It all sounded kind of crazy at first, but it’s one that we all liked in the end because it’s doing something different instead of rehashing the same old things done the same old way.” We broke down the story into eight cards, with the ‘valiente’ being the last one and the narrator. The plan was to write a corrido from the point of view of each of the cards. I never found a lot of open doors when I was looking for a break, and that’s why I had to form a band and sing my own songs.” On this record I wanted to give a chance to a lot of songwriters that are coming up with good stuff and fresh ideas. It’s this pure love that nothing can touch. It’s about that perfect love that you feel in the early stages of a relationship. It’s the kind of song that resonates a lot when you are feeling great and even more if you are going through a rough spot. “This is a norteño ballad I wrote with Javier Rochín, and it’s one of my favorites on the album. Musically, this is another half-norteño, half-banda hybrid.” ‘Tomar’ represents partying it up, ‘fumar’ is a pot reference, and ‘comernos’ a nod to sex without commitment. With all the debate about pot legalization going on now, my friend Dani Carmona and me had the idea of mixing it up with a more sexual story and experiences with three or four people, which is a very taboo subject but very real too. “This is a throwback to the more casual Calibre and what we were doing in 2010, when we had no shame taking on any topic. It follows a long line of sincere and straightforward love songs which we will never leave behind, because it’s what brings us to the people and it balances out all the crazy things we come up with sometimes.” It’s a ranchera ballad in the typical Calibre 50 style.
“This is on the opposite end of the spectrum. We mix banda and the norteño sound that we’ve always been associated with, but this time we went all the way to the Michoacán rhythms of charanga and huapango, a little bit like the ones that Marco Antonio Solís used in ‘Morenita.’ So it’s a banda cut with charanga and a little bit of cumbia, which sounds half crazy but it’s really Mexican.” Musically speaking, it’s a very Mexican song. It’s about old-time romance and how, in a way, we are still doing it the same way because it’s a winning formula-the love letters, the poetry, the flowers-even though it’s all more virtual now. It’s a love song, but the context is different from everything we’ve done before. “The title is a reference to the old school. The pause that the pandemic forced upon us has been a good thing to a point, because we were just going through life way too fast.” Read on as Muñoz details the stories behind Vamos Bien, one song at a time. “This time we had time on our side and we could work on things that we hadn’t even thought about when we were living on the road. “The pandemic completely changed our creative process,” says the singer-songwriter and accordionist. Amid the corridos, a format they have mastered over the past decade, there is also space for cumbias, ballads, and a bolero, as well as one cover song that will surprise many a fan.
Yet the quartet’s new songs explore more terrain than ever before.
Vamos Bien returns to the contagious norteño-banda-sinaloense hybrid that has been one of the group’s signatures since 2018’s Mitad y Mitad. The latter features the now-classic line “If you didn’t exist, I would invent you,” a perfect encapsulation of the band’s over-the-top but still irresistible charm.“We always try to innovate, to tell different stories in our lyrics and find new ways to talk about love,” Calibre 50’s Edén Muñoz tells Apple Music. They’d subsequently take this sound to greater heights in songs like 2016’s “Siempre Te Voy A Querer'' and 2019’s “Simplemente Gracias,” two of their most recognizable numbers. “El Tierno Se Fue,” included in their 2011 sophomore effort, De Sinaloa para el Mundo, would be their first standout number, reflecting the sound that made them a household name: earnest, heart-on-sleeve romantic ballads, punctuated by hard norteño brass and adorned with just the right amount of sexual innuendo. The opening track, “El Infiernito,” served as their first true single, an upbeat corrido clocking in at just over two minutes that is infectious enough to warrant repeated listens. The aptly titled Renovar o Morir (2010) (translated as Renew or Die) marked the group’s arrival on the scene-which was as impactful as a 50-caliber bullet. Originating in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, in 2010, as an offshoot of frontman and accordeonist Edén Muñoz’s earlier project, Colmillo Norteño, the norteño-banda group-–which was initially comprised of members Armando Ramos (guitars, vocals), Martín López (tuba), and Augusto Guído (drums)––quickly found its niche within the growing popularity of romantic banda ballads in Mexico and beyond. Calibre 50 are as likely to soundtrack a whisky-fueled romper as a balmy, romantic date night.
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