For twenty-seven years Los Lobos have quietly amassed one of the most enduring catalogs in all of music. There have been moments when it's been impossible to ignore the East Los Angeles quintet: the 1984 album How Will the Wolf Survive, which first put them on the national landscape; their brief flirtation with stardom when their cover of Ritchie Valens' "L.A. Bamba" went to No. 1 in 1987; 1992's classic Kiko record, widely perceived as one of the finest works of the decade. As 2000 nears its end, the hard-working group is once again proving impossible to ignore. And they are doing it in a monumental way, with the massive four-CD, eighty-six-song retrospective, Mas Y Mas: The Los Lobos Box.

Collected together, these diverse songs, which cover the group's history, from their humble 1977 recording beginnings to the present, illustrate unarguably why Los Lobos is one of the greatest and most respected American bands of the last two decades. The comprehensive history features demos, live performances (including a collaboration with Sheryl Crow on Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On") and songs from the band's various side projects. Los Lobos guitarist/co-songwriter Louie Perez recently spoke with RollingStone.com about all of the above.

It's interesting for a group so known for its songwriting to end a career retrospective with a cover. Why close the Mas Y Mas set with "What's Going On"?

It kind of goes back to where we came from, to being just another band from East L.A. That song was special to us because it was right after all the Rodney King shit went down in L.A. We went out on tour and it was like, "Here comes a bunch of guys from L.A." And we were just saying, "Hey, you know what? We're all kind of beat up by this. We're from L.A. and we're just seeing this shit burn." We were like, "Where is this going?" Being that we were ethnic kids too; this was happening in the black community and it happened Aug. 29, years before that in East L.A. with the Chicano community. It just hurt us; it hurt our feelings. And we went out on the road and we said, "This is what we're gonna do." Every night we finished with that song, telling people, "This is who we are." And this is basically the way we end this set, with this sentiment.

The set also shows off your numerous side projects over the years. Do you feel all of those various musical incarnations have kept your love for music so strong as a band?

Yeah, undeniably. The other thing though too is we're still fans. When we were kids we were fans of this music and a lot of people we grew up listening to, we're actually getting to meet and play with. What you said earlier about the love for music being apparent in the songs, that's very cool because it does make me think about why we started this band in the first place -- 'cause we just wanted to play music. And it was fun. It wasn't because there was this career move; no decisions were ever triggered by anything outside of something that just feels right. And that comes from just the joy and love of playing music. That's part of what held it together. And lastly, what's also held it together is the fact that if you took all the music away we'd be friends because we started off as friends. It's all of those things combined that keep it going.

You guys have earned a reputation for really staying humble amidst all of the accolades. Has your friendship helped keep you grounded?

The thing that really grounds you is family. My kids have been around this their whole lives, so it's not a big deal to them. My wife will turn on Jay Leno because we're gonna be on and the kids will say, "I was watching that." I've tried to live a parallel life; I've never brought the rock thing home. I remember the night that we won our second Grammy, and the first one we were out of town for, so we actually attended the awards show. After the show, my wife and I drove back home -- my mother-in-law was watching the kids -- we pulled into the driveway, walked in the door and my mother-in-law goes, "Congratulations, we're out of diapers." And I went from being a Grammy-award winning artist to fifteen minutes later pushing a cart in Ralph's Market and buying some Pampers. That kind of stuff really brings you down to earth. We can never try and get away with acting like we're rock stars with our families.

When you were listening to the early material for the box set, was there anything that really stood out to you?

What I was really amazed by is when I listen to that really early stuff there was always something there. We knew from the very beginning there was just something that kept us together. Even through the years when it was incredibly difficult and we already had families and didn't have anything to eat we still played music fulltime. Most bands would just say at that point, "We gotta grow up." But there was that one thing that our families recognized and were willing to work through our struggles and sacrifices for. Whatever it is, it's on Just Another Band From East L.A. And I find that on a lot of that early stuff.

What do you think that thing was?

I haven't quite figured it out. And I don't think I want to. It's one of those things like if you're 30,000 feet up in the sky in an airplane and you figure out what keeps it up there, it will probably fall.

Between the box set and re-releasing Just Another Band..., you guys have spent a lot of time looking back lately. Is there a target date for the next Los Lobos record?

We're hoping to be in the studio sometime in the spring. We don't spend a lot of time in the studio. This Time we recorded in probably six or seven weeks. Latin Playboys was recorded in ten days. We don't spend a lot of time, so we might be able to see a record sometime in the fall.

STEVE BALTIN
(November 16, 2000)