Band makes it in tough town

by John Bear

Daily Lobo

Stoic Frame calls many places home.

The band first started playing in San Salvador, El Salvador, when its members were teenagers. The group reformed a few years later in Albuquerque, then relocated to the more musically fertile grounds of Los Angeles.

Despite their far-reaching domain, members still consider New Mexico their base of operations.

"I am from South America, and the other three guys are from Belen," drummer Matias Pizarro said. "But we still consider this crazy desert land our home."

For the past several years they have been working out of Long Beach, Calif., and Pizarro said he cannot deny the town can be draining.

"You can get kind of jaded, spending a lot of time on the freeway," he said. "So we do get energized to come home and do shows."

Singer Keith Sanchez expressed a similar sentiment about Long Beach.

"It's great," he said. "It's bittersweet. It's a tough town, an urban nightmare in a lot of ways. It's a town with a lot of opportunities for artists. It's a town that has a lot of soul because of the artists there."

The move to Los Angeles was apparently a smart one. Pizarro said the band's latest single is charting at No. 4 nationally. He said it is number one in New Jersey, Rhode Island and Alabama.

"We're the only independent band on the top 15," he said. "Other bands have tons of money, and here we are, poor cousins from New Mexico, making it."

The band plays a type of music that can be called "Rock en Espa§ol," Pizarro said. The lyrics, however, are sometimes in English, sometimes in Spanish and sometimes a little of both.

Sanchez said he likes to codeswitch when he sings. Codeswitching is the interchanging of two languages.

"It's something that appeals to Spanish speakers," he said. "It also appeals to mainstream audiences and Latino kids who are first, second, third, fourth generation. It's the heart of their culture, even if they don't speak Spanish. They dig it because it's something they can relate to."

Bilingualism is a big part of New Mexican culture, he said.

"I think that being a New Mexican, a Chicano New Mexican, it's something we grow up with," he said. "Spanglish is part of our daily lives, something we take for granted. That ability to codeswitch is something that is exciting to listen to."

He said even though the music contains a lot of Spanish lyrics, a person does not need to be Hispanic to enjoy it.

"When we lived in El Salvador, there were a lot of kids singing Led Zepplin lyrics," he said. "I don't think they understood most of it, but it didn't matter. That's the beauty of music."

Stoic Frame will shoot a music video Saturday at the Launchpad. Local bands Caustic Lye, Feels Like Sunday and The Ground Beneath will perform.

Stoic Frame

The Launchpad, 618 Central Ave.

Saturday

Doors open at 9pm