I first met Chico Sonido on the West Side at an East Side party. I was out in L.A. visiting my sis, selectah Xandão, and she brought me to Más Exitos, a party organized by Chico Sonido. He was spinning, so we kicked it on the dance floor to the mellow Romanticas slashed with beats and mixed with psychedelic 70’s overtones ripped from Spanish covers of songs like “Foxy Lady” and “Cruising Down Whittier Blvd”.

Needless to say, I dug that shit to the ground. And later when I was in post on my Mexican noir Mariah, Chico and I met, talked music and I ended up putting 4 or 5 tracks from his latest album Nalga Bass into the picture.

Nalga Bass album drop/ Chico Sonido feat. Camila Sodi/ photos by Szoldie

SZOLDIE
Let’s start at the beginning- what music did you listen to as a kid?

CHICO
If I go back to my childhood I guess I always liked playing with my dad’s stereo. It was one of those 80’s ones, the one piece tape deck and turntable on top. I remember when my dad bought it I was 7, 8 years old. And I was fascinated. My dad and my sisters would dub tapes. Every vinyl they had they would pass onto a cassette tape, so you could play it on the little stereos and everything. I grew up at a time where all that technology was new. Having home taping, home video, you know, taping everything. So I was always pressing record from when I was a little kid.

My parents’ music was from all over the place but they had a lot of Romanticas and stuff like that. And also tropical music, but they weren’t really into deep, rootsy, too tropical stuff-- it was commercial, I guess. More party oriented. There were disco records in my house, things like Los Joao. My dad would listen to that and I remembered that I liked it. But it was more tropical mega mixes. It just felt like good vibes.

SZOLDIE
Not exactly the music typical of Sonora-

CHICO
-Yeah, the music from there is a Rancheras. But in my family they didn’t like that music. I also grew up with my sisters’ music. And my brother’s music. It was a weird mixture between “adult music” from the time with my sisters’ disco records. And then my brother was more on the early 80’s, so there were Journey records, some progressive rock... It was all over the place. I also liked to record the radio. I remember doing my little mega mixes by just hitting pause, catching something from the radio, then playing a record. I started scratching on that stereo from my dad. It was pretty silly. I would just go from radio to turntable, and try to scratch and record it.

SZOLDIE
What was the first album you bought?

CHICO
Everything was changing at that time. Tape was new. I was like, “My parents and my sisters have records, so I like my tapes.” I had a walkman. That was my stereo. I remember buying, I think it was Motley Crue “Girls Girls Girls.” I wanted it real bad and I remember my sister telling me, “You should buy the vinyl. Because if you have the vinyl you have the vinyl, and you just dub it to tape.” And I was like, “Nah! I want the tape.” This was mine.

SZOLDIE
How old were you then?

CHICO
I was a bit older. Probably 11, 12, 13.
Most of my first personal records were Metal. Then I fell in love with Hip Hop. Public Enemy, early 90’s stuff. Naughty By Nature...

SZOLDIE
Were they playing that on the radio in Mexico?

CHICO
No, this was on MTV. So it wasn’t too out of the ordinary.
(laughs)
When I started getting weird... Well, that was weird already, for the time. No one in my town had a Public Enemy CD. So it was kinda weird, I guess.
I didn’t get into vinyl until way later. I might have been 18 when I started appreciating, “Oh, there’s vinyl here! And DJs play this.” My first collection was the collection from my house.

SZOLDIE
So when you got into vinyl you took a look at your parents records as well?

CHICO
I went to London when I was 18 and lived there for a year. I went with all my CDs, and just started getting deeper into music.

SZOLDIE
What were they playing?

CHICO
It was an explosion. Everything exploded right there. Electronic music, big electronic festivals. It was crucial for me, because the big acts were starting, DJs were getting their respect. Big outdoor parties. Orbital, The Prodigy, the Chemical Brothers-- all of that was barely hitting. And I was like, What is all this? I was coming from bands. Moshing and crowd surfing, stupid shit like that. But I guess I changed there. I got into dancing. Got into listening to DJs.

