Music to live off

UCLA band Arepa’s name comes from a type of food common throughout Central and South America.

The message behind this unique but simple moniker, however, stands as a testament to their aspirations toward mass appeal and camaraderie through the universality of music.

“It’s like a word analogy,” said guitarist David Villafaña, a fourth-year ethnomusicology student, when talking about the band’s unlikely name.

“The idea was that music is kind of what feeds the soul.”

“I had (arepas) when I was growing up,” said singer Pollyanna Salas-Urueña, a fourth-year political science and international development studies student, of the food that has come to be unofficially known as the staple food of Colombia.

“For Latinos, staple foods are important, but the staple food for the soul is music. Music gets people going and it helps them forget about the troubles … in a lot of our countries.”

Arepa ““ the band, not the food ““ is currently made up of five musicians: Villafaña on guitar; Salas, the only female member of the group, on vocals and writing contribution; Edwin Carranza, the band’s “baby” as he is still a senior in high school, on bass; Manuel Castro, a fourth-year economics and accounting student; and Josué Arias, a California State University, Northridge alumnus with a degree in Spanish literature, on percussion.

Barely a year old, Arepa’s considerable talents have allowed them to have already booked gigs all over Los Angeles, including a set opening for fiery Mexican rocker Ely Guerra at the Knitting Factory last summer.

In addition to their sets at the Knitting Factory, Arepa has also played The Greek Theatre, the Joint, Hollywood Park and, staying close to home, “every venue possible at UCLA, we’ve played it,” said Villafaña with proud enthusiasm.

All five members of Arepa noticeably have unparalleled devotion to music. Many come from musical families, notably Salas, whose father Miguel Salas was a jazz pianist in Mexico City. Coming from El Salvador, Colombia, Guatemala, Cuba and Mexico, the members of Arepa strive to incorporate the varied styles of their respective nationalities into music they make.

“Our musical tastes vary,” Arias said.

“It ranges from gospel to flamenco to reggae to punk, soul and salsa, and we all bring something distinct to it. Es una mezcla. Old and new.”

Salas elaborated about the bands combination of the old and the new.

“It’s “˜old’ in terms of Latin rhythms and those traditional sounds that are really close to home and then the “˜new’ sound, which is that kind of alternative rock feel and what we all bring in from the music we each listen to,” Salas said.

Arepa’s songs run the gamut from intense emotional ballads about love and loss to socially conscious statements on immigration and the environment to playful nonsense numbers that are fun to play and even more fun to dance to.

Singing in both English and Spanish, the band is currently in preproduction stages and is aiming to release their first album by the end of the year. The preproduction process for Arepa involves an ongoing struggle of self-critique and artistic output as the band fine-tunes material, moving from the recording studio to the writing desk and back again.

“We do one song and it’s too slow, then another time, it’s too fast,” Salas said. “You have to get it just right. You have to be patient. Being students, you have to balance your academic life … with meeting together to write and then to practice for shows and then meeting together to record. It’s really challenging.”

The band started to form about three years ago, when a mutual friend who knew that Villafaña and Arias shared musical interests introduced the two.

Castro came into the group thanks to that classic social crucible of college life ““ the dormitories. Word got around to fellow resident Villafaña that there was another musician on the floor.

“He’d walk around Rieber Hall second floor just playing his guitar,” Castro said.

“He was the troubadour of Rieber Hall,” Arias added with a laugh.

The band’s female lead, Salas, came into the group through Castro, who knew she had an interest in singing and invited her to stop by one of his and Villafaña’s Rieber jam sessions.

The youngest member of the group, Carranza, is also the most recent addition. Despite his age, Carranza has already managed to gain a foothold in the business, having played bass for the 2005 film, “The Dukes of Hazzard” under producer Jose Quintana.

Through Salas’ work with Quintana, Carranza was first introduced to Arepa’s lead singer and then became part of Arepa itself.

If it were possible to gain success on strength of personality and will alone, Arepa would already be at the top of the charts.

Arepa fortunately has one thing to fall back on: talent.

The group’s refreshing blend of old and new produces a distinct sound, and the universality of the topics they sing about allows for a mass appeal. The band’s goal is beyond the local.

“You know when a car is driving by and you hear just a snapshot of some (music)? You’re like, “˜Well, that’s the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ or “˜That’s Maná.’ We’re in the process of developing that sound of “˜That’s Arepa!’ When people hear our music, they know we have music with a message and that they know our sound,” Castro said.