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La Ley perform April 23 at the Greek Theatre.

After a voluntary retirement of 10 years, legendary rock band La Ley returns to the stage. With a clear evolution, they launched their new album, Adaptación, and commenced their Adaptación Tour with more than thirty shows across the United States.

La Ley is synonymous with rock, and they are already part of the history of Spanish rock. Although Beto Cuevas, the lead singer of the group doesn’t like to be recognized as such, the truth is that their followers do so classify them. Displaying simplicity, Living Out Loud – Los Angeles had the chance to speak with La Ley, and Cuevas says the following in respect to the topic: “Because of everything I’ve learned through my experience with La Ley, I was able to continue my career as a solo artist and continue to make music. That force and presence converts you, and brings you into people’s lives. But from there, feeling like an icon … those are attributes and titles that the people and the media give you. I don’t know too much about that, it would be very pretentious of me to feel like an icon, but I do know, without a doubt, that I have my place in this Latin rock music thing. I feel very proud about everything, considering, because I never thought that I was going to dedicate myself to this. It wasn’t until I joined La Ley that I knew this was going to be my career.”

It is known that many bands, regardless of the musical genre, retire or break up for many reasons: egos, envy or monetary issues. But why did La Ley retire when they were on the cusp of fame in the rock world?

“What happened was that we decided to take a break because the first 15 years of our career were the hardest. It’s when you have to lift the group, travel a lot, internationalize it, do many interviews, and all of that in one way or another has a heavy weight on you, which exhausts you. We definitely started to feel that things were not flowing like we would have liked. In the end, that was how we decided to take a break,” replies drummer Mauricio Claveria. “We never thought about a definitive break up, I think it was more of giving ourselves some time, and I think it served us well because we were able to do what we wanted to do when we were in La Ley. It’s a group that really absorbs you. We each had our very own experiences, and today that’s how we get to the album title, Adaptación.”

However, two years ago they decided to get back together for performances, which were very welcomed by the public. Loyal followers showed they hadn’t forgotten them.

“The fans, through social media, have always kept their eyes on us fortunately. We decided to take a break for 10 years and came back in 2014,” remarks Cuevas. “In the course of the reunion tour, the idea and the desire to make new music came about. We started with this process of composing, in which 34 songs came about, and 12 were recorded on the album, and two bonus ones for a total of fourteen recorded songs. I definitely think that releasing a new album in 2016 is something that makes us musically current and relevant.”

The new album Adaptación is without a doubt a great gift to La Ley fans. It was preceded by 19 concerts that took place in their home country of Chile. It is already on sale in Mexico and will be accompanied by a tour with more than thirty dates in the U.S., which will happen throughout the summer and then continue in Latin America.

“We had the opportunity of creating a new show with the songs that are part of this album. Not all of the [songs] because we’re a little distinct in that sense,” offers Cuevas. “We have always been critical about that. Every time we go see a band that has a new album, they leave little space for the memories, and we know perfectly as the audience and as artists, that the people want to hear certain songs from the past, too. We try to balance it out so that the show is entertaining, and in between all of those hits, we add the new songs we did in this tour. I think this year we are going to play more than 100 times because our agenda is full, and that is the best thing for us.”

Adaptación is a studio album with a clear evolution of La Ley, who sought to adapt to the changes in the industry and give the music an update, without losing the essence that characterizes them.

“The first single is ‘Ya no estás,’ a song that has a rhythm that is much more dance than what we’ve made before, but without losing our rock aspect. It’s an album with much variety. I can’t say that it is the song that represents the musicality of the album. There are some that are more rock, others are more intimate – it’s a great journey,” says Cuevas. “They’re not super long songs, and that’s nice because its an album that you can listen to in less than 50 minutes. Nowadays, we live in a world where albums don’t exist, and artists only release singles, song by song. This is an experience you can enjoy from beginning to end.”

Adaptación is currently available. La Ley perform April 23 at the Greek Theatre. For more information, visit laleysite.com.

Karen Cruz contributed to this story.

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