The past couple of years have been busy ones for Les Mosquitos – entering a music competition, recording an album, and above all, entertaining Ottawans with their unique blend of reggae, pop and latin music. With plans for more singles and videos underway, it’s clear these guys aren’t slowing down for anything. With their show at Bluesfest coming up on July 11, we got them to answer a few questions about their history and, more importantly, what’s their poison.
How would you describe your sound?
To describe our sound, several words come to mind: Reggae, Ska, Pop, Latin… but the truth is, we just do what feels good and makes people groove. We think it’s important to have somewhat of a variety in our music so we are all over the place as far as ”style” goes. Maybe we will find our ”unique sound” someday, but for now we like to keep surprising the audience with new twists and textures.
How long have you been playing music, and how has your sound evolved over that time?
Reggae has been, and will always be, the backbone of our sound. It was the music that started it all for Les Mosquitos, about 5 years ago. Over time, from Reggae came Ska. Though Ska is an older style, which Reggae originated from in the 50’s and 60’s in Jamaica, for us it was the other way around. We started to add Ska into our songs because it seemed to always pick up the crowd and make them dance. Often we will play some Bob Marley or other Reggae artist’s songs in Ska just for fun. From people dancing, the Latin feel found it’s way into some of our grooves, which was very welcome since we love Latin music. The evolution of our sound doesn’t seem to stop: our newest songs have a bit of Soul in them. Of course, none of this is on purpose, again, we just do what feels good.
What are you hoping to get out of your Bluesfest performance? Fans, adoration, festival experience etc.
Omg!!! We are hugely exited for Bluesfest! It’s the biggest show of our career so far! It will be our first time performing outdoors on a ”real” stage in one of the biggest festivals in the region! It is such an honour! We’re definitely looking forward to meeting people from other bands, the music industry and maybe even shake the hands of big names like BB King and Femi Kuti. We also seem to make fans everywhere we go, so we are excited to meet some new faces and sell some CDs.
Are there any other bands on the bill you are excited to see?
There are many bands we want to see. Ever since we started taking this whole music thing seriously and envisioning a career, we have become obsessed with live shows. Since Bluesfest is hooking us up with passes for the whole festival (thanks, guys!!!) we will check out as many shows as possible. We’re definitely excited to see The Specials, Cat Empire, Flogging Molly…… Rush!!! There are just so many!
Beer, wine or the hard stuff?
I would say hard stuff with Gatorade, that’s our favourite mix lol. Anything with Gatorade 🙂
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNKJGf7V8PE[/youtube]
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