Cuco and MRCY Follow the Winding Road of Soul

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With his latest album, Ridin’, Los Angeles singer-songwriter and producer Cuco (Omar Banos) dove headfirst into a lush, analog-leaning take on soul, drawing from the Lowrider culture and Chicano sounds that shaped his youth. Across the Atlantic, UK duo MRCY (producer Barney Lister and vocalist Kojo Degraft-Johnson) have been making their own mark on the genre, infusing classic American soul influences with their distinct, modern sensibilities. Fresh off a busy summer festival run and the release of VOLUME 2, they’ve been winning crowds across Europe with their warm, groove-heavy live sets.

Paste brought Cuco and MRCY together to explore where their visions of the genre overlap. The conversation wound its way from their earliest encounters with soul music to the cross-cultural ways it has traveled. They compared the musical subcultures that shaped their respective hometowns, swapped stories about formative teachers, and even detoured into mariachi history before circling back to the shared goal that drives their work: making soulful music that moves people and fosters connection. The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

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Paste Magazine: I feel like you’re operating in similar spaces within the present soul landscape, in your own different, even very location-focused ways. I’m curious to hear about the different ways you’ve all been exploring soul music, the things that you’ve been inspired by.

Cuco: I’m from LA. I feel like soul was really present. A lot of it came from the lowrider culture, a lot of the Chicanos setting up ‘64 Impalas and El Caminos. Throughout LA, and just in my youth, soul music was always there. And the whole revival with soul music over the last couple of years with The Sinseers and Thee Sacred Souls. Obviously Amy Winehouse, I think, played a big part. She worked with some of the people that I worked with [on Ridin’]. Just seeing how they work, I was like, “Damn, these people are really about the tape machines and the old gear, and just kind of keeping it super true to the sound.” I’ve worked digitally my whole life, and once I decided to make the soul record, I was just like, “Dude, if I’m going to do it, I just want to go full-blown into tracking on these real old school tape machines and doing takes after takes after takes.” I think it’s been having a revival, but it doesn’t feel like it’s outdated because I feel like the music is so timeless, if that makes sense.

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Barney Lister: I went and saw Durand Jones play in LA, and the show was full of Lowriders. It was so cool. I wasn’t expecting that.

Cuco: Yeah, dude. Durand Jones & The Indications man. Aaron Frazer, bro. He’s a nice singer.

Kojo Degraft-Johnson: They’re cold.

BL: Great voice. I guess we were kind of referencing some of that American culture when we started talking about making soul music as a duo, and listening to a lot of old American records. Getting that feeling from films where a classic tune would come on and it’d feel so sort of G’d up, but it’d be like a love song, but it would just feel so heavy. That was the feeling that hooked me back in the day.

KDJ: I think, when we were first making VOLUME 1, Barney had spoken to me about how records had come over to the UK on a boat, essentially. I dunno if it was records that were tossed out or just spare, or I can’t remember exactly what it was. But I just find it so cool that soul music can translate. I feel like in the last couple of years, I’ve gotten even more of an understanding of some of the cool soulful-sounding love songs, and it made me think about what drew me to those songs before I had a full understanding. Obviously, I think it ties into what we’ve spoken about with regards to what we try to put into our music, and it’s just to help people and ourselves feel something. I think that’s what good music is, and I think that’s what soul music is. I suppose we’re just trying to put out our own version of good soulful music that makes people feel something.

BL: Did you know about the boats, bro? In the UK?

Cuco: I didn’t.

BL: Soul music came to the UK because it was ballast in the boat. So it was coal coming over from the US, and they needed someone to level the ship out, so all these unsold records, B-sides, were put on the boat to balance it so that it could go in the water. And then when it got over to the UK, all the records had come off the boat, and they’d get distributed across the north UK, and all these kids danced to the records. And that’s how Northern Soul music happened, which is insane. [Editor’s Note: Northern Soul as a genre was inspired by American Motown music. Some say the boat narrative is an urban myth.]

Cuco:: That’s crazy. I had no idea. That’s fucking cool.

KDJ: Imagine if it were a different sound of music. Imagine if it were, I don’t know, Western European folk music, or I dunno, something even more obscure. I’m trying to think. I don’t know. Didgeridoo music or something?

Cuco: A bunch of Louis Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie records.

KDJ: Oh, that’d be cold, I’d take that. I’m sure some of that came over as well, though. I’m sure a bunch of jazz music from the ‘50s and ‘60s. I’m sure some of that was in there as well. What time period was this again, Barney?

BL: This was like the ‘70s.

Cuco: You guys get some old Mariachi music, and you just have northern UK mariachi.

KDJ: That would be insane. I don’t think we have anything like that.

Cuco: Yugoslavians had their own mariachi music because, I forgot exactly why, but they had some channels that were just playing a bunch of Mexican movies and they got obsessed with the mariachi music, so if you look it up, there’s Yugoslavian Mariachi music that’s pretty much mariachi music, but it’s just in that language. [Editor’s Note: Yu-Mex was a popular style of music in Yugoslavia in the ‘50s and ‘60s. Yugoslav president Josip Broz Tito imported Mexican films in the post-war split from the Soviet Union.]

