Khruangbin is coming home. The Houston-born trio that has gained worldwide success is returning to play one of the city’s largest venues. Khruangbin will perform at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion on Saturday, April 12 with opener Helado Negro.
“Oh absolutely not,” says guitarist Mark Speer when asked if he ever imagined himself playing the enormous outdoor venue while growing up in town and catching shows out there throughout the years.
“That’s not really something you ever think is actually going to materialize. None of this was on my radar or anything I planned for being a young musician and wanting to do it.”
Speer describes being bitten by the performing bug at 12 years old while watching Parliament Funkadelic perform at TSU in 1992. “That’s when I was like I wanna do this, whatever this is, I wanna do this.”
As a young man, Speer couldn’t quite conceptualize the difference between playing in an arena or a gym space or having any real clear expectations for what he wanted, he just knew he wanted to perform and make music.
In the early days, Khruangbin performed at the now demolished Fitzgerald’s, currently closed Liberty Station on Washington and Avant Garden when it was previously called Helios. A hard to find recording of that show exists and is a hot item online for collectors.
“Wanting to get involved and not really knowing what to expect from this, I would have been perfectly happy playing medium sized venues for most of my career but turns out, we’ve been doing pretty good and people seem to like what we do so I’m really thankful and blessed to be able to continue to do it,” says Speer.
Since forming in 2010, Khruangbin has been an unexpected phenomenon in the music world. The trio consisting of Speer on guitar, Laura Lee on bass and Donald ‘DJ’ Johnson on drums, has gained a legion of fans with their one of a kind sound which seems to defy time and space as they pull from a wide range of influences.
The band always keeps it funky and doesn’t rely on lyrics or hooks to make their songs memorable, but more so a heavy groove and cool vibe that sticks with the listener, always leaving them wanting more.
“Everything kind of starts with the drum and the bass. I still come from that school of that’s the most important stuff,” says Speer echoing the wisdom of George Clinton’s philosophy and album title Free Your Mind…And Your Ass Will Follow.
“I agree with that, that’s how I grew up playing music and that’s what initially pulled me to it,” says Speer adding that the band doesn’t go into writing songs starting with a chorus or lyrics.
Though Khruangbin doesn’t rely on words to convey their message, a rare approach to music, Speers guitar work often cuts through the songs and fills in the spots where one’s brain would usually expect vocals.
“Yes,” agrees Speer. “I’m shaping my guitar tone to kind of fulfill the same timbre as a human voice. Specifically, I listen to a lot of Lata Mangeshkar Bollywood soundtracks and the tone of her voice just cuts through that mix.”
Speer describes growing up near a Half Price Books and being able to walk over there and poke around the vinyl section where his fingers would immediately gravitate toward the world music section.
“Anything that wasn’t in English I would just pick it up because I didn’t know what it was going to be. The rock and pop section, I know what that stuff is. I’ve heard it on the radio my entire life and that’s fine, that’s great,” says Speer adding that of course he would pick up something like The Stray Cats while also snagging a mystery album.
“The world music section would always have something that I just had no idea what it was going to be and if 80 percent of the record was something I wasn’t really gravitating towards that last 20 percent was usually something spellbinding.”
This desire and almost obsession with sounds blended with a lack of fear in the unknown is an element each member seems to have as the three work seamlessly together to create their own brand of world funk.
Their lack of dependence on words has helped open the band to audiences all over the world who do not need to sift through a dictionary to get the message of their songs. Even when the band uses lyrics, they are often simple and positive phrases that anyone can sing along to.
“We are trying to say things musically like classical music can say so many things with no words, and I try to apply that to what we do,” says Speer.
The effect is two fold as it not only allows the music to be accessible to everyone, but it also allows the band to remain somewhat less identifiable to the public as individuals and more so perceived as a floating unit of good vibes.
“The music and the band was never really meant to be the big multinational international juggernaut that it’s somehow become,” says Speer crediting the bands lack of vocals in part on his dislike of singing and also the bands overall mission to avoid the first person tense and sing together creating an overall message of unity.
On their recent release, A La Sala, a reference to Lee’s childhood habit of calling her family to the living room to reset and regroup, the band does just that. After what Speer describes as the band’s “shiny record” Mordechi, released in 2020, A La Sala takes the band back to their roots stepping away from studio tricks.
“I just want to take it back to the basics,” says Speer describing some criticism he got for using the same guitar tone throughout the album. “I was like I’m not going to use a bunch of stuff, I was going to use the stuff I always used back in the old days. I was taking it back to the basics and I really really like how that turned out. We actually had to write music and not depend on studio fun stuff, which is fun and awesome but I wanted to go back to the room.”
Ironically to get back there, the band had to record in a new space for the first time ever as they moved their gear away from Speer’s family barn where they’ve recorded all of their albums and to local engineer and longtime collaborator Steve Christensen’s studio.
“His studio is really just a big brick and tin warehouse with concrete floors. It’s kind of dusty and there’s cats and windows and it’s right next to a train track so it sonically sounds very similar to the barn that we recorded all the other records in so it wasn’t a huge shift.”
Khruangbin’s ability to feel authentically different and warm to the listener is no doubt a huge part of their success and draw.
“I hope that there is an element of unity and actual real diversity, real coming together and a real understanding of everyone’s journey,” Speer says. “I’m not a hippie, I don’t have this idealized version of what the world could be if everyone could just hold hands because it’s not that cut and dry but I do believe in the American dream, that being that we can build a beautiful nation together, like really together.”
Khruangbin will perform with Helado Negro on Saturday, April 12 at The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, 2005 Lake Robbins, 7:30 p.m, $33.00-100.
