Pressure Makes Lalo Cura

“For me, that period of the beginning, it’s almost a different band. There was a moment where me and Sam [Que], we’ve been together with this since the beginning — and there was a moment where we decided to just take a leap of faith and just hit the reset button.”

Lalo Cura lead guitarist and vocalist Rafael Chavez y Moreno, Raf, as his bandmates call him, speaks softly. Deliberately. Crowded into an empty DeBartolo Performing Arts Center (DPAC) office, Chavez y Moreno, Terrell Ross (keys), and Khalin Diggins (bass), all dressed in black and eyes hidden by shades, sat down with curator Austin Gammage and DPAC to talk music and leading off the Presenting Series’ new Cultural Collective programming. Sam Que (saxophone) and Brendyn Cane (drums) are members of the 5-person band unable to join us this day.

Any bio tells you the band’s been around since 2012. Maybe it’s the post-pandemic acceleration of time, but that feels like a lifetime ago. And it was for Lalo Cura. Given the chance to play with arguably the best musicians in South Bend, to grab a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, you step out on faith. 

“We just started over back to the beginning, from zero,” Chavez y Moreno said. “I knew that it was the right decision because I had seen what they could do and I just couldn’t imagine myself walking past that opportunity. This is the dream of any musician. Playing with the best people around; that doesn’t just happen to anybody. From that moment, which was I think in 2017, 2018, that’s really the beginning of this Lalo Cura, which is the one that has been evolving ever since.”

New Beginnings, Fresh Music

This significant milestone required a considerable project. The pressure was for the now seismic line-up to deliver on all that risk. Pressure and heat make diamonds. For Lalo Cura, the heat started forming in 2019, leading to Live.

Of Live Diggins said, “Our 2020 album, that was our first where we were all together. We just wanted to get something out, get the sound of the new band out. I could say ever since then, every individual became a better person, a better musician, and worked on their craft. I think our goal for our next album is just to showcase our growth and to show how far we’ve come.”

And they aim big. Two Presenting Series dates at the University of Notre Dame’s performing arts center. Dropping new music in 2024. Guesting at the invitation of the Elkhart Symphony on a selection of Lalo Cura songs at the Lerner Theatre in May. Rolling loud right into festival season. Each one of these accomplishments is great. As Raf said, “the Elkhart Symphony is no joke.” But Lalo Cura can’t let the pressure stop building. They’re making diamonds.

Looking to the Future

“Even after Notre Dame, we’re preparing for the next big show. It’s like, ‘All right, we did it. That’s in the past. What’s next? What else can we come up with? What other story can we tell through music? Where else can we go?’ I feel like the more and more we gather with each other, the more and more we’ll have that feeling or that drive to keep going,” Diggins said.

Ross added, “I was thinking as he was talking about how we drive each other, push each other. Lalo is definitely a challenge, but I think we all love that challenge. I think it’s why we — individually — we get up in the morning. It’s another opportunity to take on that challenge. I’m not trying to speak for Khalin or nothing, but ever since he’s joined Lalo, he’s a bass player, but he’s also got better at drums. He’s now on lead guitar; singing incredibly now. I don’t want to give all credit to Lalo, but the fact that all of us here in this group are pushing him, that’s what drives us, just that push to be a better person on stage, off the stage, in the community. Lalo does that.”

They welcome the meltdown, the blending of influences from each one’s background: immigrant/born-and-raised local, church musician/secular musician, Spanish/English. They stoke a volcano that erupts into their chaos, constantly thinking and feeling different things all the time. But as Chavez y Moreno said, “That doesn’t mean that we cannot share our love for the music. That’s the sound I hear and feel when we’re playing together.” And we get the gems, pushed up from below, each with an undeniable edge from staying on the edge.

“I like to surround myself with like-minded musicians, Diggins said. “I think it’s very important if you want to reach that next level to get uncomfortable, figure out what you need to work on because sometimes we’re not self-aware enough to know that we need to work on something. Being receptive to all information, taking constructive criticism will be just some suggestions that I would give to the younger community.”

“If Raf does his thing, and if I’d have seen him years ago, and I tried to compete with him, I probably would never have met him. Instead, if I went to critique my gift, my craft, then sooner or later, God will bring us together, Ross said. “Now we’re able to work together, put the pieces together. It’s not a competition.”

Opening Doors for the Community

With Lalo Cura performing at DPAC, organizers Ross and Gammage also provide a pathway for performers with whom a DPAC audience may need to become familiar.

“I take the approach of, like, with Austin providing opportunities. Putting people in the light that they deserve,” said Ross. “They might see you up in that light, but you deserve to be here. The events we have here at the DeBartolo, and in the community, I want to give our musicians and artists an opportunity to showcase their talent, showcase their gifts.”

Gammage said, “I think that it was a no-brainer to work with them and invite them to come to the DeBartolo because they’re proven, and they are a good example of what young men can do when they work together and you’re true to the music.”

Inspiring Collaboration

Truth. Music. Pressure. Faith. What’s it all mean? Chavez y Moreno knows. “Even though it’s a complicated time for many reasons, I feel like people are more open to collaborating with people that they would never have thought they would. If there’s going to be a legacy from this band, I want it to be like they can see us in a picture and be like, ‘How did this Mexican guy end up with these people? How did they find themselves from totally different parts of the world, with totally different beliefs?’ It’s not impossible. You can be part of anything that you want.”