The power of music and the message of Making Movies.

On November 2nd, Making Movies will take part of the Fantasma festival at the Rio Hotel and Casino alongside their friends: Los Rakas and Las Cafeteras. This will make for a very unique experience because of all the blends of genres and sounds that are unique to each band. Additionally, they all carry powerful messages in their respective music.

Making Movies is touring as part of a joint venture with Los Rakas called "Panameri'kana". Both of these artists have Panamanian roots. "Panameri'kana" is a play on word of panamerican.  As Enrique Chi of Making Movies mentioned, this "different" spelling of "Panameri'kana" kinda forces one into the right pronunciation of the actual word. This will be the first time Making Movies play in the Sin City and they are beyond excited. 

This weekend I got to speak with with Enrique Chi (lead singer and guitarist). As a band that is constantly on the road, Enrique said that life has been great. Their favorite thing to do on the road is to grab some of the local food of wherever they are playing and sort of become "flies on the wall". Through touring they have also met amazing communities of artists.

Enrique was quick to say in addition to touring that, "we can play in Latin America, to a Spanish-speaking crowd, and appeal to Americans in the U.S. and share these messages." He said that to someone who is Latinx, they understand the band's message and they don't have to constantly explain themselves whereas someone who isn't Latinx, might not not understand the message right away. I asked Enrique if he is ever worried that the "right" people won't be listening to their message, especially during a time of political chaos and confusing to which he said, "The chaos. Locura Collectiva talks about that. Music is the space where I find encouragement. It unlocks a lot in people. You can trigger that political thought with music. If you can use music to tell a story, it calms their defenses. It's trippy. Music opens up the human part in ourselves."

Music is a powerful key and it is the answer to almost everything. "Music is key to human survival" as Enrique mentioned. It is always refreshing when musicians utilize their music as a tool and actually make a change. Making Movies has had great and positive impact with their "We Are All Immigrants" message and this is only the beginning.

As a band that has been involved in a lot of projects since the last time we got to talk, they have done collaborations with musicians like Las Cafeteras, Rubén Blades and others. I asked Enrique if there is any advice or anecdotes of sorts that these collaborations have left them with. He mentioned that working with Steve Berlin of Los Lobos has been very inspiring from the beginning. Enrique noted that even though Los Lobos would get boo'ed in the early days for playing certain songs, they wore their identity proudly and navigated hardships. That really resonates with Enrique.

Another lesson learned was from none other than Rubén Blades who told Enrique to approach his music as if it were a book. There is the title, the chapters and the stuff that goes in those chapters. It's what you decide to put on those pages that create that impact. It was "eye-opening" for the band. Something else Enrique mentioned later in the interview is that it is important to have a mentor in the music world whether it is for connections or anything else.

Lastly, as the phone conversation came to an end I asked him what inspired the band lately outside of the political turmoil we see everyday and to that he said that the band is working on a song about being in the moment. There is nothing more inspiring than being present. 

For more info on  the band: mkngmvs.com