The members of Los Dos Carnales, Poncho and Imanol Quezada, felt that the boys of their generation were ignoring the fathers of Mexican norteño music, those who were the inspiration for so many artists in the last half of the last century.
“There were almost no groups of those, like Ramón Ayala, Los Cadetes de Linares, which are icons,” said Poncho, lead singer and bass guitarist of this band. “We felt that a group of our generation needed to continue with that music.”
For this, these two brothers took the classic instruments of this genre, the aforementioned bajosexto and the accordion, and began touring cantinas in their native San Pedro, in the Mexican state of Coahuila, where they were born. Imanol was 9 years old; Poncho 16.
The people responsible for the Quezadas falling in love with this music were their father and grandfather, both musicians and amateur performers who did not manage to develop a musical career.
“We would get on the buses, [cantábamos en] cantinas, fonditas”, said Poncho, who was in Los Angeles with his brother for the show that they will offer this weekend at the Microsoft theater. “We even painted ourselves as clowns and went to give shows; the joke was to develop the desire to be someone, to succeed”.
Even once, the brothers traveled alone to Mexico City to seek luck; they were 9 and 16 years old. Their parents could not accompany them because they worked.
Then followed social events, such as fifteen years, weddings, baptisms and even funerals. But the Quezadas wanted to be on another level, go a step further, become professional performers and take their music to stages with mass audiences.
That moment came at the end of 2018 thanks to the success on social networks of “Ventajosa”, a corrido written by Imanol. A record company “discovered” the brothers and began to take them to stages not only throughout Mexico but also in the United States.
Currently the duo promotes “Se me soló el hocico”, a bolero that the Quezadas adapted to the norteño. This theme will be part of the brothers’ new album, which still does not have a release date.
The key to their success has been to maintain the “vintage” style of norteño music but with fresh lyrics so that they reach newer generations, Poncho explained.
“Our mission is to take traditional norteño music to another level,” said the singer. “We had to give the lyrics a twist but always with that classic sound.”
In detail
That: the two fleshly
When: Saturday 8 p.m.
Where: Microsoft Theater, 1111 S. Figueroa St., Los Angeles
As: tickets from $45; axs.com reports