We had the great pleasure of sitting down with Yeshi Regalado this month, the lead singer, rhythm guitarist, manager, and songwriter of the multifaceted midwestern surf punk band La Rosa Noir. We chatted about how the Chicago scene has evolved post-pandemic, what it means to be a woman in a rock band, and the importance of building community spaces where everyone feels like they are represented.

La Rosa Noir got their start in 2016. Yeshi had been playing music and posting videos of her doing so online for a while, and Jannese Espino–the current lead guitarist of the band–reached out to her to jam after hearing her Johnny Cash covers. Born out of a mutual love for Johnny Cash and old country, the two began to get together and jam. For his 21st birthday, Jannese asked Yeshi if they could perform “Ring of Fire” at his birthday party.

“Practicing that song with Jannese was my first band practice, really,” Yeshi says, laughing. “I didn’t even realize it was our first band practice at the time! I had never practiced music with someone else to that point, and it went great.”

Soon, the band’s previous drummer reached out to Yeshi after she posted a video of her playing the song “Red Motorcycle,” which would later appear on their album released last year, Arellano. “I had a bunch of songs already written,” Yeshi tells us. “I just needed instrumentalists. The three of us got together and began jamming and found our groove immediately. I look back on it now and think about what a miracle it was that we had such great band chemistry. Soon, Jannese brought in Kevin Martinez, our current bassist. Overtime, life stuff happens, members come and go, so now we have a new drummer, Christian Ovalle, and our trumpet player who goes by SadBxii.

La Rosa Noir is often characterized by their unique sound, which draws elements of country, metal, punk, surf, and utilizes latin rhythms throughout. The question of “what music has influenced your own?” is never an easy one, but for a band with such a wide range of sound, it can be even more challenging to pin down. 

“There’s so many inspirations!” Yeshi says when asked. “What started the band was Johnny Cash and Jannese and I’s bonding moment over that. We both love old country, like Hank Williams and Patsy Cline. Jannese and Kevin are both skilled in Americana and bluegrass, I also love those genres as well. Besides that, we all love rock and roll. Whether it's punk, or post punk, or new wave, or metal. 

“The surf element came from our previous drummer Dave,” Yeshi continues. “He was super charged by the, like, the Dick Dale surf beat drums, which was a lot of fun to play and Jannese was great at playing to him. I also love surf punk, La Luz has been a huge inspiration to me. When I first started listening to them, I was immediately amazed.” 80’s post-punk has also been a huge influence, as well as bands like Black Sabbath, KISS, and Metallica all having their impact on the band members too.

When it comes to songwriting, the band is supportive of the creative endeavors of each member, with songs being brought to practice by different members all the time. “Half of the first album were songs I already wrote,” Yeshi says. “I let the guys do whatever they please, of course. However, we collaborate a lot. Jannese wrote the melody for ‘Chicano Stomp,’ and ‘I’d Take You’ was written by our bassist Kevin. Historically speaking, one of us brings a song and I sing over it.”

Yeshi in the Raging Opossum Press HQ Garden. Photo Credits: Sam Tucker

Yeshi’s lyricism plays a major factor in people’s love for La Rosa Noir. With poetic lyrics that paint scenes of Chicago, listeners are transported to the world that she writes about, exploring cities and situations through Yeshi’s eyes. However, there has been an evolution with her writing as time has gone on. “My song writing process has changed,” Yeshi says. “If someone was to ask me this question–how I write lyrics–five years ago, I would say that that way I write lyrics is by walking around and taking the train everyday because that was my life then. I was a college student with no car, taking the train everyday and always writing in my phone. Now I'm older, I have a car, I have responsibilities, my life is way busier now. So, when it comes to new songs–lyrically–I have this mastersheet in my notes section titled ‘Words I Like’ that I plop words and phrases I find in there. I believe a lot in signs and omens and, as a songwriter, they seem to follow me everywhere-or maybe I just notice them more because I’m a songwriter. It happens often where I find a book cover, or movie title, or a phrase in the description of a book and if I can find something I can relate to I write it down and maybe tweak it to make it more relatable to me. Like finding words and then building the house of lyrics around these literary or language moments.”

Yeshi in front of a mural painted on a garage door in Avondale, Chicago. Photo credits: Sam Tucker

Arellano was made by some songs the band had previously recorded, some remastered works, and some new pieces all together. It truly exists as a compilation of all the hard work each band member has put in over the years, encapsulating more than an eight year span of songwriting from Yeshi’s days of posting songs online and the band’s SoundCloud, to where they are now. Yeshi seems almost embarrassed when their old SoundCloud is brought up, but continues; “I leave it up there just to remind people that you don’t start out with a perfectly mastered album. We all start somewhere.”

