Lesly Reynaga Finds New Inspiration in Tradition

Artist of the Month - September, 2023

Lesly Reynaga might have been born in Monterrey, Mexico, but it wasn’t until she moved to Texas that mariachi music really became a part of her life. 

Reynaga, who just released her debut album, Valerosa, an ultra-modern take on mariachi’s folkloric past, came to appreciate the legacy and the beauty of the music slowly, over time. 

Of her childhood, she says, “It wasn’t really that prominent in a way. In my family’s case, every holiday season, we would have a mariachi group come out to our celebrations and play music. Same for weddings and any kind of special occasion.”

But the passion, melodrama, and narrative flow of the music didn’t really resonate.

“I was young,” Lesly remembers, “and growing up in the nineties. You obviously gravitate to what’s cool and hip. I had an older sister [who] listened to a lot of American pop music. Christina Aguilera was literally my biggest idol when I was a little kid.”

Things would change.

Conceptualizing A Giant Dog

Their new album, ‘Bite’, moves the band in a new direction

By Jeff McCord

For Sabrina Ellis and Andrew Cashen, the songwriters in Austin’s punk/pop unit A Giant Dog, out touring on their 2017 release Toy, things were cruising along smoothly. 

But even before the pandemic called a halt to the worldwide flow, Sabrina and Andrew had begun hatching their own plans for an abrupt detour.

Maybe boredom had set in, or just familiarity. 

“I don’t want to sound like I’m bragging,” says Andrew, But it’s …”

“Effortless.” Sabrina chimes in. “That’s why we’re so addicted to working together.”

They’re talking about their songwriting process. I’m sitting with the pair just after their Studio 1A session, where they just launched something brand new. They’re excited, finishing each other’s sentences, still brimming with adrenaline. 

“The way that we’ve always written albums,” Andrew continues, “Is very fast. We used to pump out an album a year or something like that. We just wanted to take a different approach to it and sit down and try to push ourselves creatively, artistically, and try to come up with something that wasn’t just about our lives and our personal experiences.”

“A good outline,” says Sabrina. “An arc for the album we’ve never had to think about prior to writing the songs. Usually, we write the songs and think about what order sounds good, but this time it was, okay, which character do we need to represent? What conflict do we need to express? Do we feel the creative license to do some slowed-down, ballad-y, very theatrical stuff?” 

You guessed it. A Giant Dog’s new album, Bite, is not just another slab of punk delights. It’s a full-on concept album, from start to finish.

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