Entertainment

Thursday, Jun. 11, 2009

Los Lobos at the Avila Beach Music Festival

Known best for its cover of ‘La Bamba,’ Los Lobos returns to Central Coast for Avila Beach festival

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After more than three decades with Los Lobos, the Latin rock band best known for the 1987 hit “La Bamba,” songwriter Louie Perez is starting to feel like Mel Brook’s “2,000-Year-Old Man.”

“It’s an amazing thing to be a band for 36 years because we’ve lived many lives and we’ve seen a lot of things come and go,” said Perez, who also plays drums and guitar.

He’s seen the band, formed in East Los Angeles in 1973, go from relative obscurity to instant fame with their cover of Ritchie Valens’ “La Bamba.”

He’s witnessed crucial triumphs and commercial struggles. And he’s been there as Los Lobos has won three Grammy Awards, shared the stage with Bob Dylan, The Clash and U2, and released 16 albums, including 2006’s “The Town and the City.”

“I’ve been able to see the world. I’ve been places that people could only dream of,” Perez, 56, said. “I’m incredibly grateful for what I do as a living.”

On Sunday, Los Lobos joins Grammy winners Los Lonely Boys and special guest Dave Mason for the Avila Beach Music Festival, an annual fundraiser for Options. The Morro Bay nonprofit works with people with developmental disabilities and traumatic brain injuries.

“We’ve been to Avila Beach a number of times, and that’s always a great, great show,” Perez said.

In fact, he added, the Central Coast is a favorite spot for Los Lobos, which includes singer-songwriter David Hidalgo, bassist Conrad Lazano, guitarist Cesar Rosas and saxophone/keyboards player Steve Berlin.

They’ve also performed at the Avila Beach Blues Festival, the Live Oak Music Festival and the California Mid-State Fair.

Perez recently spoke to The Tribune about touring, playing and getting older.

Q: How did the Brotherhood Tour come together?

A: We were invited. I’ve known (Los Lonely Boys) since they were kids …

They said, “Hey, man, let’s go on the road together.” And we said, “Yeah, why not?”

Last year, we did about 20 shows throughout the United States. I didn’t know what to expect. I always heard that their audiences were soccer moms and people who listen to Top 40 radio. But they weren’t. They were people who love to listen to music, and it went really, really well.

Q: What was it like to reunite with Los Lonely Boys?

A: I hadn’t talked to these guys in a long time. They became big stars with a hit record. I didn’t know what to expect. I thought they were going to be full of themselves maybe.

When I’m going to meet someone who’s a hero of mine, like Eric Clapton or George Harrison, I’m like, “Man, are these guys really going to disappoint me by being assholes?” And no, they weren’t. They were very cool guys. The same thing with Los Lonely Boys. I expected, “Oh man, they’re going to be on this big star trip.” No. They were just very cool, and we had a ball.

Q: Do you ever get tired of touring?

A: The two hours on-stage is absolutely the best. The other 22 hours? Hmmm, let me think about that. That’s what kind of beats you up — the travel.

We do a lot of fly dates. When we find we’re actually going to drive to the next gig, I’m so happy. I don’t mind being on an airplane, but from the point that you arrive at the curb until you’re sitting in the airplane seat, man, it’s torture … It’s right up there with poking your eye with a sharp stick.

Q: You all have families now — children and even grandchildren. Is it hard to leave them behind?

A: Leaving home is always tough. We’ve been home for quite a bit this year. … It’s difficult to shift gears from the home mode to the tour mode, which is hyperdrive. …

My oldest son is 31. For 31 years, I’ve been saying ‘bye’ to my kids. They’re incredibly supportive of what I do.

Q: Have your sons followed in your musical footsteps?

A: My oldest son had a band for a long time. What fueled his engine is that he wanted to do rock ’n’ roll. He wanted to do this so bad.

At one point, when he was going to graduate from high school, he made the announcement that “I think I will take a couple years off before I go to college and concentrate on the band.”

My wife and I looked at each other and said, “Nah. That’s not going to happen.” So I gave him an offer he couldn’t refuse. I basically told him I would underwrite his education and place to live and wheels. And if he didn’t do that, well, maybe he could come by the house and do laundry every now and then. (laughs)

It worked. … He’s a tattoo artist, and he’s very successful at it.

Q: How did your mom react when you told her you wanted to be a professional musician?

A: I think a lot had to do with where I grew up. I grew up in East L. A., and even though I had a great childhood and adolescence, it was a tough place to grow up.

When (my mom) noticed that I was doing my best impression of Elvis in front of the mirror with a broom, she finally decided, “Well, I’m going to get you a guitar.” She gave me a guitar when I was 11 or 12 years old. The hidden agenda was that she just wanted me to stay off the streets.

For all of us in the band, that was the motivation — to keep us interested in something that…was constructive, rather than be out in the streets being destructive.

She loved music, too. That’s why I gravitated toward it. ...

My first experience with live music was when I was 8 or 9 years old, sitting in a movie theater and seeing this huge mariachi group come out and then this big fanfare and then the main attraction.…This Mexican singer came out on horseback onstage, singing with a microphone from horseback. I mean, how surreal is that?

Q: Would Los Lobos ever do a concert on horseback?

A: Maybe we’ll all come out on Rascals (motorized scooters). (laughs) …

I paint this picture of us being these old buzzards but I swear, music keeps you young.

That’s always been a bias, possibly a stigma attached to being a musician — is that nobody really looks at what you do as work. And it is hard work. Believe me, it is really hard work.

The hours suck. The travel sucks. But I have to admit, the part of it that still makes you feel like a kid on a playground is the two hours you get to play music with your friends.

Q: If being onstage is play, what’s being in the studio?

A: The studio is a different thing altogether—different muscles, a different part of your brain.…We approach it as another musical instrument. We create stuff out of nowhere. That’s probably the astonishing thing about it.

The studio is where we create these sonic paintings. We never feel that we are obligated to make music on a record that we can reproduce live. That’s why we take so many different avenues in creating our studio records.

Q: What’s your songwriting process?

A: Dave (Hidalgo) and I will ruminate about writing songs and we’ll talk about it and we’ll keep calling each other to find out, “Do you have anything?” “No.” We’ll finally hit the studio with a couple things. And then we’ll go through our usual process of writing as we record, which is maddening for a songwriter because I come home and I work on songs and everybody else goes home and puts their feet up.

There’s an immediate thing about it that I’ve grown fond of. We never go into the studio with 15 or 20 songs to pick from. We go in there with one or two ideas and then we just let it evolve.

Q: Do you see yourself ever retiring?

A: Believe me, if this ended tomorrow I’d be incredibly proud of what I accomplished. … (But) I don’t know if I’m ready to say, ‘I’m done. I’ve done everything.’ ”

It’s really not because I need something: “I need to be onstage. I need people. I need the applause. I need the big wet kiss.” I do it because there’s an innermost necessity to create things. This has been my vehicle. And so I’ll keep doing it because I need to do it.

Reach Sarah Linn at 781-7907.