So I came back to Mexico and threw my first raves. Right away I was DJing. And at that time I was still scared. In London, I loved it, but I was a little afraid of it, you know? Because I knew it was deep.
But I started throwing underground parties, and that’s how it started. I remember a friend went to England the next year, and he brought me back a vinyl, “Here, this record’s cool.” I remember I listened to it and I liked it. So from then on, I just started buying vinyl. It’s that first record.

And my parents records. I tricked my dad’s stereo so I could get an output to go to the mixer. It was a very from-the-bottom, RadioShack mixer. Different times. Now kids, they’re 14, they’re 18 and they’re already DJing all crazy and have all the music they want. But that was different times.

After that I moved to Monterrey. In my hometown Obregón where I threw those raves, it was really small. I was basically a pioneer ‘cause nobody had seen a real rave. And since, there never stopped being raves in that little town. We were 18, we knew everybody. We knew the punk kids, we knew the girls, so it was easy to make a party. But when I moved out to Monterrey it was another level. I locked up in my bedroom for a good two years just practicing. Practicing and learning. Got a real turn table with a pitch. So I basically taught myself in those two years how to really mix like a DJ. That was the beginning of it.

Then I started doing radio. These two girls wanted to have an electronic music radio show, and they needed a DJ. So I was down to do it. I was ready at that point. From that I got connected to the people I could throw parties with, DJ at their parties. And then pretty soon I knew everybody. And people was hype on me, because I came from outta nowhere. It was good days, in my early 20’s. I got hip for a minute, but it was too left field, really. It was too left field for the city. I was on the Dub, Drum & Bass, Hip Hop side... kind of like where I’ve always been.

SZOLDIE
What was popular? House?

CHICO
No, it was getting very... In Mexico they have a name for it. They call it “Psycho”. But that’s not even-

SZOLDIE
Like Trip Hop?

CHICO
No, no, no! The big parties, the big raves- they were doing Psycho, like Psycho-Trance.

SZOLDIE
Trance.

CHICO
You know trance music, from Goa... I wasn’t feeling that. At that point, it was the early 2000’s, so, I was already on some oooother shit. You know, like slow beats, kinda like just doing a set with all slow music, and not really on the.... That scene destroyed itself. The big rave scene in Monterrey and everything. It just got too big. They would have the crazy trance DJs in the big room, and they might let us DJ at the pool, at the after party, stuff like that.

SZOLDIE
It was the same thing where I grew up.

CHICO
Same era.

SZOLDIE
I remember the big room was always crazy trance and then the smaller rooms would be dub step, hip hop, stuff that was more fun to dance to, for me.

CHICO
Sometimes this music can only have a home when it’s related to a home base. You know? Since my friends had a boutique, that was our base. I was already doing some international DJ gigs, but I was like, “Damn, if I really want to do this, if I really want to take it to the next level and keep on DJing, I better start producing.” My first production project was called Sistema Local. That’s what we called our DJ crew. I made a bunch of remixes. That’s basically how I learned production...
What happens next?
(pause)
Years go by.
Oh, you have the Cumbia! The Cumbia thing happened.

SZOLDIE
When did it start getting popular in dance music?

CHICO
Basically in the underground it was... It existed before.

SZOLDIE
Of course.

CHICO
It existed before. Of course some remix stuff was already out there, but around 2002 it started popping off. And it was Europeans really. They were hungry for different things. You know, bored with what was. Then Atom Heart in Chile, he made this project called Señor Coconut.

SZOLDIE
Mmm. Yeah of course.

CHICO
I mean, he was one of the first ones I heard. It wasn’t all Cumbia. It was more like Tropical in general. But there was some Cumbia in there. My friend Toy Hernández from Monterrey, he also did a track for Celso Piña that was really big. “La Cumbia Sobre el Río.”

SZOLDIE
Sí.

CHICO
And that was the beginning really. Before Argentina.

Nalga Bass album drop/ Chico Sonido feat. Camila Sodi/ photos by Szoldie

SZOLDIE
And what about Hijos del Sol? That was in the 70’s right?

CHICO
What?

SZOLDIE
Los Hijos del Sol?

CHICO
I don’t know what’s that.

SZOLDIE
They’re a Cumbia band from, I think from the 70’s. Los Hijos del Sol. I think Mexican. I might be wrong.

CHICO
I never heard of them.

