Mariachi El Bronx

What started in 2008 as The Bronx’s creative experiment became Mariachi El Bronx’s unlikely headlining career – a project rooted in their deep connection to the Hispanic music and culture of their Los Angeles home.  Although seemingly different, the band doesn’t see the genres of punk and mariachi as mutually exclusive – they instead view them as spiritually entwined forces rooted in resilient storytelling. “Punk rock and mariachi music are very similar in soul,” says songwriter and lead vocalist Matt Caughthran. “It’s working class music. It’s real music.” 

Returning after a decade away felt “joyous and familiar from the jump,” says guitarist Joby J. Ford. But recording the album proved more complex than expected. Within the year that he began writing lyrics, Caughthran contended with the deaths of several loved ones. Additionally, as they tracked at producer John Avila’s San Gabriel Valley studio – Avila has helmed all four of their mariachi records – the Eaton Canyon fires blazed across East LA.  “We came out of the studio one night, the entire side of the hill was just on fire,” Ford recalls. While dealing with grief in his personal life and within his longtime home of Southern California, Caughthran was also experiencing an enormity of love as he got married that same year. The result is their most emotionally resonant work yet.