TWIN TRIBES

[ Interview with Luis Navarro and Joel Niño, Jr. from Twin Tribes by Diego Centurión ]

TWIN TRIBES: IT WAS A DIFFICULT YEAR FOR ALL OF US.

We are facing one of the revelations of recent years in coldwave, Twin Tribes. This duo from Brownsville, Texas will release "Altars" on April 9, an album of remixes by great artists of the genre. It is like a blessing performed by bands that light up the firmament of post-punk and current coldwave. We contacted Luis Navarro and Joel Niño, Jr. and this they told us.

Hello Guys, I want to thank you for the opportunity to conduct this interview and I cannot fail to overlook the facilitation of this contact to Christian Bankes from Fade In PR, whom I deeply thank.

To start, tell us where your roots are from beyond living in Brownsville because you speak Spanish very well.

Luis – Thank you, I am originally from Matamoros, Tamaulipas. I moved to Brownsville at a young age. Joel – My mom is from Mexico and was raised in Rio Bravo, Tamaulipas. She came to the United States in her youth where she met and married my father. I learned Spanish as my first language, and according to my mom, learned English through watching Sesame Street.

How did the name of the band come about?

Luis - We went back and forth for about a month trying to figure out what our band name would be. At some point Luis threw out a name with Tribes in it. And we went from there combining Tribes with other words, and eventually came upon Twin Tribes. It doesn’t necessarily have any meaning attached to it, it just felt right as soon as we heard it.

Well, I know it all started in 2017, as a personal project by Luis and then Joel joined when there was only a demo of the song "Shadows". The question is, how do you think that connection occurred so quickly between you, since a few months later you were recording the first album?

Luis - I think that once we heard the demos together, we were on the same channel. We were able to write seven songs in a short period of time, around 3-4 months. That’s what ended up being the album “Shadows”.

I heard that the first album "Shadows" was an album that, somehow, was recorded for an inner circle, without much expectation. After everything exploded and you became known, surely you had another perspective on your position as a band within

the scene. The question is, were you surprised by the impact you had in such a short time? In fact, here in the south of the continent you are very well known.

Luis – Yes, definitely. We did not have that in mind when we were in the studio. The original plan was to just print on cassette, just for our personal pleasure. We never thought that it would be accepted in this way. It truly is an amazing feeling how our fans were able to identify with our music. Joel – All we really wanted to do was be able to have something physical that had this collection of songs. We were not expecting a lot, but we did feel when we were in the studio, that the songs were magical. We would be dancing during playbacks, and along with our producer Allen Michael, really enjoyed our time creating “Shadows”. We are grateful to everyone that has supported us since the beginning. We would not be at this point without their belief in our music.

I have heard an anecdote of something that happened to you on your first visit to New York, to The Red Party. Can you tell our readers about that experience?

Joel - Yeah, that was not one of our best moments. Honestly, I believe it was the lowest point I remember having as part of Twin Tribes so far. We had flown into New York from Texas, and we had left our little safe box in one of our luggage, safely between several stacks of t-shirts.

Keep in mind, this was our first time flying out for a show, and we were extremely clueless in the art of travel. We unfortunately had complete faith in the security of our luggage going through airport security checks. When we arrived at the place we were staying, I opened our luggage to make sure that our merch was in good shape, as we had brought cassettes with us. What I found, to my horror, was our safe box open, and all of the money we had saved for our travel and from sales of our merch was gone, save for one dollar. Which was really a big f-you to us by the thief. It was a traumatizing moment. Luis – Yes, it was such a terrible thing that happened to us. When Joel told me about what he had discovered it was a punch to the gut. I started a “Go Fund Me” explaining what had happened to us. Within the hour, we had already recovered half of what was lost. It was surprising. Fortunately for us we were able to recoup what we lost thanks to our fans. Every person that donated to us we thanked in the liner notes for “Ceremony” because they were the ones who made it possible. It was a beautiful feeling having so many people donate in our time of need, because they believe in you. We continue to be grateful.

Tell us about the experience of having recorded a “Part Time Punks Session” in 2018.

Luis - Recording the “Part Time Punks” session in 2018 was incredible. We recorded with Bee Hussey in Los Angeles for a few hours. After that, Bee made the mix and we launched it on cassette as “Part Time Punks Sessions” and is also available to stream. We are thankful to Michael Stock for inviting us to record the session with such a distinguished name in our scene as “Part Time Punks”.

In 2019 you released your second album, “Ceremony”, a much more complete album from the sound and production, beyond the logical growth as a band, how do you feel that the band has grown between the first album and the second?

Luis – I think you can see the growth as a band when you compare both albums. “Ceremony”, is sonically a more complex album than “Shadows”. We were finding our sound with “Shadows”, and in “Ceremony” we were able to find exactly what we were looking for. It was also an album that was more personal and intimate. Joel – In terms of song writing, I feel there was a real evolution. We had a clear idea of what we wanted our sound to be. Much like when we were writing the songs for “Shadows”, there was a connection Luis and I had that got stronger. In my mind, we trusted each other to make the best decisions artistically when it came to the songs.

