Y La Bamba

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed human. No gloss, no filter. Just stories. Spoken without fear. A person who is not generous cannot be an artist. The world will be at peace only when it is ruled by poets and philosophers. Listen to my weekly podcast, the Pooja Bhachow on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Come for the honesty, stay for the fire. Hey, I'm Nora Jones, and today I'm playing along with Ila Bamba. I'm just playing along with you. I'm just playing along with you. Hey, I'm Nora, and with me as always is Sarah Oda. Welcome to the show. Welcome to the show. Our guest today is Ila Bamba. We sit down with singer-songwriter, guitarist, Luz Elena Mendoza-Ramos, to talk about their influences growing up with traditional Mexican music styles that lend themselves to the art of storytelling. This was such a fun episode. I just love their music so much. So it was it was really fun for me to to meet them and and get to share this time with them and play music. I know you touch on this in the episode, but they sing in both Spanish and English, but it's like you don't have to understand what's being said to feel like your heartstrings are being pulled on. Yes, I don't I don't speak Spanish and I don't know what the meaning is. But I it's just feel so emotional when I hear it. It's so powerful to kind of transcend language with music. I loved hanging with Luz and I'm so happy to share this episode with you. So please enjoy Ila Bamba. OK, so one, two, one, two, three. Tanto Tiempo Tanto Tiempo Sin Hablar Contigo Sin Sabled Tu Bien-E-St-A Trai-techn- Tu-Min-era-cu-and------------------------- Hablame de toda diferencia que no se para Aunque duela y encontrará que los brazos de otro no va a cariño Se ven como se ven, se ven como se van Se ven como se ven, se ven como se van Y tu manera de ser, y tu manera de ser no me falta para que perder el tiempo Ya ves cuando las cosas no se dicen, se ven como se ven Se ven como se van Ya ves cuando las cosas no se dicen, se ven como se ven Se ven como se van Te creo en Y tu manera de ser, y tu manera de ser no me falta para que perder el tiempo Ya ves cuando las cosas no se dicen, se ven como se ven Se ven como se van Ya ves cuando las cosas no se dicen, se ven como se ven Se ven como se van Durante el mediodía El resuelo me encuentra vacía Me dejo llevar con el puro sentimiento Me dejo llevar con el puro sentimiento Me dejo llevar con el puro sentimiento Me dejo llevar con el puro sentimiento That was fun, that was from the new record Yeah. Or how old is the record now? Like a year? Yeah probably, I mean I wrote a lot of these songs like during the shutdown. Yeah and so now I'm like whoa. How are they? They're pretty heavy right? Yeah I mean and then a lot of people when they interview I don't know when you get interviewed they're like tell us about the record. I always forget to talk about a lot about the production part of it where I'm like yeah I just got things together and Because I'm just learning, you know I'm learning as a producer as I go along with good engineers and stuff like that and like but a lot like when I hear the record I'm like cool like sonically that's what it sounds like but the words and all that are like very COVID very and that time very during the whole George Floyd like the uprising that everything it's hard not to like feel like what happened like time traveling what is still happening you know Yeah well it was an intense time and I mean I feel like it all comes out and when you're writing how you're feeling and that makes a lot of sense. Did you record all this stuff in a studio or did you sort of piece it together? Did you do a lot of stuff at home or? I did everything. I did stuff. I worked a lot with my friend Ryan Oxford. He's the engineer that I've been working with like the last couple records and he and I collaborated like on Hughes he like did like he did the production on that like he did the guitars I mean we did it together but he already laid out like this beat and this guitar and I was like oh this is awesome so we did that on that song and then the rest were you know me just changing some songs a little bit here and there until I finally was like oh yeah this is it and then I went and moved to Mexico and I finished it like I added like percussion and bass and stuff like that. Moving to Mexico and doing that was like the incentive is that the right thing to say? I don't know like the the moving force of that and like having me meet community and musicians and stuff like kind of using like me finishing my record there being like oh like I'm meeting people with with more local musicians down there. Oh okay and but I always make the same mistakes so too but that's another conversation you know just as a woman and like as a divergent person in studio and like so many things I can go on and on and on that I'm like so shy about talking about but it's but at the end of the day like that's part of the process. Mm-hmm. Mine you know. Yeah well I feel like everybody has their own and it's not there's no wrong way to do it and whatever makes you comfortable is the way you should do it you know. Yeah it's interesting trying to tailor that. Yeah. You were trying to figure that out. And I feel like it's a never-ending learning process too. Yeah. I mean I've made a lot of records and I'm still like wait a second I shouldn't have done it like that. I know but but that's the way it was done. That's just the way it was done. Yeah and then and then that's part of the growth of it all you know. I don't know how other people see all of that process of being a creative or just being like this you