Speaker 1: Manal had finally done it. With the release of Falta
Speaker 1: Mode in nineteen ninety. They became the most talked about
Speaker 1: rock band in Mexico and started to gain traction outside
Speaker 1: their homeland.
Speaker 2: They paid their dues in the underground, got dropped from
Speaker 2: three separate labels, and had two bandmates call it quicks
Speaker 2: before finally finding their home at Warner Music Mexico.
Speaker 1: The road had been long and bumpy. After a decade
Speaker 1: of reduction, they were now in demand for concert bookings
Speaker 1: and TV ad campaigns to the tune of millions of dollars.
Speaker 2: Wow. Manna had gone this long without a manager, but
Speaker 2: big deals meant big risks, and they needed someone to
Speaker 2: make sure they got big rewards.
Speaker 1: And that's when another member of Mana decided.
Speaker 3: To leave the group to become the band's manager. Because
Speaker 3: nobody in the right mind would dip after getting million dollar.
Speaker 1: Offers, wouldn't you know it. The one to step away
Speaker 1: from the artistic side of things was Gayerros, one of
Speaker 1: the three founding brothers of Sombrero Verde, one of whom
Speaker 1: had called it quits just before man Not popped off.
Speaker 2: This meant yet another lineup change, bringing my not down
Speaker 2: to just two founding members, Ferrolvera and Juan Caerros. Yes, Joseph,
Speaker 2: there's something we forgot to do last time.
Speaker 1: Oh wait, you're right, Okay, you know it's different covering
Speaker 1: a band, all right, Sometimes the lead guy isn't clear
Speaker 1: till later. And we're talking, of course about fer Olvera
Speaker 1: born December eighth, nineteen fifty nine.
Speaker 2: A sage son, the first one this season. Can you
Speaker 2: believe the challenge for this sage is to seek their
Speaker 2: own sense of authority, learning from the role models without
Speaker 2: copying them.
Speaker 1: Police exactly admire Sting, but don't try to be Sting.
Speaker 2: This is not a person who's here for the drama.
Speaker 2: Trust is key, and respect comes before loyalty. But only
Speaker 2: by staying true to who you are inside? Can you
Speaker 2: be a leader who can send that trust flowing both
Speaker 2: ways and set yourself up to do good for the world?
Speaker 1: Fed on Veda's desire to do just that was clear
Speaker 1: enough from the name of the band, mana good energy.
Speaker 1: The bread that falls from heaven.
Speaker 2: Maybe a bit cocky too, though, like where God's gift
Speaker 2: to Earth, I mean.
Speaker 1: A little cocky, but still, if Manah was making bread,
Speaker 1: listeners were eating it. The band would never stray musically
Speaker 1: from that good vibes heal the world energy, making for
Speaker 1: two of their biggest albums.
Speaker 2: But good vibes can't always cover up bad blood.
Speaker 1: I'm your host Lilianavosquez and I'm Joseph Carrio and this
Speaker 1: is Becoming an icon a weekly podcast where we give
Speaker 1: you the rundown on how today's most famous latinv stars
Speaker 1: have shaped pop culture.
Speaker 3: And given the world an extra lebble.
Speaker 1: Sit back and get comfortable.
Speaker 3: Because we are going in the only way we know how,
Speaker 3: with buenas bida, buenas riesas mchies, and a lot of
Speaker 3: opinions as we relive their greatest achievements on our journey
Speaker 3: to find out what makes them so iconic.
Speaker 1: So we're back to the early nineties. Lisi's the former guitarist,
Speaker 1: is now managing the band, and in this place comes
Speaker 1: Cessa and Vampidro Lopez, so named for his nocturnal sleeping pattern.
Speaker 2: Vampido would sleep all day and wake up in the
Speaker 2: late afternoon early evening and go straight to playing his guitar.
Speaker 3: Big older brother who never leaves his room vibes.
Speaker 1: At first, Vambido was brought in to fill in at
Speaker 1: a few concerts. When he was formally invited to join
Speaker 1: the band, he hemmed and hawed.
