It’s probably not great form to be interviewing one artist and thinking about another. And, it may be even poorer form to actually suggest to the artist being interviewed – in this case, the Mexican singer and songwriter Caloncho – that their music and their vibe reminds you of another artist – in this case, the American singer and songwriter, Jack Johnson. So, you hope when you actually mention this to Caloncho, who visits White Oak Music Hall Wednesday, September 4, he won’t take offense to the comparison, particularly since you see it as a positive nod.
Thankfully, he sees it the same as you.
“I think that you comparing me to Jack Johnson is obviously something I love because I like his music a lot,” Caloncho said. “It’s like the same path – we both listened to Bob Marley, we both listened to Sublime and this evolution of reggae getting to the States and getting to London. I think that reggae music is very powerful because it’s not only something you can dance to, it’s something you can think, as well. It makes you think. There’s always a message to it.”
That’s the thing that connects these artists for you, as a listener. Their music is reggae-tinged, thought-provoking, filled with buena vibra and speaks to the important things like love, life and the preservation of the planet. Caloncho’s actively involved in efforts to promote a more planet-friendly lifestyle and is a Discovery Channel award winner for his environmental efforts.
“That’s something that I like and learned from reggae. Music is a vehicle. Music has a way of communicating and commuting, as well, a message,” he said. “I don’t consider myself an activist. I’m a musician! I’m not an environmental engineer. But I do like to share with the people that like my music something I think is smart and necessary and that’s why I put some values into the songs and some special messages to make people feel good or maybe aware.”
Caloncho’s latest collection of these sorts of songs is titled Tofu. The album, his fifth, released in March of this year and if it sounds a little different to the three million monthly Spotify listeners who follow him, that was by design, he said.
“I mean, all of (the albums) are special in some ways but this one is the first time that I’ve co-produced with Pepe Portilla and that was a beautiful experience because I was able to be very clear with my ideas,” he said. “It’s got a concept and to be restricted for the first time in my creative process, it gave me a different vision and it’s very powerful to me.”
Most artists talk about creative freedom and how their music emerges from plenty of time and space. Caloncho shook things up with Tofu by confining himself in the recording process. He wanted the music to sound “cozy,” dry, with no reverb, with microphones stationed close to the origin of sound so there’s no hint of the recording studio in the songs, just music and vocals front and center.
“That gives it a vibe. When I listen to a record and I feel like sleeping, I personally enjoy it, because it’s cozy. It’s a place. It’s not only a song it’s a place where you go and feel a certain way and it feels like a room where you want to chill and you want to rest. I like that,” he said.
We discuss the boom in Latin music, the fastest growing streaming music genre in the world, and note that Caloncho’s music doesn’t exactly fit the mold of some of the genre’s most popular styles, like reggaeton or Latin pop or Regional Mexican music. His music has been dubbed “Tropifolk.” It’s an indie, alternative sound, for sure. But, he said, there’s more similarity than we’re seeing on the surface.
“I think we’re all trying to do something that we like and that makes us go on a certain path,” he said.
“I think my music is also pop music. It’s also regional music. The music that I’ve listened to the most throughout my life, I think it’s reggae music, which is also English, and I listened to the things that my family used to listen to. Of course, I think that happens with everybody – and that’s regional music,” he said. “I was born in Sonora, which is northern Mexico, and they listened to Norteño music, that’s what I recalled my grandfather playing on his piano or his accordion, and my dad used to listen to that too, so I have that deep in myself, in my consciousness of music, and that’s why I think there’s some regional output throughout my songs, even though it’s not very obvious.”
He said he is happy to see music in Spanish getting its day in the sun and knows the popularity of Mexican music across the globe is a real thing. He doesn’t need music writers to tell him, he’s witnessed it first-hand.
“I know that at my shows there’s going to be Latin people because we connect, right? For instance, I went to Dublin and I knew there I was going to see Mexicans, of course. And maybe it was 80 percent Mexican, 15 percent Latin people and this other five percent I find really interesting because they just went there, even though they don’t understand the lyrics, they don’t follow Spanish, they just like the vibe. I think that’s very interesting and maybe that’s something that’s happening because of reggaeton and because of the whole thing of regional music that’s very hyped nowadays.
“I think we’re living in a very particular era in which we as Hispanics, me as a Hispanic, I’ve always listened to music in English and that’s because this whole industry was made in English. The music was English. I think it’s beautiful that nowadays people are listening to music in Spanish. I think it’s more fair. It’s a much more rich experience because we are now sharing throughout the globe music in a different way.
“I’ve been listening to music from Japan that I do not understand but I love and that’s the same thing that happens with Mexican music, too. You just love it because it’s a vibe. You don’t have to understand it,” he said. “I think it’s very fair that nowadays you can now listen to much more music and be inspired by these projects from all around the world.”
Caloncho is the type of artist who is willing to take extra measures to inspire music listeners with the vibe and the messages of his music. For instance, when he noticed his listernership growing in Brazil, where the predominant language is Portuguese, he learned the language so he could speak directly to those listeners.
“I recorded a song once. I took lessons in Portuguese only to record that song,” he said of the track, “Palmar.” “I’d love to speak it fluently and to understand it. It’s very difficult. Maybe as a kid I would have learned it, it’s difficult once you’re an adult.
“It was a very fun experience. I had a teacher from Brazil, from the coast, and they had a very particular slang and that slang is in the song. So, people from Brazil were like, ‘Why did you say it that way?’ I took lessons! I don’t know!”
He laughed at the ribbing he took from some listeners, but knows it was done with the good intentions of spreading the vibe across the world. Whether it’s getting more listeners actively involved in environmental issues – an objective he shares with Jack Johnson – or just getting them to chill, he’s willing to put himself in unique places to create the kind of art that does that. He’ll go to lengths for his listeners, and that includes locals who’ll be on hand for his show at White Oak this week.
“I’ve been to Houston before and I’m very excited to go to Texas,” he said. “We have a very beautiful show. We’ve worked lots of hours into this set list and the way we’ve organized the storytelling throughout the show. It’s very fun.”
Caloncho, Wednesday, September 4 at White Oak Music Hall, 2915 N. Main. Doors at 7 p.m. for this all ages, general admission show. $30.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2024.