You guys have remixed Clan of Xymox, Astari Nite and Geometric Vision, at least the ones I know of. How do you guys work this type of remixes for other musicians?

Luis: Yes, that’s correct. Those are the only ones we have made that have already been released, with more coming in the future. Usually, bands contact us directly and we try and work it in to our schedule if it’s possible. It’s fun to be able to give a

Twin Tribes feel to the music of our friends. Joel - It’s a process. We start by listening to the original track, and then we strip it down to the bare bones and rebuild. Luis really is the driving factor when it comes to remixes. He has become a magician with our recording software, and I feel as we have moved forward, we’ve learned so much.

2020 was a surprise year, which stopped the world. You take the opportunity to release live material like "Live At Fascination Street" and they released some previews of singles from the new album, which we will talk about later. Tell us, do you have any more live footage to release at some point?

Luis – Yes, we released “Live a Fascination Street” which was recorded in Nashville, TN on our last tour. When we heard the recording, we knew that we had to print that on cassette to give it the essence that it deserved. We loved it. Joel – We still have some unreleased tracks from a second Part Time Punks Session we did. We haven’t had the chance to release it, but here’s to hoping in the future we can get it out there.

You are about to release a remix album, “Altars”, scheduled for April 9, which will be distributed by Negative Gain (North America), Manic Depression Records (France), and Young & Cold Records (Germany). An album of remixes including by She Past Away, Bootblacks, Ash Code, Wingtips, Creux Lies, Geometric Vision, among others. Tell us how was this idea conceived and how was the contact with the bands?

Luis – To be honest, we did not have in mind to release an album of remixes until several artists/friends reached out to us to do a remix. We later listened to the first three, and the idea came about. Joel - It initially began with NITE and Matte Blvck approaching us about doing remixes for some of our tracks. We thought it would be a cool idea, and when they sent them back to us, it kind of snowballed from there. We reached out to several other artists, and we had so many tracks to choose from. We really treated this album with the respect, and love that it deserves, as well as the artists that chose to be a part of it. They really went above and beyond to deliver such amazing takes on the original material, and we could not be more excited for everyone to listen to the entire album.

Once you got the finished versions, what was your reaction?

Luis – My reaction was pure joy. The LP, from beginning to end, is a proper album, and not just a collection of songs thrown together. Each artist did an excellent job transforming and altering the songs to their styles and it makes us happy they were able to be a part of making this album possible. Joel – Amazement. All the artists really made the songs their own, and in their own style.

You have performed shows with She Past Away, Clan of Xymox, and other bands from the scene.

What show do you remember with great joy?

Luis - I think every show is special. From playing in a house garage packed with people, to a sold-out crowd in a theatre. But one of my favorites was a festival in Tampa called Absolution fest. It brings me fond memories as we shared the stage with good friends that we frequently ran into throughout our shows that year. It was something truly special. Joel – It is a bittersweet moment, with both extreme fear and joy! I remember a sold-out show when we opened for She Past Away in San Diego. I walked out onto the stage with my head down, took my place and waited for Luis to come on stage. Once the first notes hit of the first song, I looked up into the crowd, and saw a sea of faces as far as I could see. This was the biggest crowd we had played for up to this point, and my knees just locked. I was paralyzed, and instantly I knew this was stage fright. Thankfully, after the first song it wore off and I really got to enjoy one of my favorite moments in our career thus far. and Equinoxious from Mexico, Autonomistas from Argentina, and while not necessarily from Latin America, Luz Futuro and VVV [Trippin’you] from Spain.

Currently there is a Coldwave and a post-punk boom that has been growing in recent years, and this 2020 pandemic was a very difficult year, I know they suspended a tour in 2020, and in 2021, how do you plan?

Luis – It was a difficult year for all of us. For the moment we have a planned United States tour in September, if everything goes well. We are still monitoring the situation to see what is going to happen.

Where can you find your music?

Joel - You can find all our music on digital distribution platforms like Spotify, iTunes, YouTube Music, as well as on our Bandcamp. As for physical media and other merchandise, you can find it at TwinTribes.bigcartel.com as well as our exclusive merch supplier for Latin America, El Chulito merch out of Mexico.

Among many of your influences, I have heard you mention Soda Stereo, what Latin American bands do you like?

Luis – Yes, Soda Stereo is one of my favorite bands. They were a huge influence on me growing up, and to this day. Besides Soda, I really love rock en español, in general. Caifanes, Heroes del Silencio, La Union, Los Prisioneros, Alaska, Miguel Mateos just to mention a few. Joel – I’ll go recent here: Hoffen

And to end this interview by thanking you for the time you have dedicated to us. You have this space for what you want to say to our readers.

Joel – Thank you to all of the fans that are reading this that have been with us since the beginning, and to any new fans that may first be hearing about us through your publication. We are so grateful to you for your time, thank you!

Thank You Luis and Joel!

[ By Fernando Rivera Rodríguez ]

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