Speaker 2: That's because Vampido had his own thing going on, a
Speaker 2: band called Boleta.
Speaker 1: Isn't it cute when musicians think they can do their
Speaker 1: own thing.
Speaker 3: Right, like join the band that's getting coin and do
Speaker 3: your thing later.
Speaker 1: At first, Van Beetle did actually play in both bands,
Speaker 1: but as Manak continued to blow up, got the sombretto
Speaker 1: vert of the treatment.
Speaker 2: Why are all these bands color coded? It's like giving
Speaker 2: peewee football team.
Speaker 1: Or Cela superhero. Oh anyway, Vombido became a fan favorite
Speaker 1: band member. At live shows, Fair cued his fiery guitar
Speaker 1: solos with the iconic shout atro.
Speaker 3: I was just telling you how you said it. Thank you.
Speaker 3: But if any of the rock bands in the show
Speaker 3: have taught us anything, it's that band members come and go.
Speaker 1: Except for us, we're forever and ever and Yeah, don't
Speaker 1: get too attached to Vampido or the new keyboards who
Speaker 1: was brought in along with him, Ivan Gonzalez.
Speaker 3: I don't even really like rock, and I know not
Speaker 3: to get attached to.
Speaker 1: The keyboardist Still, this lineup would be crystallized in Manna's
Speaker 1: first album to debut in the Billboard Top ten, nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety two's De Who Got On Those Ninos? Where Would
Speaker 1: the Children Play?
Speaker 2: The titles giving Bleeding Heart, Sade Energy, and.
Speaker 3: This album gives bleeding Heart for the days.
Speaker 1: It's giving a heart that's getting transfusions in real time
Speaker 1: just so it can keep on bleeding for its entire
Speaker 1: fifty warm in net runs geez don. De Who Got
Speaker 1: On Those Ninos was recorded at the late Great Devonshire
Speaker 1: Sound Studio in Hollywood, and the artists who've recorded here
Speaker 1: run the gamut from Billy Joel Bing, Crosby and the
Speaker 1: Jackson's to Nirvana, Suicidal Tendencies, Green Day and Ozzy Osborne.
Speaker 2: Uh I wonder where math Nah falls on this very
Speaker 2: wide spectrum.
Speaker 1: Well, look no further than the most iconic song on
Speaker 1: the album, Oh Yeah Memore, an aching nineties power that
Speaker 1: caused a phenomenon in Mexico.
Speaker 3: Yo.
Speaker 2: If you were a teen girl in Mexico in the nineties,
Speaker 2: someone at some point either sang you this song, gave
Speaker 2: you a cassette tape of them singing it, or played
Speaker 2: it outside your window.
Speaker 3: Like John Cusack.
Speaker 1: Basically, if you saw the Barbie movie, it was like
Speaker 1: the song that all the Kens sing around the fire.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, it is.
Speaker 1: Pop quiz Joseph, damn you what? I hope you drank
Speaker 1: your coffee and went on your run and did your
Speaker 1: hot girl walk because your brain needs to be sharp
Speaker 1: for this one. When was the first time you fell
Speaker 1: in love with Oya maamore? And do you remember where
Speaker 1: you were?
Speaker 2: Oh my god, I was smoking a cigarette. I do
Speaker 2: remember that. And I was at this place.
Speaker 3: It was called Barbadou in Houades, and I remember everybody
Speaker 3: knew the song but me, and I felt so stupid
Speaker 3: because it's so catchy.
Speaker 1: It's the catchiest, it's so catchy.
Speaker 2: And I just felt so stupid because then I felt
Speaker 2: like I was so unfessa and I felt poor, ugly
Speaker 2: and fat.
Speaker 1: That's all, okay, First all, you are none of those things.
Speaker 1: You've never been any of those things. And I will
Speaker 1: say this to you. One of my biggest regrets in
Speaker 1: life is that you and I did not know each
Speaker 1: other during your watt Is days, because we would have
Speaker 1: had a time buff.
