Loz Rayoz de Guadalupe: Central Coast Norteño Band Embrace and Evolve Traditional Mexican Sound

Mexican music has a long, rich history of popularity and appreciation beyond the country’s borders, extending into the United States, the rest of Latin America and around the world. But in the last few years, Mexican regional music — a diverse group of folkloric styles from throughout the country — has exploded in popularity.

Under the umbrella of Mexican regional music is norteño, a distinct style from the country’s northern states that’s heavily influenced by European polka.

California’s Central Coast is a hotspot for the state’s norteño music scene. The Santa Maria Valley, north of Santa Barbara, is home to a new generation of norteño musicians preserving this musical heritage while making it their own.

Norteño music was the soundtrack of Chencho Pérez’s childhood. He’s a 19-year-old musician from the Central Coast city of Guadalupe, where he plays and sings in a band that includes his brother and father.

“Growing up, my mom would always put [on] norteño artists, like Ramón Ayala, Los Tigres del Norte, Los Tucanes — we would listen to everything in norteño,” Pérez said. “So I’ve always had a passion for that type of music.”

Pérez said norteño has a unique instrumentation that sets it apart from other types of Mexican regional music. A major part of that is the bajo quinto, a 10-stringed instrument that looks like a cross between an acoustic guitar and a bass. The use of a bajo quinto sets norteño apart from other Mexican musical styles like sierreño.

“Sierreño is basically people picking up 12-string guitars, and a bass, and six-string guitar, so that’s different from norteño,” Pérez said. “Norteño is like accordion, bajo quinto, and then you got the bass and the drums. So it’s Mexican music, but it’s still different — it’s like punk rock and metal rock.”

Norteño, sierreño, and other Mexican genres like banda and mariachi are extremely popular in the Santa Maria Valley, drawing in performers and fans of all ages. Chencho didn’t just grow up hearing this music on records or the radio — he comes from a family of musicians.

Pérez’s father plays several instruments, so as kids, he and his brother were surrounded by drums, guitars, bajo quintos, and more.

When his younger brother started learning bass, Chencho learned drums with help from his dad. The three of them joined up with some other musicians and started performing norteño music when Chencho and his brother were just teenagers.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced them to stop playing music for a while, during which time Pérez expanded his skills into new instruments, including the bajo quinto. Shortly after they were able to start performing again, they were invited to appear on Tengo Mucho Talento, a kind of Spanish-language America’s Got Talent.

Chencho’s band didn’t win the competition, but appearing on TV put them on the map.

“So we didn’t win, but we got a lot of work that following year,” Pérez said. “We were fully booked the whole year.”

After some reshuffling of band members, Chencho, his dad and his brother decided to split off into a new group. Suddenly, they had to settle on a new name.

“When we were on the show, they told us that we had a lot of energy — like you can feel the energy when we play,” he said. “So when you think of energy, you think of a lightning bolt.”

That image gave them the idea to use the Spanish word “rayo” — as in, a ray of lightning. And the word resonated with Chencho and his family bandmates for another reason.

“We had a dog that was blind, he lived a long time, and he was a very loyal dog, and his name was Rayo,” Pérez said.

Pérez and his bandmates combined the word “rayo” with a reference to their hometown, and the new name was born: Loz Rayoz de Guadalupe. 

“When we announced the Instagram post that we were like back with the new name and a new member, we got so much support. It felt really nice, like we really mattered in the community,” Pérez said.

Pérez is just one of many young norteño musicians embracing change while staying true to the genre’s roots. He’s now teaching himself accordion, so now, along with bajo quinto, bass, drums, guitar and vocals, he can play every instrument in a norteño band.

Loz Rayoz de Guadalupe is borrowing from other styles of Mexican regional music to create new sounds. “The music we recently recorded, it’s like accordion, bajo quinto, two alto horns [called] charchetas, and then it’s a stand-up bass, and then a tuba,” Pérez said. “That’s something different that I also fell in love with. That type of sound is also kind of like what’s hitting right now on the charts.”

For Pérez, music isn’t just a passion — it’s a career. Besides performing, he’s also learning the technical side of music, including live sound and audio engineering.

“Music’s a business. Once you understand that, that’s when you’re on the right track. Music’s whatever you want it to be, but I want to make this as a lifestyle and my job.”

At age 19, Chencho Pérez has already performed on TV and played with major artists he grew up listening to, like norteño legend Ramon Ayala. He’s recording original music and making music videos with Loz Rayoz de Guadalupe. He’s also getting a degree in music.

But even as he grows and expands his musical horizons, Pérez said norteño will always be his roots.

“I fall in love with music every day I perform,” he said. “Hearing the accordion, the drums, the bass, and just everything coming together — nothing else in this world can really bring people together like that. That’s why music is so special.”