How Frikstailers Hack Video Game Interfaces To Save Money

There is a growing appetite in Australia for Latin America's festive cumbia music — especially with an electronic twist. Frikstailers (pronounced 'freak stylers'), from Argentina via Mexico, first hit these shores in 2015. Now they're back for a tour centred around Groovin The Moo. The digital cumbia combo — Rafael "Rafa" Caivano and Lisandro Sona — will even headline a Melbourne gig alongside local faves Cumbia Cosmonauts.

Caivano was impressed by the reception Frikstailers received when they last played dates including Sydney Festival's Famous Spiegeltent. "It was beautiful, actually — we didn't expect such a good response from the audience," Caivano enthuses. "It was like, 'You guys are already tropical!'"

"It's a very interesting audience as well because they are very curious, so that's a lot of fun for us — because we like to play with that, with the curiosity of people."

Frikstailers have manifested a hybridised cumbia for the Major Lazer era. Caivano suggests that their music sounds "familiar" to people globally because they add elements of funk, dub, hip hop, dancehall, electro, house and techno to their cumbia. "We have a little bit of everything in our music." Frikstailers' live band set-up involves canny repurposing. "We play with basically machines," Caivano says. "We use a lot of video game interfaces we hacked and we turned into instruments." Indeed, they not only deploy a Guitar Hero controller, but also Dance Dance Revolution… "We try not to spend a million dollars on it," Caivano laughs.

Frikstailers formed in Cordoba, Argentina's second largest city, in 2006. They eventually relocated from Buenos Aires to Mexico City — a hub for cumbia, despite the music's Colombian origins. "The thing is that Mexico City has a lot of infrastructure to develop anything you want to do. It's a very interesting audience as well because they are very curious, so that's a lot of fun for us — because we like to play with that, with the curiosity of people." However, they have discovered cultural differences. This sense of being outsiders has heightened Frikstailers' fascination with space and extraterrestrials — evident in their music, imagery and eccentric stage costumes (colourful wigs, goggles). "It comes from the idea of feeling somehow an alien all our lives — even being in Argentina we felt like [we were] from somewhere else and then here in Mexico we are from somewhere else," Caivano explains. "I think it's the idea of playing with this concept of being from far away that we like."

Frikstailers' success has been incremental. In 2012 they performed a pivotal Boiler Room set in London. Soon after, their breakthrough album, En Son De Paz, dropped via Argentina's ZZK Records. Frikstailers' last major issue was 2014's six-track EP, Crop Circles (it's on SoundCloud). But they have fresh music coming. "We are in the process of releasing a new LP this year — around October, I think. We take a lot of time to make an album —I know that," he laughs.

They are also at work on a new side project, Klik & Frik — previewed at the Mexican edition of the MUTEK festival. "It's going to be more techno-orientated — more digital," Caivano reveals. "It's like techno and house music in a lower tempo — the tempo of cumbia." And there could be an Aussie collab with Sydney avant-popsters Ginger & The Ghost on the horizon. "We met them at a festival in Spain and they are the sweetest guys. We liked their music as well. So I think we are going to do something with them."