Brownsville band hopes to continue performing for years to come
Cannon the Dealers, a Brownsville band that started by playing at parties, just came off its first statewide tour with plans for bigger shows, more original music and hopes for the experience to never end.
The band started in 2016 and consists of Nicholas Tamayo, on vocals; Tony Olivarez, bass; Luis Segura, drums; Juan Carlos Cervantes, lead guitar; and Jesus Galindo, second guitar.
Cannon the Dealers started the “Whatever Forever” tour July 8 at the Kraken Lounge in downtown Brownsville.
Asked how it felt to kick off the tour in their hometown, Olivarez replied, “I think we really wanted that because … it’s, basically, like your friends in the town saying, ‘Have a safe trip’ and sending us off.”
Cannon the Dealers went on to perform in Harlingen, two nights each in San Antonio, Austin and Laredo within a span of eight days.
The band’s favorite tour performance was July 15 at Sureño House in San Antonio due to the rowdiness of it and how small the event space was.
“It was so much fun,” Olivarez said, “especially in San Antonio at Sureño House. … I liked the fact that everybody was so close, like, physically. There was people moving around and pushing each other and it was just crazy.”
Tamayo, being the singer and front man for the band, said he does a variety of things to pump up the crowd, from crowd surfing and salsa dancing to rolling on the stage.
“In San Antonio [at Sureño House], I jumped into the crowd to get them rowdy,” he said. “There was a lot of tiny girls there, so I felt kind of bad … in a room with just a bunch of dudes that started moshing. So, I was like, ‘I regret this, but I love the energy.’”
Tamayo, who joined the band in 2018, said at one point during the tour he felt impostor syndrome.
“It was like, ‘Are we really the band that’s actually doing this and do we have that type of talent?’” he said. “But I think that was more insecurity coming out. And then, I was like, ‘You know what, no. We definitely are.’”
Starting out like most rock bands in small towns by performing at house parties and garages, Olivarez said Cannon the Dealers did not get serious about its image, music and organization until 2020.
“They weren’t even coming for the music,” Tamayo said. “They just came because they were parties. We would do half cover songs and half original songs.”
The band went through three singers before Tamayo, who was hesitant to invite people to shows at first because they were thrown together last minute and “were a bit rowdy.”
“It wasn’t a dangerous environment,” he said. “It’s just, could a fight happen at a given moment that wasn’t our fault? Probably.”
Getting serious and starting with a clean slate in 2020, the band designed an official logo, organized its social media, created new songs and even recorded them, which it had never done before.
Asked how they felt the community and their friends responded to the band getting serious in 2020, Olivarez replied, “It was shocking to them. At first, all of our friends were making fun of us. Whenever we released a song, everyone was like, “Oh, wow. You guys actually released?’”
Tamayo added, “It was cool to see them react to the artwork and the logo, though. It was like, ‘Oh, wow. You guys are a ‘band band.’ You’re not just playing at parties.’ … And the response was good, especially with the song ‘Outta’ Here.’ That was off our first EP.”
Having two EPs, “Whatever Forever” and “Too Soon to Tell,” Olivarez said he would describe their music as alternative rock with their own unique “Cannon” sound.
Influenced by different types of music, Tamayo said he is usually the songwriter for the band and will bring lyrics, and the band works together for the finished product.
“You bring in songs that are already 60-ish percent done and we just figure the rest of the parts from there, which isn’t to say that the other 40% isn’t a struggle to figure out,” Tamayo said. “… It’s a lot of give and take.”
From playing shows at house parties to struggling to become a serious band, Tamayo said when he was experiencing impostor syndrome on tour he thought back at the band’s journey and said, “No, we have earned this. And we did earn our stripes from playing at empty places … having no records, putting in the work, and I was like, ‘There’s no impostor syndrome. We worked for this and it’s paying off.’”
Gaining many experiences and memories from the tour, some big takeaways were striving to play better, learning how other bands operate and releasing more music.
“As soon as the tour was over, I was like, ‘I really got to practice and we really got to do more stuff, release more music and get the ball rolling,’” Olivarez said.
He said communication skills are another aspect he has to work on as he did not know how to take compliments from audience members.
Asked what the next step is for Cannon the Dealers after the tour, Tamayo replied, “I think it’s time to go back to the drawing board and to work on more music and just to keep it going.”
Knowing there will never be a perfect song or a perfect show, he said there will always be something missing and the band will always try to fill in those gaps.
Currently in the process of writing new material and recording it, Tamayo guaranteed a single by the end of the year and possibly a new EP by February.
Asked what the end goal for Cannon the Dealers is, Olivarez replied, “I don’t want it to end. I want it to go on forever. There is no end goal. I think it’s just the bigger the better.”
Tamayo added, “And just taking advantage of the youth that we still have. I feel like this band is one of those things that it’s never going to officially stop. I feel like in our 50s, there’s still going to be a Cannon the Dealers show.”
Cannon the Dealers
What: EPs “Whatever Forever,” “Too Soon to Tell”
Where: Spotify and Apple Music
Contact: @officialcannonthedealers
