joni sandez






NorteñoBlog: Why did you start recording sierreño music?

Is that you playing requinto on your recordings?

How did you decide to record “Las Mañanitas”?



The [people] that I’ve worked with, they all ask for the tuba. I have a couple of tuba players, but sometimes I feel [audiences] just want the image of it. Seeing a tuba player. Seeing the brass. [The tubist is] more into the action, compared to the bass, which just kind of stands there. In terms of music quality, the tuba is a lot more aggressive — very in your ear, very buzzy. And the bass fills you up more live. If you listen to it with headphones on, it fills up your ear more. And the tuba is a little bit more staccato.

Do you feel like the tuba sierreño is better suited to certain styles of music?
Yeah, definitely. I feel like when it comes to corridos… I mean, most of them are aggressive, right? Talking about drugs or death, stories like that, I feel like it fits a lot more. Even the singer, he’s kind of singing full force, he’s giving a hundred percent. And when it’s a love song, he’s more mellifluous, he’s going with the rhythm, he’s not angry. When it comes to love songs, I feel like the bass is a little more preferred.

se tu mismoWho are some of your favorite musicians?
This producer [behind] I wanna say 70% of the tracks you hear on La Que Buena, on modern radio, is Marito Aguilar. We did a track [“Se Tu Mismo”] with him. I feel like he’s one of those unsung heroes that nobody really hears about. You’ve heard his songs, but you don’t know that he was the producer behind that track. He’s on a lot of Gerardo Ortiz tracks. When I say “producer,” he does it all. He’ll put the bass down, he’ll put the drums down, he’ll put the accordion down, but his main focus is accordion. Most people know him by the accordion. In comparison to a lot of the accordion players, I feel like he’s the best — the quickest, the most technical.

[The Blog notes: we’ve marveled at Aguilar’s playing with Ortiz before, you remember.]

te metisteSince we’re talking sierreño, what did you think of Ariel Camacho’s music?
He’s one of the first ones that made it really popular. There were a lot of sierreño singers before him, but he’s one of those people that made it into pop. I remember listening to his song [“Te Metiste”] and it was still not hitting. The majority [of hit music] was banda, the majority was norteño ballads — and then the song “Te Metiste”… hit. After that, I started hearing some in the scene, a lot of my friends — a lot of people you hear on the radio are people I know personally — I heard them start posting stuff, and then they’re like, “Hey, I’m recording a sierreño song,” and I’m like, “Really? Sierreño? That’s kind of out of the ordinary, right?” That was about five years ago. After that song it became more popular, so I feel like he’s one of the pioneers. Not pioneer, ‘cause “pioneer” means that he started it, right?

I see what you’re saying. Not a pioneer in that he originated the style, but he helped it cross over to the radio.
Yeah, so in a sense, he’s a pioneer for crossing over.

So you feel like people heard him and started making music in that style, but then they also realized a lot of times it’s less expensive than norteño, so that made sense too? Like it was a combination of things?
Yeah, exactly, exactly. So [sierreño tracks] are a lot quicker than getting a banda together, a lot quicker than adding the drums first, adding the bass first, adding everything first… It’s just like, “Do you know the melody?” And they’re like, “OK, yeah.” It’s very quick. The turnaround for the studio that we have, it’s really a day or two that we can have a really good piece finished. A day, a couple hours. I definitely think that was part of the jump start for [how] sierreño ended up happening.

Sierreño bands don’t record all three instruments at the same time, right? It’s still one instrument at a time?
It depends on the producer — and obviously the musicians, ‘cause sometimes the musicians aren’t ready. In the case of Marito, for example, it would most likely be him putting in the sierreño [lead guitar], him putting in the bass or the tuba, him putting in the accordion — I’m not sure he plays tuba, but it’ll be one by one. And if there’s a band that has their own style they originated, he’ll bring them all in and they’ll just do the band all at once. It’s kind of hard to play it perfect for the first time, but there’s bands that can do that, that can actually play the whole song through the first time and get it perfectly.

So you’re telling me that Marito or a similar producer will put down guide tracks for all three instruments —

— and then the band comes in and just plays over those guide tracks?
Correct, exactly. The producer listening is probably gonna hate me — like, “No, don’t say that!” Even with a trumpet player.. I’m not gonna say the name of the banda, but there’s a really famous banda — like, really famous — so they have one guy that comes in and he can do all of it. [He mimics a player laying down several parts, from oompahs in the tuba and charchetas, or alto horns, to trumpet melodies and vocals.] So now they bring in the main singer, and the main singer will lay down his singing, and you’ll think it’s the full band playing. It’s really cool how they do it. People might think it’s kind of like cheating, I guess…

On the final recording, are we hearing the one guy, or does the band lay down the final tracks over his guide tracks?
Yeah, you’re hearing the final recording.

So one guy playing all the instruments?
It depends on the producer. Maybe he’ll be like, “You know what, you don’t sound like a good tuba player, or the tuba [part] needs this, so I’m giving it to the tuba player.” It just depends. Even the trumpets, he’ll be like, “Your trumpets don’t sound that good, so I’m gonna bring the trumpets in.” But on a lot of tracks, you’d be surprised, it’s one guy you’re hearing, and then they brought in a singer.

[The Blog notes: The guy who used to run the local music store — Iggy Guerrero, who also leads La Original Banda El Rey — once told me pretty much the same thing.]

And the bands can still cut it live, so it’s not totally cheating, right? They can still play concerts.
Yeah, definitely. When you see them live, you’ll hear. Trust me, they practice a lot, and you’re listening to a really good quality band.