Arellano was recorded by Alex Gonzales, and it was all done in his house. “We didn’t have to go to this fancy-schmancy studio and pay like $1,000 bucks per song to do it,” Yeshi says. “It was our friend who did it. Of course we still paid, but it was much more of a personal experience. I don’t regret it at all, and we plan to keep recording with him.”

The album has new songs and old, and many remastered, but the most notable change is to their song “Gods,” now titled “New Gods.” “Gods” was once a slow indie song borrowing many traditional country chord progressions, but it has now become a fast paced surf punk song representative of the rest of the album.“It got to the point where we kind of hated the song,” Yeshi said when asked about the change. “We would have shows where people would be like ‘Why didn’t you play Gods?’ and we’d say ‘because we didn’t have time’ but really we just fucking hated the song at that point. I mean, ‘Gods’ and ‘Red Motorcycle’ started the band, so I had already been playing both of those songs since I was seventeen and now I’m twenty-seven, ten years of playing those songs! I was just exhausted with the song, and the rhythm and melody stay the same. It gets exhausting for the guys, especially the drummer just playing the same beat.” Christian Ovalle, the current drummer, was able to help speed up the song and bring new energy. 

Yeshi laughs as recounting to the Raging Opossum team stories of recording their most recent album. Photo credits: Sam Tucker

“I just wanted it to be edgier,” Yeshi says. “And we wanted to clean up our total sound more. Our first EP sounds a little confusing, you can’t really tell what we’re trying to sound like. Like, are we trying to do surf, or post-punk, or country? You could tell we were new and experimenting. Christian really helped by just suggesting a different drum beat for ‘New Gods’ and now it has that indie punk sound that makes more sense to us.”

Yeshi has been a musician for many years, but what makes someone decide to go to music out of all creative disciplines? It is one thing to be a creative, but another thing entirely being a musician. I asked Yeshi what made her go into music specifically. “This is always a fun, super layered question,” she says. “I’m the only child, and daughter, of two deaf people. My parents were born deaf, so being an only child my first language was sign language. I didn’t learn to speak till I was seven.” Yeshi went to speech therapy to help her speak, as well as got help from her Mamacita, who the album is named after. “Mamacita was our version of calling her grandmother,” Yeshi explains. “Which, technically, if you translate it directly means ‘hot mama,’ which I didn’t know till I was a teeanger! I was like ‘I’ve been calling my grandmother hot mama??’”

While Yeshi may have been the only child of her parents, she was born into a huge family and was the first grandkid. “In a Mexican family,” Yeshi explains. “That’s a lot of pressure. A lot of certain feminine expectations were put on me-one of those was being a good Catholic girl. My grandma would take me to church every Sunday and I would have to go, and no kid likes being in church, so she would get me to come by encouraging me to sing with her. I remember the first moment when we were singing and our voices just, like, melted together. It just did something to me then, and it does something to me now. I come from a very musical family, and my grandmother would always encourage me to sing with her.

“My first CD was Madonna,” Yeshi continues. “My dad had a lot of CDs and I would just look through them and I saw the cover of Like A Virgin by Madonna and I was, like, six or seven thinking ‘Whoa, there’s this half naked lady in some sexy clothes!’ And I immediately took it up to my Hello Kitty radio, put it in there, and Material Girl was on there. Something about her voice and the music was-” Yeshi motions to mind blowing “-I could feel her energy and I was like ‘I don’t know what this is, but I like it and I want to embody it.’

Yeshi, Avondale, Chicago. Photo credits: Sam Tucker

After Madonna, when I was a preteen, my godfather was a huge metal head who was heavily into Metallica. As my godfather, he would give me lots of gifts and one was a tape with “Master of Puppets’ on it. He said, ‘Go home and listen to this. Your parents can’t hear, you can blast it and be fine!’ I was like ‘Okay’ and did that and just the vocals, the guitar, the drums, I was blown away. That’s when I discovered my love for rock and roll.”

A lot of the pop music coming out at that time in the 2000s and 2010s, Yeshi didn’t enjoy. Instead, she was always drawn to heavy guitar and the noise of rock and roll. A year after discovering Metallica, Yeshi discovered Joan Jett and, as she put it; “It was game over at that point. I was like; ‘This is who I want to be. This is my role model.’ I cut my hair short, bought my first leather jacket, cut my shirts. I was just obsessed with her. I got my first guitar at eleven, and from eleven thirteen I started finding myself creatively. I got the guitar and was like ‘Now I can finally be Joan Jett!’”

