Instrumental trio LA LOM takes listeners through mid-century renditions of Latin genres like cumbia and bolero, with a touch of country twang and retro soul. The LA natives formed the band, formally known as the Los Angeles League of Musicians, in 2019. Their debut album comes out on August 9. The group’s guitarist, Zac Sokolow, talks to KCRW about the album, LA LOM’s origin story, and getting their start in the lobby of the Hollywood Roosevelt.
The latest single from the upcoming record is called “Danza de LA LOM,” which Sokolow describes as an homage to chicha and cumbia music from Peru in the 1960s and 1970s.
“That music was a big influence to us when we were starting out and still is really now. I think we first got into that music because we're an instrumental trio — it's guitar, percussion, and bass — and when we started playing cumbia, we looked at a lot of that music that was guitar-led because most cumbia is led on the accordion. [Peruvian cumbia and chicha] also has this kind of country twang to it.”
Sokolow grew up playing rockabilly and hillbilly music from the 1950s. At 5, he played Elvis on the Ukulele, and by 11, graduated to guitars. A year later, he joined his father in performing bluegrass and country. While working at McCabe's Guitar Shop in Santa Monica as a teen, Sokolow met LA LOM bassist Jake Faulkner.
LA LOM does not have a singer, which harkens back to the band’s beginnings at the Hollywood Roosevelt, where they played in the hotel’s lobby for three hours a night, up to four days a week. Initially, they showcased 1930s-1940s Latin music. As hotel visitors started taking notice and even dancing, the band worked in other sounds, including 1960s soul tunes from artists like The Temptations and Smokey Robinson.
“Our music has this nostalgic feeling [of] this time in Los Angeles from the 1950s or 1960s, or maybe it's this imaginary time and doesn't even really exist, but there's this feeling of nostalgia to it,” Sokolow says.
At the recommendation of the band’s percussionist, Nicholas Baker, LA LOM started performing at other venues, including many small LA bars packed with dancers.
“In LA, cumbia is such a popular thing. You hear it on the radio. You hear it coming out of people's cars, at parties, and at clubs all over the city. So that was one of the ways we really started playing cumbia — people showing up and requesting.”
While the band largely doesn’t speak Spanish — Sokolow has a conversational grip on the language — he says the instrumental versions of the music are universal and can resonate with all types of listeners.
“The words are originally in Spanish, but the fact that there's no words, people that speak any language hear it and can connect with it.”
LA LOM pays tribute to Los Angeles by naming songs after streets like “Figueroa” and “Alvarado.”
“We actually recorded a lot of our record on Figueroa Street,” Sokolow explains. “We usually come up with these instrumentals, the melodies first, and we start playing them sometimes even in front of people before they really have a name. And then we'll often think of what it reminds us of, which is often a place or street name in LA.”
He adds, “This city means a lot to me. When I travel around and go on tour … I just start to miss LA a lot. … There's so many different cultures here, and it's such a beautifully diverse place.”
