby came up with the idea of doing a song on our second record, ‘Dirty Leaves,’ in the mariachi style.”

“From the get go, Bronx has been trying to get our point across that we want to be able to creatively do what we want to do. We never wanted to write the same record over again.” “ Reaction wise it's been so mind-blowing. People are picking it up and enjoying it.
” Matt Caughthran

“Even though you try to stay out of that box as a punk band and as a rock ‘n roll band, sometimes you can exist in that without really even knowing it.

“So, once we did that ‘Dirty Leaves’ thing with the other guys and messed around with mariachi rhythms and stuff like that, it was just kind of a blast-off. It was like, ‘Wow, let’s see what we can do.’”

“And it was so much fun. It was so cool. It was the first time–in an old school jazz sort of way–that we jammed with other ‘cats.’”

“Most people thought it was a joke…We all knew we were doing something cool and different and fun. We weren’t exactly the most confident at that point.”

What Caughthran views as a band initially lacking confidence was what jaded music lovers saw as a gutsy, balls-out attempt at something fresh and innovative. On top of widening their fan-base, The Bronx’ fans have eagerly made the leap from rock to mariachi.

As far as Caughthran knows there has been no negative reaction, even from the Hispanic community.

Matt & Jorma talk reactions, Bronx mischief, & friendships.