Argentina’s Bandalos Chinos on Their Steady Global Rise: “We’re Building a Story, a Career, a Discography”

“So, many younger bands in Argentina and Latin America now look to Bandalos Chinos as an example. How does that make you feel?” Goyo Degano pauses for a few seconds, then smiles and answers with a single word “Old.” The truth of the matter is that Bandalos Chinos, the band Degano leads with his unmistakable voice, sit in a sort of time paradox: formed in 2009, they seem to have always been part of Argentina’s indie scene. Yet somehow they still feel like a band on the rise. That conundrum is largely by design. “We’re not chasing the kind of exponential growth that defines the times we’re living in,” Degano tells Consequence. “We’re thinking about building a story, a career, a discography.” The interview takes place as the band kicks off the North American leg of their Vandalos tour which has taken them to places they’d never played before such as Denmark, Bolivia and even the prestigious Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. The fact that we’re talking about the band’s international expansion a day after their first show in Mexico, the country where they experienced fandom outside of Argentina, isn’t lost on either of us. “Before we came here I’d never experienced doing a soundche...