On Dec. 4, “The Mavericks” played at The Strand Ballroom, a music venue in Providence, Rhode Island, to promote their newest album, “Hey! Merry Christmas.”
“It was a business move sure,” Lead Guitarist Eddie Perez said. “But it’s also really fun.” He also said that the idea for this album has been in the works for a very long time, yet the band never felt, until now that is, that they’ve been in a place where they could make that idea a reality. “It’s a matter of timing,” Perez said. “Plus being our own label also allows us to go in a more creative way.”
The album features influences from many different artists, like the king of rock and roll Elvis Presley. Perez said, It also was influenced by somebody else in a much bigger way. “Phil Spector, his wall of sound, he was a big influence. A lot of us played multiple instruments, to make it sound like we had a built-in orchestra.”
For the uninitiated, “The Mavericks” got their start in 1989, playing rock and roll in bars, and alternative rock clubs in Miami. While every one of the of the bands 4 members had their own unique musical background, Perez said they gained their base genre out of necessity. In those bars, he said simply, “rock and roll, and rockabilly were prevalent.”
That’s not to say they are anything but diverse in their music. Settling on a genre, as Perez said, “only unified us together as a band.” Their major influences, however, continuously changed and morphed and merged together. First, Ray Charles, then Elvis Presley, then Merle Haggard, and not only were “The Mavericks” standing on the shoulders of those giants, but they were giving each other a leg up as well.
“Playing together so much, constantly on the road for almost six years, we all influenced each other and ourselves,” Perez said. After they split in 2004, all the members of the band had a chance to cultivate their own individual styles that, when brought together again 2012, simply made their music all the more diverse and rich.
“The Mavericks’” Vocalist Raul Malo once said that the reason they came back together in 2012 was that he began to write songs that could only be performed by “The Mavericks” as opposed to being performed by any other group of musicians. Specifically because, with all the individual strengths of each member, their sound is a recipe that cannot be fabricated.