Evolving from a Mutual Cry to a Love Star

By Hilda GabrielaJuly 21, 2009AB's Top Music News

Love Star

In the world of independent music, it’s not uncommon to hear that a band dabbles into a musical genre that is the polar opposite of what they are known for. Perhaps one of the perks of being an unsigned band is that as musicians, independent artists have that freedom to experiment with their sound without having to deal with some of the restrictions of a major record label. But for those who are avid supporters of the independent music scene of Los Angeles where bands come and go, change their sound, swap members and change their image in an effort to save grace, it’s always a surprise to hear that the band that you follow religiously has undergone such drastic change. Most recently, rock band Grito Mutual found themselves just as surprised as their faithful fans were by this inevitable change that threw the band for a complete spin. Adriana Fernandez, Will Alves and Guillermo “Memo” Jimenez took the time to communicate this sudden change to Al Borde and, in this exclusive interview, gave us the 411 on that unprecedented moment of going into a recording studio as a rock infused band, Grito Mutual, and coming out as the pop-electro Love Star.


Going in Mutual Cry, coming out Love Star 
Love Star is more of a transformation from Grito Mutual than a break up. The change started sometime after we started working with former members of Los Abandoned, David “Don Verde” and Moises “Viralata”. We began working on new material as Grito Mutual and at some point during that process we went into a totally different direction with our music. We then realized that this new direction was a lot more than just a new chapter in our history and was more of an evolution. I guess you can use the caterpillar turning into a butterfly analogy to sum it up!
 
Parting Ways
It was a mutual decision to change the band name. New music, new attitude, new style, new band name…it just felt right. In our case, the style obviously changed from a grungier rock to a more pop and electro sound so we decided to look for musicians that shared in that vision. The guys that were part of Grito Mutual were cool but we all agreed that our styles no longer matched and it was time to part ways. That’s when Memo came in to play drums, with the experience of having played with another local band.
 
EP, Love StarLove Star EP, Happiness
The easiest way to try to understand Love Star would be by closing your eyes while you hear the songs and mentally picture how it looks. We’re working on new material to complete the Happiness EP but for now the first single titled “Felicidad” is a perfect example of what our fans can expect from us. The song talks about happiness and how easy it is to find it. It’s a fun, feet-tapping type of song with electro loops and beds that allows for Adriana’s vocals to really become appreciated and shows our playfulness and ability to jump into a new genre wholeheartedly. Love Star and “Felicidad” definitely exceeded all of our expectations. Obviously none of us expected this album to come out the way it did and even though the entire process took about one year to complete, the hard work and patience definitely paid off. The response to Love Star has been great and we recently had our first show since the changes were made. We did a little experimenting by changing one of the songs from the Grito Mutual album, Rompecabezas and although many complimented the song, one fan complained by saying “Please leave the song  ‘Johnny’ alone!”

 

What Now?
We took a break for the first half of the year to focus on recording and just recently started booking shows again under Love Star and no longer under Grito Mutual. Our main focus now is to get back into the world of music and start performing as Love Star. Although a lot has changed, fans have really embraced the new music and style but obviously haven’t forgotten Grito Mutual. We’ll be sure to play our previous material from time to time since we really enjoy it, and hopefully we’ll continue to grow and good things will keep coming our way. In terms of basic promotion and marketing, we plan to do the same thing that we’ve always done, which is work our butts off! So for the most part our approach will remain the same, but the musical stem from which everything else grows has obviously changed and evolved into something completely new and different.
 
While the new Love Star EP prints and until the official album release takes place later this year, you can check out Love Star on their My Space page here and keep logging on to alborde.com for more Love Star and Latin Alternative updates.

Happiness track listing:

1.) Felicidad

2.) Sin El ( Niña Boba)

3.) You

4.) Ay Niño