know open channel I don't know if there's like there's limited language for it but just like being this just available for it to come out or whatever you know. Yeah well that's kind of that's the most sensitive part of the job right and it's the part that is unpredictable and for me that can be frustrating but I feel like if you're open it finds its way in and out I feel like making records I think it's so fun and I love it and I love being creative in the studio. Yes. I don't like to overthink things. I like to do a lot of off-the-cuff takes and you know I don't like to over overthink the music but then when it comes down to finishing it and mixing or something I get really like task master. Yeah. Because if it doesn't sound right the way I know it sounded in a rough mix or something I get god I drive people crazy. Because you already heard what it sounded like. Exactly. You have different you have context of different versions. Oh yeah. Yeah I'm driving people crazy right now but the process you know of doing it is so fun. Man we can go on for a long time. I know it's so fun. Well so you live in Mexico City now. Where did you grow up? I grew up in so I was born in California. My mom's side of the family they slowly started to migrate to California like the 99 Highway 99 like harvesting fruit and nuts so they lived in the migrant camps and worked out of them for that was like the lifestyle like in the late 70s and stuff for them and then my dad crossed the border with a coyote three times around through the river through the tunnel you know but that was like that was in the late 70s 80s. Okay. Late 70s and then I was you know born 1982 raised in Southern Oregon even though I was born in California went and visited a lot in California spent like a lot of this had my quinceanera there my baptism like all the all that stuff. You're part Californian. Yeah I feel it even though I wasn't like didn't go to high school there or like anything I spent a lot of my time there and like it was awkward for me in Southern Oregon. We also only hung out with Mexican families and Mexican communities in Southern Oregon so this is an interesting upbringing. I'm trying to skip all this other stuff but and then I moved to Portland when I was like 24. You were in Portland you didn't grow up that you were in Southern Oregon. No in Southern Oregon. Was it a small community? Portland or the where you grew up? Yeah it's a small little town like it's beautiful Southern Oregon's beautiful like Grants Pass, Ashland, Medford. Medford was where I went to school and all that okay but we all we had a huge large population of Mexico like you know of a Latino community in Southern Oregon. Portland was just the way later until like 24-25. Okay and then did you live there until you moved to Mexico City a few years ago? Yes and then I oh so that's really your you've been there a long time. I moved to Guadalajara in 2019 I mean I was like pretending I'm like yeah I moved to Guadalajara but I was touring a lot and then the shutdown happened and when the shutdown I was in 2020 2019 December and then 2020 January I was in Mexico City I was like I'm gonna try Mexico City next. That's cool and then I did on two we went on tour Durand Jones and then tour ended in February February 29th I stayed in LA I was like super like came off of like a really awesome tour I was all how positive and stuff and then March 4th you know I'm in a hot tub looking about all this COVID shit and then I went to Portland because I had a job with a choir with a high school choir so if I didn't have that I would have just went back to Mexico so I stayed in Portland for the whole duration of that time so I was already done with Portland. And then you had to be there. But it was about the same time like I'm sure you can relate or empathize it felt the safest place to be during that time. Well at least it was familiar. It was super familiar. Yeah Mexico City was awesome I made friends but I was like so like this is cat what the hell like what am I going to be isolated. You know like where am I going to be isolated. Yeah someone works new and huge in Mexico City. No that would have been really scary I think. I think it would have taxed my mental health in a different way. So when did you make it down there a year and a half ago. Okay like for real with my dog I brought my dog and nice but it's also part of my neurodivergent way of organizing myself and thinking about identity and my roots and stuff like I have to be in Mexico to do all that work like it's so visceral for me to be there like my parents are not from Mexico City they're from like the the sticks of you know we truck on the ranchers tiny they come from like working the land and stuff okay not even a town they didn't go to school yeah you know stuff like that like wow there's a whole other story that I want to bore you with about like what I know about my family's history but the whole like trying to decolonize and all that you know like for me being in Mexico is where it starts. Yeah when I when I actually do that work of decolonizing and understanding like my diaspora my roots my being biracial and like what it all means and like everything just like I think being there's like so humbling because the conversations are different and they're necessary and I need to hear them as like a Mexican American in Mexico so it's like I'm glad that I'm out of the context of the nationalism of being just American here but being put in a place where traumatized my parents and informed and shaved my parents and my culture so it's like I grew up with it so I'm there and it's familiar I'm like that's why it's eat that's why it's