By Daniel Meléndez
July 18th, 2024
A conversation with the Mexico City based band about their beginnings, the independent music scene in CDMX, their first US tour, poetry recommendations and more…
The events that follow must have occurred no more than a decade ago, judging by how young these musicians seem to be. I listen to their story, which goes something like this: on the outskirts of Colonia Escandón, in Mexico City, four boys start high school. They are not in the same class, but they do get to know each other. Sometime later, at high school´s close, they form a band with a mutual friend and the original formation coalesces. Countless sonic experiments and rehearsals in the historic center of Mexico City—the heart of the town—follows, until they find and develop their sound. The result is unique and verges upon the undefinable.
What is Diles que no me maten´s sound? After listening to their first recording of an improvisation session, Cayó de su Gloria el Diablo (2019), their EP Edificio (2020) and the LP La Vida De Alguien Más (2021), my initial answer is that they are a mixture of Krautrock, free jazz, spoken word, and psychedelic rock. These genres are insufficient categories, as in a strange and surprising manner, the sonic alchemy produced by Diles que no me maten more resembles the hypnotic and chaotic sensory environment of Mexico City. Can a city (with all its past, present, and future; its streets, its inhabitants, its animals, its silences, its days and nights) have a unified, concrete and identifiable sound? This band makes one begin to feel that it is possible, organically, and I think unconsciously. It is commendable that they decided not to limit their creativity when recording their latest album: Obrigaggi (2023). This LP moves in different directions from their previous material, in a both discreet but well-defined way. The exploration of new soundscapes—or geography—is evident. The city is left behind and the band ventures into nature, a forest or a desert, perhaps. Edificio is the city. Obrigaggi is the city, plus a trip to the countryside.
I don’t recall exactly how I discovered their music. I do recall that, primarily and importantly, their name caught my attention. It posits these young musicians as erudite readers. They are named after one of the most memorable stories from El Llano En Llamas, the masterful collection by the estimable Mexican writer Juan Rulfo (who similarly, through his literary alchemy, managed to embody the voice of not only a city, but of an entire country). They are a well-matched pair.
I imagine it must have been in mid-to-late 2020, as my own unexpected adventure as a book dealer had only just begun. I know that they immediately became one of my favorite emerging projects in the Mexican independent scene. Every day I would play some of their songs at the bookstore—my workplace— and colleagues, friends and customers would inquire as to the identity of the band. Frequently I would I write down the name of a song and the band on a piece of paper at the behest of a curious listener. During a night of beer and mezcal, my dear friend Eliezer Guevara said to me in his Guatemalan accent:
“Hermano, these guys have to come and play here and we’ll see them; they’re fucking good!” I replied, or maybe I just thought to myself:
“I hope so, amigo, they are an independent and experimental band, but I hope so, Eli, I really do.”
Time has passed and thanks to their talent and their sound these musicians have now performed on many stages and festivals in Mexico and, as of late, internationally. Their success is remarkable, as Diles’ sound exists outside of the paradigm of predictable and boring commercial formulas that flood the musical scene of our day.
The following interview took place on the evening of July 18, 2024, at the Rickshaw Stop’s backroom in downtown San Francisco. It was one of the last stops on their first tour of the United States.
Daniel: Guys, first of all great to meet you, I want to tell you that your project is very popular here, I mean, every time I play your music in the bookstore where I work, someone asks what is playing on the speakers, and well, you already noticed that the place is full to see you play right now. So, first of all, what’s up, how did the band start, how did you meet?
Jonás (saxophone and vocals): Well, we went to the same high school, the Luis Vives Institute, in Colonia Escandón, but we never met there, well… Raúl and I did, we spent a year together, Andrés came later, but we were never really friends or anything, Jerónimo didn’t live in Mexico at the time and well Gerardo and Raúl are brothers, they knew each other from the first day (laughs) and in general they’re like the ones who made the band, like Travis Scott would say, they’re the glue, you know?
Daniel: Okay, so we have a pair of siblings in the band, how cool, and well, from what I’ve seen in videos of your shows, each of you play more than one instrument, how come, do you all have a musical background, do you come from musical families, or have you been playing since childhood?
