The Last Bandoleros’ red-dirt Tejano rock arrives in Lawrence this weekend

Last year, Rolling Stone did a glowing piece on the Last Bandoleros titled “Why Last Bandoleros Could Be This Year’s Most Important New Country Band.” wherein Writer Joseph Hudak posed the idea that the band’s “Tex-Mex-flavored sound […] has a chance to add some much-needed diversity to country music.” Having come a year before Lil Nas X, the piece seems positively prescient in regard to positioning the band’s mix of Tejano and red-dirt country as part of a potential move away from the usual sounds of country radio.

The Last Bandoleros’ bassist, Diego Navaira and his drummer brother, Emilio, are sons of the Tejano musician, Emilio Navaira, and their songs are just damned catchy, foot-stomping tunes, suitable for line-dancing or other such activities. I spoke with Diego from Nashville last month. The band comes to Lawrence this Friday.

The Pitch: You’ve never played Kansas, right?

Diego Navaira: We’ve played Kansas City, Missouri, but never Kansas. Our manager’s wife is from that area, and she said she would go to Lawrence a lot to see bands play at the Bottleneck. I think that we’re going to get there a little early, because she was telling us that there’s great food, great shops, great antique shops. I think we’re going to do some shopping before soundcheck.

Your band’s had some really interesting opportunities already — for instance, you’ve gotten to tour with Sting. Are you still his favorite band?

[laughs] I don’t know. I hope so! For him to take a band — at the time, we were a baby band. That was our first tour, really, and it turned out to be a world tour. We’ll be forever grateful for that opportunity. We are so very blessed to have been on that 57th and 9th Tour.

When I first started digging into the band’s history, you all have some fascinating backstories. You auditioned for The Voice, right?

Oh, yeah, right. Oh, man — that was like, 2011, 2012. It was two years before we even started writing music together, the four of us. And, me and my brother, we grew up playing music together, so we always sort of spoke the same musical language. Jerry [Fuentes, guitar and vocals] and Derek [James, guitar and vocals] were off doing their thing in New York, separately, so we kind of all, individually, have some unique stories, in our own right, but I think the four of us make for an even more incredible story.

You and your brother had an alt-rock band, Ready Revolution, for a time before this, yes?

Right, and we started that back in 2010. I’ve never really done any other musical projects without my brother, so I don’t know what music is like without him, to be honest. What’s awesome about this is that we all bring something unique, so when you hear the Last Bandoleros, you’re kind of hearing four minds coming together. You sort of get all of our musical tastes in each song.

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Jerry Fuentes played music with his dad, growing up, as did you and your brother with your dad. Does that help, having a shared musical background, wherein you all come from musical families?

You know what? I never thought of it that way, but you could be right, man. Musical families and also, being raised in that south Texas environment, there’s a ton of different musical styles flowing through that area. What’s funny is that me and Diego never knew Jerry when he was living in San Antonio. It wasn’t until he moved to New York and came back to visit his family that he was introduced to us, and us to him.

Immediately, we were like, “Whoa, we speak the same musical language,” and we just immediately hit it off. We started doing some shows with Jerry, and when we were onstage together, it was just like playing with another brother. It just naturally felt really, really great. When he brought Derek in, all the pieces came together — stars aligned, if you will.

What you said about all those styles flowing through really is represented in the Last Bandoleros’ music — some Tejano, some country, a little poppy classic harmony rock ‘n’ roll like Buddy Holly. 

It’s funny, because Jerry says this all the time: we grew up surrounded by — actually, Jerry just walked into the studio — all this music in San Antonio, and while we didn’t necessarily run away from it when we started our musical careers, we also didn’t embrace it. It’s funny now that bringing that musical style into our music has brought us the most success we’ve ever had. It’s kind of ironic, in a way.

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So, listening to the Last Bandoleros on Spotify, you have all these different versions of your songs — studio, live, acoustic. Do you find that the different versions find different people?

Jerry Fuentes: It hits different people in different ways, and I think that’s the trend in music these days. If you look at all these artists, from the biggest of the big to the most independent, they’ll do multiple versions of songs, because it extends the life of a song, and it gives the song more of a chance to connect with people.

We always go back and forth about doing these different versions. Sometimes, you feel like, “Ah, this song doesn’t need multiple versions — this song is supposed to be the way it is.” And we didn’t really have too much of a plan, but we were like, “We have a lot of fun doing these acoustic versions — we should record ’em.” So, we did, and what we did find is exactly what you’re saying: I would get hit up by people saying, “Oh, my god, I love this song,” and the only version that they play is the acoustic version of it. I’d be like, “You know that there’s a full version on a record, with a full band?” and they’re like, “Yeah, but this is the version that I like.” People are jamming this at the bar they work at, and I find out that it’s the acoustic version. It’s kind of crazy.

♦

The Last Bandoleros play the Lied Center this Friday, April 19. Details on that show here.