Los Amigos Invisibles
The Venezuelan rock band Los Amigos Invisibles performs during the first day of the Vive Latino 2013 Music Fest at the Foro Sol in Mexico City, on March 15, 2013. GettyImages

Latin musicians are consistently seeking for new sounds beyond their own cultural rhythms as they experiment fusions between our cheerful genres and interesting sounds around the world. Venezuelan group Los Amigos Invisibles is definitely one of the best examples of what we could call: musical explorers.

“Ponerte en 4” is one of the biggest hits from this band that has overcome their own boundaries and turned out to be even more versatile than before safeguarding the uniqueness few Latin American artists lose on the way.

Its perfect fusion navigating between Funk, Disco and Salsa really deserves to be listened everywhere without language boundaries because it’s cool, refreshing and always ecstatic.

The group will have a great concert on May 11 at the Webster Hall in New York and they chatted with us to give us all the details about their tour and new album “El Paradise.”

LT: What’s your new album “El Paradise” like?

AI: Our new album “El Paradise” is a state of mind; it’s that musical paradise in your head. Based on the table dance bars or how we call it in Venezuela “Batitubos.” We created the concept the way we saw it and right after we started to write songs and ended up with 28 tracks. During the process we listened to all of our crew ideas and we decided to include Kinki, Elastic Bond, Los Auténticos Decadentes and one of the greatest Salsa interpreters Oscar D’ León.

LT: How was the experience working with Mr. Oscar D’ León?

AI: Years ago someone told us Oscar was the James Brown of the Salsa, and we totally agree with that. We had a Salsa song prepared to sing with him but he said “no” because he wanted to explore another genres. We gave him some demos and he desired to collaborate on the single “Sabrina”, a psychedelic Samba, very modern. The time we spent with him was amazing. He taught us a lot. It was like a class. Unforgettable experience.

LT: Any other artist you would like to collaborate with?

AI: There are a lot, it’s a very hard question. We love music and we listen to a lot of music. One Latin artist we would like to collaborate is Merengue interpreter Amarfis, who has created a different sound, which is fast and catchy. We would also like to collaborate with Marc Anthony in the future, he is amazing.

LT: What can we expect from your concert tomorrow in New York?

AI: We lived in New York many years, so we have a special connection with this city. We’ll play on Webster Hall. The concert is our vertebral column and it’s a party. The repertory will include songs from “El Paradise” but also all of our greatest hits. It’s a nonstop concert. We never stop. We have developed that concept and it has worked. We play music and that’s all. Our next stops will be San Francisco, Los Angeles, El Paso, Texas; Washington, Chicago and then Europe and Latin America.

LT: How was the transition from the acoustic album you made to this new one?

AI: On this business you cannot stop working, you have to please your audience. The acoustic album came on that point where we were writing songs for this album. So, the transition was fast.

LT: What’s your opinion about Venezuela’s current situation?

AI: It’s very sad to see that during all these years we have been victims of a toxic, criminal government that doesn’t respect the Constitution and condemn a whole country that is desperately asking for a change. We have a lot of people gone and nothing has changed. Our president’s acts should have leaded him to prison but he continues dancing on TV while his country suffers from hunger and pain. The government does not permit international intervention. It’s a mess. We would like to invite our friends to go visit our country but we can’t because we know it’ll have consequences. This needs to be changed because this is an intentional harm; they want to destroy the country; they want to have more control. We have always pleaded for no violence but we understand the situation it’s critical and actions need to be taken. We send tons of blessings to our people in Venezuela.

Listen to "El Paradise" below and leave your comments.

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