Y La Bamba Wants You to Get Free

Portland's Y La Bamba—the project of Mexifolk singer-songwriter Luz Elena Mendoza—has been creating buzz across the Pacific Northwest and beyond since her early days hosting diverse house shows in northern Portland in 2008. Since then, the band has toured the US, changed its lineup, and earned a following more than 10,000 fans strong.

As its momentum crested, Y La Bamba shook the scene with an unexpected three year hiatus, during which Mendoza continued to explore her thematic penchant for love, philosophy, and more with new projects like the band Tiburones.

This summer, Y La Bamba made its long-awaited returned with the Jeff Bond-recorded Ojos del Sol, which Mendoza funded by raising more than $20,000 on Kickstarter, and features her own stencil-cut artwork.

We caught up with Mendoza to talk about the new album, the US election, mortality, and more. Read on and check out the premiere of the psychedelic wilderness jaunt that is Y La Bamba's video for "Libre."

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Noisey: Y La Bamba has been mostly out of the music scene for a while. Why the return?
Luz Elena Mendoza: It was just one of those things where I stopped and started and stopped. It just kind of happened. It was a natural, visceral kind of thing.

You've had multiple side projects, like the band Tiburones, while Y La Bamba was on hiatus.
It's a journey. When I was doing Y La Bamba three years ago, we were doing really well, and I just had to reevaluate my energy and how I was putting that energy out there. Then with hindsight, I was really able to understand the growth that occurred when I took that space. That space, what it looked like, was just me continuing to be myself and continuing to create, so the side projects just happened because I play music. You know? It's not like I'm going to stop.

Portland and its music scene has changed a lot in recent years. How has that change and the city itself influenced your music?
I've been in Portland for about ten years … and I think about how that feels like it was just yesterday. And I think about the group that has happened in the past ten years, and it's just surreal. It's really hard to explain what happened with the house and how I write. I feel like because I've been in Portland, and that's been my environment, my emotional and physical and all of that, I've learned a lot about myself in Portland. Since the moment I got there, I feel like I've been encouraged and supported … It was just a place that was fully supporting of what I did naturally.

There's something mystical about some of the music and lyrics on this album. Where's that come from?
It just happens. The same way how I lay down to sleep. It's like asking how does a dream evolve in my brain when I go to sleep. You don't really expect it, but when it happens, you try to understand it, and you really try to write it down and do your best to articulate it.

Is it a spiritual thing? There's just a feeling of concepts that are beyond what's maybe natural.
I'm glad you said that, because there are these comparisons between what people see as natural and what people maybe see as spiritual. I believe we've been taught there's a separation between knowing your home and knowing your vulnerable spirit and what has been normalized—what people feel comfortable talking about. They separate it into categories, but maybe what you're saying about the mysticism or the spiritual aspect of what you hear … that is life. It's my interpretation, but I feel like what I'm saying and feeling is life is not spiritual, life is so much more than the word itself … People are so afraid of talking about spirituality or religion, but I'm not religious. I'm not a religious person. I just know that I'm alive, and I'm aware of my mortality and everyone else's mortality, and I know there's life around me and energy around me, and I don't put that in a category of mysticism or spirituality or anything.

Some of your early music was pretty sullen, and this album has quite a few songs that feel like they're about empowerment. What's changed?
Just experience. Coming into myself, being awake, and feeling alive. The way I am as a creator, as a woman, as an artist. Everything. There's a lot of suffering in the world, and that's a huge influence on all of that.

Was there a major life change that helped you feel more empowered?
It's just creating that space. Finding rest and listening to that. That's what it is. Finding a new way to rest.

What do you think about the election and what's going on right now in the US?
I'm just one person, but I feel like the record being released during these times makes so much sense. The sentiment is strong, and I feel like it's very important for me as a Latina, a woman, a Mexican-American to continue to support and create that bridge that will reach the other side. I feel like with diversity, we need a healthy diversity, we don't need to be divided, so I think that my being who I am and knowing where I come from and doing that with my music, I'm definitely inspired. I want to continue to encourage my community, first generation, and first generations from different cultures, to really be that torch. You know? To unite one another.

Is this a new feeling?
It's something I've always felt. My whole life. It's not like, "Oh, we're living in these crazy times right now. Look at this election." This has always been the sentiment. The sentiment of being at an impasse for the people who are confused or who are hurting, who don't really have a way to express themselves because they've been outcasted. We have all this information, and now we're trying to process it all. We're trying to figure out where our voice is in that. You know? I think that fear gets in the way, and now we know what fear looks like, and people who are awake to it will create change. I feel like I'm awake to it, and I want to continue to encourage everyone else to find their awakening and to support one another, because shit is going down … I feel like there is this revolution, and I feel it, where we're all really standing and cultivating where we come from, because it's been threatened.

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