OA: For starters, how did you all meet and come together as a band?

Jared: I met Joshua in my Spanish class at South El Monte High, we never really interacted until Covid when I first asked people if they wanted to make a band. Angel was the bassist at the time. Angel and I have been friends for the longest since we’re neighbors, we grew up together and discovered music together. Joshua knew Francisco through instagram, it’s really funny because Francisco came over to my house one day and the rest is history. Felipe our newest member is also mutual with Joshua and we met him through Josh, pretty amazing how we all just fit together.

Joshua: I met Jared during my freshman year of high school through a Spanish class. I actually knew of him before we became friends, I always thought he dressed really cool, and he even stood up for me against a teacher once, which is a pretty funny story on its own. When I found out he played guitar, he invited me over, and once we realized we both played, we were like, “Alright, let’s jam.” That really kick-started everything. We ended up jamming a lot during quarantine, which gave us the time and space to really lock in. I met Felipe in high school too, during my junior and senior year. I always knew he was musically inclined, he was always messing around on his laptop, producing stuff and experimenting with sounds. He was super engaged and interested in music, and eventually he picked up guitar as well. We kind of encouraged him to switch to bass, since none of us were bass players at the time, and once that clicked, the rest is history.

OA: What’s the story behind your name?

Joshua: Honestly, Jared probably knows more about that than I do, so I’ll let him take this one.

Jared: I first started as “Delincuente” and while practicing for a while I asked Josh, Francisco, and Angel what do you want to be called and I inputted “Los Delincuentes” I thought it was pretty nice. They all agreed but I feel like we should’ve sat down and thought it through. Maybe a name change could happen..

OA: How would you describe your sound to someone listening to you for the first time? Do you think it fits into a specific genre, and has it changed over time?

Jared: I would explain it as indie rock or surf rock, in middle school and high school I was  listening to all the GarageBands such as The Red Pears, SadGirl, Archer Oh, The Buttertones, The Frights, Surf Curse and others and I wanted to fit our music in that category. We got into doo-wop and rock n roll, I think we’re still figuring it out. As far a category we fit well into Indie, but honestly not having a genre sounds nice, almost as if we’re constantly evolving and trying new things. Maybe we’ll stay making moshpitting songs like Red Haired Girl or evolve into something completely different.

Joshua: I’d describe our sound as a mix of ’50s influence and indie, kind of like a modern-day Ritchie Valens. I wouldn’t say it fits perfectly into one genre, but it has definitely changed over time. Early on, we leaned more toward a Nirvana-ish, indie sound. Lately though, we’ve really fallen in love with the classics. We’re trying to revive that classic feel by bringing those old sounds into a modern context, taking inspiration from older songs and expanding on them in our own way.

OA: Who would you say are your biggest musical inspirations/influences?

Jared: Alex Turner, I’ve loved Arctic monkeys and I love Alex’s lyricism because of all his hidden meanings. FUR is another good one, a band from Australia who makes modern 60s music, I genuinely thought they were the next Beatles. But most importantly The Ok Shack, they’re family to me and I’ve always looked up to them when it came to music and their sound inspired some of our songs too, I love them and hope they come back.

Joshua: For me personally, a big influence has been Led Zeppelin, especially Jimmy Page as a guitarist. I also fell in love with Eric Clapton’s playing, and more recently I’ve been really into John Mayer. I love how catchy his music is and how straightforward his lyrics can be. There’s something honest and relatable about that, and it really defines what I love about music. I try to bring that same feeling into what we do as a band.

OA: What’s your creative process like when you write and produce new music? And how do you overcome any creative differences within the band? 

Jared: I guess we never really sit down all too much and write songs together. We’re all so busy, I mean we started the band really young, three of us were in high school and you know figuring it out, then college hit and now we’re all busy again. When we first started there was major differences and I feel like introducing new concepts or ideas was hard but we all connected more. I wanted to make some slow songs but I know we needed some upbeat music. I usually write the songs but I always encourage my friends to write some tracks or something they like that we can work on.

Joshua: When it comes to writing, Jared usually takes the lead. For production, he’ll bring in an idea, and then we all come together and build off of it. Everyone adds their own input, and sometimes it turns into something completely different from the original idea, which is cool. A lot of the time, we’re just messing around, and that ends up becoming something really good. I think that’s an important part of producing music, you have to let yourself experiment and flow. If you’re not in that mindset, you’re not really engaged, and you’re not going to create anything meaningful. Honestly, we haven’t had any major creative differences. The biggest challenges have been scheduling and availability. There were times when we could’ve played more shows or put ourselves out there more, but personal stuff or conflicting schedules got in the way. That can be frustrating at times, and I’d be lying if I said it didn’t affect my motivation occasionally. But that’s just part of being in a band. Last year we had some great shows, and going into this year, I’m really hoping for a fresh start and more consistency. I’m excited about what’s coming next.