Percance, the Costa Rican Ska band just completed successful tour of Mexico after the release of their latest album, Contra El Viento and we met up with lead singer Esteban Ramirez at the offices of Criteria Entertainment where we talked about the Mexican Tour and their latest album.
Al Borde – Tell us about this Mexican tour that Percance have just finished.
Esteban Ramirez- We had a great time, the Mexican fans have always been very supportive and we just had to go and share our new album with them and this time we also had the chance to play cities that we had never played before like Monterrey and Aguascalientes and it was great to see that even in these new places people knew our music and were singing along.
Tell us more about what Mexico means to a band like Percance.
From the very beginnings of popular music in Latin America, Mexico has been like the Mecca of Latin American music, if you can be successful there, then it spreads to the rest of Latin America and now even the United States. We have toured Mexico several times and every time, the fans and other Mexican bands have been very supportive of our music.
On the new album you have the song ¿Por Qué Viniste?, which has a very Mexican feel to it, tell us more about it.
Mexican music is very popular in Costa Rica, especially Mariachi; and of course, all the great singers, like Juan Gabriel, José José and others and with each trip we have made to Mexico, we have learned more and more about the music, which is very varied and we are a band that listens to all types of music, so this is a sort of tribute to Mexico and what it has meant to us in our career and how its music has influenced us.
Tell us about the new Percance ‘s album Contra El Viento.
We had the fortune to work with Sebastian Krys and not only did we have a great time recording the album he taught us a lot. Sebastian had us go back and listen to the old ska and punk records of The Specials, The Beat, The Clash and other bands of that time. We were all familiar with those artists, but Sebastian made us pay attention to the little details and it really opened up our eyes and ears to all these small intricacies of the music and instrumentation, which we then applied to our song writing and recording process. The album was also recorded strictly on analog tape which has given it a vintage feel, just like the music we were studying.
For this new album you had some special guests, tell us how these contributions came about.
Yes, we had Jorge Serrano from Argentine band Los Auténticos Decadentes, Emiliano Brancciari from Uruguayan band No Te Va Gustar and Dr. Shenka from Mexico’s Panteón Rococó. These are all people we admire and that we have ran into on the road or have shared a stage with. When we wrote the songs we thought it would be a good idea to have some guests, so we called them up and they were all very gracious to accept and we were all very happy with the results.
Do you have plans to play in the United States?
Yes, we are presently working out the details of the tour and we hope to come back and play by the end of the year.
Percance is currently working on making the album available in the U.S. The band can be followed on their official website www.percancemusic.com and on their Facebook page.
Mismo Lugar – Percance