SZOLDIE
You know them! C’mon.
[typing sounds]

CHICO
I’m googling them. I don’t know them... del Sol... There it is.
(laughter)
No! I don’t know about them!

SZOLDIE
Come on!

CHICO
I’m not trying to say Cumbia started then.

SZOLDIE
No, no. I’m just curious when Cumbia became electronic.

CHICO
Experimental. Electronic. More like DJ remix Cumbia. It existed from before. I have house records of things like that. Early bootlegs. But nobody noticed those. Those were for the DJs. Actually the ones I made, those were for the DJs too. The first Cumbia remix I made, I started in early 2003. It was for a band from Bristol. Hip Hip. I don’t know if you know about this label, Ninja Tune. I was really big on them. These guys were doing records in different parts of the world. They went and made a record in Cuba, one in Jamaica. And they wanted to come to Mexico. So we did the Mexican Sessions. Then I moved to L.A. We put out these remixes, and before they even came out people were already playing them in L.A., in Argentina. It was all before streaming changed things. You would send a track to somebody through e-mail. It was the very beginning of file sharing, and things popping off here and there in different places. And these people you sent the tracks to, they would have the exclusives! It wasn’t like their friend could go on SoundCloud and download it. It started like that. Then I started meeting people from Argentina who where into those tracks, and who were telling me about all that was happening. And it was happening all over the place. But not many things were getting released.

SZOLDIE
So, the stuff that the Argentinians began to remix- it was Columbian, Mexican, Peruvian... I mean, it was Cumbia from all over, right?

CHICO
Cumbia is... it originates in Columbia, but it’s universal now. Most of Latin America likes Cumbia, and they have their own versions of it.
But the Cumbia that really started in Argentina was Villera. You know what they call the Cumbia Villera?

SZOLDIE
No.

CHICO
That’s the Cumbia from the ghetto. But the ones that got all the credit for the remix Cumbia, those guys in Argentina, they’re like the club kids, you know what I mean? Not all of them, but you know. At the time they had the money and the advantage to really take advantage of that.

SZOLDIE
They could bank off of it?

CHICO
They were biting everything. They were biting the remix Cumbia, they were biting the-

SZOLDIE
-But they can’t really sell... Can they sell the stuff? Or is it more just from parties?

CHICO
(pause)
I think what really happened needed to happen. I don’t like to throw shade on anybody. Nobody’s really selling music right now. So, the ones who benefit from it are the actual kids who develop their style and their music and had a chance to put out records. At the end of the day, it’s an output for them. So, I think that’s what’s good.

I went to L.A., pressed 300 bootleg vinyls for DJs. It was a collaboration, like Sistema Local. We put out 12inch, 3 tracks per side, remix Cumbia. Monterey loves its Cumbia. Though it originated in Columbia, if you go to Columbia, all they want to listen to is Salsa. They don’t even want to listen to Cumbia. But Monterey turned into a capital of Cumbia. The DJs there, I’m talking about humble people with the sound systems on the street, Jamaica style, you know, in the swap-meet. They were going to Columbia and actually bringing back those records, so there’s a very rooted adopted Cumbia thing in Monterey. That’s where all of that came from.
So, then-  do you have any questions?

SZOLDIE
I do!
I want to talk about a few songs from one of my favorite of your mixes Paisadelico, made in 2009.
Let’s start with Janette, “Frente a Frente.”

CHICO
(laughs)
I found that record on a 45rpm, and there’s something about that mix. I was still very deep into vinyl and producing all vinyl DJ sets. I was producing my first record. And if you notice, the Paisedelic mix tape is kinda the inspiration for that album. I was looking for that sound. We were already starting Más Exitos, that party that you went to with your sister. Everything was happening at the same time. “Frente a Frente”? I don’t know where I found that record. When I started getting really deep into what sound I wanted, still in Monterey my friend gave me four big racks filled with 45s from a radio station in the north of Mexico. These were records from the 70’s. The very first collection with jams in there, untouched, straight from the 70’s. If you notice on the mix tape, there are a lot of pops and clicks, it’s dirty. That’s what makes vinyl and 45s special. There’s a quality that no other vinyl has. So it makes a very natural vibration. It’s physical.

SZOLDIE
And addictive.

