First Person: Chicano Batman

East L.A. band Chicano Batman brings their feel-good fusion of funk, R&B, Latin soul, cumbia, bossa nova, psychedelia, and pop to KCET's Studio A for an electric performance. Their set explores a range of sonic flavors including simmering slow jams, allegro samba interludes and cumbia breakdowns.

Discover more about Chicano Batman in their own words.

Bardo Martinez: Chicano Batman started from a drawing. It started with a drawing that was just a Batman that looked as though he could have been from El Salvador or Mexico or somewhere in Latin America. So right away it was just like, Chicano. Chicano embodies this identity of somebody from mixed origins but obviously most people know it as Mexican-American. So it was just this Mexican-American Batman. And so right away I connected the UFW Eagle to the bat, like it just made sense. Like, Chicano Batman. The Chicano movement was something started in the late 60's that coalesced with united farmworkers. You have Cesar Chavez you have all these individuals who were trying to fight for political justice. Much like the Black Panthers.

The connection for me was connecting to pop cultural symbols. One being a very strong political symbol, and one being a very strong pop cultural symbol, which is Batman, so thus we have Chicano Batman. You connect the two and you have that symbol.

To me, Cesar Chavez was a superhero, to me Malcolm X was a superhero, and they will continue to be that. So the whole point was to embody that political spirit within a symbol. And it wasn't a band yet, it was just something that was in my mind at that time. And it was something that I used as a pen name for myself at that time. And so when I joined Eduardo, Gabriel, and Carlos, the name fit

We live in a reality that's apolitical in many ways. Especially apolitical in the sense that there's no real movement. I mean there's a war going on and nobody's really paying much mind to it. There's nothing as vibrant as there was in the late 1970's, for many different reasons. Between the two party system [they're] devoid of any real substance, any real cultural or political movement. And I guess that's kind of the main idea behind the symbol is kind of reviving that political spirit within the cultural reality that we live in.

On Their Transnational Sound

BM: We dress like Los Angeles Negros o las pasteles verdes. The Los Angeles Negros were from Chile. A band that played in the early 70's. They played ballads that we were probably conceived to. It's all this music that a lot of our parents, and it's not just us in the band it's just like a whole generation of Latinos, not just Mexican. I'm talking about people from El Salvador, people from Columbia. I'm talking about people born in the 1980's, which is us. We were born in the 80's. And our parents were living in the 70's, late 60's, 70's right? A lot of our parents from my generation around in their 50's. So they listen to all those old ballads. Recuerdos is a common name for all these ballads. Like Leo Dan's 'Como te extrano, yo mi amor por que sera, te extrano tanto en la vida si no estas." Just classic, just oldies from that we grew up on..

On Staying Contemporary

BM: We have different projects going on at the same time. We have this symbol representing this political reality, right? We have the way we dress, symbolizing a cultural reality amongst Latinos born in the 1980's, right? And we also have our music which is just us. Everyone in the band projects their musical influences. Which there are many, whether it's heavy metal, Colombian cumbia, whatever it is. We all put our influences together and it's just a natural fruition. We're not necessarily trying to pigeonhole us within any particular genre.

BM: Sure. So what I'm trying to paint to you, Juan is that we have, we're trying to embody political movement within our symbol, right? We're trying to, we're trying to embody a cultural reality within the way that we dress. And then our music is just something that's just ourselves. You see what I mean it's just like a blending of all these things that you can not necessarily name because it's just our lives that are being, you know, exposed, right? So... Which I think makes everything blend together.

On Bandmembers' Influences

BM: I'm going to start with Eduardo Arenas who is the bassist in our band. He also, he also sings in the band. When we first were talking about music, we both have a big love for Brazilian music. But he also had a drive to represent a lot of the Mexican cumbias created in the 70's and 80's. I'm talking about Rigo Tovar. Los Bukis, for example. Just those really Mexican bands that everybody loves. Like Rancheras, Nortena or nortena, right? But he also loves heavy metal, he loves everything, like just everything under the rainbow. And I would say that Gabriel Villa who is the drummer in the band is very similar in that sense. He's an amazing percussionist. And he grew up in Cali, so Cali's all salsa; Cali's salsa to the bone. So, you know whether it's the Latin Brothers or Flucos Ustesos he's got that all in his hands, he definitely brings that down. And he also studied music in France. I mean for me, when I met Gabriel I was amazed by the fact that he could play Samba on the drum set. There's not many people in LA who can play that style. And I was really driven to create Brazilian music. I went in with the idea that I wanted to create Brazilian music like, because I love Caetano Veloso and the tropicalia movement that happened in the late 60's. So for me Brazilian music was something that I definitely want to bring in.

And we have Carlos Arevolo who is the lead guitarist of the band. He's really into soul music and as we were driving to San Francisco this weekend you know, he would just play Prince. And a lot of music from the 80's and late 70's and stuff, kind of like funky soulful stuff.

For myself, I don't know. I like a lot of like, the pop tunes from the 70's and you know, whether it's Todd Rundgren or the Four Tops.

On Discovering Music

BM: Music evolves almost in a lightyear because you could just listen to music from like the 50's and be like "alright, I'm going to play this style because I could go to youtube, and listen to it, and watch it, and learn how to play a particular instrument, a particular style, et cetera."

On Embracing Latino Musical Heritage

BM: I think part of it is just being tired of the radio. I've been tired of the radio for years and I don't really listen to it because it's just monotonous, it's the same. The same recycling of the same style because the wants of the mass media. I think Latinos look into their own cultural reality. Maybe not even theirs but also a wide range of what I would just call roots music. People just get into roots music, whether it's from Africa, whether it's from Latin America. I mean they see the wealth and substance of something that is just natural and really pure.

For example: Son Jarocho, I think that's a good example of a style that different musicians and particularly here in L.A. are getting into, or have been into for a while. It's natural, pure music from a community. It's the music of a community. And I feel that everybody's longing to find a community, right? And to play it creates that community. And I feel that's what a lot of us are trying to get at here in L.A.