Speaker 2: Like no, honestly, we would have had We used to
Speaker 2: cut out little like boards and make them of our
Speaker 2: hottest nights and just have like a board like I
Speaker 2: guess how you would imagine a vision board like a
Speaker 2: scrap book, but like posters of our outings and cigarette
Speaker 2: butts and like Coria.
Speaker 1: And what was the cover art for on your on
Speaker 1: your vision board?
Speaker 3: From what? I didn't?
Speaker 2: Dare you no? Because you know since since it was
Speaker 2: made in ninety two. This is also like I think
Speaker 2: I was in what is Like in ninety nine? So
Speaker 2: so where were you?
Speaker 1: So I was not familiar with the song when it
Speaker 1: came out because I think maybe a little different than you.
Speaker 1: I didn't really listen to a lot of Mexican pop
Speaker 1: rock or rock, and we're not going to get into
Speaker 1: that argument. When I was in high school, I didn't
Speaker 1: really listen to any Spanish music that was not driven
Speaker 1: by my parents until I went to college. Oh wow,
Speaker 1: so similar timeline. I heard the song in college. I
Speaker 1: was in DuPont Circle in Washington, d C. At a
Speaker 1: gay club, and yeah, and it came on and I was.
Speaker 3: At a straight club, so what the fuzz?
Speaker 1: I know, we should have such places and the crowd
Speaker 1: went wild. Now this is also a club that had
Speaker 1: a big Latino presence because DC is a super international city.
Speaker 1: But you know, this song is really forever just one
Speaker 1: of those guilty pleasures like I'm talking like drive by Incubus,
Speaker 1: the reason by who was stank? I mean anything from
Speaker 1: Matchbox twenty. It falls for me right in line with
Speaker 1: those songs catchy and cute.
Speaker 3: But I'm not roud. Sorry, mind blown. I'm mind blown
Speaker 3: with that comparison.
Speaker 1: But it's not to say that there was nothing on
Speaker 1: the album to recall Mina's roots. The song moved They
Speaker 1: would emerge as a soft nineties counterculture anthem where Alex
Speaker 1: the drummer takes a mic to sing about wearing his
Speaker 1: hair long and listening to what he likes to.
Speaker 2: Listen to and checking that Sagittarius Box might not also
Speaker 2: released vv T Scene Ida, an environmental anthem that asks
Speaker 2: what would it be like to live in a world
Speaker 2: where their air is unbreathable?
Speaker 3: Like tell me how I'm supposed to breathe with no air?
Speaker 1: Vv Scene Idea would earn the MTV Latino Video Music
Speaker 1: Award for Video of the Year, and that was just
Speaker 1: the tip of the iceberg.
Speaker 2: Don Deinos would debut at number four on the Billboard
Speaker 2: Latin chart and stay on the chart for ninety seven weeks.
Speaker 2: Over the years, the album would sell ten million copies,
Speaker 2: making it the best selling album in the history of
Speaker 2: Spanish language rock and that.
Speaker 1: MTV Video Award winning video. It helped Mana break through
Speaker 1: in Argentina and Spain, tool markets that are typically not
Speaker 1: so friendly to outsiders, and two stops on Mana's biggest tour,
Speaker 1: yette A two hundred and sixty eight night World Tour.
Speaker 3: I am tired just thinking of that.
Speaker 1: Shiz Mana were officially a global force, well beyond the
Speaker 1: confines in their home country and a far cry from
Speaker 1: the repressed of CD bars of yr, but that didn't
Speaker 1: mean they were beyond rock star Shenanigans or sudden bandmate exits.
Speaker 1: In April and nineteen ninety four, A van Bidel decided
Speaker 1: to disappear.
Speaker 2: In the middle of the world tour, and on top
Speaker 2: of that, he said, I'm taking the keyboardings.
Speaker 1: Why do you sound exactly like Jennifer Coolidge right? So
Speaker 1: many skills?