Now, at twenty-seven, Yeshi is really like Joan Jett as she plays to crowds of screaming fans and creates cutting edge music you can hear blasting from car radios. The transformation from being someone who appreciates rock music to someone who actually lives it is not one to be understated. When asked how it feels to be walking this path now, the excitement is visible from Yeshi. “It feels amazing,” she says. “I think of younger me often, and it feels awesome and crazy. I still can’t believe I’m doing what I’m doing…it’s fucking nuts to me! I don’t even understand how something I am a part of creating could affect people in such a unique way, that’s beautiful. All I’ve ever wanted to do was make something that made people feel something.”

La Rosa Noir has gone from playing shows where the crowds were friends and family to now playing sold out shows full of strangers. The change can be staggering to many, but they are as undaunted as ever with their rising fame–and still fully supported by their original fans. Over the years, the nature of La Rosa Noir shows still feels very communal despite them getting bigger and bigger. “It’s so cool,” Yeshi says. “From what I see, everyone who comes to our shows is so cool, and nice, and respectful, and it’s beautiful to see.”

This was especially true with the band’s show at Reggie’s recently, an all ages show filled with friends, family, and new fans. “It’s really important to me that we play all ages shows,” says Yeshi. “It’s important to me that we perform to a younger, female audience. Like, all I had to see in real life was Paramore, and I saw Joan Jett in 2016 at Riot Fest, but those are the only female fronted rock bands I’ve seen. So, I love playing all ages shows. It’s so cool seeing so many young girls be in awe of us. It’s crazy, and it’s emotional in the moment. I’m coming off the stage so I’m already so ‘on,’ I still have that kind of frantic energy, and then I’m experiencing this hyper emotional moment where I’m like ‘I used to be you, and now you’re fangirling over me!’ It’s just crazy, but so sweet. I feel super honored. Not only is it an honor to play music in front of people, but it's also an honor to me to play to young girls. It means a lot to me, because that used to be me. I know exactly what it’s like to be one of those young rocker girls with all these big complex feelings, and not really seeing so much of yourself in those spaces. To be able to now be the person who is creating those spaces, it's crazy. It's a trip…and it’s so sweet.” 

Yeshi says “Rock on!” to our readers. Photo credits: Sam Tucker

The Chicago scene has changed a lot over the years, and Yeshi has been on the forefront with La Rosa Noir witnessing these changes and evolutions, especially how it has changed pre to post-pandemic. “It’s changed a lot,” Yeshi says. “When we first started pre-pandemic, the music scene that we were in was a general indie music scene. It was–I’m just going to be honest–it was mostly white. The sad truth, [bookers] didn’t have a lot of experience booking latino rock bands. When they hear a band that’s a little different and has latin rhythms in it, to them it's unique and ethnic. They don’t really know–and it's not their fault, I get it–but because of the lack of awareness we would just get placed on these really weird bills that didn’t make sense. But it was okay, and we always still played, and some of the shows were okay and some were really great. Just like any other band, we just played the shows to get out there. A lot of it was North Side too, which I guess goes hand in hand with the white indie bands.”

“Post pandemic, a lot of latinos in rock started emerging. I feel like the threat of the world ending lit a fire under everyone’s ass. Like; ‘Oh, I want to be in a band and now the world is ending and I may never be in a band.’ Post-pandemic a lot of new bands were born, or developing more of a presence. Now the music scene we’ve been a part of has grown. I think that’s why it feels like there is such a community at our shows, because now there is a community, especially for latinos in rock music. Now, our shows aren’t just on the North Side. Now we play shows on the South Side, Northwest Side, West Side, which is really cool and important to all of us. Not all of us are from the North Side, so it’s really cool to play in more spaces and be a part of this community we’ve been searching for for a long time. I think the thing with being creative and making music is you want to create something you can share with people who also feel similarly to you. I’ll never forget this one show we played in Lincoln Park where I played an old song I wrote called ‘Corner Store.’ I said; ‘Raise your hand and make some noise if you grew up going to the corner store.’ It was dead silent because everyone was from the suburbs, where that’s just a 7-Eleven. I grew up in the city though, where it’s called a corner store. I’ll never forget that show, because it kind of showed how different we were to that crowd we were playing to. Which sucks sometimes. It’s like; ‘Just one more thing that separates me from everyone else.’ So, post-pandemic, it was so cool to see all these latino rock bands emerge and play with them. There’s nothing cooler than playing with your people who understand you better, and in a way are more proud of you because they know what we’ve gone through growing up, similar cultural experiences and harshness. The scene has definitely been evolving, as it should be, which has been great to see.”

