EMPANADAS ILEGALES BAND BIO EPK: Las Empanadas Ilegales, a Vancouver-based Psychedelic Cumbia and Salsa band, has been captivating audiences since 2017 with their contagious and groovy melodies and powerful percussive rhythms. This seven-piece ensemble, composed of diverse musicians hailing from various Latin American homelands, blends cumbia rhythms, hypnotic guitar melodies, and experimental salsa saxophone lines with surf-rock/free-jazz fusion. Their latest record, “Creepy Mambo,” pays homage to Cumbia cult classics while infusing contemporary, experimental synth sounds, slinky dub grooves, and feverish percussion departures. Alternative: Embrace the vibrant rhythms and eclectic melodies of Vancouver-based Psychedelic Cumbia and Salsa ensemble, Empanadas Ilegales. Drawing inspiration from traditional Amazonian, Latin-Caribbean, and Andean psychedelic classics, Empanadas Ilegales transports audiences to a world of contagious grooves and altered sonic landscapes. With their latest record, “Creepy Mambo,” the band delves deep into the heart of cumbia culture, paying homage to cult classics while infusing their music with experimental synthesizer sounds, slinky dub grooves, and feverish percussion excursions. Empanadas Ilegales creates expansive compositions that combine spellbinding guitar solos, surf riffs, and raucous saxophones, all punctuated by irresistibly danceable rhythms. Band description from Calgary Folk Fest: Imagine if you will a band so bizarre they sound like The Surfaris swallowed some mushrooms, loaded a party into a dinghy and headed south – way south – arriving in the land of swingin’ Latin dance sounds on Day of the Dead. Empanadas Ilegales create playful songs that put a smile on your lips and hips even as their music is infused with occasional eerie touches of ghostly guitar and discordant horns. The band was fated to be, for the future members kept running into each other at house party jams where they found themselves drawn to each other over and over. Before coalescing in Vancouver, the musicians traced their roots to Spain, Argentina, Brazil, Columbia, Peru and Ecuador, meaning their leanings towards layering jazzy textures and sounds punctuated by psychedelic surf over chicha and salsa come naturally, just as finding yourself drawn to the dance floor to swing along comes naturally, too. Biography by Mary-Lynn Wardle