Speaker 3: Vampido and the keyboardist Yvon Gonzalez demanded that they get
Speaker 3: a share of the song raining credits and royalties from
Speaker 3: the album that put Manna on top of the world.
Speaker 1: Gossip shows also speculated that the two upstart bandmates were
Speaker 1: just plain sick of fair Olvera the fame had got
Speaker 1: into his head too, claims which at the time were hearsaide,
Speaker 1: but which the guitarist would later back up. He said,
Speaker 1: you spend so much time with people. You're young and
Speaker 1: don't know how to set your limits, and any insignificant
Speaker 1: thing becomes big. So there came a point where none
Speaker 1: of us could stand each other and we needed a break.
Speaker 2: It's Santana all over again. Why can't these boys keep
Speaker 2: it together?
Speaker 1: Olivea and drummer Alex Gonzalez refused to meet their bandmates demands,
Speaker 1: and so in the middle of an international tour, Vampido
Speaker 1: and Evonne split.
Speaker 2: So, for those keeping track, we've gone through a drummer,
Speaker 2: a guitarist, another guitarist, and a keyboardist.
Speaker 1: To save the tour, the band would call in a
Speaker 1: couple of favors from some old friends original so they're
Speaker 1: the guitarists Gustavo Rosco and Shila Rios, the.
Speaker 2: Lady rocker who linked the band with Beppa Hollywood. Together,
Speaker 2: the quintet finished out the.
Speaker 1: Tour but their old friends would be invited as permanent members.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry, wouldn't you want Hila in the band like
Speaker 3: she made you? Yeah?
Speaker 1: But she could have had other things going on. Maybe
Speaker 1: she was playing in another band, right.
Speaker 3: So Sheila left to continue playing with Naranka, Lambara or whatever,
Speaker 3: and after the tour laps.
Speaker 1: Fair, Alex and Juan launch a worldwide search for a
Speaker 1: new guitarist. Over eighty guitarists from Mexico, Chile, Argentina and
Speaker 1: the US audition, but none of them seem like the
Speaker 1: right fit.
Speaker 2: So the band calls up who else, Beppa Hollywood, who
Speaker 2: gets on the phone with Luis Miguel's guitarist, Quiko Cebrian.
Speaker 1: The guitarist Kiko Sebrian didn't know anyone offhand, but he
Speaker 1: said some Mirando had just come by and dropped off
Speaker 1: a cassette demo.
Speaker 3: Maybe he's good, uh promising?
Speaker 1: So Geegle sends the tape to Beppa Hollywood, whose name
Speaker 1: is Bepe Kindana by the way, in case anyone forgot,
Speaker 1: We're just joking here, and Bepe listens in the car
Speaker 1: on the way to work.
Speaker 3: Cars had tape decks back then. See Liliana, I do
Speaker 3: not about cars.
Speaker 1: By the way, you take ubers all the time. You
Speaker 1: never ride the subway. Of course you know about cars. Okay,
Speaker 1: back to the tape, Beppa Hollywood hears an extremely versatile
Speaker 1: guitar is playing everything from bossa nova to heavy metal.
Speaker 2: He calls our leading man, fed Or Vetta and says,
Speaker 2: do you know what that sound you've been looking for?
Speaker 3: Well, listen to this.
Speaker 1: He puts the phone up to the speaker and gives
Speaker 1: Phair a listen, and Fair says.
Speaker 3: Thanks, I hate it.
Speaker 1: Brutal Bebbe, disappointed, takes the tape into his office and
Speaker 1: tosses it in the slush pile, a box of rejected
Speaker 1: demos that are ultimately bound for the dump truck.
Speaker 2: Where they'll reenact the end of Toy Story three, but
Speaker 2: with music in setatois.
Speaker 1: Okay, wait stop, don't make me cry on the mic. Okay,
Speaker 1: that's like not cool.
Speaker 3: Sorry boo. Anyway, the search for the guitarist goes a
Speaker 3: lot like their search for the drummer back in Simbreo
Speaker 3: Veda the era.
