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The Return of Raul Malo and The Mavericks

It’s not that Raul Malo didn’t have plenty of chances to reunite The Mavericks during the band’s seven-year hiatus, but something always held him back.

There were no problems among the members. It just had reached a point where it felt, to Malo anyway, that it had run out of steam. And he said The Mavericks’ meant too much to him to just drain it dry creatively.

But Malo had the chance to breathe new life into the group a few years ago. Even though Malo established a solid solo career during The Mavericks’ hiatus, it didn’t take much to get his alt-country groove back. On January 29, the Grammy Award winning Mavericks will release its 14-track album “In Time,” its first album in seven years.

Although Malo’s rich vocals still lead the sound, don’t listen for the Latin-inspired edge to the music he brought to his solo work. The songs on the new album, released in conjunction with its 20th anniversary, is a mix of Buck Owens- and Roy Orbison-styled country mixed with soul, hints of rock, and more.

Malo took time out of his recent solo tour to talk about The Mavericks, inspiration and just where he sees the band going for here:

I was surprised you did your solo Christmas tour this year, considering all you have going on with The Mavericks.

RM: I don’t know when I’m going to be able to do one of these again. We had a little window. Our drummer, Paul Deakin, had a little skateboarding accident and busted his elbow, so we weren’t going to work in December anyway. He is fine though. He’s recovered. He’s all good. So it worked out and I was able to do the tour and get home for Christmas and then kick it off with The Mavericks for the New Year.

Were you playing the new Mavericks’ songs on the holiday tour?

RM: No. The Mavericks have been playing the new songs. I want people to hear them like that. I [wanted the Christmas tour] to be a completely different thing. Otherwise, what’s the point? You have got to play what sounds good for the night. And The Mavericks stuff, I want people to hear the music how it’s been recorded, how it’s been presented. I want them to hear that first. Then we can do the acoustic versions and the all the different varieties.

When we spoke a while back, you said that you were writing songs and just realized they sounded like The Mavericks. You said there was really no catalyst. Now that you’ve lived with these for a while, do you still feel that way?

RM: It’s funny, my buddy Seth Walker had a song, it was almost two years ago, he had a song he had started writing he wanted me to hear it because he wanted me to help him finish it. And I was like yeah, sure. We always do that. If I hear something that I think he would totally tap into and get we are like, ‘Yeah, let’s get together. ‘He had this little piece of music and a lyric and title and some of the form and he played it for me and I flipped out. I was like ‘Oh, gosh.’ This was before there was any talk of any Mavericks.

And the first thing I thought was, ‘This sounds like a Mavericks’ song.’ So I kept it there. We recorded it; we made a little demo of it.

What is the song?

RM: ‘Back In Your Arms Again.’ I tried to make it as un-Mavericks as possible. Not for any reason. I just thought ‘Why am I thinking this?’ Just to test it and see where it would go, because you never know where something is going to go. That was the start of it, at least, on the creative side. There was a song that sounded like there could be a Mavericks’ song. I guess that was the catalyst or it started the creative side and go me thinking ‘Maybe there are more Mavericks songs to come.’ This was even before there were thoughts of any sort of Mavericks’ gigs or anything.

So it really came together almost as happenstance.

RM: I think it just hit at the right time. That’s what is so strange about it. That is why after a while I thought ‘I’m not going to fight this. There is a natural force working here that I am going to recognize, and I’m going to step out of its way and just ride this wave.’ It was coming at me from everywhere. And it was really hard to pinpoint one specific thing as far as the business of putting it back together. So many things just started to come together.