BL: That’s amazing.

KDJ: I love that. So what exactly do you need in a mariachi band? Because if I’m imagining a mariachi band, I’m picturing that huge guitar, and then you’ve got a regular-sized guitar. It’s usually three regular guitars, and then you’ve just got that really fat one. There’s always a really fat guitar when someone’s playing.

Cuco: Yeah, that’s the guitarrone, which has five strings, and it’s just a big bass guitar. Then you also have a tiny guitar, which is tuned almost the same as a ukulele. It’s called a vihuela, and so you have the big one, the tiny one, and you have maybe two or three normal guitars and some trumpets.

BL: Yeah, the trumpets are amazing.

KDJ: I need to catch some mariachi.

Cuco: We played with a mariachi band last year at the Greek [Theater in Los Angeles]. I played three songs with the mariachi band at the show. I used to be in a mariachi band when I was in middle school.

KDJ: What was your role? Were you just singing?

Cuco: Just the guitar, normal guitar.

KDJ: I’m sure you’ve got some old photos you could dig out.

Cuco: Oh, yeah. I stayed in touch with some of my friends from mariachi, and they’ve sent me some of these photos, and I look funny, man.

KDJ: No, I’m sure you look fly. Those uniforms are always like, man, I feel like they’re clean. It’s always like some sort of pattern going down.

Cuco: Yeah, we had all that. It was cool. The school was kind of in the hood, but we were lucky enough that we had that. They gave us resources to have a mariachi band. They had a steel drum class, they had a violin class, and it was all taught by the same teacher. He’s the sickest guy ever. I’m still in touch with him. He was like, man, he really changed my whole life course.

BL: That’s so cool, bro. There’s always one teacher. Everybody’s got one teacher who’s the reason that something good happens.

Cuco: Yeah, exactly, bro. Always that one teacher who kind of plays out the mentor, you know what I mean?

BL: We had a guy who was like an ex-boxing journalist; he was just a cool guy. He got it, you know what I mean? He taught English, wasn’t even into it, but he was just so inspiring to be around. It made you want to do things. He was that guy. He was sick. I miss that dude.

Cuco: My history teacher was a guy named Mr. Eddie, who was a very present figure for many of us, and he helped a lot of people get on the right track. I actually got food with him maybe two weeks ago, and just talked about work, how to help out the community, and stay involved with the people. I’m doing events, just giving away skateboards and shit like that, just for the little homies at the skate park. It’s cool to see everybody do active things and have the right people who have guided me in the past. But my music teacher, man, he set me up for life. There was a little room on the side of the music room that had the little Line 6, I dunno if it was a POD or something like that. It had the electric drums, and he had the mixer. I started getting the basics of the drums, the bass, the guitar, keys, and that was my little safe haven sometimes, whenever it wasn’t being used.

BL: Yeah, my hideaway in the music room. That’s the way to be. That’s what I was like at school. Are you making more records, bro? Are you touring at the minute? Where are you at?

Cuco: Right now? Yeah, we’re still making more records, finished up a few more, probably planning on putting out stuff for maybe the deluxe record. I feel like I’m always trying to plan out what the next albums are going to be, but yeah. We tour September, October, and we have just been announced for a festival in Mexico for November. What about you guys?

KDJ: We’ve paused writing, but we’re going to get back to it, I think, towards the autumn time, and we’ve got a European run of shows in November. I don’t think either of us have any personal deadlines for this music, but we might have some deadlines bestowed on us eventually. I think with the recent record that we put out [VOLUME 2], we had to get a bit of a shift on, and credit to you, Barney, for pretty much living in that studio at that time. That was, I would say, around December time last year, but we got it done and we’re really happy with it and so yeah, we’re going to get back to it probably in the next few months or so. Really looking forward to that European tour in November. We get a lot of love in Europe, so it’s nice to play in front of some of the people who have been spinning our tunes the past year or so.

Cuco: Yeah, no, that’s what makes everything go around for us, man. People who support us.

KDJ: Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

BL: Especially with the type of music we’re making, it’s really getting that direct connection with people and seeing people enjoying the music because sometimes you’re making tunes, you’re putting ’em out. You don’t feel that connection with the music and the way you do when you play it live. It’s a really unique experience. Being able to do that has been amazing. That’s been the highlight of the year for me.

Cuco: Hell yeah. That’s amazing, bro.

BL: You coming over to Europe anytime soon?

Cuco: I was literally about to say I want to make my way out to the UK soon, man. Just to come by and hang, man. We’re playing in February in Europe, but I just want to go back to London, man, just to kick it.

BL: Yeah, come back, bro. We should all make some tunes.

Cuco and MRCY Follow the Winding Road of Soul

In Conversation: The Los Angeles artist and UK duo trace their own distinct paths to soul music and explore the shared mission to make music grounded in connection.

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