We are almost there! On Wednesday, Womex will finally kick off its 2022 edition, so much so our Musical Road to Womex is reaching its very last stages.

But before the Worldwide Music Expo will raise the curtain on its Lisbon stage, we still have two more stop-overs to close the section in style.

The first one is in Mexico, for one of our “favourites”. We met and interviewed them only a few months ago and we couldn’t help but ask them to join us on the Road to Womex and participate in our section as well, introducing themselves and their music and compiling a playlist featuring their influences and recent listening.

We are talking about Son Rompe Pera, a band as crazed as the streets of Mexico City, and their marimba-driven cumbia-meets-punk-meets-rockabilly wild sound.

They are going to fire up the night of the 21st of October at Womex (as well as Europe stages in the following days) and they are also going to release a new album in the next few months. So no better time to get acquainted and be blown away by their energy.

Can you briefly introduce your music to someone who  is going to listen to it for the first time at Womex?

We’re like an explosion of energy, at the start of the show the marimba is lit on fire and from there it’s boom! Pure danceable chaos. Or maybe we are like a piñata, with all sorts of different flavours inside and we burst it open on the first song, and the audience scrambles around to grab some cumbia, maybe they are hit on the head with some falling punk, the lucky ones get some a taste of psychobilly, and there’s even some old bits of folklore and classics still stuck up there.

Who and what are your music influences and where does your sound come from?

First and foremost, our influences come from our dad, Batuco. We grew up learning music from him, which was a mix of salsa and cumbia classics, plus a lot of Son Cubano, but then also the rock of the time as well, he was a big fan of 80s US hair-rock bands (who’s isn’t?) and so we have Motley Crüe, Bon Jovi , Poison and all those silly bands.

As teenagers we turned to more obscure and cult sounds, and we played in psychobilly and punk bands, but the sounds of the barrio, the cumbias and salsas, were always present.

Our sound now is a mix of all the styles that we’ve picked up over the years, and as we are five musicians on stage, there is a lot of different genres blending together. The base of it all is the folklore that our dad taught us on the marimba, plus our punk upbringing as well as the Latin sounds we have always loved.  Add to that our little brother Kilos who was brought up on more pop-punk, our drummer Ritchie who has played in rockabilly bands in Mexico for like 50 years, and our baby-faced bass player who also comes from a more garage-rock-oldies scene, and you get whatever it is that we play 🙂

These days for some reason we are listening to some new “old” sounds, like our friends from el Bloque Depresivo, Thee Sinseers, as well as some good ol’ country-punk, and whatever our weird manager finds on AM radio in the tour van. 

As well as a Worldwide Music Expo, Womex is a good and proper global music fun fair. Is there anything you are looking forward to attending/enjoying during those five days?

It’ll be our first time at Womex, our first time in Lisbon, our first time in Portugal .. AHHH!!!  We really have no idea what to expect at all, we’ve never even been to a conference/expo like this. Primarily we look forward to seeing some cool bands from all over the world, and hopefully some local artists too, cause we really like to see what working musicians do in their hometowns, those who keep the scene alive, the small clubs and venues that make each place unique. And hopefully street musicians, as we started playing music in the street, we have a bond with those artists all over the world. And of course see some of the conference too, maybe learn a bit about the industry which we know nothing about, and meet programmers who will bring us to their cool cities and countries in the future! Oh and they tell us there is great food and that it is the most beautiful city and that there are beaches and all sorts of stuff, so yeah … we’re excited!

Womex is a unique opportunity to share and showcase your music with new people and let them know about your upcoming projects. Can you reveal to us some of your plans for the future?

Well my dear programmers from Womex … we have a great new album coming out in February, and if you already like what we are doing, this one is gonna blow you away. We recorded it in Colombia with lots of friends, it sounds amazing, and is much closer to the live show than our last album. We’ve been basically touring non-stop since March and will keep it up in the near future so give us a call (or actually email our manager, much better) and get some cumbia-punk in your town!

Let’s say that you have to draft an invitation card for our readers to join you at Womex and enjoy your showcase. What would you write in it?

It’s Friday night at Womex in Lisbon, it’s late, you’ve heard some of the most amazing music from all across the globe… you’ve had a drink (or three), you’ve chatted with old friends and met new ones. And now you’re ready for the evening’s biggest moment: get ready to move those hips and dance the night away to the Mexican madness that is Son Rompe Pera. Pure cumbia chaos erupting from the only punk marimba on the planet, and midnight is the perfect time to take a surreal psychedelic trip through Latin America with the Gama Brothers as your guides.  They’ll lead you on a journey that goes from Patagonia to the Rio Grande and beyond, passing through Chile, Colombia, Peru and of course all the corners of Mexico, featuring their signature sound that has led them to quickly conquer the hearts of fans around the globe. So put on your best threads, your dancing shoes, and fix that pompadour up real high, cause we’re taking you to a mythical Mexican dance salón deep in the heart of Chilangolandia, and it’s full of pachucos and morras ready to groove to the one and only marimba-cumbia-punk masters, Son Rompe Pera.

- Son Rompe Pera will be performing on the Capitolio Stage 
on Friday 21st from 00:45 till 01:30AM -

Photo ©: Marc van der Aa

You can find all the previous episodes of Musical Road to Womex HERE