Speaker 1: Hey, Latino USA listener, Here's a show the Los Chivos
Speaker 1: from Fudro Media and PRX. It's Latino USA. I'm Maria
Speaker 1: Rosa today Spanish rock legend Manna. Over their decades long career,
Speaker 1: Mana has sold over forty million albums worldwide and they
Speaker 1: continue to have a devoted audience. The Grammy winning Rocqueros
Speaker 1: made a name for themselves playing fusions of reggae, salsa,
Speaker 1: rock and punk. The current band members include fer Orberra,
Speaker 1: Alex Consalez, Sejo Bayin and Juan Caileros. Earlier this year,
Speaker 1: on their latest tour, they played seven sold shows at
Speaker 1: the La Forum, breaking a record previously shared by the
Speaker 1: Eagles and Kanye West. But Mana didn't start out playing stadiums.
Speaker 1: Over three decades ago, lead singer Fed was playing small
Speaker 1: venues in Guadalajara with his band The Green Hat, and
Speaker 1: he was singing in.
Speaker 2: English all the time.
Speaker 1: They quickly changed their names to Sombrero Verde and they
Speaker 1: started singing in Spanish. They eventually added drummer Alex and
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty six they became Mana. Since then, they
Speaker 1: released eleven albums. Their nineteen ninety two album Donde Jugaran
Speaker 1: los Minos is the best selling Spanish language rock album
Speaker 1: of all time. Hola, mygal, Welcome to this morning's Walk
Speaker 1: of Fame ceremony. In twenty sixteen, they became the first
Speaker 1: Mexican rock band to receive a star on the Hollywood
Speaker 1: Walk of Fame, and in twenty eighteen, they received the
Speaker 1: Latin Music Lifetime Award from Billboard and were awarded Person
Speaker 1: of the Year at the Latin Grammys. But back when
Speaker 1: they were just starting out, drummer Alex Gonzalez says, it
Speaker 1: wasn't all that easy for this How I made it segment.
Speaker 1: Alex is going to take it from here.
Speaker 2: This is Alex Gonzalez.
Speaker 3: I am the drummer, one of the songwriters and producers
Speaker 3: of the rocken Espanio band Manna. Before nineteen eighty six,
Speaker 3: Fernando the lead singer. He had another band that was
Speaker 3: called Sombrero Verdan. They were influenced by a lot of
Speaker 3: the new wave stuff that was going on, especially the Police,
Speaker 3: so they already had that reggae rock fusion. They wanted
Speaker 3: to be a rock band, and if you look at
Speaker 3: the minority of rock bands in the world, they.
Speaker 2: Sing in English. You know, she's a rich girl.
Speaker 3: So they were just trying to imitate their idols and
Speaker 3: their bands. But then, you know, Fernando said, you know,
Speaker 3: wait a minute. You know, we live in Mexico. We
Speaker 3: should be singing about the things that we're concerned about,
Speaker 3: or that we want to talk about, or things that
Speaker 3: we love. It just made sense singing rock and Hispanoic
Speaker 3: I was part of that band.
Speaker 2: They were looking for a new drummer.
Speaker 3: When I was fifteen years old and I moved to
Speaker 3: Gualala Jada, that band, this bandedn't fed says, you know what,
Speaker 3: I want to start a new band, but I want
Speaker 3: to incorporate even more elements of Latin music into the pop.
Speaker 2: Rock that we're doing.
Speaker 3: And that's when man Now was established. Man Now is
Speaker 3: a pop rock band. But the great thing about our
Speaker 3: band is that we're very universal when it comes to music.
Speaker 3: We could play alternative stuff, reggae rock, but we can
Speaker 3: have skot punk, we can have Mexican trial music, or
Speaker 3: even Cuban music, even Mariacci. We weren't trying to invent
Speaker 3: the wheel. We just wanted to play what we wanted
Speaker 3: to hear. We grew up with the classic rock bands,
Speaker 3: I mean the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, YouTube, Pink Floyd. On
Speaker 3: the other hand, you know, we were listening to Celia
Speaker 3: Cruz and we were listening to Bob Marley, So I
Speaker 3: think we were never afraid to try to mix it
Speaker 3: within our style of music. When you're starting a new
Speaker 3: band and you're starting to do these fusion it doesn't
Speaker 3: always work out. And he said, well, I think there's
Speaker 3: an audience out there for people that like this kind
Speaker 3: of music. That's our first album had very little airplay,
Speaker 3: but it was an album that to record was difficult
Speaker 3: because we had a producer that obviously he believed in
Speaker 3: the band, but he changed a lot of the sound
Speaker 3: in the production.
Speaker 2: But you know, it was the beginning of what now
Speaker 2: is Wana.
Speaker 3: We leave that record company and we start writing music again,
Speaker 3: trying to see if there's any way, you know, if
Speaker 3: getting a record deal.
Speaker 2: And then one day we went to a record company.
Speaker 3: The president said that we would never make it, that,
Speaker 3: you know, rock and Espanol is just a fad, that
Speaker 3: that type of music won't last.
Speaker 2: Fed and I we came back Garry sad.
Speaker 3: Fernando went downstairs and he bought two Kawama beers which
Speaker 3: are like huge, huge beers. We started putting together this
Speaker 3: music and Fed stayed the whole evening writing until the
Speaker 3: early hours of the morning. And then when I woke up,
Speaker 3: he says, hey, Alex, I have the lyrics to the song.
Speaker 2: That song basically saved our career. Turned out to be.
