The Mexicolas

The Mexicolas. Name derived from a Mexico to LA flight (mexico-la). I hoped this was not to be their most interesting talking point.

Thankfully it was not. After chatting through the Impact of simply red’s departure and the benefits of singing through a tangerine I felt these guys new their stuff. I felt they were about to impress. And I genuinely liked them.

Jamie Evans - Vocals / Guitars / Keyboards
Tim Trotter - Drums / Percussion
Del Carter - Bass

Music News: How do you feel about the break up of Simply red?

Jamie Evans: Gutted naturally. I couldn’t get out of bed the whole day. I’ve had to rip my w*nk poster down off the wall. Ill never be able to fantasize about ginger again!

MN: You seem to get compared to QOTSA and the Stone Temple Pilots a lot, do you feel your being pigeon holed?

Jamie Evans: Yes, a lot. I can certainly agree that there’s two singles here to start our carrier, but there’s 11 tracks off the album that nobody’s heard yet.

MN: You reference Jeff Buckley and Mark Lanegan, yet a lot of your reviews seem to carry that 'crunching riffs and melodic vocals’ stigma. Do you think that’s where you are?

Jamie Evans: Well as I say that’s where those two songs are, it wasn’t our decision to go with those songs. But we are a rock band, that’s what we do we play rock. Its great to be compared to QOTSA and the stone temple pilots because they are great bands, and we do listen to those bands a lot. But I think our sound is not by design, it’s the way it turned out.

MN: Being a rock band, how do you feel about the current indie scene?

Jamie Evans: Very samey. There’s a few tunes about, one by the Wombats that starts off and could be any one of 20 bands and the current Young Knives single starts as a Franz Ferdinand riff. We’re not really an English sounding band, we don’t listen to English bands we listen to American bands.

MN: You’ve been known to reference Radiohead as an influence, would you ever go for that more experimental side of things?

Jamie Evans: Probably. You earn the right to be able to do that and they have with their second and third albums. It’s not something we’d write off, we’re about to go back into the studio and start recording ideas. I rue the day any of us start using keyboards to make tunes because we just don’t think it’s the right instrument for our sound.

MN: How long have you been touring?

Jamie Evans: This is our third tour of the year and each tour has probably been about a month long we’re on our last 3 days. It just seems like a week.

MN: What’s been your favorite gig of the tour?

Jamie Evans: Liverpool I think. Because of my uncles being there who I haven’t seen for years. I’ve got a very proud family, they were gypsys you see and I haven’t seen this guy for about 9 years. The room wasn’t full by any stretch, but we f*cking pulled it out.

MN: How did you meet?

Jamie Evans: Me and Tim met 5 years ago in London, I was playing in a band in southampton and during the band’s sound check who were supporting us I was like wow - I heard this guy playing drums, it was the only time in my life I’ve got up and tried to poach someone. Tim up’d sticks and started coming up to London to practice with the band I was with at the time. Del we met,

Del Carter: As it turned out I was in a phone box one day and needed a light I asked this guy and said 'mate you got a light?’'

Jamie Evans: I said mate I’m not being gay or anything but do you happen to play music he said yeah so I said what do you play and he said bass, I said what do you play he said I got an old 70s beat up precision, I said your in! We went back to the studio had a jam and thought right we’re there. We got on the bus, threw tangerines and eggs at him and that was it. That was 2 years ago.

MN: How do you compose?

Jamie Evans: We started out with an acoustic guitar and a set of drums, and we started thinking this isn’t natural we need to get heavier. It all started off a little bit kind of coldplayish but we thought, lets rock. Earlier on when you’ve got a blank canvas you’ve really got to put the work in, but it gets to a point when you have to say right that’s it its done, finished. We used to say the finish has to be by the morning, say at 5am that was the deadline.

MN: I know Ben Drummond was in the band before, was he just not the right fit?

Jamie Evans: Ben is more of a jazz guy, he’s not really a rocker, he teaches flamenco music aswell, he’s an awesome guitarist. He wasn’t just jamming, when we tried to get things together he had a totally different concept of what to play. You shouldn’t need to tell someone what to play.

MN: You said you do want to make it commercially, a lot of bands shy away from this but not yourselves?

Jamie Evans: We’re at a stage where you have to maintain your creative integrity, but at the end of the day it’s a business and it’s a career and we look at it that way otherwise you’ll never make it. Its like doing vocals through a tangerine and shit like that, I mean you’re never gonna get anywhere like that.

MN: When you listen to an album what’s the most important thing for you?

Jamie Evans: Its different with all of us. I tend to go more for vibe- the actual sound of the record.'

MN: Are there any themes that run through the album?

Jamie Evans: I suppose there’s an element of fear, fear of yourself. Fear that you aren’t good enough.

MN: Do you think that’s a result of the pressure I presume you’re under to perform?

Jamie Evans: Well I suppose its pressure we put on ourselves. The record company just kind of said right ok we trust you to do your own thing.

MN: What do you want out of the gig tonight?

Jamie Evans: It would be nice if it’s busy and to see some familiar faces again. We’ve got a lot of fans in Birmingham.