Coming up from our own beautiful city of Los Angeles, Los Aggrios have proven to be protectors of the early reggae sound with their new EP, Aggrio Can’t Die; it consists of four songs guaranteed to get you bobbing your head. The five-piece band collaborated with French label, Cigale Records and Donald R. Lewis, of 1 Take Studios, to press a record that sounds like it was pulled directly out of the '60s. Los Aggrios music is led by a sweet old school organ sound that keeps true to traditional reggae while having aggressive upstrokes from the guitar and a steady baseline. The band's style is pleasantly tied together with the energetic drumming of Jose “Gato” Lopez.
I had a chance to talk to Gato to find out more about the band and their new album. This is how it went:
ADAN: What is the message behind the EP's name, Agrrio Can’t Die?
GATO: Agrrio Can’t Die is about making our own style of boss reggae. We say this slogan to our crowd to let them know that our style of music will never die. That heavy aggro reggae sound with a touch of our “aggrio” style touch won’t die.
ADAN: What is your favorite track and why?
GATO: Our favorite track is “Meteorito,” because we all love reggae and it’s the main component of all ska. Reggae musicians around the world continue making this style of music.
ADAN: Los Aggrios classify themselves as Boss Aggro Reggae Actual. Can you describe what this means?
GATO: Boss Reggae Actual came from one of our biggest influences, the Argentinian boss reggae band, Los Aggrotones. Their leader and founder, Kevin Finger, was the one that put the name of Actual to the new wave of modern early reggae.
ADAN: The band has been releasing music exclusively through pressed records, is there a reason why you and other bands are only releasing music this way?
GATO: Since our music has a lot of influences by skinhead reggae and early reggae, collectionists like to keep a vintage with their music and since we are connected to the same roots, we like to press records.
ADAN: What can your listeners expect from the ban next?
GATO: Our next goal is to release our third production with Canana Records from Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico. We plan to have “Let It Simmer” on side A and “Saraswati” on side B. We have more record labels that want to do records with us and we are working with some of them step by step.
Los Aggrios is mostly instrumental, and they’ve managed to keep their sound full and heavy. If you want to keep up with the band or see where you can get your hands on some music, you can follow them on Instagram: @losaggriosbossreggae.
