Latin, fresh and frenetic.
The Texan It is probably the most recognized post punk musical project in Mexico. Since its formation during the pandemic, Joshua Ramirez has dedicated his full time to creating songs, performing live, developing his merch and turn his music into his main job.
With a lot of perseverance and discipline behind, The Texan is about to offer the biggest concert of his career in Mexico City, at the Metropolitan Theater. Regarding this show and the announcement of a tour in 2026 that will tour the United States, Argentina, Chile, Peru and Colombia, we spoke with the musician about the album the house that falls and everything he has planned for the concert on February 28.
Indie Rocks! Magazine: You are coming from a European tour and now you have just announced an extensive tour for 2026.
The Texan: Of course, I have never done as many dates as we are going to do now. It is not that before we had had this practice of announcing 50 dates at once; It's the first time we do it. More than anything because, as I have always worked with Lukeit seemed easier to us to take out the shows as they closed. But now it was like committing to doing 50 dates… and it's going to end up being 70, more like.
I've never played that much, although I did do 50 or so dates last year, and I felt like I still had room for more. I really like playing live, I feel that it is a very good way to get to know the project. And I think it is the perfect excuse to spin the record: knowing that we are going to each city to present something new and that the idea is to shape it along the way.
GO!: 70 dates in different countries must be complex.
LT: I have it very normalized, but the truth is that this has been my life for a while now. Almost since I took out The Texanwhen I was 17 years old. Since then there has not been a single day in which I have stopped thinking of this as a job. I have always had to give a lot of discipline and focus to live, and that is what I like more and more.
What excites me most now is to think, for example, that we had to do a new training. We are trying to go everywhere with battery, go full bandand I think it's a new challenge and we'll see what comes our way next, because, well, my full band It's actually quite small: guitarist and drummer. For me, the drummer is what makes The Texan be full band
Nowadays it's very easy to think about sequences and that kind of thing, but I think drums give a lot of formality to a project.
GO!: It is important that you mention that you always visualized music and your project as a job, because it really takes time, resources, effort and a lot of skill…
LT: Yes, my job was always work from day one, because I always put a lot of effort into things. I started generating money with songs from the fifth month or so. It wasn't much, but I thought: if you keep working, if you keep doing things well, if you keep connecting with people, surely this is going to work.
The reality is that it is a formal job, full time, every day. I think it was from my first Indie Rocks Forum!when we present Nosein 2023, post-pandemic, when I said: “Ok, I think we can sell tickets.” I started touring to other cities and realized I could sell tickets outside. And then I thought: maybe what wasn't making sense to me was living in Tijuana and trying to do everything from Mexico City.
When I moved to Mexico City I had things very clear, according to me, but the reality is that I learned a lot over time. Everything has gotten better: we haven't stopped playing, we haven't stopped selling tickets, I haven't stopped making merch nor to focus on this every day.
Formally, I think that after the second Indie Rocks Forum! I said: “Sure, this is my life and it will be my life as long as people want to buy a ticket.” But I attribute a lot to the live one. I don't see it so much as “so many people listen to me, I can make a living from this”, but rather as: okay, a lot of people listen to you, but how many people do you put in a show?
GO!: Of course, because there you can also see how much the music impacts.
LT: I just talk about it a lot with Luke. We say: what really gives value to a band? Well, there is nothing more certain than a ticket office. Sometimes I feel that bands make the mistake of saying: “I charge you so much to play at that place,” but what support do you have to prove that you sell that?
We have worked to demonstrate that we can go to a city, sell a certain number of tickets and generate that. From there the value of the band begins to be built.
GO!: Today many bands use social networks to make reels comedy and they leave music aside a little. There seems to be a very fine line between creating content for music or creating music for content. How do you see it from an independent project?
LT: It helped me a lot to have been born as a project in a pandemic, when TikTok was not as strong and neither were the reels as they are now. There were other formats, like Instagram TV, things very different from today.
I started moving, in quotes, on YouTube, and I feel that the people who know you there are very loyal. If you connect on YouTube, it's easy for people to stay. I think that today there is a very ephemeral time in the creation of content, but I am not fighting with the idea of making content to publicize songs.
I'm not like that because I've never been. I've tried, but I don't feel like that's what really pushes me to sell more tickets either. Fortunately, when people think of my project, they think of the music, and that has been key.
I don't consider myself an influencer. I use stories a lot, every day, because it's a way of telling people: “Hey, I'm here, you have another chance to listen to my music.” But I try to make what I post make sense. When the focus is just “create content, create content,” it becomes unnatural and people notice.
There are projects that work for them, but I also see that many times they have a lot of people on TikTok and then you wonder: how many people go to the concerts? How much of that turns into a t-shirt they buy from you?
Fortunately we have a fairly high effectiveness rate. My album came out almost a year ago and I have songs from two years ago, and yet people still listen to the project. That tells me that music is paramount, and I appreciate that, because if not, I would have to spend all day thinking about what song to put out for the algorithm.
I feel like when you start releasing single after single without pause, the music also loses value. Respecting the times and each release is a way to move away from influencerism and remember that you are a musician.
GO!: There is a lot of pressure for bands to release music faster and faster.
LT: Yes, I understand when music is released due to social pressure, for fear of losing numbers. But in the end you end up making a huge catalog of TikToks. I don't see it that way, although each project is different and so is each process.
I have a band, so releasing music is a more structured and also slower process. Each band is a world.
GO!: the house that falls It is almost one year old. How have you processed it?
LT: I don't usually listen to the album much because I play it live too much. I rehearse almost every day, I have everything very deep in my head. It is an album that I like a lot and I feel that there was a very integral work of all the people who participated.
People embraced it from the first moment, but I feel like it still hasn't reached all the people it can reach. To process a disk nowadays you need it to last a long time. I try to be patient with that. If today he is one year old, in another year he will be two. I don't think about releasing another album anytime soon, so I'd rather people listen to this one.
GO!: So there's no new album coming this 2026…
LT: I want to release an EP, but an EP is a transition, not an album. It seems like a good time to release songs that I want to release, but without falling into the pressure of “I want another album.” I wanted to say many things in the house that fallsand now I am living other experiences. I feel like more time has to pass for new material to make sense.
GO!: Furthermore, the most important date of your career is coming: Metropolitan Theater.
LT: Yes, the show is already prepared. I control everything from above: I have the session, the intro, the order. We are rehearsing every day because I want to take this same show to all the cities, but the Metropolitan It is the first date and the biggest.
We are putting all our effort into it. It's almost sold out and I don't know how my body is going to feel. A few months ago he invited me Ed Maverick to your MetropolitanI had never been to the theater and I said, it's shocking. It is the Metropolitan Theaterimposes a lot. I think one has the responsibility to fill large spaces with stage presence.
I feel like I'm ready, although I also know that it's difficult to find musicians equally committed to the project. Still, it's going to be the most special show ever. My head is neurotic and wants everything to be perfect, but it is undoubtedly going to be something very important.
GO!: It's a lot of pressure…
LT: Yes, but now I'm calmer with ticket sales. We are already close to sold out, so the focus is completely on the show. Last year I had the pressure of the puck and many things at the same time. Now I want nothing to fail on stage, because if that's right, everything flows down below.
GO!: The important thing is to enjoy it…
LT: For me to enjoy it is to have it turn out well. I am demanding, but that has also led me here. We rehearse a lot, almost in a military way, but I like it. It's routine, like going to the gym. The Texan In three words it is: Latin, fresh and frenetic.
Don't miss out The Texan in it Metropolitan Theater from Mexico City this Saturday, February 28 and enjoy their music here:
