Ozomatli Fires Away on 4/20. Coincidence? We think not.

Written by Hilda Gabriela Wednesday, 21 April 2010 13:34

For nearly 15 years, Ozomatli has been praised for being amongst the few musical formations who speak out against civil rights abuse and who actively participate in the battle for equality. Since their self-titled 1998 proclamation to their latest Fire Away release, Ozo has remained faithful.
Currently on a wave of promotional tour dates, Ozomatli’s Asdrubal Sierra (lead vocals/piano) came up for air to share his thoughts on the new album, which according to Sierra, was literally like a breath of fresh air.

“Fire Away”
With Fire Away, we changed the way that we recorded the album but not so much the way that we wrote the songs. The intention behind it was to but more of the live energy into it with all of the band members in the same room recording and with fewer microphones. The songs definitely came out more “free” in that sense.

We worked with Jack Johnson and Tony Berg whom both offered a special touch to the album. Jack is an amazing songwriter and he has some very tasteful ideas that make him quite powerful. Doing this album we found out how much air it takes to sing his lines. He's got some major lungs! ‘Wouldn't expect any less from a surfer! Working with Tony was crucial in the simple but tasty chordal movement. The flavor he brought as an amazing guitarist and that sweet touch he has in his playing was interesting to see. He had a unique approach to doodling with some of our guitars like the requinto jarochos and jaranas. We ended up giving him a requinto jarocho as a present!


The issues
“Gay Vatos in Love” off Fire Away may come across as “controversial” to many people. But our intentions have never been to be controversial. We're simply trying our best to further humanize this community and allow overall love of humanity through our music. We equally sing about love and breaking down invisible borders. So we went in to write “Gay Vatos in Love” just as we do with any other issue we've ever written about.  We believe anyone should be allowed to love anyone and that everyone should have the civil right for civil marriage if they desire it. “Are You Ready”, like "Gay Vatos in Love" is another one of the songs from this album that emcompasses what Ozomatli is all about.


Change is of the essence
Although some may say that Fire Away is less MC driven, I’m glad that we did something different. I love whatever we do despite any change we have in our band. I miss having guys like Chali 2na around permanently but we still do shows together from time to time with every MC we've had. Intentionally or not, we try our best to show growth in every record. It would be pretty tragic if every record had the same sound that we’ve done in the past 15 years. We’ll always do something different because after 15 years, we get bored too easily!

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Although Asdrubal urges that the 4/20 release date of Fire Away wasn’t strategically planned, I’m not sure we’re buying it! But regardless, you can pick up a copy of the album, out now, and catch the band at one of their many pit stops in almost any corner of the world you may find yourself in. Check out our gig calendar for the listings.

www.myspace.com/ozomatli
www.ozomatli.com/

 

 

 

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