not I'm not saying it's easy but it's visceral it's natural to be there but there's so much more that I need to educate myself in a way that they couldn't educate me of another part of Mexico that I am like whoa like the politics and the yeah the meat so much so much stuff so much sounds like a rule just like my ayahuasca even though I've never done I've never done that but I'm like whoa I'm like face to face with like this machismo the capitalistic the trauma of like all that you know like it's just in Mexico is it the different face you know in the United States is a different face with being there and see what it did to my parents and what it continues to you know all of it it's all the same root it's all the the root of violence and power and you know that is the right of this and all that stuff well and also you're just you're just like diving right into your own self by being there probably you know and you're you're finding out more and more about yourself yeah it's very humbling 41 and like trying to not take space but then take the space man come come visit I would love to I've only spent I've only been to Mexico City a couple times and I got I got really I think I got altitude sickness both times I would get bloody noses the first few months that I was traveling back and forth really it was wild I would wake up and I'm like what yeah everyone always tells me it's the best city in the coolest and every time I get there I just I got I got to like stay in bed I can't I can't hang that means you have to be there for a month exactly I just gotta go for more time for like a get rid of the week long or whatever it will do to your body and then just like you talking about that makes me think of something that is so for me because my my dad was Indian and I didn't really grow up I went there a couple times when I was little but I didn't really grow up in that with that side of my family so much but I always wondered would it be like to really go and spend time there I've spent I have spent time there but like to live there be a whole other thing there's not a lot of Mexican Americans that I know that are living in Mexico City yeah there's this reverse assimilation shit going on or something really I'm still trying to unpack it all like that's why I like hesitate talking about it but I'm like trying to find the root I'm like oh yeah like there's certain similar things from code switching in spaces or American culture or whatever because I grew up in just like Mexican Mexico all you know those type of conversations of I don't know just know just knowing how to participate in a different like your cultures um political affairs or emotional affairs spiritual affairs like ancestral affairs like all this stuff that just you know there's people that don't care about these conversations these topics or they do but I just can't help it you know I'm like oh like like we are like algorithms of our ancestors you know like these are like these are like these are like these are like these are like these are like that algorithms you know like and and it's for me it's if we have access to and it is a privilege to like you know investigate where you come from or go to that country to go to the country where your parents are from or like but there's not a lot of us in Mexico City that get to experience you know Mexico City is a Mexican like Mexican Americans that come from communities that we came from like migrant might you know like that yeah it's interesting taking that space and I don't want to be like hey in the United States we talk about identity politics like this and so you know like you don't you don't you can't apply that shit no it's like a whole different way of being right yeah and I wonder what it would be like you know I'm sure I can empathize with you like I'm hearing a little I don't know you but like you didn't grow up with that side of the family but that shit will never go away yeah that shit's like so you I'm sure right well and I'm close to them now and I was close to my dad you know after age 18 so I it wasn't like it's not like they're complete strangers to me but having not grown up in it it's a weird place to be like to feel like I'm not really a part of it in between yeah even though they're kind and welcoming once I was a part of it it's different to grow up in it than to be on the outside of it so who am I yeah yeah yeah but what did you listen to growing up did you listen to just traditional Mexican music yeah yeah thanks for asking that question I grew up listening to so the my the music that informed my ears my spirit my brain my whole environment was Mexican music yeah it was corridos corridos like en music and music norteña like Ramona yala los bravos del norte cornelio reina musica del campo like from I can say any playlist like las jilguerías I'd love to do it you know duets yeah like like from like the the ranch like just you and then there's a lot of music that I grew up listening to is kind of misogynistic now but they just didn't age well but it's still nostalgic for me like a lot of like dos corridos you know are like but it really tells the story of how people are living you know even if it's like you know and then also seen like misogynistic men singing there's that deep wound of the deep wound of patriarchy the sensitive man just like singing that's the only way to like express their emotions at least I'm saying it from like the man that I grew up with and my dad specifically is like such a macho dude but like they don't share their emotions but they will definitely sing a song on top of their lungs you know that's amazing and I'm sure like a lot of like cultures are similar like I don't know the American culture is like totally different I'm not sure but but like I know I know a Mexican culture like when we emote and like mariachi music to like son tradicional de tierra caliente o le son tradicional like it's just you're emoting you're like saying something like Juan Gabriel you see that guy it's you know rest in peace when you saw that person sing holy crap you know that person was with conviction and say something and a lot of the men would watch and be like oh like kind of uncomfortable from like their homophobia and seeing a gay like man really just sing but like they couldn't help to empathize and be like oh I feel the same I feel like this pain because I can identify but not you know like I still love that music I love love love like all the the guitars like the the rink rink intos and even the a lot of the lyrics I didn't grow up listening to boleros though that much boleros and mariachi I grew up listening to mariachi but boleros was more commercial from what I hear I understand it was more like around beautiful boleros are beautiful okay I don't know all the difference between there's I'm learning what pangos boleros I mean I know mariachi probably the best it's very commercial that's why it's commercial okay or like commercial in the sense where it was more um what's that word more accessible or it was I don't know the right word but boleros and mariachi was the stuff that you always heard around okay it was like the most go to you and then all the corridos and orteños I think we're I think a lot of there's a lot of classism too with like the type of music that people listen to like I would like people would discriminate like music off a rancho be like oh you're from that class you're like a rancher so you listen to that type of music would it be comparable to like folk music I think so in the day I think so I always try to find I always try to compare but you know at the end of the day you can't because we're talking about indian folk music you're like you can't really compare it to like or no american folk music or like oh to american folk music but even it's like kind of it's not the same you can't compare indian folk music with american folk music yeah you can't compare mexican music to totally american folk music but it is it could be somewhat similar in that yeah home strumming yeah singing yeah and picking guitar picking not no like you know huge production right okay yeah yeah you asked me to sing a song of yours which I'm stoked okay you want to do it yeah has this been released on anything no I don't you know what I do I'm really bad so I do a lot of songs live I don't record them there's a lot of songs that I'm like la la la oh crema de melón crema de melón is also not yeah on that one but we we should do this one let's do this one so you'll sing I'm good you could I'm gonna sing it I can't sing it like you but I'm gonna sing it like me yes I'm excited I'm excited I always like I want to write songs for people to sing and I just get really intimidated I've never done that I've never written something for someone else it's an imposter syndrome intimidating but I want someone to hear I want to hear someone sing my song you know yeah I feel like it's a different mindset and it's it's hard to get in there yeah confident about it it's also I feel I do think sometimes it's hard for someone else to sing your song like you as good as you yeah don't sing like me no but I mean to embody the feeling and the actual soul of it is hard to do when you didn't write it and the people you know great interpreters of course can do it but I mean I could imagine like you giving a song to someone and then thinking hmm I think I could do better because you're so good I'm really I'm into I'm intimidated I've been writing so I wrote a song for my friend Emma she's gonna put on a record and she's learning how to produce herself and she's she's learning the whole like asking me questions like hey so I'm recording with this guy he's asking me for this much like she's asking me these questions you know and I was like here here's a song like I don't care about royalties or anything or whatever I wrote a song you put down your record and like I'll produce it for you or whatever and you don't owe me anything because no other fucking dude is gonna give that to you you know like it's a clock yeah you know like people are like okay time is money but sometimes like we I don't know especially as a woman for me like we need a little bit of like you know a learning curve we need like space yeah more space yeah it's hard to know how to go about things sometimes okay nice the reason why this is so hard is because well now that I know that it's being recorded and everything now you're overthinking it well yeah I'm like oh no because I'm just like blah blah blah and also just it's so different like having people watching you oh I know you know I just met you oh I know it's hard to process just like meeting yeah come on oh it's a weird thing I know it is totally um okay so safe space though so the beginning of the song is oh yeah you start from the beginning and then I'm gonna come in this song too has a lot to do with not masking anymore a lot of the words are just like part of my healing journey of learning who I am as a person in this world it's like singing like something something ain't right I know I can tell it's like always knowing that I've you know just been a little different not just from trauma ancestral trauma and stuff like that but it's just way more so much more complex and being on this journey being later diagnosed and trying to process all those feelings unpack all