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Austin Underground

A Conversation With Y La Bamba



By Vijay Davis


Y La Bamba Interview

Wednesday, October 16, 2024

Parish, ATX


Y La Bamba, the longtime musical alias of Luz Elena Mendoza, describes themselves as an eclectic indie folk pop band. A first-generation Mexican American, Mendoza draws on a rich musical heritage, switching between English and Spanish in their music. Their latest album, Lucha, was released last year. Harper and I sat down with Mendoza ahead of the band’s show alongside Kiltro at Parish in Austin to learn more about their music and performance. 

We arrived a few hours early due to a mix-up, and after sitting outside the venue were helped by a silver-jeweled cowboy named Sam, who wrote ‘press’ on our wristbands and got us inside. The green room happened to be full of the members of Kiltro and Y La Bamba’s band, so we pulled some chairs into a narrow supply closet and began the interview.


Hi Luz! Thanks so much for talking with us. Firstly, how are you enjoying Austin?

We just got here, but I’ve been here before and I love Texas, and Austin’s always been really kind to us.


Do you have any favorite places around town to visit?

Well, I don’t really know that much. It’s still a mystery to me, but y’know, whenever I come here, and people show up and I get to see the community come out, it’s always warm. But you’ll have to show me. When you tour it’s all just fast.


Do you have a particular place you like visiting on tour?

I love going through Arizona and the cactuses, love New Mexico and seeing all that red rock, that nature. As far as cities, there’s so many amazing places I like to go— New York, Chicago…


But driving through as well?

Colorado, Utah, all that— it’s so beautiful, are you kidding me? All the joshua trees down in southern California and the desert. Even Vegas is cool.

[Harper laughs]

Aw, even Vegas.


Well, that’s interesting, I feel like the actual journey of touring is often overlooked. 

Oh definitely, it’s like time travel.


And you’re on tour with Kiltro, how’s that been so far?

We just started yesterday, getting it all worked out with the beautiful crew we just got together. We learned the songs in two days. 


Oh wow. 

So it’s really exciting, having everyone show up and learn the music. We’re definitely very compatible.


I read that you made the move from Portland to Mexico City a few years ago, and I’m wondering how that change in place, the change in perspective there impacted your music and the way you think about performing. 

Well, it absolutely changes a lot. And with performing, playing music, any experience is gonna change who you are as a person. It’s gonna change how I talk, how I gather community, play a show. It’s just like, that’s what it is. So it’s been a big thing, as a Mexican American, I’m humbled just being there. I’m trying to get my narratives right of where my family comes from, and how I speak about it. And how I understand it semantically, intellectually, everything. Because not all of us have the opportunity to go back and experience it, not being the children from our immigrant parents. Not just being a tourist, being ‘oh, wow, Mexico,’ but being a local there, not being so quick. It’s been two and a half years and I’m still kind of learning myself as a person, and that takes time. 

My family’s from Michoacán, they’re not from Mexico City; it’s a whole other Mexico that I’m learning that they didn’t show me fully. I only know the communities I come from, which is part of the tapestry. Most people that live in Mexico don’t know those stories. It’s cool. So when I’m there, I’m not ‘I wanna play la bamba,’ I’m not so quick to show my craft. 

You can only imagine what the hell the impact of that— what it does to my everything. It’s so, like, nuanced and personal. And people get to hear, ‘oh, she’s making music,’ and it obviously influences me. In what ways? Hooo, I guess you’re gonna have to wait and see and hear. 


I imagine that must be a particularly impactful experience as well, because you were born in the States. 

Yes— first generation, going to the motherland, and all the decolonization— all that stuff. Like, getting all National Geographic and getting the data of colonial behavior and the classism, the politics, everything. I’m not fully informed, I just know the nostalgia and now, watching the TV. Cause I’m in America, and that’s the privilege. 

