The PACKAGES PROJECT by one of the established independent rock bands from Mexico City, El Hombre Bala, is an artistic innovative and interactive installation-exposition that is breaking through music festivals around the globe in 2007.

The project began when the rock band decided to do something that big corporations and distributors could not or would not do:

They made 1,000 hand-made, graffiti-styled covers for their new e.p. each one unique in its design. 

The project got bigger when it was first introduced as an artistic installation at one of the most important Mexican music festivals, the Corona Music Fest 2006 (headlined by The Mars Volta in the Azteca Stadium).  

The success made the band and fellow artists realize its creative potential and new ideas were born. Today it’s much more; it’s an opportunity to reassure the value of independent potential in today’s world. Thousands of people can gather around and participate in the project, which includes:

-          A visually impressive installation consisting of hundreds of different covers, which are hand made over blank postal envelopes, displayed as artistic pieces made by the people who also made the music and their guests. The installation contains soap bubbles that float around light boxes, smoke machines that call for attention and people in a creative sharing mood that give a plus to any festival experience. An artistic whole, visual concept developed and included, done by musicians and attendants.

-    Band members and team doing envelopes in situ with air sprays so that people watch the process and decide to do their own covers. Thus the interactive aspect of the installation: thousand of people will make an artistic unique cover of a material they have just heard, through headphone stations positioned inside the installation.

The package must include “postage look alike” stamps and ink stamps for the participants to choose and make their creation even more fun and unique.

There are 25 different sticker /stamps created by Hombre Bala’s designer and different types of ink stamps as well. The designer also creates the official stamp of the event, in this case Glastonbury, which must be included and a commemorative ink stamp to remember place and date.

-          Adding to this and closing the concept, there is a small space with instruments for anyone to gather their friends, new festival buddies or anyone, including El Hombre Bala, and play with the classic rock formation or even on their own.

The audio is designed in such a way that will not go far outside the installation, its for the inside people to listen and create music that will round up the exhibition of today’s independence:  Create and then find your own way to come out to the world, in this case the package.

-          Space for intercultural interaction for people to talk about music and the value of independent projects.

The Hombre Bala installation offers a big asset for Music Fests around the globe which gives attendants a variety of activities that otherwise would not occur in a festival. It’s a creative opportunity that underlines the value of will and perseverance of independent rock bands: it supports the strength of the small facing the world of the big.

Do you want to know more?

hombrebala@gmail.com

http://myspace.com/elhombrebala

http://elhombrebala.com

Mauricio Pastrana

April 2007

el hombre Bala is an interactive band

El hombre Bala is an interactive band.  This does not mean that its myspace is a dense jungle of multimedia where every click brings one closer to a virtual experience with the group.  No el hombre Bala believe in interactivity in the physical and spiritual sense, the old-fashioned way. 

The live experience is constantly changing, packed with ideas to bring people closer to the music; from balloons to confetti, to stages so packed with kids having a good time that it seems impossible that anyone could be playing beneath the writhing mass.  With name tags to break the hard “cool” exteriors, even for the tough looking bouncers, el hombre Bala always finds a way to the soft warm centre of our acceptance.  El hombre Bala will risk everything in order to change one mind.

While agitators scream and shout about the injustices of big business and control in a country still getting used to choice, el hombre Bala goes about its quiet revolution.  The Corona Music Fest 2006 marked a change in the accepted model.  A self made release sold by the band directly to the public.  This is direct dealing in its purest sense.  Who needs pompous DJs, over articulate journalists or ill informed shop attendants when there is a simple solution?  Take the music to the people.  When Adrian, Pollo, Steve and Mau describe their music it makes sense.  When a person can listen and discuss and contribute it becomes more than music, it becomes a shared vision. 

The “Packages” graphic design works within the framework of Guram’s stencils but this is the only constraint.  People rise to the challenge of interpreting the music for themselves.  There you have the heart of the proposal; el hombre Bala’s music is something different to everyone.  Some focus on the free guitars and create something psychedelic, others pinpoint the percussion and bass and paint to the beat; still others are captivated by the painfully smooth voice and melancholic lyrics and create something dark and brooding.  It is the collection of the whole that makes el hombre Bala.  It is the gallery of everyone’s interpretations that creates the visual impact that is essentially el.

Eamonn Clements – mexadelic.com.mx

march 2007