of that like kind of like worry or not I won't be ashamed darkness awaits silence unknown I'm still recovering like wrapping my bones all of my body like being conscious of my physical body and the spirit that's holding it carrying it around um and then the part of like how curious I'm curious what will be done now ah like the curiosity of what we're going to do as a people as a community as you know yeah and I can feel that from these lyrics but it's they're so clear but also so universally applicable yeah it's like the best kind of song right yeah you know I'm talking about eating yogurt you know not but not in a shallow way in a deep way it's like that that simple prayer kind of thing I think it's high I kind of like singing high I write I also write songs are not my register a lot on purpose or just because you're on purpose just because I like I can't I hear him that way and and I like seeing him like that but when I'm live everyone's like they can't hear me you know and but I'm singing in my falsetto and like just I like I like it it's a vulnerable place to sing yeah I think that's probably why rings like more true but I love it should we just go for it and see what happens yeah okay I'm all okay something something ain't right I know I can tell where you're not I won't be ashamed Darkness waits Silence unknown I'm still recovering Wrapping my bones All of my body As my spirit wanders around I'm curious what will be done now I might give a damn Silence unknown Patience may change Like the rain in the summer True might not be the same Silence unknown Candlelit corners As my eyes face the night And healing all of the pain Ooh, ooh Can't believe it's been a year Drove me away to disappear Nothing to prove to take What is life if we fake? I think I might give it a try To breathe as deep as I can take I might give a damn Ooh Mmm And then the fairies came out of the sky That was so sad I loved that That was so sad That felt really beautiful And that's a- I've never sung- That song has never been sung out loud. That's amazing. What's the recording you sent me from? Was it a demo or was it from a show? No, it's a demo from my house. So you hear the lady outside selling. I heard that, yeah. She wasn't selling anything. It's this audio recording you hear all throughout Mexico with all these trucks trying to pick up like your old mattresses, your old refrigerators or appliances and they pick them up, like recycle them. So you hear the, And then I started singing immediately and it didn't even- she was outside but it was outside and it didn't keep going so it was like a perfect time to go in the song. It's funny in the beginning, that first part it almost felt like Irish to me or something. Because you heard the chendon? No, just the way the melody is. It was funny, I was singing it and I was like I feel Irish all of a sudden, that's strange. I don't know, I have 1% Irish in me. It's so funny how the different ways of singing in completely different parts of the world sometimes just sort of are similar. You know what I love? I love Indian music in the non-conventional, the non-intervals, all the hidden in-between. Because that's what the world is, there's no binary. So when you look at a fret to me it's binary. Yeah, yeah, it's straight. Because there's like, and it's also like in this, what is it tuned in? In this like American, western, kind of like whatever. But then you see all this, the fluidity. I feel like when you go, I'm so super ignorant but like India is so fluid with so many things. Oh, it's a huge big place. It feels non-binary, it feels like there's place for so much spirit and so much, but I don't know. I don't either. So that's why with music, I'm like, oh, like if people are playing, you know, different cultures are playing like music that is like a violin or like a symphony. It's like you can just really capture so much more than like the... Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's beautiful. I love it. It's funny too with piano, it's very like, I can't bend any notes. But you can bend your vocal note. Yeah, totally. What's up? That's what's up? That's what's up. Well, this was great. Yeah, I mostly just, I really wanted to meet you and just be in your presence and hang out. And I'm after this, after I walk away, I'm gonna be like, what the hell just happened? What did I do? What's going on? We'll send you the recording and then you remember. All right, well then. Thank you. I guess this is it. This was awesome. Okay. You were great. You were great. It was so fun. Aw, that was so nice. That was great. There's such an open and beautiful soul. Yes, very open and I was really thankful for that. Felt very connected to the music. Yeah, it was great. I learned a lot. The first song in that episode was Debujos de mi alma, which came out in 2023 on the album called Lucha. The second song we did is called I Might. I had so much fun singing that song. Thanks again for listening. Today's episode was recorded by Matt Marinelli, mixed by Jamie Landry, edited by Sarah Oda, additional recording by Jamie Landry, additional editing and mixing by Matthew Vasquez, artwork by Eliza Fry, photography by Shervin Lenez, coordinating producer Rachel Ward, produced by Nora Jones and Sarah Oda. Hey, that's me and you. Yehey. No gloss, no filter, just stories, spoken without fear. A person who is not generous cannot be an artist. The world will be at peace only when it is ruled by poets and philosophers. Listen to my weekly podcast, the Pooja Bhachon on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Come for the honesty, stay for the fire. This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.