Kinky: A Career in Subversion on Both Sides of the Border

"If you want to party after the show, stop by the Kinky tour bus," Wayne Coyne, lead singer of the Flaming Lips, said about the band almost every night during Kinky's inaugural United States tour. Considering the Mexican band's battered tour bus door, it is a statement funnier in retrospect, but Cohen spoke with the knowledge that we all know now: Kinky will be the biggest and most influential band out of Monterrey's Avanzada Regia movement.

A Kinky show is like no other: sweaty, fast, dirty, fun. Part rave, part punk show, part mariachi quinceañera, their live show sees Berlin, raises Ibiza, and then goes all in on Tijuana. It is the ultimate hybrid of electronic and live.

Cloaked under palm trees, Kinky's new home base in Los Angeles is just a stone's throw from the Beverly Center. Far away from their North Mexican roots, they reside in an oasis among $7.00 coffee shops and valet retail establishments. On a February afternoon, we chatted with keyboardist Ulises Lozano and guitarist Carlos Chairez.

Short background. Formed in 1998 in Monterey, Mexico, Kinky looked to push the boundaries of what is considered dance and folk music. "Monterrey is a city that has a lot of young people," Ulises says about their hometown. It is a university city that is both industrial and modern." Imagine Athens, Georgia except cooler, more Tequila, and focused less on radio rock.

The group has come a long way from their "let's Just do weird shit and do electronic bits with guitar" mantra that Carlos explains inspired the band in the beginning. With over 5 LP's in the books, history has been kind. Whether they have sung in English or in Spanish, stateside consumers have eaten it up. "As a kid, I never thought I would be able to play disco music, which is amazing and a testament to what we have been able to do as a band," Carlos says, humbly, about what the group has achieved. Latino-folk-disco-electro music. Globalization at its finest.

A contradiction to the norm has been in the groups veins since the beginning. The Unlimited Sunshine tour, the maiden voyage Kinky shared with Cohen's Flaming Lips, featured what can only be described as a smorgasbord of acts: Modest Mouse, Cake, De La Soul, and, as Ulises describes them: "a hilly billy group made up of 10 semi-musicians, semi-mechanics called The Hackensaw Boys." The band recall losing their motley crew in Wyoming and having to hitch-hike their way back to the tour.

Kinky live // Photo credit: Miguel Laguna

Part of the Kinky's success can be attributed to natural and thoughtful placement of their tracks in American media. During the early aughts, when many bands saw licensing their music to commercials and videos as unauthentic and wrong, Kinky saw an opportunity.

"We have a natural way of making music that is very visual," Ulises recalls. "Creatively, we have never changed our music for movies or commercials. During that time some musicians were against using your music in commercials but we thought it was a good opportunity to reach people that do not know of us, in a natural, nonconformist way."

Licensing is a tricky business to be a part of, but one well worth it if you make the right decisions. One wrong move and you will end up forever associating CSI Miami, David Caruso, and sunglasses when you listen to The Who's "Who Are You?." Kinky used the media early on which fast-tracked their career to where it is today. A song should complement, not overpower the visuals. Leverage is key. Just look at the myriad of places their music has popped up in American culture: Prototypical big corporation commercial (Nissan). Check. Worldwide number one video game (FIFA 2006). Check. Kick-ass Denzel Washington movie (Man On Fire). Check. TV show of note for 15 year-old-girls (Gossip Girl). Check.

Their MTV Unplugged album, Kinky Unplugged, released in February 2015, was a bit of a departure for the group. Known for tinkering with electronic equipment constantly, the requirements MTV placed on the group really made them rethink and revamp their recording process. Produced by Phil Vinall, who has worked with a who's who of British bands, including Placebo, the album took the group over a year and a half to put together. Computers were out, and in were items such as washboards and old bike tires.

"MTV was always telling us not to do electronic stuff, you know, no computers or iPad's or weird synths. It was as if there was a constant MTV police force checking everything before we would use the setup for a track. We called our setup for the live MTV Unplugged recording our trash kit, because it was all about using recycled things and making sounds with what some people would consider trash," Ulises laughingly says about the recording process.

The album features reworks of old numbers, new tracks, and covers of famous Mexican folk songs. Both Ulises and Carlos agree that the toughness of rearrangement made them come out a better and more well-rounded group, stating that it was important for the group to make something completely new and not reiterate old sounds. Kinky are always in the process of a subversion, of themselves, of latino traditions, of American expectations, and in that they've woven an identity totally unique.

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