More: Hear Raul Campos’ Summer Mixtape — inspired by Ozomatli
Since the mid-1990s, LA’s homegrown band Ozomatli has been delivering international music, including merengue, salsa, hip-hop, samba, funk, reggae, R&B, and more. KCRW speaks with the band’s co-founder, vocalist, and guitarist Raul Pacheco — along with singer and instrumentalist Ulises Bella.
“Ozomatli” refers to the monkey in the Aztec calendar — the horoscope sign of the band’s original drummer Anton Morales.
“[Morales] was like, ‘Well it’s the god of dance, and he's mischievous … orchestrator of the jungle.’ And then we're like, ‘Wow, god of dance. That's pretty cool.’ We love that, we went with that,” explains Bella.
He adds, “If there's anything that really unified everything we do musically — is that intention to get the crowd dancing … even at corporate events.”
As for the band’s sound, it’s whatever the members are interested in, says Pacheco. “We came with so many different people showing up. … It was: What do you know? I know some Mexican folk songs. What do you know? I know reggae music. … Whoever shows up and contributes — that’s part of the sound. … We were always learning things from each other. … I think our sound is eclectic. … It really is about an appreciation for music from all over the world. And in LA, there's plenty of that, and we've been able to bring it.”
“It really is about an appreciation for music from all over the world. And in LA, there's plenty of that, and we've been able to bring it,” Raul Pacheco says of the band’s sound. Credit: Lisa Johnson.
Bella points out that all the members’ origins in LA prepared them for the different sounds they’d adopt in the future, especially as they started touring nationally and internationally. He says they went to places that many other bands didn’t go to, such as Indonesia, Mongolia, Madagascar, and North Africa.
They also took their political activism everywhere they toured. “We were the house band for pretty much any kind of demonstration. … The one thing with Ozomatli as far as the political or social change aspect of it — is that it's always been part of our DNA from the beginning,” Bella emphasizes.
“The one thing with Ozomatli as far as the political or social change aspect of it — is that it's always been part of our DNA from the beginning,” says Ulises Bella. Credit: Lisa Johnson.
The band has a gig coming up with the organization Alzheimer's Los Angeles. Bella shares that his mother had dementia and recently passed away at age 88. Taking care of her changed him.
“It definitely affected me physically. … I was losing sleep. I had terrible panic attacks because you're constantly worried about what was going to happen. What medicines do I need to take care of? Did she do this? Did she eat? … That level of hypervigilance just fried my nervous system.”
He adds, “Right before that, we dealt with my mother-in-law who passed away in hospice at home too, during the pandemic. And so it's just been a lot of really intense life experiences that I think that all of us, as human beings, have to go through.”
Bella’s mom was a big supporter of the band too, dancing at their concerts and informing their activism. “She was super into local politics. And she was integral in exposing the big Bell scandal, the financial scandal that happened there a bunch of years back. … She would be at these meetings, trying to keep these guys accountable. … She was one of the first people that actually was like, ‘Hey, there's something really, really, really, really, really fishy going on here.’ And it blew up. … It put Bell on the map.”
LA as a whole is always changing, for better or worse, says Bella. “I love it enough where I still can't fathom myself living anywhere else.”
More from Press Play's Summer Mixtape series:
Anne Litt & Lucinda Williams
Carla Morrison & Ro Wyldeflower Contreras
Boy George & Valida