Jero (guitar): Well, it depends. I think some of us have been playing since we were little kids and Jonás started playing when he joined the band, I think (laughs).
Jonás: Well, Jerónimo has been playing since he was 3 years old, he was playing AC/DC guitar solos since he was in elementary school (laughs); Andrés comes from a family of musicians, his brother is a DJ, he plays the cajón, his mother also plays everything… everyone in his family plays everything; Raúl and Gerardo come from a family of music lovers who raised by force (laughs) two rockers… and me… well, I studied cinema, but my father is a saxophonist, so I didn’t study music until I joined the band and they taught me how to play instruments, my father ended up giving me this saxophone that he didn’t use and I learned to play it during the pandemic.
Daniel: That’s great. So my next question is this: I see that there is a relatively new independent scene in Mexico City that is coming with a lot of power, every show in every city is packed, the shows are filled with young people full of energy, and I feel that you are like a spearhead within it, it is certainly a scene whose musical proposal is very experimental, away from commercial formulas, everything has a very DIY essence, which is great, what do you think about it, how do you see this scene?
Andrés (bass): Well, it’s really something special and I notice that it’s not just us saying it, there are people from other places talking about what’s happening in Mexico City. I think it has a lot to do with the Internet, with the tools that exist today to make music and share it, which are getting bigger and bigger. I mean, the fact that Bandcamp exists, or the fact that there are self-managed spaces, the fact that there are festivals like Nrmal, which no longer exists, but that festival marked a radical difference because you were no longer seeing, lets say, The Kooks closing the festival, you were seeing San Pedro el Cortéz and Mueran Humanos for example, and there is now a greater awareness of people saying that what we are doing here is also cool.
Raúl (drums): We are also very good friends, the bands in this scene you mention, we are very close to each other, we have similar taste in music, we share the same spaces, we go to the same shows and we are there trying to support each other as much as possible, it is a musical exchange, trying to understand each other, because even though we all come from different parts of town, the point is that we all make music as inhabitants of this city and we help each other, right?
Jonás: I also think that when we started making music we never expected to play in San Francisco for example. That’s something incredible. I was thinking about that today and I realized that it’s also the effort of many people, when we started making music it was like, “Let’s make music because we want to,” but when we started playing shows it was very easy because there were already the ideal spaces for that, I mean, someone had already made the effort to start Radio Nopal, or Foro 316, or Pizzas del Perro Negro, and not only the places, but also the people, I don’t know, there’s Hugo from Progreso Nacional, for example, and a lot of people who were doing their “little” job, and suddenly you as a musician are also doing your “little” job, and everything becomes much easier. At one point we also worked at the radio station Aire Libre and that helped, suddenly we had a studio to do whatever we wanted, the fantasy didn’t last long, but it helped, there was a possibility and it was something very, how to say, dependent on the moment in which it happened and then it became all that which is happening now and that’s very nice, isn’t it?
Daniel: That’s cool. And well, how was your tour here, it’s just at the end of it, it’s been two weeks right? For you guys who have been playing in a lot of different venues all over Mexico, how do you feel about the vibe here? I have the feeling that San Francisco and maybe the whole United States is in a different vibe, but what do you think?
Andrés: Mmm, well I don’t know, the crazy thing is that we realized that there are a lot of Mexican people living here, well, it’s not something we didn’t know before, it’s obvious, but I was surprised that even in cities like Salt Lake City or Boise there were Mexicans that came to see us, there were always Mexicans at every show, and that was crazy because we realized that in reality there’s not that many barriers between this country and ours, right, I mean, yeah, different languages are spoken and it’s a different economy, but at the end of the day, people are what make a country, too, and yeah, there are a lot of people from Mexico here.
Jonás: What Andrés says is very cool, it’s like above all there is a common feeling, isn’t it? And it was nice to realize that our music is meaningful here as well, that was amazing, we realized that the U.S. is Mexico as well, and like I told you before, it was difficult to get in, but once we got in it was very easy to be here.
Daniel: Hey yeah, what’s up with that? Why was it so hard to get in?
Jonás: We had to pay a lot of money to get a work visa, but well, it´s been very nice to be here. People have very specific ideas about what Mexico is and what life is like, I don’t know… I have the feeling that when you emigrate to another country, it does something to your heart, to your head, and you have something very interesting there. For me, being in the United States was also like…the nature is impressive…but at the same time it’s proof that money isn’t everything, you know, so it’s a very interesting combination to make music here.