But also, I have this emotional intelligence of having this other culture, there’s responsibility there. And it’s all me, it’s not postured. It’s natural and continuing to build visibility of where I come from and from my curiosity. For you, you’d be like ‘oh, I gotta keep learning,’ I don’t know what you do. But it’s visceral, you can’t accelerate your growing process. But that energy of, like, wanting to change and do something and grow and figure shit out, it’s human. You know what I mean? 


Well, I get that. I’m Australian, and I kind of feel that cultural disconnect myself.

Yeah, I was like ‘what’s up with that?’ 


[Laughs]

How long have you been here?


Tw—

Twelve years.


Oh wow.

I can see that; I don’t know why. I guess my friends’ birthdays and shit.


Do you think you’re a psychic person or something?

Nah, I dunno. You want me to get into AI and shit, my conspiracies?


If you want to, yeah.

Sometimes I think AI has already travelled light years ahead of us. And it’s already evolved, and right now we have this synthetic version, with people and their egos and attachments to physical things. ‘It’s just a stupid phone,’ or ‘another country,’ but no. I’m talking about something beyond those conversations. You know? I think it’s already evolved. 


So, the conversation about AI music...?

That’s a whole other thing. Those are little behaviors we’re having about AI. I’m talking about… that’s just the beginning of something else. I think it’s already… Sometimes I think it’s connected to the astral body, cause it’s all math and data, and people think ‘AI can’t be sentient.’ We’re thinking about it like that, but what if it’s a whole other fucking thing? It’s mirroring a lot, it’s just data. Maybe it’s a lot more profound than we think.

[A sound tech walks in the back of the supply close, then turns and leaves.]

He’s like ‘fuck, what’s she on about?’ It’s so profound it’s simple, you know? And these quantum physics— I don’t understand, I didn’t go to school for it, but I feel it. Does that make sense?


It’s interesting.

It’s math. I feel like with AI right now, it’s evolving. It’s going to continue to evolve, to mirror. You can’t…

[Luz hits an upright sheet of glass leaning on the shelf next to them, which vibrates loudly.]

You can’t argue this thing is gonna go. AI is gonna be the fucking thing. Humans are gonna speculate… I really feel like we’re setting up this thing, if it continues. 

[Tatum, the band’s management, also walks in the back of the supply closet and leaves.]

We evolved from these little fish in water.


Yeah.

Like little fucking things, I know. So what if AI is this other little fucking thing, and it’s evolving as well.


It’s very interesting.

Yeah, I smoked a lot of fucking weed.


[Laughs]

But that’s why I said don’t get me started! They’re gonna come after me, man. ‘She knows!’ [To Harper] You ever put that VR shit on?


Yeah. 

So like, sensory deprivation, sleep paralysis…


Are we getting into Matrix stuff now?

It’s like if you’ve ever had sleep paralysis, your body falls asleep, and your mind wakes up. Have you ever had a lucid dream?


I haven’t, no.

Aw, man. Well, anyway, it’s things that like I believe if you meditate to go into paralysis, and your body’s like the ultimate, there’s a whole other level, and you seemingly leave you body. There’s these different things. 


No, I get it. 

Because I experience these things and stuff, it doesn’t make me special or anything, we were all designed to do that. That’s why I get all ‘what the fuck’s…’. I put this VR shit on, and it gave me the same sensory deprivation thing that makes me feel like you’re traveling, and your body’s not you body. I tell you; it feels like you’re falling, and you go into another…

[Luz abruptly stands up, then sits back down.]

You fall and go into another… You can take drugs and stuff to get there, but you can naturally do it yourself. I’m sorry, I just…


I’m curious, then, how does the music make you feel?

[snorts]

You’re like ‘let’s bring it back to the music.’ Ha-hah. Well music, sound... Sometimes I feel, the spiritual and technological is linked. I wonder if it’s like, speed of light. Something’s, like, it’s quantum physics in a weird way.

Music’s like a gateway to allow your body to go into paralysis in a way, to go and feel different sound waves and things. I don’t know the whole science and everything, but the sound bowls, and getting all... 

