Rey Pila: ‘I haven’t felt that way with the other songs, it’s a very special feeling, a lightning that strikes when it wants to strike’

Mexico City synth rock band Rey Pila will release their fourth album, ESTAN STRANGE I (“They’re Strange”), on 28 November, taking a critical look at toxic behaviour through the lenses of fame, money and social media.

Rey Pila (“King Battery”) formed in Mexico City in 2010 and comprises Diego Solórzano (lead vocals, guitars, bass, synths, drums and percussion), Andrés Velasco (guitar and synths) and Rodrigo Blanco (guitar and synths), specialising in synth-driven dance-rock. They have been described as ‘sounding like they were raised on a diet of The Cars, David Bowie and Kraftwerk’. Of their name, Solórzano says: ‘In 2009, I was traveling with a few family members in Europe and we stumbled upon a show in Rome. I can’t remember the name of the artist, I think it was an Italian guy but in a collaborative painting, they’d written “Praise King Battery” in Italian and I thought it would make a good band name! I met Andrés when I was 17. I think that the first time we actually hung out was in a parking lot after a Kraftwerk show because it was so packed that everybody got out of the cars and started playing football there! I met Rodrigo on the local scene.’

ESTAN STRANGE I recognises the constant influences of the band, including electronic duo Boards of Canada and The Cars, but also throws some new elements in the mix, including Salem and the Witch House genre, French electronic music, The Prodigy, The Chemical Brothers, and old school English techno. Many of the tracks have been inspired by films, as well as books that include ‘Concrete Island’ by J.G. Ballard and ‘Doctor Faustus’ by Thomas Mann. The album consists of 12 tracks, including last month’s single ‘One Of Us’, ‘Friend Request’, ‘Running Blood’, ‘Online Soul’ and ‘No Me Arrastres’.

‘I think ‘One Of Us’ perfectly captures the main characteristics of the band – part electronica/dance and part rock ‘n’ roll, a little darkness but with a pop hat!’

‘One of Us’ captures the dance-rock rhythm characteristic of the band with catchy guitar ‘ganchos’ and an equally hooky chorus: ‘This song captured me immediately from its beginnings,’ Velasco said. ‘The initial groove made me want to dance and I love how it gave voice to some of my favourite riffs on the album. I think ‘One Of Us’ perfectly captures the main characteristics of the band – part electronica/dance and part rock ‘n’ roll, a little darkness but with a pop hat! It’s just in time for the celebrations of Halloween/Día de Muertos and the line “become one of us” made me think of a strange cult trying to recruit you in a horror movie!’

Solórzano weighs in: ‘Talking about the lyrics feels to me like watching the trailer for a movie,’ he said. ‘I get inspired by a lot of different things, including movies and architecture. ‘One Of Us’ is about being a part of something, which is not necessarily good, and how to convince someone to be a part of something – you know, part of the elite, masters of the universe, those kinds of horrible people.’

As the track kicks off: “Take a break. Breathe in. Fill your lungs with air and blind spots. Welcome back, come in. In my room, bones turn into ash.”

‘No Me Arrastres’ (“Don’t Drag Me In”), which they released as a single in September, marks a return to writing in Spanish for the band, following a decade of writing in English having spent time living in New York and LA. It explores similar themes to ‘One Of Us’, tapping into the idea of being dragged into someone’s personal, toxic war, underpinned by an infectious yet melancholic melody and powerful vocals from Solórzano. It gives me a Depeche Mode vibe, a band they have supported, and when I tell Solórzano this he seems genuinely pleased: ‘The three of us really like Depeche Mode, especially the early stuff,’ he said. ‘Who doesn’t like Violator, right? I mean, that record is amazing! I love their album Black Celebration (1986). For me, writing songs always starts with the music and then the lyrics. Here, the guitar part came first and then I started toying around with the rest of the elements. When we went to the studio to record the vocals, that’s when it started taking more shape. This song is about being drawn to something that doesn’t have to do with you and you’re just pretending to be someone else. Nothing in the lyrics is positive (laughs) but we really like hooks!’

