Cosmopolityzing the Music World, for the Fun of it

Written by Hilda Gabriela Tuesday, 29 September 2009 16:08

2 parts fiesta and 1 part electro combined with killer get-up suits and the juice of all the party vibe in the world are what create this musical concoction that stems from the Northwestern Mexican state of Sonora. Cosmopolitan, the band not the drink, is hailing strong in their first West Coast California Tour where alcohol, casual sexual encounters and party electronica is repping the band as a must-have in party playlists at large. We spoke to the trio, Edgar Lizárraga (Mr. Vox), Ramiro Iglesias (Mr. Lee) and Abraham Bustamante (Mr. Doc), about this tour of theirs, their cleverly titled EP “EP Machine” and about the possibilities of switching their trademark on-stage masks for a pair of fan panties, which according to the band, is not a far fetched idea at all. Donations anyone?

The musical concoction
We all played in separate rock bands some 14 years ago. Yeah, we’re that old! But now with Cosmopolitan, we’re putting together something that is solely for fun and very low key. We’re definitely not the typical band from Hermosillo, Sonora where banda music is what plays in the radio. Our style is polar opposite to that scene, so much so that people involved in that world probably don’t even know we exist. We are an experimental electronica band that does not play serious music. We got together just to play for friends and make a joke out of life. We started singing and performing for parties and our friends had such a great time with us that it just felt right to make a band out of it.

We’re not in this to make large amounts of money or have lavish things. We don’t want to be taken too seriously because we don’t take ourselves that seriously to begin with. Ultimately, that’s a great advantage to being in a band like this because we can sing about whatever we want without feeling forced to play into anything specific. We simply sing and perform for our fans, our friends, people who like to have fun, and tolerant and open-minded people. But on the other hand, we do take our jobs as musicians seriously; our contracts and responsibility to our fans and bookers, promoters, etc.. But as far as our performance and our music, we don’t.

At a recent show in L.A., I went into the crowd and started singing and dancing to a girl in the front row. I was dancing kind of freakish to her when out of nowhere her boyfriend came and told me “Hey! That’s my girlfriend! Leaver her alone.” So I grabbed him and started dancing with him and he was like “Never mind! Grab her instead!” That’s the type of ambiance we create. We play electronica music and have fun onstage in hopes that people in the crowd will feel our vibe and have fun with us as well. You never know what to expect from one of our shows.

When we started playing, people in Mexico were like “what the…” The electronica scene back then was only open to DJ’s and not bands playing electronica. So when people went to our shows they were very scared and intimidated by us especially because we would go on stage with masks covering our mouths. But strangely, they enjoyed it. And as far as the fans in Los Angeles, well, I suppose their acceptance of our music had a lot to with the fact that here, people were already exposed to this type of music so it was easier for them to digest us. Now, both scenes dig it, which is very satisfying for the band.

“EP Machine”
The songs that are on the “EP Machine” were already done before we got together, but they were only bits and pieces of it. So when we decided to jam out, I brought them into the studio and we simply added new effects and tweaked them a bit. Those songs are about four years old now, but are still very well received by our fans. “Dame Bichola”, for example, is one of our more popular songs and it’s about having an open sexuality. That song came about because when we first started playing, a lot of the people at our shows were gay, so we decided to sing about being tolerant of other people’s lifestyles, and our friends loved it.

West Coast California Tour
SXSW opened the door for us to do things that we wouldn’t have done otherwise. Everything that we’re doing now, the West Coast California Tour and playing various cities, is due to that showcase, which introduced us to the market here in the States and created a buzz about us. This tour is taking us into new terrain where perhaps we have never been heard of, and it’s allowing us to go into big cities such as Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose and Salinas… this last one we didn’t even know existed! When we heard of Salinas, we thought it was a city owned by former Mexican president, Carlos Salinas de Gortari!

To be honest, we didn’t expect so many people to go to our San Diego performance. We thought that maybe 10 people would show up and we were prepared for that, but the house was packed and a lot of people were really into the music. We don’t know what to expect for our shows in L.A., San Jose and Salinas. We do expect the L.A. show to have the biggest turnout of the entire tour, only because of what L.A. is known for as far as being very open and supportive of all types of music. But the San Diego turnout will be hard to beat.

We’re hoping to stay in continuity and not let the tour end here. Hopefully the West Coast California Tour leads to bigger and better things, which is our main objective.

                                

The Masks
Oh yes, the masks. The purpose of the masks was to allow Cosmopolitan to be known for its music. We decided to cover our faces so that people wouldn’t know who we were. In the four years that we’ve been together, we’ve only not worn them twice, and that was only because someone forgot to buy them before the show! The masks are also a way of intimidating people, which is also very interesting. We may consider using something other than masks if we feel the need to. Someone on our MySpace commented that we should wear a fan’s thong instead of a mask, so as soon as they start throwing thongs to us onstage and as long as they are clean, we will definitely consider it.

www.myspace.com/cosmopolitan

Are you diggin' Cosmopolitan?
Then Digg 'em some more!

Hilda Gabriela
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		Recently discovered mustard and onion Terrified of midgets Loves to dance with rich old men www.linkedin.com/in/hildagabriela www.facebook.com/hildagabriela.h http://twitter.com/#!/hildagabriela