Speaker 1: Aka impossible demands make for a totally fruitless search, and
Speaker 1: one day Fair calls up Bepan and says, screw it.
Speaker 1: Let's go with the guy from the tape.
Speaker 2: FML and Bebba Hollywood has a full on panic attack.
Speaker 3: He rummages around the reject.
Speaker 1: Box, digging through the trash.
Speaker 2: He does eighty on the mayback and races home to
Speaker 2: turn his home office upside down looking for this damn tape.
Speaker 1: And finally he finds it, presumably after chucking the tape
Speaker 1: in the rejects box. After showing it to Fair, he
Speaker 1: had a moment of better judgment.
Speaker 2: This is the guy who went to bat form Na
Speaker 2: in the first place. After all, Bebba Hollywood does have
Speaker 2: an ear.
Speaker 1: And after Bebbe played the tape for other members of monot,
Speaker 1: it was decided the band would welcome its new permanent guitarist,
Speaker 1: sedjil Vai, and.
Speaker 2: In nineteen ninety five, the definitive Mana lineup debuted with
Speaker 2: the album Guandoos Angeles Joran When Angels Cry.
Speaker 1: Mana's third album with Warner Music Mexico was yet another
Speaker 1: worldwide success, and it even led to their state side breakthrough.
Speaker 3: The band played seventeen sold out shows in Boston, d C, Atlanta, Chicago,
Speaker 3: New York, Miami, and Moore. The anglosphere took notice.
Speaker 1: The Rolling Stone time, and people covered the tour extensively.
Speaker 1: On top of that, Francis Ford Coppola tapped the band
Speaker 1: for a film soundtrack of Smielski uh huh, and the
Speaker 1: band was invited to play on the first tribute album
Speaker 1: to led Zeppelin and Comium alongside several American artists.
Speaker 2: Mana were Rock Royalty, which would soon put them in
Speaker 2: contact with actual royalty.
Speaker 1: Joseph, do you follow the royals?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Kind of, I too, well?
Speaker 1: Which royals I should probably specify? Do you follow like
Speaker 1: the British royal.
Speaker 3: The British, the Spanish, the Danish?
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, got it okay, so said Japanese, all of
Speaker 1: the royals.
Speaker 3: I do, every royal actually.
Speaker 1: Except for the baseball team anyway. The Spanish royal family
Speaker 1: is made up of King Philippe, the sixth, Queen Leticia
Speaker 1: and their children Leonor and Infanta Sophia. But in nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety seven, long before any of that royal biz, Leticia
Speaker 1: was a journalist for CNN living in Guadalajara. Excuse me,
Speaker 1: that is some compass. You were a reporter.
Speaker 2: I noticed story like I would do a story on
Speaker 2: her because that's just so She has the best blow up.
Speaker 3: She is the original making marcoll that's all.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much.
Speaker 3: Wait, okay, okay, did she interview Mana?
Speaker 1: She did, indeed, back in the nineties. Fair in twenty
Speaker 1: eleven recalled that Lithicia was a tough interviewer.
Speaker 3: I know one trusts me.
Speaker 1: So she began her sit down with the band smoking
Speaker 1: a cig and Fair ticked her off by asking her
Speaker 1: to put it out. After that, her questions became noticeably
Speaker 1: tougher YO.
Speaker 2: Don't know what to get between a bitch and her
Speaker 2: nicoteen honey.
Speaker 1: Not an endorsement for smoking, but facts. After the interview, however,
Speaker 1: Lithicia and the band went out for a few threats, and,
Speaker 1: unbeknownst to the public until many years later, she and
Speaker 1: Fair had a brief relationship. But wait, that's not the
Speaker 1: jusiest part.
Speaker 3: O my spe spell stell spell spell Okay.
