San Lazaro

10-piece Latin extravaganza San Lazaro are touring the nation, bringing with them their utterly addictive blend of Latin inspired, funk, rhythm and hip-hop. The band’s rapper Sebastian Orelanna explains further...

Given the band’s culturally diverse background (S.L members herald from Chile, Spain, Australia, Greece and Ireland) is it difficult to strike a creative and musical balance?

I would say that the cultural diversity in this band is a blessing and a simple reflection of the city that we live in. The strong Latin influence acts as a binding force and the rest comes naturally. Some of us in the band are putting a real emphasis on utilizing more South American rhythms as opposed to Central American rhythms (salsa, bomba, etc) because three of us are South American, and luckily the rest of the crew are in to it.

San Lazaro is the culmination of lots of talented people coming together; tell us a little about your musical backgrounds and how the band was formed.

Most of the band has been through music courses here in Melbourne and this is ultimately how most of the members met. A few of the guys studied together and shared a real interest in playing salsa standards as a learning experience. Little did they know that this would lead up to becoming a nine piece original Latin funk outfit! Keko, our lead singer and I are the only ones in the band who haven’t finished an established music course and I believe that this brings the band a sense of rawness in the way we approach our music. This coupled with the technical and theoretical abilities of the others is what makes us who we are.

With a heavy Latin influence, is a large group dynamic integral to the bands musical direction?

Definitely, we always look for a big sound, even in the more mellow tunes there is still a strong presence of every instrument which results in a strength rarely seen in other styles of music. Without all nine or ten of us, which we have been lately with the integration of Leo Salvo on backing vocals and percussion, it would feel like a centipede missing about twenty of its extremities and I can imagine that would feel quite strange. This kind of music needs a big band in order to get the full power of it across to audiences.

You personally rap in Spanish; given that in Australia your audience is predominantly English speaking, do you find that they are embracing of this choice?

It’s hard to say if the audience embraces the raps in Spanish. I think that they definitely embrace the style but because the majority of people don’t understand what I’m saying it is hard for them to identify with it. Luckily hip hop is a genre that can be appreciated for so much more than just the lyrics. I wouldn’t say that rapping in Spanish was really a choice for me; this is what comes naturally, as I lived in Chile through out my teenage years on to adulthood. I would definitely like for our fans to understand what I’m saying and for this purpose I am thinking of maybe including a few translations in the next album for the people who are interested enough to read through the contents.

You’ve been in high demand on the outdoor festival circuit; do you feel that S.L’s music is something best experienced live?

San Lazaro is such an energetic band with so much happening all at once, so if you’re not watching as well as listening it is hard to appreciate exactly what we’re about. When audiences have the chance to see three strong percussionists playing polyrhythmic styles and you add to that the rest of the rhythm section and horns it is a challenge to not get up and dance. From my own experience, watching a tight band live is magical and I would dare say that we qualify under that category.

Having shared the stage with some pretty big names (John Butler Trio, The Waifs), - is there anyone that has been a particular highlight?

Sharing the stage with big names such as John Butler is a blessing, but I personally enjoy sharing the stage with smaller local bands such as Labjacd, Diafrix and The Melodics just as much. There is a real sense of community throughout this young, original music scene and it is not dependant on what particular style you play which is awesome. Having the support of bigger successful acts is just the icing on the cake.

San Lazaro’s upcoming tour has been supported through the Federal Governments ‘Contemporary Music Touring Program’- How important is such funding and is it vital in ensuring the bands future development?

I think that the bands future development is something that we have all worked hard on. But without the help of government funding it would be very difficult to share our music with a wider audience thus making it difficult to create sustainable careers for ourselves. We have been given the chance to tour Australia as a band that communicates 100% in a foreign language, I don’t know how many other bands have done this (if any) but it will be very interesting to see what comes of it.

Your most recent album ‘Mestizos Urbanos’ was released in 2006, are there any plans to record and release another album?

We are working on new songs for the second album and until now our new material is showing real musical growth, so hopefully by the end of this year we will be ready to release a second, bigger and better EP. We intend to have many special guests in the next album, all from this beautiful Melbourne music scene ranging from guys from the old Latin scene who have been huge influences on us to the guys from the young hip hop scene whom we admire. Hopefully people can embrace these concepts and feel proud of the multicultural city and country that we all live in

The band is made up of people from all over the world. Any plans to tour internationally?

There are plans to hopefully go to Europe in the near future, but it is hard to say at the moment if this will come together or not. We would definitely like to tour some Spanish speaking countries to see what kind of response we get from crowds that actually understand what we’re on about. I personally would love to have the chance to take this band back to my home country (Chile) and share our music with them, especially because a lot of my lyrics are heavily influenced by the eleven years that I lived there and I know that young people over there could definitely relate.

Finally, what can we expect from San Lazaro in the near future?

Expect pumping shows all over Australia and an amazing new album in the near future. San Lazaro can only get better and it will. We might even get better at dancing, with the exclusion of Nasrine who is already a good dancer, as for the rest of us, maybe some dance lessons wouldn’t be a bad idea.

Catch San Lazaro playing here:

Feb 29th: Theatre Royal, Castlemaine
March 1st: Mildura Festival
March 13th: Transit Bar, Canberra
March 14th: Triselies, Katoomba
March 15th: Sonar, Sydney with Son Veneno
March 19th: Beach Hotel, Byron Bay
March 20th: Step Inn, Brisbane
March 22nd: The J, Noosa
March 23rd & 24th: Bluesfest, Byron Bay
March 28th: Mackay Entertainment Centre
March 29th: The Tanks Arts Centre, Cairns
March 30th: The Shrubbery, Mission Beach
April 4th: Northcote Social Club, Melbourne
April 5th: Republic Bar, Hobart
April 6th: Brookfield Winery, Margate, Tasmania
April 19th: Between the Bays Festival, Mornington Peninsular
April 24th: Ruby’s Lounge, Belgrave
April 25th: Adelaide festival Centre
April 26th & 27th: Mt Beauty Music Muster

San Lazaro's 'Mestizos Urbanos' is out now through MRA Entertainment.

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