what happened?! Pastilla

Ten years ago, four Los Angeles musicians almost set off a revolution in indie rock. With crisp power pop anthems, brothers Victor and Adrian Monroy, Eric Rubalcava and Heriberto Gonzalez did what few if any bands had done before them: they sang in Spanish.

After releasing a self-titled debut with the now defunct Aztlan Records, the band signed to major label BMG which promptly flew the American band to Mexico City to record Vox Electra. Though the album has more hooks than a tackle box and production on par with the best rock albums of its time, it failed to sell well.

Pastilla blamed the record's disappointing sales on BMG and spent the next two years trying to break their multi-album contract. In 2003, after several line-up changes, the band released Hey on the LA-based indie label Escuchalo Records. A live album followed and this year the group, now a trio, re-signed to Sony/BMG and released the digital album A Marte.

We recently interviewed founding members Victor Monroy and Eric Rubalcava as well as Pastilla's former manager – and La Banda Elastica founder – Emilio Morales and asked them all, basically, what happened?!

Do you think Pastilla became too popular, too soon? Were you too far ahead of the curve?

Eric Rubalcava : No, I still don't think we're popular. (Laughter)

Victor Monroy : Well, I think that LA is a very fast paced city. There's a new band every weekend. There's a new scene, you know. I mean, here it was rock en español and everybody was wearing their Caifanes shirts...and then reggaetón came in and everybody started dancing reggaetón. The way Latinos are, we just follow las modas – as long as it has rhythm and you can dance to it, they're gonna follow it.

Playing here [in LA], a lot of people would always tell us: "You sound too Anglo…You guys should add new rhythms, sound more like raza." It was really hard to be able to play here in the US when a lot of bands were playing ska and playing cumbia with rock, and here we are, you know, four wetbacks trying to play rock. I think the scene that Pastilla belonged to was very premature at that time, and not so much the public, but also within the industry. Our music wasn't as accepted as it is now.

Did Pastilla ever feel pressure from the high expectations that some set on the band?

Eric: No, I didn't, personally.

Victor: Not really, I mean, we didn't really care, you know. We were so young, we just wanted to go out there and party and rock and roll, you know?

Eric: We didn't think about anything.

Victor: We didn't realize what we had done until years later. I think a lot of the lack of support from a lot of media here in LA has made the scene kind of evolve in a very slow way – comparing it to the scene in Mexico City, or in Spain or South America. There's alot of good bands out there that are waiting for the chance to blow up, and if we inspire and we open the door in any way – we're really proud of being Pastilla, you know, and being able to do that. We're kind of like, representing the scene in LA in México and at the same time we're representing Mexican rock en español.

Emilio, why do you think Pastilla didn't "blow up"?

Emilio Morales: I think it was self-sabotage – "miedo a ser." We all know that Víctor and Adrián are very talented guys, but their personal dynamic – as brothers, as leaders of a band, as people – alienated those who supported their efforts. Their constant fighting led to a dizzying pace of lineup changes, the absence of various members during important gigs (Eric quit the band a day before they were scheduled to leave for Spain to open for Bunbury), on-stage fights (in front of fans) and bad-mouthing everything and everyone. After a while, no one wanted to work with them, including myself.

Almost a decade after their major label release, Pastilla has an active MySpace page with nearly 18,000 friends.