San Diego’s Los Saints has released the new EP ‘Welcome To Confusion’ on Enci Records.
Directed by Spencer Sease
Executive producer: Randi Wilens
Watch a recent in-studio session with LA’s 88.5 FM here: https://youtu.be/tfZPSJI3fG0.
Of the latest single single “Lost You,” frontman Angel Mariscal says “This song is about facing the fear of love, which I think anyone who’s dealt with trauma from past relationships can relate to. No matter how much time you’ve given yourself to heal, there’s always going to be that leap of faith you have to take.”
With the new 5-track EP, Los Saints (comprised of first-generation Mexican-Americans, cousins Angel Mariscal and Emiliano Garcia, and mutual friend Gianluca Exposito) continue to build off the success of the recent singles “IDK” and “Fouund You Somewhere.” It’s a coming of age record, one that finds the young band striving to make sense of both where they’re from and where they’re going. For Mariscal, that meant making peace with himself after an especially painful breakup, learning that sometimes the end of relationships offer no easy answers.
“I think I was still in shock when I wrote most of the EP because it came together about a week after an abrupt end to my first serious relationship — so abrupt that it was almost like there hadn’t been anything there to begin with,” says Mariscal.
Every Los Saints song shares a certain feeling—an enveloping warmth, a kind of cosmic radiance. Their sound is familiar yet foreign all at once, a reflection of listening habits that range from halcyon dream pop to contemporary hip hop and everything in between.
It makes perfect sense, given where the indie/alt rock trio originated from, namely, the southern San Diego County town of Chula Vista, CA. As frontman Mariscal explains, “Chula Vista is a town right next to the Mexican border. This makes it an extremely unique city with the amount of different cultural backgrounds present, Latin culture being one of the most present cultures here. It’s also semi-isolated, as in it’s not Downtown San Diego. Growing up, there wasn’t much to do here and although there’s a bit more now, the lack of activities, in combination with the cultural mix, is what, I believe, sparked the vast amount of art scenes that are present here. A good example of visual arts that represent the Latin culture here is Chicano Park, and for music, the entirety of Chula Vista really. There’s an insane amount of musicians and a really big scene here.”
Working with an outside producer for the first time, Los Saints enlisted Dear Boy drummer Keith Cooper to record the EP. Of the experience, Mariscal says, “Keith is awesome first of all. He’s really freaking good at what he does as an instrumentalist, recording engineer and producer. He knew it was our first time recording professionally as well and, though the process was new to us, he made it seem like we’ve done it together a million times.” He adds, “It’s very safe to say he understood the emotions that I had put behind the songs and he added onto that, subtly, but (importantly). Keith worked his magic with effects and ‘distant’ sounds such as the tambourine in ‘IDK’, or the synth sound in the chorus of ‘Fouund You Somewhere’ and tons of other layers that, while they might not be in the forefront, make your ears happy.”
The time in the studio and the experience of making ‘Welcome To Confusion’ helped the trio become even more cohesive and allowed Mariscal to grow more confident as a songwriter. “I learned how much easier it is to express myself and my emotions through music versus in conversation,” he recalls. “In a conversation I’ll hold back on saying certain things about myself and my experiences because I’ll wonder if they’ll have trouble relating, but in my music, I’ll basically expose myself no problem because I know there’s somebody listening to our song out there that can relate to what I’m saying.”
As Los Saints prepares to release its latest effort into the world, Mariscal says “There’s something special about these songs, and I can only hope people experience as much emotion listening to them as we did when we were making them. I want for people to feel like our music is something that they can listen to as an outlet and feel like we’re friends without even meeting. I just want people to understand us, and we want to understand them. That’s the magic of music, isn’t it?”
Stream the “IDK” video here: https://youtu.be/gE8pZALoYoE
Stream the “Fouund You Somewhere” video here: https://youtu.be/Tho6IcI0hIg
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