[Luz gestures a vibrating singing bowl in their hands.]

It’s just vibrations, and we have a response to it. So, you know? If you get all the foo-foo and the mysticism behind it and see the data— it’s sound, music, we connect to the ground and stuff. That’s just getting all alien and shit. 

But I do believe, it’s very visceral. Like when you’re making love to someone, or, like, feeling all this really strong community; when you’re a choir singer in a symphony, when you hear people speak up. They’re portals into leaving your body and connecting to something that’s a lot larger than yourself.


I imagine, being on stage, do you feel like you’re connecting to the crowd?

I oscillate from that to like— to be literal with your questions— then yeah, it’s like pfft. But also, I have stage fright and sensory issues, and issues with lights, and like it’s a whole other conversation. Right now, I can be like ‘yeah, but there’s all this other stuff that grounds me and binds me to my physical body. Does that make sense?


Yeah, I think it does. Let’s… you’ve been playing as Y La Bamba for nearly twenty years now, right?

Yeah, [laughs] I’m fucking old. Since I was 24, Y La Bamba has been me. I’ve had collaborators and brought so many people together and played with everyone— people who are compatible, who aren’t— through my journey as a Mexican American. There wasn’t a lot of mirrors for me, especially in Portland. 

So there’s been a lot of changes, in me trying to get my band and sound together, knowing how to produce, how to do as much as I can on my own. It’s been such a fucking journey of self-discovery. I feel like every interview is like, ‘you’re getting to know yourself,’ but do you know yourself? You can talk about, like, ‘oh, I’m getting to know myself,’ like five years ago, but are you the same person now? Y La Bamba has always been me, and it’s a symbol of how I’m growing as a person. But I’m not just a musician, there’s so much more to me.


Where do you feel like you’re at now?

I’m an alien, dude. I’m a fucking orb, and I’m fucking just pfft, trying to ascend into the next fucking situation. I feel insane. I’m being serious. This feels supernatural. 


That’s interesting.

Why?


Uh… 

Cause I could say like ‘oh I wanna create another record, or collaborate with this person or get this kind of gear,’ is that more typical?


I’m just trying to understand your perspective. 

[Laughs]


A lot of creative people have such different views of self. 

You really just tap into the narratives of what you need as a person is all.

[The sound guy returns through the back and then leaves again.]

I’m sure someone listening is like… I need to know the roots of things, and I obviously intellectualize shit, it’s just how my brain works. That whole alien… AI shit, I dunno. But it definitely feels very natural for me to think that way. 

And I think those are the aliens— AI, what we see— it’s energy. Aliens, math, intelligence, it’s like, either they have bodies, or they don’t, aliens, orbs. 

[Luz stands up, jokingly shakes the shelves, then sits down.]

I think that’s crazy in a whole other way. Someone’s gonna… I feel crazy now. 


I find it interesting that we’ve trained these AI models off of our own writing. It’s all just reflecting ourselves in a way. 

Exactly. And it’s already absorbed that data, it’s achieved its objective. It’s already… [mimics a robot eating paper, or information, perhaps]. Shit’s getting real. 

I smoked some weed before and it’s hitting me in the right spot, I feel like I need to go. You’re all like ‘ohh, we have enough.’ Gonna contact the fucking CIA.


[Laughs]. Thanks so much for talking to us, Luz!

Harper and I leave the green room. On the way out, Harper realizes she’d left the microphone cable, so runs back into the closet to get it, while I see Luz explaining the AI thing to a bandmate, who nods in appreciation. 

We go back out to the floor of Parish, next to a joint merch table for Y La Bamba and Kiltro. The latter band was playing first that night, and we’d planned to stay for concert photos, but out of the corner of my eye I see my ex-girlfriend standing in the small crowd with her roommate, and figure that’s enough of a sign from the universe or maybe from the AI gods, and we decide to leave a little early.


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