Chicano Batman's Carlos Arevalo Loves Forward Momentum and Old-School Tech

Our Whitney Moore caught up with Carlos Arevalo of Chicano Batman to talk about their new album, Invisible People, their fourth studio album amid a sea of singles and EPs. A favorite on the festival scene, and no strangers to the talk-show circuit, the band takes its inspiration from The Beatles, Funk, Black Soul, and more. One thing you can count on from Chicano Batman, though, is the occasional glimpse of hope and reassurance resonating in their sound and in their lyrics. Long before COVID set in, they’ve been escorting fans through challenging times, and with Invisible People, you’ll find those same hopeful strains sounding through.

Chicano Batman has had a ton of press recently, including a VICE news live press event early in the week with some tough questions, Arevalo laughed, describing the feeling of trying to answer questions as like taking an exam.

They’ve been keeping busy during quarantine, partly relating to the new album’s release. It’s been a great way to pass the time, Arevalo says. It’s “bittersweet” though since they were supposed to be on tour right now, though it would have been difficult to promote the album at the same time.

They are still working on music now, even though the band members can’t be together. They are a band that thrives on “real feedback” of in-person collaboration of working “off each others’ energy in real time”. They can’t really do that in quarantine, and now they are following a pattern of cutting a track with each member alone, sending along the track to the next band member to work on, and so on. It’s a longer process, but they are getting there. It was challenging at first, Arevalo admitted, especially communication, but they are working through it and adapting.

Invisible People is a “break of positivity”, Moore commented, and asked what the ideal circumstances are for listening to the the album?

Arevalo said to use speakers with good bass frequency to catch this “candy” for your earphones and car speakers, a situation where you’re going to “feel the bass hit your chest” when you’re listening. Stay away from just using laptop speakers or iPhone speakers, he recommended. Use some great bass headphones. He’s still hearing new things when listening to it, so you will, too.

As a record collector, does he think the sound of the physical record is best to listen to? Arevalo thinks so, yes. Even a physical CD is a good-sounding way to hear an album, scientifically speaking. It’s uncompressed and you can hear a fuller “spectrum of sound” than you can even hear on a record. 

You want to hear it on vinyl or CD, and you also get this “cool artwork” to look at with a physical copy vs. streaming. Sit down, look at it, think about what it means to you, and read the lyrics on the gatefold, he suggests. Check out who played what on each song, and as a music fan, he wants to know that stuff. You’ll definitely know more info to drop at parties!

Talking about the album art for Invisible People, Arevalo said they reached out to a South American artist called Rala Choi, and this is actually a photograph he took. He uses very little digital editing, and this was his “creative art concept”, with a detailed interpretation.

They wanted a “standalone art piece” that can be “subjective” and mean whatever you want it to mean. If you go to LACMA or MOMA, how do those pieces make you feel? That’s how Chicano Batman want you to approach this cover.

Asking how they are using this time to connect with fans, Arevalo mentioned that they’ve done a Reddit AMA recently, a livestream on Youtube, and watched replies and responses from fans in real time. It was an “exhilarating time interacting with fans”, the most since their last live show, for him.

It’s fun to stay in touch as best you can with fans. They’ve been doing a few Instagram livestreams, doled out among band members. Arevalo did a guitar lesson for fans at the beginning of quarantine. Physical distancing is something to take seriously, and he wanted to spread that message through offering a guitar lesson for fans.

They previously did a tour with Vampire Weekend and Andrew Bird, and last year they were in the “opener mode”, opening for more established groups. Arevalo noticed that one of the songs that resonated with fans was “Freedom is Free”, which is an empowering song about not caring what people say to you about what you can be and can’t be. It has a “fat bassline” and “drumbreak” that gets people dancing, too.

Moore noted that it must be interesting to be a band who has been “singled out as a band with political takes” and one that “speaks about social injustice”. The new album spreads a message of unity and love, Arevalo confirmed, so it’s relevant to this, but a little different. When Trump came into office, around the time of their last album, they gave a lot of press with political messages, bu with the production of this album, they’ve been more about having fun. And the album is also musically diverse, showing the tastes of different band members, and giving a chance for them to all give input.

