CODA
CODA is probably the best AOR band
ever to come out of Mexico. Their first two CDs are filled with
Classic AOR/Melodic Rock, while their third is a laid-back 90s
AOR piece. Although they sing in their own language, every AOR
fan needs to hear this wonderful band. Most of their songs are
uptempo and easy to sing-a-long. Anyway, I had a chance to
interview them and talk about what happened to them after the
release of the third album. Here's what their guitarist, Tony
Ruiz, told me...
Can you tell us about the start of CODA and the things before CODA was formed (possible other bands)?
Hello, I'm Tono Ruiz, guitarist,
Shure, CODA begun on April 89, some of the bands that we were in
those days were: Makina, Megaton, Ramses & Oceano. We decided
to form a band so we could play the tipe of music that we
couldn't play with the other bands
Can you tell us all about your first two albums, two wonderful AOR albums?
Thanx!!! I don't know what AOR
means, but anyway, "Enciendelo" was made on 93 produced
by Brazilian Carlos Maluli, and it surprised everybody at Sony
Music because it worked just fine on sales, then we went to the
UK to record the second one with british producer Robin Black and
that one made it big.
Why did you change in style for the third album?
Sony was leading us to change
the style and we tried to come up with something cool but we
kinda lost it somewhere in the process, It's a great production
though.
How was the success in Mexico for your band, huge sales, any hit singles, please tell us more?
Well, we were the only band in
Mexico who played Hard Rock and we had our audience, but with a
lot of criticism from the Mexican Rock media, we had about 3
singles on each album except for the third one.
And outside Mexico?
We have toured the US (Chicago,
Texas), all Central America and we've had sales reported in: US,
GERMANY,
COLOMBIA, ECUADOR, PERU, CHILE, PUERTO RICO, CENTRAL AMERICA.
What happened after the third album?
We changed lead singer and left
Sony, we signed with Polygram who later on joined Universal Music
and then everything went downhill for us, we spent 1.5 years
freezed without recording or anything, we never knew why, and
because of that we lost our bass player, drummer and got rid of
our former managers, and we dedicated ourselves to re-build the
band, we never stoped doing concerts and writing songs, later on
our original drummer came back and we got free from Universal.
Tell us all about the current situation around CODA?
We are on negotiations with
another record company, and about to settle something nice for
CODA.
Any new recordings coming up, have you
written any new songs?
If every thing goes as planed,
we will be recording the new album within a month or two, we have
at this point about 35 new songs to choose from.
Will it be a change back in style to your earlier recordings, so more cheerful 80s typed uptempo AOR/Melodic Rock?
Not exactly, we're re-taking the
honesty of our sound and we are looking for new tools to do so,
but we are still CODA, therefore the style remains.......
Which bands/artists influenced you on the first two albums and later on the third album?
A bit from everybody, like a
Spanish band called SANGRE AZUL, and others like TNT, JOURNEY,
MR. BIG.
Finally, do you have anything to add and where can people find more info on CODA?
Yes!! only that what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger, we are still here and on our way to reach what we have been fighting for, which is "to prevail" you can find the latest news on: www.coda.com.mx