Vallejo

A striking blend of modern rock grooves, potent guitar work, Latin percussion and soulful lyrics has made VALLEJO one of the most popular bands to hail from Austin, Texas. Their music immediately hooks listeners right in, taking them on a roller-coaster ride of musical beats and expressions.

Raised in the small town of El Campo, Texas, the band was first formed by the three Vallejo brothers A.J. (Vocals, Guitar), Alejandro (Drums), and Omar (Bass). Growing up in their household of Mexican and Guatemalan descent, the boys were introduced to the music of their parent’s record collection which included the Latin sounds of Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass, Tito Puente, and Santana, to name a few. Alejandro recalls, “Our parents bought us three trumpets when we were fourteen and we pretty much learned the basics of music by playing in the symphonic, jazz and marching bands at our high school. Around that time we also started listening to all of the rock bands our friends were listening to and taught ourselves to play guitar, bass & drums so we could start a rock band. We’d play classic rock covers at all of the high school backyard parties and the few clubs here and there that would let us play because we weren’t 21 yet.”

“Our band name came easy since all of our friends would tell each other, ‘Let’s go see the Vallejos, or the Vallejo Brothers.’ No matter how hard we tried to come up with other band names, our friend’s flyers and posters would say The Vallejos, so we just went with it and decided to call the band VALLEJO.”

“A year into starting the band, we took a crack at writing and recording our own originals and wanted to come up with something different than the grunge and modern rock sound that was popular on the airwaves at the time. So we took the Latin sounds we grew up with and mixed it with the rock and funk bands like Aerosmith and James Brown we were listening to, and came up with a formula of our own that was a melting pot of all of the music we liked.”

“After graduating high school, we decided to bypass college and make a professional living out of playing music by moving to Austin, Texas, the 'Live Music Capital of the World'. In Austin, we decided to add two more members to the group to beef up the Latin rock sound we were going for, so we added a conga player and an additional guitar player named Heath Clark. For the next few years we honed our sound in Austin’s rich music scene and toured extensively throughout the United States and Mexico with bands like Fuel, Stone Temple Pilots, 3 Doors Down, Juanes, Molotov, The Foo Fighters, Matchbox 20, Los Lonely Boys, Blues Traveler, Jimmie Vaughan, and Los Lobos."

Since then, the band has gone on to win numerous awards including "Best Rock Band" two years in a row at the Austin Music Awards, Austin’s Aguila Award (which recognizes achievement in the Latin Community), awarded their own "Vallejo Day" by the mayor of Austin, Texas, and was nominated for Univision’s “Best Latin Rock Band in Austin”. Vallejo has also had their songs featured in several TV shows such as WB’s Roswell, MTV’s Road Rules and UPN’s America’s Next Top Model.

"With all of the sampling and lip-synching going on nowadays, we’re glad to say that we’re a real band that plays real instruments and writes our own material all for the sake of keeping real music alive. On stage, we try to have a good time and converse musically, because when the audience picks up on it, it’s a centrifugal force of positive energy that benefits everyone involved," comments Alejandro. "We're out to have a good time," says A.J. "We want to play music that makes our fans want to get up and be alive."