As the track goes: “No hay mucho que decir. Te quedaste con mi nombre. Lleno de sangre, confundido y pobre. No puedes resistir los juegos de poder.” (“There’s not much to say. You got left with my name. Full of blood, confused and poor. You can’t resist power games.”)

‘When I write in English, it’s definitely less romantic than in Spanish’

Fascinatingly, Solórzano approaches songwriting in English and Spanish in very different ways: ‘When I write in English, it’s definitely less romantic than in Spanish,’ he said. ‘I like to use combinations of words in English that I think have a sense of describing something physical, or material, yet, at the same time, that are abstract. I think that the main thing is always to be honest when you’re writing a song, to really try to put a message out that is 100% real and take it from there.’

Growing up, Solórzano says that he wasn’t really ‘in touch’ with traditional Mexican music, such as boleros and ranchera music, partly because he discovered Nirvana at a young age: ‘I had a drum kit in my house and I was playing the drums all the time with different singers and guitar players, just having fun being a kid. And then I got tickets through a friend of my dad’s to go see David Bowie at Foro Sol, it was 60,000 people. Gratiot was opening that show. I didn’t know who David Bowie was (laughs), I was probably 13 or 14 but it was one of the most important moments in my musical schooling. After seeing David Bowie sing, I was like: “I want to be like that guy!” I became obsessed with him, it was the Earthling tour. He was physically okay still and he was smiling a lot, he had a beautiful smile. I was just so impressed, I was so mesmerised, I didn’t know what to say. I watched all his shows. I remember the second song in the set that night was ‘Jean Genie’, which I became a fan of after that.’

I ask him if he ever covers Bowie as his voice would be a good fit: ‘I haven’t dared to do it, it’s too much,’ he admitted. ‘When he died – and this is going to sound very weird – a friend of mine from the UK, Richard Priest, sent me a text and told me that he’d just died. I felt like a family member had died, a family member that I actually loved. For me, he was like an uncle, I followed his career and I followed all the albums but he was also a person that I really admired, not only on a professional level, but I thought that he was a very good human being from what I’d seen in interviews.’

‘Ojos de Terror’ (“Terrified Eyes”) also kicks off with a very hooky backbone riff before launching an attack on being enslaved by both your digital footprint and your own behaviour: ‘It started with the hook and then going from one part to another and whatever makes the song feel good – it has to be the best version of an intro I can come up with,’ Solórzano said. I say that writing big intros is something that they excel at: ‘Now that you mention it, that could be the inspiration, like when you see a movie and there’s a big first scene,’ he said enthusiastically. ‘The idea for it came to us in the studio. I write a bunch of stuff down all the time, I have a few notebooks where I write down phrases or sentences that I think are important and I just start writing as if I was speaking to you in a coffee shop or in a bar, trying to be really on the ground, you know? That’s why I use a lot of references to day-to-day stuff, like the phone, computer and social networks. Trying to write in Spanish, using objects as a reference can be a bit tricky, because of the way the words are constructed, so it becomes more of a conversation.’

‘Years later, I found out that it’s the one that Brian May used for a bunch of Queen stuff, he was the best guitar player ever!’

I tell him that I love the crunchy, synthy guitar pedal in ‘Ojos de Terror’ and ask him what it is: ‘ I think it must have been an 80’s chorus pedal, like a Roland that I bought a long time ago, which is probably really expensive now but I bought it when it was really cheap (laughs). Years later, I found out that it’s the one that Brian May used for a bunch of Queen stuff, he was the best guitar player ever!’

Solórzano acknowledges that songwriting constantly evolves over time: ‘I think it makes sense when you do something a lot, when you try and try (laughs), you become better. You know, you learn stuff, learn tricks, learn how to edit the bad parts but I still don’t know what I’m doing! You have a picture and a vision and there’s a sound in my head that’s never in the music in the end but the only way to do it is to do it and do it and do it!’

Rey Pila moved to New York City in 2012 to record their second album at DFA Studios with producer Chris Coady. Julian Casablancas of The Strokes heard the album and signed the group to his label, Cult Records, in 2013. Since then, they’ve lived sporadically in LA, although Solórzano admits that it’s ‘very hard’ to live in the US in the current (racist) climate.