While La Rosa Noir is a prevalent Chicago band, they have also been getting quite the following in Los Angeles, where they have played regularly with friends of theirs. It is hard to not compare music scenes in different big cities across the U.S., but when asked about the LA music scene, Yeshi had a different experience than you may often hear about it. 

From left to right; Kevin Martinez (bassist), Yeshi Regalado (vocals, rhythm guitar) and Jannese Espino (lead guitar) at the La Rosa Noir show at the festival Ravenswood On Tap in Ravenswood, Chicago. Not pictured, but still playing, are Christian Ovalle (drums) and Sadbxii (trumpet) Photo credits: Samuel Plauche

“Two of our good friends are in this band called The Renters in Oceanside, in southern California, and some other friends of ours are in this band called The Red Pears out in L.A. They’re both just the sweetest. Whenever you hear about L.A. culture, it’s very hoity-toity, like people are stuck up and mean. Maybe that’s a certain scene out there, but the scene we were with–which was primarily Latino and POC–was super welcoming and super nice and super friendly.” La Rosa Noir’s amazing music and community at shows has expanded all the way to the West Coast, now with them playing DIY shows on beaches in L.A. or in venues, and the loving community they foster in Chicago is also fostered in southern California, aided by bands like The Red Pears and The Renters, who are also both so good and you should check out. 

 “What connects the Chicago scene to the Los Angeles scene is that we both know what it's like to be in a big city where the music scene is dominated, unfortunately, by white people, and has been for a very very long time,” says Yeshi. “But we all like to play rock and roll and love playing it for each other and with each other and love making spaces for each other and our community. After receiving so much judgment or weird vibes from people not from our community, it makes us more inclined to be more welcoming to newer rock bands. Now, I’ve noticed more welcome-ness and open mindedness in the music scene. We’ve always been well-liked, I feel super blessed to say I’ve never had to look for a show to play. People have always asked us, which is amazing. That was cool too, like; ‘Oh, these white people like us!’ It was cool, but of course there are times where it’s hard not to feel so different in those spaces. Now, we see more of ourselves in the scene which is super comforting and inspiring. Seeing other Latino or POC bands in the scene, that inspires me too! I’m just like; ‘Holy crap, we’re out here doing this while our parents are telling us to go be a nurse or something.’ Everything just seems nicer now, whether it's Los Angeles or Chicago. At the end of the day, we’re all trying to achieve the same goal. We all feel a little broken inside, but we all just want to make music and create something that we can share with those people who also feel that way and can relate. In a way, a live show is a way to celebrate that. Yes, we may all feel sad or angry, but at least we’re not alone in that. We’re with each other feeling like that, no matter your background. No one is truly ever alone, especially at a rock show.” 

A question we always like to ask whoever we’re interviewing at Raging Opossum Press is what element would you, or your music be, if you were one–the elements being earth, wind, water, and fire. 

“I’m into astrology, so this is an easy one,” Yeshi says with a laugh. “Fire. My sun, moon, and rising are all Leo. So, yeah, fire. I’ve always had very intense emotions and have been very fiery, which is why I have always been drawn to rock and roll. I wanted that intense passion. Whenever I think of a heavy guitar riff, I think fire.” 

Spotify’s monopoly on streaming, and the lack of payments to musicians (if paid at all) is well reported on. In the corporate streaming world, it can be hard for musicians and bands to actually make a living off of their labor. We had the chance to chat with Yeshi about her experience with Spotify and streaming, and how to support La Rosa Noir. 

“It sucks with Spotify,” Yeshi begins. “There was one time I was talking to this music industry professional and she was slamming Spotify, saying she doesn’t listen to musicians that way, and it kind of bummed me out. I mean, I totally get it. Spotify doesn’t pay its artists well, or at all, but that’s also how we get gigs where we do make money. Numbers are everything for bookers, and they don’t just look at YouTube video streams or your Instagram. The first thing they do is look at our Apple Music or Spotify plays and judge us based on how many streams and monthly listens we have. I totally get why so many people don’t want to support Spotify, but it really does help. If you really want to support a band financially, go to the show and buy some merch!” I-Sam, with Raging Opossum Press-do have to tell you to go buy some shirts from La Rosa Noir, they’re very cool and you will look cool as fuck in one. Trust me. 

“But if you can’t [support financially], just stream. At the end of the day, streams matter to bookers and touring agents because they’ll look at that and be like “Oh, you can pull!” First and foremost, come to the show though. Buy some merch. Something I love about Spotify is the ‘Bands You Might Like’ feature. Like, if you’re listening to a band and we pop up that helps us a ton. Or if people make playlists and people put us in there, that helps a ton. I totally get musicians hating on Spotify, but I just don’t expect to get paid by Spotify. I expect Spotify to get people to our shows, which that pays us.”