Daniel: Sure, like, the nature here in California is unbelievable, but this is also the epicenter of the tech boom that has suffocated arts and culture in this city. Hey, one more question, what’s up with your lyrics, do you all write them?
Jero: No, the lyrics are all by Jonás.
Daniel: I ask because when I listen to your songs, I feel that they are like poems accompanied by music, I imagine that poetry is an important influence when it comes to writing for you Jonás, so well, could you recommend me some interesting poetry that you have read lately?
Jonás: Well, in Diles the lyrics are all very influenced by Pessoa‘s poetry, there are even copied fragments, but well, lately a poet who has influenced me a lot is Dolores Dorantes, she’s Mexican, she has a poem called Estilo and it’s one of the coolest poems I’ve recently read.
Daniel: Is she a contemporary poet?
Jonás: Yes, she is still alive and writing. I also like Coral Bracho lately, I don’t know if she’s alive, but if so, she must be very old. I just remembered someone else, another recommendation, Susana Urraca, she’s also great.
Daniel: Thanks for the recommendations. And since we are talking about this and about the scene you’re part of, I was so thrilled to find out there’s an independent poetry and music festival (Sol Quieto Festival) happening this weekend in CDMX, that’s super cool, the fact that there are common spaces for both disciplines.
Jonás: Ahh yes, I’m actually organizing it!
Daniel: Really? Wow, well how cool, congratulations, for real. I think there is nothing like that happening here in the San Francisco Bay Area, it is a super unique and interesting project, great to hear that you are part of it. Hey and changing the topic, something that just came to my mind while talking about literature, the line in your song El Circo that says “…y qué hay detrás de la ventana”, is that a reference to the end of Roberto Bolaños´s Los Detectives Salvajes (The Savage Detectives)?
Jonás: Yes, of course, everything in that song is a reference, so it’s made up of references to Spacemen 3, to a song from Campamento Camohmila, there are references to Tercer Ojo Tercer Mente Tercer Mundo, Los Detectives Salvajes, The Velvet Underground, etc. so it’s just pure references, and then at the end, it’s our life, my life, and El Circo, which to me it felt like our lives while touring.
Daniel: I see, that´s really cool. Well guys, thanks for the interview, it was great to meet you. You almost have to go on stage so once again, what a pleasure to see you play here in San Francisco.
My girlfriend and I leave the backroom to meet our various friends waiting in the audience. RABBIT, an interesting local noise project is opening for the band and we´re pleasantly surprised by the end of their energetic set. The show is now about to begin, and one thing is apparent: the night that Psyched! Radio has put together is a total success. Excitement is in the air. Diles que no me maten take the stage and from the very beginning their presence and the music they play conjure a hypnotic ritual. The acoustic and electric elements that a band manipulates in a live show have an enormous but ultimately limited potential. This is where their audio engineer, Sandra Morales, excels; behind the console and completely out of the eye of the audience she perfects their act. The magic then happens. The band plays mostly songs from their last two full-length albums (Wako and Quién es Nosotros are my favorites), but they also include a new song written, we learn from Jonás, just the day before in the middle of the tour. Approximately an hour and a half after they take the stage, the performance comes to an end. At that point, we will have been on a journey with them, moving through soundscapes of serenity and introspection. There is also frenzy, and something that feels like a natural uncontainable and uninterruptable force. They close their set with Outro. My girlfriend does not speak Spanish, yet she sings along, big smile and all. We´ve listened to this song so many times, at work, at home, on road trips all over California, in the rivers, and among the trees. I couldn’t be happier to be here. The audience enjoys the perfect end to this night of music from “the place that does not yet exist”, and then we all listen close:
“Y sé…
Que nos están mirando mal,
a ti y a mi
Por lo que hacemos de los días
Todos los días y al final
Sé que no hay yo…
Sé que no hay lluvia…
Sé que no hay nada…
nada mejor…”.
(Outro, by Diles que no me maten)
Story written by: Daniel Meléndez
Editors: Lily Burnes Heath and Guillermo Goyri