Ozomatli: Sweet Embrace.

Ozomatli play the East Coast Blues & Roots Festival in Byron Bay on March 30 and 31.

Ulises Bella is a regular guy. He drives a Honda Civic and he’ll be celebrating his birthday in a couple of days time. He also plays some wicked saxophone (as well as some clarinet, a bit of guitar, a bit of bass and some keyboards) in the monster groove machine Ozomatli.

Their second album Embrace The Chaos found the band the deserved recipients of a Grammy award for Best Latin Rock Alternative Album. Understandably so. It’s seamless mixture of the finest the Latin and African musical traditions have to offer, folded into a modern take on jazz, funk, hip hop and a little punk rock, dripping with authenticity.

“In the centre of all the hype around Latin music, we’re looking wondering where’s Ozomatli,” he jokes. “We’re just doing out thing, you know.”

After spending as much as five months of each year on the road, the band’s time to bask in some of the well-deserved recognition has arrived.

“For the most part, especially in different countries, people have been digging the record, and that’s what makes me happy,” Ulises explains. “The fans are the tastemakers and nay sayers… Some people will always say I like this more or I liked the first one more, but for me, and I think the other guys in the band, it’s like the second chapter in a book. Hopefully we’ll come together with a body of consistent work.”

There’s no denying that Embrace The Chaos is a more focused and refined work that it’s self titled predecessor. While their debut effortlessly jumped styles within a single song, Embrace The Chaos finds the band spending more time developing a groove and letting a song find it’s own path.

“I think that it was more how the songs just came out. We don’t really think about how we’re mixing up songs. I don’t think it’s a trend or how we’re going to be forever. It’s just how it is this time around. There are a lot of songs that hold one style and we expand on things. All the different tastes in the band, the big thing is the mixing and infusing of the rhythms.”

“People say ‘what’s up with the Latin craze’ or this or that. What’s the trend? We never really thought about that. For us, this is the music we’ve grown up listening to, this is the music that our parents or our neighbours listen to. It’s not a trend. Playing these rhythms are just natural for us, you know. Trends will come and go, but our love and understanding of this music is how we are. It’s not going to go away, it will always be a part of our music.”

The title of the album is drawn from an experience the band had performing at the Democratic National Convention before the last US elections.

“The Democratic National Convention protest was really chaotic. It was mad. It was us, Rage Against The Machine and another band. Rage Against The Machine went on second, because that’s how the cops wanted it. We went on after, and the cut out shit a song and a half into it. They were telling fifteen thousand people to get out of the space in ten minutes.”

“For the most part, it was a peaceful protest. After the ten minutes, they started stampeding and rubber bulleting people and smashing this peaceful concert. And right at the time this is going on you’ve got Clinton going on about how great shit is,” he laughs. “The sick irony of it all just really clashed in my head. Embrace The Chaos was something we’d just tell ourselves in the band when things got a little bit too crazy, you’ve just got to embrace the chaos. It’s something I guess you can apply to all kinds of things that are going on in the world, and a lot of those experiences drove the second record.”

In spite of all the kudos the band are receiving, it’s still the simple things that make life in Ozomatli a rewarding experience for the band members.

“First and foremost I think the most rewarding thing’s being able to eat and clothe myself playing music, man,” he laughs. “It was always like music and then you have a job or something. Now it’s just this band and music. It’s a blessing to sustain ourselves.”

“After that I think it’s the energy of the band, and the inspiration we get from the music. We’ve always wanted to be the people’s band. There’s so much roots music going on it’s like who are you going to pick, you know. It’s the music of the neighbourhood. That’s the vibe in the band. It’s very intense, we all try to be there for each other.”