What is in store for La Rosa Noir, you may be asking? Well, a lot. The band is currently working on more new songs that are all a bit different than they have played before. “All the songs are a little harder,” Yeshi explains. The band hopes to drop an EP by January, or a whole album if there are enough songs to do so.

Furthermore, La Rosa Noir is preparing to play their biggest show yet on September 6th. The band has been invited to play on the J.B. Prtizker stage in Millennium Park by the National Museum of Mexican Art for a Selena tribute show. This event is a huge moment for all of the band and Yeshi specifically. She explains the significance of this best; 

Yeshi dances in the garden at Raging Opossum Press HQ. Photo credits: Sam Tucker

“It’s kind of crazy,” she says. “Not only is it, you know, there, but it's also very personal because we got asked to do a Selena tribute. The whole concert is a Selena tribute series, they do it every year and it's hosted by the National Museum of Mexican Art that’s located in Pilsen. This is going to be the third year that they’ve done it. They hand pick bands that they think represent Selena best in their own way. For context, Selena was a Texas Mexican American singer from the late ‘80s. Huge, huge, huge, name in Mexican households in America. Selena put out album after album and did so many shows. I can’t even fathom how much of an icon she is, and to be able to represent her is such an emotional thing for me. Rock and roll has been existing for so long, since Black people in the South created it. Selena’s story was so recent though, and she was like the only Mexican American singer to get that big, and now I have the job of trying to represent her well. Like, holy shit. It feels very, very intense. I feel a lot of pressure on me because I look up to her a lot, especially with her being Mexican American and loving music and rock and roll. It’s something that most hispanics don’t go into, that a lot of hispanics don’t come to this country for. People come to this country to work and work, that’s my parents and my grandparents. The fact that I get to be a musician and reap the benefits and show up where we can show up…it's why I always say it's an honor. Relating to Selena, her first language wasn’t Spanish, it was English. She didn’t learn Spanish until she was a teenager because her dad–her manager–suggested that they would reach a bigger audience if she started singing Spanish music. Which she did. What made her famous was a lot of those Spanish songs. I relate to her a lot in that way. We’re both put in positions where it's not really our fault that Spanish wasn’t our first language. Her parents thought they were setting her up better for this country because they thought that if she did have a Spanish accent it would turn away a lot of opportunities, something a lot of my aunts and uncles still think. I relate to Selena, in a sense, because we were both put into positions where it wasn’t our fault where, right out the gate, we lost a connection with our culture and identity via language because our parents thought that was a better idea for being in this country. With me, even more specifically, my parents are deaf. If it was up to my dad, if he was born with hearing, I know he would’ve spoken Spanish. He’s one of those guys who is so proud of his identity and his Mexican culture, which is why I am. If it was up to him, Spanish probably would have been my first language. But he, kind of like me, was born into a predetermined situation he had no control over, and he had to roll with the punches and make the best of it. With him, he connects with our culture through art and his drawings. That was his way of connecting with our culture, and I learned to do the same through music. Just like Selena.”

“It’s one of the reasons the Selena show is so much pressure. Even though they were like ‘you can totally translate the songs into English and perform them!’ I was like ‘No!’ I want to honor her as much as I can, I’m not going to do a cop out and sing the whole show in English. I’ve always wanted to play a show in Spanish…and now here it is. I am kind of like…’Fuck!’ She’s also really famous for her dance moves, so I’m learning all her choreography. I want to represent her as best I can. I’m learning to dance similarly to her and learning Spanish, and it's not just for her but for me too. I can’t not let myself sing in Spanish. I’ve said I always wanted to do it, and here I am. They say it’s normally eight to eleven thousand people, which is definitely the biggest show we’ve ever played. It’s September 6th!”

You can see La Rosa Noir play at the Millennium Park stage for the Selena tribute show on September 6th. Otherwise, pay close attention to their Instagram @larosanoir_ 

While also being the front woman for La Rosa Noir, Yeshi also is an active member of Ruidosa Arts Collective, which works hard to highlight Latinx art around Chicago.

“Shoutout to my parents!” Yeshi concludes the interview with. “Despite being deaf, they made a child who loves music.”

Yeshi at Raging Opossum HQ with our mascot. Photo credits: Sam Tucker

By Sam Plauche

Founder, Chief Editor, Journalist. For inquiries, reach out to sam.plauche on Instagram.

Published August, 2024