Speaker 1: So years later, in two thousand and three, Lithicsia officially
Speaker 1: became a part of the royal family with her marriage
Speaker 1: to Felippe. And that's when the listening public took a
Speaker 1: good hard look at the cover of Mana's nineteen ninety
Speaker 1: seven albums Liquid Dreams Like the Otown song if you
Speaker 1: know you know who I do know? All right, whatever,
Speaker 1: Let's keep it moving featured a funny, in hindsight scandalous
Speaker 1: at the time portrayal of a fore armed, topless mermaid
Speaker 1: who looks suspiciously like Leticia lurs Rocslano, the now Queen
Speaker 1: of Spain.
Speaker 3: Dude, Like, but but does this proof?
Speaker 1: I mean, if you look at a side by side
Speaker 1: of said woman on the cover, La Mermaid and Lidicia.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying, there's a lot of similarity.
Speaker 3: Wow, wow, wow, I'm kind of like that's juice.
Speaker 1: Okay, And by the way, to settle the debate, the
Speaker 1: woman depicted on the cover is in fact Leticia Ortiz,
Speaker 1: but Waite Joseph. She did not get all nakey for
Speaker 1: the cover. She didn't even.
Speaker 3: Pose for it. Okay. Is this AI in the nineties?
Speaker 1: Basically yes, but a little different. So the artist who
Speaker 1: painted the cover was actually friends with Lithicia and used
Speaker 1: her as a reference. After Lithsa's engagement to the Prince
Speaker 1: of Astutias was announced, the painter shared that he had
Speaker 1: gone through a bit of quote unquote Lathinmania and used
Speaker 1: her as reference for several paintings.
Speaker 2: So the Queen of Spain didn't have a full Jack
Speaker 2: and Rose driving like one of your mermaids. Moment was
Speaker 2: fed and or this artist. But the relationship did happen, right,
Speaker 2: it did, and it.
Speaker 1: Goes to show you the prominence of Manna. By the
Speaker 1: time we get to the late nineties early offs, the
Speaker 1: band was a household name in the States, throughout Latin
Speaker 1: America and in Europe. And they played with another icon
Speaker 1: that we actually covered this season. In December of nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety eight, Fair received a phone call. He picked up
Speaker 1: up and a recognizable boy said to him, greeting's wayward traveler.
Speaker 2: I've extended my vibrations to you across the telephonic medium
Speaker 2: as a form of invitation.
Speaker 3: I'd like you to join me in connecting the molecules
Speaker 3: with the light nad Just kidding. It's Carlo Santana want
Speaker 3: a jam.
Speaker 1: Just to clarify, Carlos Santana didn't crank all the lead
Speaker 1: singer of Mana, but farah Veda did think he was
Speaker 1: being crank called and he hung up the phone.
Speaker 3: I would do.
Speaker 1: Then Santana called him back to say, no, dude, like
Speaker 1: I really am gardless Santana.
Speaker 3: And that's how Mana appeared on nineteen ninety nine Supernatural
Speaker 3: on the track Guarason Espionavo, the.
Speaker 1: Biggest fan of the Spanish speaking world, linked up with
Speaker 1: a rock and roll legend on what remains one of
Speaker 1: the best selling albums in history. Let's just say that
Speaker 1: Manna were set for life.
Speaker 3: Sure, except think about Santana.
Speaker 2: In the addo, his longtime fans heard radio friendly hits
Speaker 2: like Smooth and Game Over Love and wondered whether this
Speaker 2: was the same something out that rocked Woodstock and in.
Speaker 1: Mexico, rock fans couldn't escape Oh Yemiamore and other ballads.
Speaker 1: They saw tabloids filled with would be scandals with Spanish royalty,
Speaker 1: and they had to ask, is my not really rock music?
Speaker 1: On the next Becoming an Icon, we're taking a look
Speaker 1: at what the haters have to say and whether Manang
Speaker 1: has stayed in touch with their rock breeks. Becoming an
Speaker 1: Icon is presented by Sonoo and Iheart's Michael Gurda podcast network.
Speaker 1: Listen to Becoming an Icon on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast,
Speaker 1: or wherever you get your podcasts.