October 28, 2019 | UHCL Staff
About 20 years ago, Rick Del Castillo and his brother Mark collaborated on a musical project that was intended only to be a Christmas gift for their parents. Rick’s friend invited them to play the music at his company’s holiday party, and what was supposed to be a “one night only” event turned into a career spanning two decades. The group, Del Castillo, now six members strong, will be performing their original blends of Latin, blues and rock at University of Houston-Clear Lake’s Bayou Theater Thursday, Nov. 14 at 7:30 p.m.
Currently promoting their new singles, “Love” and “All Around You,” Del Castillo said that he particularly likes performing in theaters. “I always look forward to playing in theaters because I think they’re more elegant,” he said. “We have those two single releases right now. We lean more toward single releases and then we do an album of those singles. And ‘All Around You’ was mixed by the someone who has also mixed for David Bowie, Pearl Jam and Robert Plant, among others.” Their music, said Del Castillo, is about energy and fun. “Something we really need more in this world is positive energy,” he said. “That’s what our band is about."
He explained that since he was eight years older than his brother Mark, he was already out of the family’s house and touring with his own band in the 1980s and ’90s. “We didn’t hang out much together because I was 18 and he was only 10,” he said. “A few years later, after we recorded the music to give as a gift to our parents, a guitar student of mine asked if we would perform at his law office’s Christmas party. We put a band together just to play that one show, for that one night. The irony is, we never had any intention of putting a band together.”
Thousands of shows and two decades later, Del Castillo has performed with Los Lobos and Willie Nelson, and movie director Quentin Tarantino chose one of their songs for the soundtrack of “Kill Bill Vol. 2.”
“I was always out trying to ‘make it’ in the ’80s, and when I just put it aside to work with my brother for something for my family, look what happened,” he said. “It turned into my entire career. We have traveled the country and all over Europe, but now we all have families, so we try to stay local.
“People say they’re exhausted after our show, because we have so much energy,” he said. “We know our audience will leave our show with a big smile.”
Purchase tickets to events at the Bayou Theater online.