“Niña Fresas” accidental epilogue/ Chico Sonido feat. Camila Sodi/ shot by Szoldie

SZOLDIE
Ok, next: Apocalipses, “Un Año Sin Ti.”

CHICO
Uh huh. Can’t remember. I spent probably a good ten years seriously digging all over the place. In any corner I could find. Traveling in Mexico, in the U.S.

SZOLDIE
What about David, “Déjame conocerte.”

CHICO
Ooohhh...

SZOLDIE
Am I stumping you?

CHICO
No. It’s because, I’m not too deep into some of those records.

SZOLDIE
It’s just the sound.

CHICO
A lot of it is momentary. I find something in them. Once I make a mix tape like that I find it really hard to repeat myself. It’s just a very deep moment. In the moment when I did it, it was deep. I was uncertain about a lot things. And I just got really serious making it. I made it live. And I just cut here and there.

SZOLDIE
Cool.
Los Yorks’ “Fácil Baby.”

CHICO
That’s a Jimi Hendrix cover. I think they’re Peruvian. I really got into all that garage stuff. Peruvian sound. There was a crazy crazy psychedelic scene, and all those bands were great. Los Comandos. There are Peruvian bands that I would hear and be like... I don’t know what it is. They sound different from anything else. It’s hard to replicate those kind of sounds.

SZOLDIE
Did that tradition continue or was that a moment in Peruvian music?

CHICO
That was a moment.... In Peru there was this psychedelic thing. That’s why I call it Paisadelic. Paisa has a lot of meanings depending where you go in Latin America. In L.A. though for Mexican Americans, if you’re Paisa, you’re from south of the border. You just came here. Fresh off the crossing. You know what I mean?
(laughs)
It’s so silly that it was good, ‘cause I was very proudful of the Paisadelic. It’s like the psychedelic Paisa. It has both sides. And it’s real.
A lot of the influence for the sound was romantic music. Romanticas in the 70’s, they’re actually rock. They’re playing a slow Led Zeppelin song. Led Zeppelin was ripping off the Blues, and everybody’s just ripping off each other. Since the beginning of time.

SZOLDIE
So, Narcocorridos are having a bit of a moment now. Have you ever been asked to make one?

CHICO
I’ve been asked. It’s actually-
(laughs)
It feels strange ‘cause the ones making that music are balling right now. It’s a whole different world. And I could do it. I got somebody who told me I have a job right now in L.A. making that music. But really it’s, I don’t know... I never really wanted to fool myself. And I know there are plenty of things that I could do, that I would do and that I’m gonna do, before doing that. Yeah, no. I’m not really into... I’m just not into making music that I don’t feel and I don’t listen to.

SZOLDIE
Is that culture pretty strictly Ranchera or has it branched out to different genres. I know some of it is like Hip Hop Ranchera...

CHICO
I can love it, and I can enjoy it and I don’t really hate on it. It’s like country music. You could be Miley Cyrus one day and the next day be Miley Cyrus. There’s a lot of money from record labels behind it. They specialize in Rancheras and they specialize in that crowd. Underground music is David and they’re Goliath. There’s no comparison. There’s the huge market, there’s money, there’s everything... you just gotta make that music, you know?

SZOLDIE
It is a formula...
Now is so different from the analog days or even the birth of the internet days, where you would gather music from what you heard on the radio, what you heard at parties, from collections-- how do you find new music today?

CHICO
Everywhere really. Right now a lot of my digging is digital. For example for Nalga Bass, my second album, you can clearly hear it. It’s not just records, it’s something else. I go through legit production libraries but from the ghetto DJs around the world. Since file sharing started, sound started getting around. House with Reggaeton turns into Moombahton. In the beginning we would share those libraries with other producers but now it’s infinite. And that’s how the Tribal movement started. These kids making their songs in Fruity Loops, building their own libraries-- they’re basically creating their own sound and sharing it with other producers.

Since Nalga Bass, I’ve learned to limit myself less and less. I’m sampling from tapes, I’m sampling from vinyl, sampling from CDs, recording stuff, playing with other synths. And I’m digging through those producer libraries.

SZOLDIE
Yeah, Nalga Bass. I’ve had some very fun parties with that. You know? The girls like to get down. To the music.

CHICO
(laughs)
Nice.

SZOLDIE
Oh yeah.