INTERVIEW – Los Bitchos talks origins, Mac DeMarco and French Food

10 Déc INTERVIEW – Los Bitchos talks origins, Mac DeMarco and French Food

Posted at 15:44h in Interviews, News by Lucyle Espieussas 0 Comments

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After their show at Check In Party in 2022, we spoke with Los Bitchos, the multi cultural, multi instrumental band that creates only bangers.

SOB : You’ve just played Check-In Party, how was it?

Serra : Yeah, it was really good.

Nic : Oh, we enjoyed super, super fun.

Serra : Well, it was nice to see that there were a lot of people there as well.

SOB : What do you think of the French audience?

Nic : We love it, it’s like this is my favourite country in Europe.

Serra : I think we all have like our favorite. At the moment I was going to say Switzerland. Well I just really like the aesthetic of Switzerland. Yeah, the hospitality is fabulous and it’s just a good time. You know what? France is a very close second and quite frankly, a very strong contender.

Nic : The food is always good. You know. French food is amazing. Why?

SOB : We wanted to ask you about the origin of your group because it’s pretty popular. How did you come together?

Nic : We all met in London. We all live in London, which is a very multicultural city. So it’s somewhere where if you play music, you’re just always going to meet people from loads of different countries, loads of different cultures. And yeah, we kind of all just fell together really. We kind of met through playing another project at parties via Facebook, various different things. But that’s the amazing thing about living in a big city like that, I guess, is that you do find people.

SOB : Yeah, it is. It’s interesting how you fall together in a band. Isn’t that nice?

Nic : It’s amazing. Yeah. I’ve been playing in lots of punk bands with lots of men, which is great. But I’ve been looking for something different for a couple of years. When these guys ask me to fill in on drums for a couple of shows, when they just started playing a few gigs, really, it’s like one of the first I think you’ve done like a handful of gigs with like various friends.

Serra : But yeah, we had a revolving lineup for a while.

Nic : It just seemed like something fun. So I was like, Yeah, I’ll do a show with them. And then we just kind of all clicked and then Jose joined very quickly after me.

SOB : And how did you decide to go instrumental?

Serra : I had listened to this amazing Peruvian cumbia compilation called « The Teacher ». And at the time my other projects were kind of slowing down a little bit. So I wanted to write music. I mean, I had written some music before, but nothing quite like what this band is. And the instrumental nature of that album was so amazing. So it was like, Well, why don’t I just try to write just an instrumental track just to see how it goes. So using a guitar line as the voice. And just one track turned into three, which turned into four, which then we did a gig and then yeah, it was really fun listening to just cool music that I liked and wanted to try and emulate someone.

SOB : I think that’s true that the guitar riffs are really catchy. Like you have them in your head. Luckily we can sing along with it.

Serra : Yeah, the Paris show is one of when we’ve been asked in interviews, what are your favorite shows in the years, that for me really stood out. I think everything just came together that night. I think that it was a really good vibe. There was a sold out venue in Paris and everyone seemed to be really excited to be there. The crowd was really a treat. Yeah, I felt like the sound was really good and we all played well and it was an exciting time. It was really early on our big tour and it just felt really exciting feeling that energy from the crowd.

SOB : You worked with Alex Kapranos on this album, right?

Serra : Yeah, he produced it.

SOB : And how was it to work with him? Like what did he bring to the album?

Serra : It was very inspiring. He’s a very kind and positive and encouraging man. He kind of just became a part of the band for the whole process. He came in to some of our rehearsals and did some pre-production with us. He was really good at kind of getting us to get the best out of ourselves, you know, instead of kind of telling us what to do, we’d spend ages just jamming and like, working on a groove over and over and over again.

Nic : And he’d get so excited when something sounded good and you’d just be like, Yes. Even though it’s just been like trying for like an hour. But when you kind of hit that sweet spot and he was happy with it, it just gave you such a buzz.

Serra : He had a really good, fresh, fresh perspective because we’d been playing those songs for, you know, a few years by that time. So we were quite used to how they were. And in terms of like an album context, it was so great to have him come in and to be, you know, just to make some really, really amazing insights and the suggestions that he came up with. Like he really transformed the songs into being the best that they could be. Yeah, he had a real vision for the album as a whole, so it kind of brought all of the songs together, definitely in such an amazing way. We love him very much.

SOB : Do you have a favorite memory from a festival or something funny?

Serra : Oh, gosh. My favorite one is Nic, actually, and Mac DeMarco. We supported Mac DeMarco like many years ago. It’s not a festival one, it’s a concert one or whatever. We did a cover of tequila, all of us at the end. And, you know, we’re like all on stage, like, you know, we’re hitting like little woodblocks and stuff like that. And everyone’s just like on stage having a great time in Dublin. So it was a crowd. And then like at one stage I’m like just jumping around and I’m like, I sort of turn away. I’m like, God, where’s Nic? Like, okay, she ran off stage, what’s happened? And then I turned around and Nic was at the back of the hall, like just mean crowds, but like keeping perfect time with him. And then there’s a video of her doing it because I missed her entrance and she just gets out and what she’s doing, she’s dead. She just puts her foot on the barrier and then just swivels and just fell back perfect time and then just gets crowd support and then Mac did the crowd.

Nic : So yeah, I had I haven’t slammed for a while at that point, but it’s something I used to absolutely love doing. I was really obsessed with it as a teenager and it just yeah, it was a great opportunity. And then while I was in there, like, I could see Mac looking in and I was like “Come on, come on”. And then he just took his shoes off. He was in there, like climbing up the balcony. It was absolute carnage. That was a very fun one.

SOB : Do you have any artist recommendations?

Nic : Oh, I’ve recently discovered this band in London called Collect Diva. They play like a kind of fusion of, like, Latin and jazz. And it’s a group of women. I think they have a slightly rotating lineup, like they seem to have different people. The drummer is Wicked Loads, a great percussionist. They’re just really cutting it and they’re not playing that many shows at the moment, but hopefully they’ll do it. I can see them doing some good stuff. They’d be a really good festival band. Definitely. Definitely.