‘There’s a scene where Harrison Ford and the girl go into a club and start dancing. The way the scene is constructed and filmed, how it’s directed, it made me feel that I was in that place.’

It turns out that of the songs on the upcoming album, ‘Online Soul’ is Solórzano’s favourite, harking back to his punk days as frontman of Los Dynamite (2002-2008), with staccato vocals to match: ‘It’s hard to explain what I felt when I was doing it, but I haven’t felt that way with the other songs,’ he said. ‘It’s a very special feeling, a lightning that strikes when it wants to strike. I felt really connected to a specific period in time. Did you ever see the film ‘Frantic’ (1988) with Harrison Ford?’ I say that I did. ‘Well, there’s a scene where Harrison Ford and the girl go into a club and start dancing. The way the scene is constructed and filmed, how it’s directed, it made me feel that I was in that place. It’s very random, but that’s it!’

With its characteristic dark synths, electronic rhythm, and guitars influenced by Queen, ‘Online Soul’ has a strong film noir feel with foreboding lyrics: ‘It’s about having a soul that’s constantly online,’ Solórzano explained. ‘How that takes over and AI and how we’re misusing information more and more these days. I think we’re not equipped to deal with these things. It’s like with the Bible, it has been used over time in so many bad ways, like a witch hunt or just to have something that doesn’t have an automatic system of correction.’

The darkness emanating from the lyrics is clear: “Uppers, downers. Round, come round. Cheer up and give me that dead man’s dream. Wolves and soldiers. Border brokers. Full disclosure. Dead man’s dream. Dead man’s dream.”

Other tracks, such as ‘Josephine’ combine both classical and punk influences: ‘That one started out with that chord progression, which is baroque, like a Bach classical music progression,’ Solórzano said enthusiastically. ‘It was very fun to try to place vocals on top of that! I come from a very punk background, that’s what I used to listen to all the time. After The Buzzcocks, this guy (frontman Howard Devoto) had another band, right? What was the name of the band?’ (It was Magazine.) I’ve been listening to them a bit, they’re more new wave punk. A few of the Ramones records are really, really good. And The Clash, they’re part of my DNA! I listen to a lot of Nitzer Ebb and D.A.F. My dad used to listen to a lot of 60’s Brazilian stuff, like Antonio Carlos Jovim (blending samba and cool jazz) and also classical music. He also listened a little bit to The Rolling Stones, which was my connection to trying to move to music that wasn’t classical or bossa, although I really love them both. I especially love old 60’s Brazilian records, the way they sound, they’re very melancholic and very dramatic.’

‘I would ask Johnny Cash about his childhood and what being born in that era, in that place, was like’

If he could go drinking with any musician, Solórzano picks Johnny Cash and Elvis: ‘We’re talking about drinking, not doing any other drugs (laughs) but they look like fun when they’re drinking! I guess I would ask Johnny Cash about his childhood and what being born in that era, in that place (Arkansas), was like. I think same thing with Elvis. I find it very interesting in those days in the United States, especially the South, which was a bit like No Man’s Land, like the Wild West. I’d be most interested in their stories, even more than the music, and how their lives were when they were young. You could have the same kind of chat with someone like Beethoven, he could tell you things about his early life that are completely different to what you know and what you’ve seen. I find that so interesting.’

They’ve had some hilarious moments on the road, as he recounts: ‘When we were starting out in 2010, we really liked to party (laughs). We still like to party, but then we liked to party even unnecessarily, like why are we here?! We had a lot of fun just being a band of friends, partying and breaking the rules. In hindsight, it’s maybe not very responsible (laughs). Well, we had a bunch of drugs that someone had given us in El Paso and after playing with Brandon Flowers, we had to drive 12 hours to Austin to play Austin City Limits. We knew there was a police border control on the way, so we went into a Starbucks and finished all the drugs at once (laughs). Later, me and the bass player were in the van having these crazy existential and philosophical chats, we were so high!’

(Top photo from left to right: Andrés, Rodrigo and Diego. Photo credits: Conrado Del Campo)