Speaker 4: Ja song.
Speaker 3: The radio station started playing it and the fans started calling.
Speaker 2: In those days, leases who's our manager.
Speaker 3: We had the telephone number of our office, which was
Speaker 3: just where Lisa's was living his bedroom with a telephone.
Speaker 3: When Ryan and So started getting a lot of airplane
Speaker 3: the phone started picking up, and so we started getting
Speaker 3: more calls to play.
Speaker 2: So we said, oh, here we go.
Speaker 5: Selmar Christ.
Speaker 3: It took us a long time to break into Mexico City.
Speaker 2: We're from Gualalajaa.
Speaker 3: In our case, Mexico City was like another country and
Speaker 3: it was very hard to get in. So I said,
Speaker 3: so f many, you know, but man now was doing
Speaker 3: extremely well in the rest of the country. We would
Speaker 3: travel in this small Volkswagen comedy and sometimes, you know,
Speaker 3: we would sleep in there because we would just make
Speaker 3: enough money, you know, maybe for a motel room, and
Speaker 3: we flip a coin and see who's going to be
Speaker 3: able to sleep in the bed. But we worked so
Speaker 3: hard and we were so determined, and the buzz really
Speaker 3: took off. And then when we come out with a
Speaker 3: dis were with the children playing, that's when we really exploded,
Speaker 3: and we did two sold out shows and at Palacelos
Speaker 3: Deportis in nineteen ninety three. No Mexican band had done that.
Speaker 3: When it comes out, that was like the album that
Speaker 3: broke us internationally.
Speaker 2: So the band went.
Speaker 3: From playing clubs to now playing very big venues. From
Speaker 3: there it went to baseball stadiums, football stadiums. List then
Speaker 3: to cut us up, we were already dabbing into social issues.
Speaker 3: We were talking about the very dire, dangerous situation with
Speaker 3: the environment. Yeah, there were people that knew about the
Speaker 3: environment and how important it is, and there were environmental groups,
Speaker 3: but it wasn't so huge like it is now. Every
Speaker 3: single album we would talk about something like, for example,
Speaker 3: with the first record for that song is talking about
Speaker 3: all the homeless kids that aren't in Mexico. When we
Speaker 3: start playing in the United States and we start seeing
Speaker 3: how the Latino community has given so much. I never
Speaker 3: saw so much backlash against Mexicans, and not only Mexicans,
Speaker 3: but people from other countries or races. We were saying, well,
Speaker 3: it's important to support the community. Lord, We've told Latinos
Speaker 3: not to be afraid. The United States is made up
Speaker 3: of immigrants. I think there's more good people in the
Speaker 3: United States than bad people. And we always said if
Speaker 3: someday we would become famous, we would want to use
Speaker 3: that platform to talk about things that we're concerned about
Speaker 3: or my eyes right now, there was this demand to
Speaker 3: see the band live. You know, we come out with
Speaker 3: the Ryan Tour because Tinko shows thirty five. If it
Speaker 3: wouldn't have been for that song, you know, I don't
Speaker 3: think there would have been any man not.
Speaker 2: We're part of rock and roll history. You know.
Speaker 3: We sold out seven La Forums, which is such an
Speaker 3: iconic rock and roll venue, and it's a band that's
Speaker 3: singing in Spanish Welcome.
Speaker 2: We really love to share our music with everybody.
Speaker 3: So that's another way of showing also how music is
Speaker 3: so universal.
Speaker 2: It doesn't matter what language it is.
Speaker 3: It's about what's behind the artists or what do they
Speaker 3: give off when they're playing it. We've accomplished and achieved
Speaker 3: more than we ever dreamed about.
Speaker 2: When you have to work so hard.
Speaker 3: You really protect what you have and you don't take
Speaker 3: it for granted, and you cherish it every day. You're
Speaker 3: thankful every day, and every day you get up on
Speaker 3: stage and you see that we're overwhelmed by seeing all
Speaker 3: those fans and all the passion, And as long as
Speaker 3: we're healthy and we still are hungry and passionate as
Speaker 3: we are, there's there's gonna be Manah for a long time.
Speaker 5: Listen, we just started. Listen.
Speaker 1: This episode was produced by Gini Montalbo and edited by
Speaker 1: Sophia Palisa Ca. The Latino USA team includes Andrea Lopez Crusado,
Speaker 1: Marta Martinez, Mike Sargent, Daisy Contreras, Victoria Estrada, Renaldo Leanoz Junior,
Speaker 1: Patricia Sulvaran, with help from Raoul Perez. Our editorial director
Speaker 1: is Fernando Santos. Our director of Engineering is Stephanie Lebau.
Speaker 1: Our senior engineer is Julia Caruso. Our associate engineers are
Speaker 1: Gabriel Lebias and jj Carubin. Our marketing manager is Luis
Speaker 1: Luna or New York Women's Foundation Fellow is Elizabeth loentdal Torres.
Speaker 1: Our theme music was composed by Zania Rubinos, I'm your
Speaker 1: host and executive producer Maria Jojosa join us on our
Speaker 1: next episode. You can also find us on your social
Speaker 1: media and I say not te rayas Ciao.
Speaker 4: Latino USA is made possible in part by the Ford Foundation,
Speaker 4: working with visionaries on the front lines of social change
Speaker 4: world wide, the John D. And Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation,
Speaker 4: and Hispanics and philanthropy.
Speaker 2: Didn't that mean lesson the ust? So you'll okay translation?
Speaker 2: This is early for musicians.