It’s going to be a tight fit on the Dream Café stage when Locarno comes to town.
The project from the frontman of The Paperboys, Juno awarding-winning musician Tom Landa, will pack nine musicians on the stage at the Dream Café Feb. 13.
“It’ll be a bit challenging,” Landa laughed.
The nine-piece band plays Latin fusion with a heavy emphasis on Mexican music, the result of a project Landa embarked on four years ago.
“It’s a project I had been wanting to do for awhile,” Landa said.
When he was playing with the folk band The Paperboys (who were sometimes billed as Tom Landa and the Paperboys), Landa sought out musicians he knew or had played with in his 20 years in Vancouver to join and help record the first Locarno album.
Born and raised in Mexico City, his father Mexican and his mother Canadian, Landa wanted to work on something that explored his roots.
“We did some Latin stuff, but I wanted to do a project that was really dedicated to Latin music,” Landa said.
The group recorded their first album, Una Mas Y Ya Nos Vamos, in Vancouver in 2010.
The album was even more personal for Landa because he was able to play with his own dream team of musicians.
“It was playing with a lot of people I’d always wanted to play with,” Landa said.
Locarno’s first album was written entirely by Landa. Their upcoming sophomore release, Super Chido, will have more input from the other members of the band.
“This time it’s a little more collaborative effort, but also it’s more of a band sound I would say this time around,” Landa said.
Super Chido marks the progression of the group, who now have four years of playing together under their belt. The album also features some songs Landa wrote, as well as a few forays into traditional Mexican music.
The album’s name is something of an inside joke for the band. Chido is Mexican slang for cool or awesome, and it took hold with some of the members when touring Mexico.
The word was nothing new to Landa, but he couldn’t say the same for the rest of the group.
“I knew this word as a kid, but the band really got a kick out of the word chido,” Landa said.
“So then we eventually just started saying ‘that’s super chido man,’” Landa laughed. “Like, that taco joint is super chido, or that song is super chido, or this hotel is super chido. It kind of became this thing with us, so we thought we would name the record that.”
The project Landa started four years ago has grown and so have the connections he has made with the rest of his bandmates. Landa feels their next album will reflect that.
“When I did the first record the band was kind of getting established. Now, some of these musicians have been in the band a long time, so we’re really getting used to playing with each other,” he said.
For more information on Locarno visit www.locarnomusic.com or www.thedreamcafe.ca. Tickets are $30 and can be purchased by phone at 250-490-9012.