QUITAPENAS ready to make New Mexico debut as Route 66 Summerfest headliner
Jul. 19—Hector Chavez is looking forward to his first time performing in New Mexico. Sure, the musician has driven dozens of times through the state to get to performances in Texas. This time around, Chavez and QUITAPENAS is set to headline Route 66 Summerfest on Saturday, July 22. The city of Albuquerque-sponsored event is free to the public and has plenty of family friend events, as well as four stages of music. The group is a tropical Afro-Latin combo born under the warm California sun. The band borrows aesthetics from the radical '60s, '70s and '80s. Each song echoes a remix of history and invites one to engage in the liberating evenings of Angola, Peru, Colombia, Brazil and beyond. The name means "to remove worries." Chavez says since the band's inception in 2011, it has been through a number of lineup changes, yet the current one has been pretty solid for the last seven years. Over the course of the band's journey, Chavez says each member's confidence has grown. "In the beginning, we were just doing covers," he says. "Now we're bringing our own music to the table and having fun with it." QUITAPENAS has two full-length albums to its name and is currently releasing singles. Its most recent singles are "Bailando, Gozando" and "Buena Que'sta." Chavez says during a festival show, the band likes to keep the music upbeat. "The energetic songs keep us going," he says. "We also will perform the songs that we enjoy playing, as well as sprinkling in some of the newer ones." It takes the band about three months to create a new song, which is good because the entire band isn't doing music full-time — yet. "It takes work for all of us to be on the same page," he says. "We have six members and each one of us has ideas. We've come to learn that not all ideas are good. We don't let ego get in the way. We're finally in a place where communication is smooth. I've known a couple of the guys since we were in high school. It's a beautiful thing when we play music."