It’s also more “modern” in terms of production value than previous albums, not pursuing the “low-fi” approach they’ve intentionally taken in the past. There is some political leaning in the album, like in the song “Invisible People”, which you can interpret as Latinos being “underappreciated” in society. But that extends globally to people who feel they are “not being seen”. There’s a lot to choose from and it takes you on a “journey”, Arevalo promised.

Chicano Batman are big on making music videos, like “Blank Slate”, which was recently released, but also the “Color my Life” video is bound to make people nostalgic about being “out and about in LA”, Moore said.

“Color my Life” shows fans what the members of the band like to do with their free time, and Bardo Martinez is always wanting to go to the beach. Arevalo is more into art and playing guitar, and you see some background murals he thought were cool in the video. Gabriel Villa plays the drums in the hills. Their bassist, Eduardo Arenas, rides his bike around.

Because the band are in quarantine, the “big treatment” they originally had in mind for that video got “scrapped”. Instead, they had B-roll footage of the band playing the song, and they took those elements and married it with street-skate elements, adding a feeling of “forward momentum, growth, and progression” to reflect the overall meaning of the song in “Color my Life”. The song is about “turning a heel” and moving forward from a situation. Which was the “statement and MO for this album”, Arevalo said. The video encapsulates that.

Arevalo misses the energy of the people in LA, being able to hang out and bump into friends, and also eating good food while doing so. He’s quarantined with his wife, and they get to walk around their neighborhood and local hills, which gives him a substitute for “life in public”, so he’s lucky, though.

Bardo Martinez was once out and bumped into Brittany Howard from Alabama Shakes and Shawn Everett, who ended up mixing their album. That’s how they got to know Shawn and work with him on this album. Those are the kind of real-life interactions people are missing.

What kind of equipment creates their sound? They use “hardware”, but a lot of musicians and producers use pro tools with plugins. That requires sound design and computer knowledge. Chicano Batman are old school like Stevie Wonder, however, and Arevalo has a Prophet 6 synthesizer, which he showed us. He likes the feeling of it and that’s the kind of old-school equipment they have. They like the warmth of it. A lot of their friends use other methods, like computers, and make beautiful records, but they feel there’s more to explore on those older “instruments that keep on giving”.

Arevalo definitely collects records, and he showed us Can’s first album Monster Movie, from 1969.

He has Miles Davis' Live Evil, with beautiful art, that lives “separate from the album”.

He brought out Dr. Dre’s The Chronic, an inspiration for their new album, and an LA classic. The synthesizers all over their new album are “references” to The Chronic.

Old Hip-Hop never goes out of style and is still relevant today, including Kendrick Lamar, according to Arevalo.

Chicano Batman band has rehearsal studio, but since quarantine, Arevalo has been working in his wife’s art studio, and her rather gorgeous unfinished paintings were on display.

For the eagle-eyed, Arevalo had an Iggy Pop record visible in the background, too.

What’s his advice for quarantine isolation if we’re struggling? He’s always liked phone calls versus texting. He finds himself texting full paragraphs, then jumping on the phone instead. Now he jumps from phone to Facetime when previously he might not have. That “human element” makes things better. It’s “better for my soul”, he said. 

He’s been staying creative and working on music, but it took him awhile to “get to that place”, he confessed. The first week or ten days in March, he didn’t “touch an instrument” or listen to music at all. Eventually, “get into your outlet or creative space again”, he advised. You have to “dip your toe back in and go through the motions” until it starts gelling and flowing again. That worked for him.

He’s heard people tell others to use their time to make all kinds of new projects, but it’s “okay” if you can’t do that. It’s okay to take time to “recalibrated”, Arevalo explained. How can you work during this “disaster context”? It’s really hard, but eventually, when you’re feeling up to it, “get back to it”. You might create something “terrible” at first but get through it to the other side until things get better. 

