features local to do it in a way where I'm smart about it. I didn't really understand this music industry when I was doing the Y La Bamba when it was a full force. I didn't know what the fuck was going on. I was just writing the songs. You know what I mean? I had no idea. I had no intention. We definitely weren't trying to reach a certain level. It was just happening. That's something that's really... It's cool to hear everyone else’s story, but it just is what it is. You know what I'm saying? *laughs* 11: I think so. With the industry, sometimes even if you're trying to stay really true to yourself, when you get bands with huge deals, no matter how true they try and stay to it, it starts to read as a little in-authentic or it distorts what can be a pure message sometimes. LM: The message... no, no, no, no, this is the thing. There is so much noise out there, the music industry and everything. Right? We're aware of it. If we get presented these certain ideals, we're going to have a certain opinion. For me, the message and when you write, that's not distorted. What the consumer and what the noise does to that message, that has been something that is at that point where you recycled or you abused. That's the problem. The creator and the artist at their best intentions and all of that, that's the fucking message. You know what I mean? What exists, the distortion, that is just the world, at its worst. That's just like being an artist or hustling around and trying to get a job. Even if you're not playing music or you need to be doing something else, you're like, fucking hustling.
It's like, whatever good intention's behind all of that, the truth and your heart is who you are. It's who you are, but you can't help fucking getting into... living in the context of what the music business really looks like. That's been a really rude awakening for me like, "Wow, this is what's really going [on]." I still remain true to myself. I feel like the love and the life of my community, my peers have uplifted me in a place where I feel like that speaks louder than anything else. I've heard things... this guy was like, "Oh, so you went solo and that didn't work out. So now you're using Y La Bamba brand." This guy has no idea who I am or anything. He doesn't even know! *laughs* But that's the distortion. That's part of it. That's part of the noise. That's part of putting yourself out there and allowing people to have opinions about the situation. You know what I mean? 11: Yeah. LM: It's not about that. It's communication, relationships with one another, with yourself. That's the art. Because money is a huge figure and survival... obviously a lot of things are convoluted at that point. Things do get distorted, things like the value, what could be really beautiful. The world does that. You know what I mean? There's a filter that we have, that the world has had that we go through. It's the law. It’s fucking weird.
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