Asked about any bands he’s discovered or books he’s read during quarantine, Arevalo said that he’s said it before, but The Weeknd’s new album is “fire”. He thinks people should check that out. Chicano Batman is more on the “indie rock, underground spectrum”, but that album still appeals to him. It melds pop sensibility with “hip” sounds.

Radiohead’s also been helping with their Thursday live concerts from the archive online. He’s been watching movies, such as the Alien movies, re-watching them in order. He also went on an Oscar Isaac trip, watching his films like Ex Machina, Annihilation, and an HBO miniseries. 

Is the new album’s intention to challenge listeners first, or is it pulling from things he enjoys? Arevalo says that Invisible People does both, and even though it’s been called “accessible” or their most accessible album, it probably isn’t as accessible as these larger bands like The Weekend’s music. But they hope that audiences will try new things that have influenced Chicano Batman through hearing those elements in their work. He hopes fans will dig in and find new bands and music that way.

What kind of holes has he gone down in researching band influences as a fan? The Mars Volta’s “crazy prog rock” psychedelic sound was a favorite of his as a younger guy. In interviews, they’d say they were inspired by Can. That German music was really interesting to him, and that led him to Kraftwerk, and bands like Neu! You find out about the “scene” in which these bands “function” and then you find more bands. It “keeps growing like a web”, Arevalo said. 

In terms of movies, Arevalo also watched Inherent Vice, with Paul Thomas Anderson, and he’s a huge fan of Anderson’s. He didn’t “get” the movie the first time he saw it previously, but he gave it a second shot in quarantine, and really listened, even keeping subtitles on to read them. That was helpful, and it was an “amazing” movie, now one of his favorites. The humor is “subtle but brilliant”.

Asked what one bad habit and one good habit he’s picked up in quarantine, Arevalo said that he’s been eating oreo cookies. He usually avoids sugar. He and his wife want to “indulge” now, though, and the local bodega had a big pack of oreos. It was very tempting.  

Arevalo has been cooking a lot, trying new things suggested online, and he and his wife have been surprising themselves with the meals they’ve been able to cook. It’s a different feeling than eating out. Most of their schedules have been so busy up to now that they haven’t really been into cooking. It’s been great for them to figure that out more fully. A curb pick up is still a nice treat, though! Gotta support those local restaurants.

Moore asked Arevalo if he thinks that this quarantine will create better art or worse art. Arevalo gave this some thought. He’s an “optimist”, and thinks “better art, or at least different art” will be the result. People are putting a “pause” on things, and things in entertainment and the music industry have been very “cut throat, high-quality” in the past year or so. But now it’s about “realness”, using things like iPhones and lesser tech to make creative work. 

This is more “human” and there’s “realness” in that, Arevalo said, and that will “probably be reflected in that art”.  This approach to the low-tech will also help people break out of that “funk” they might have been in early on, he observed.

Does he have any special associations with Tower Records?

Arevalo used to shop at Tower, and remembers driving by the Sunset Strip location in LA. He’s been a music fan his whole life. He used to go check out CDs at Tower, figuring out what he could afford for 20 bucks. The culture of record stores, talking to clerks and getting recommendations, is still a strong memory for him that he values. There’s stuff that can be found in record stores that doesn’t exist on streaming, he reminded us. Those are “special” opportunities and people are missing out on that experience. It’s also great looking through a physical record store’s stock and checking something out just because the artwork looks cool.

Bin-diving for cool album art was definitely one of Moore’s favorite things, too.

What about our Tower Records motto, No Music, No Life/Know Music, Know Life? Arevalo said: “Music is here to accompany you through life, through the good and the bad.” For his good times and his bad times, he has memories of the music that was there getting him through. “You’ll hear those albums, and that’ll take you back to that memory.”, he said. Music is such a big part of his life, it’s his “marker” for who he was and where he was “at that point in time”. It’s a “memento” with which to look back on your life experiences.