Chris Perez Band

“Thank God for Hollywood Records,” Perez told POLLSTAR, “because they gave us the chance to do the album that we wanted, an album that truly represented who we are.”

If you think about it, the bilingual aspect of the Corpus Christi, Texas-based group’s debut, Resurrection, makes perfect sense. It reflects a daily reality, not only for the musicians, but also for the majority of the more than 30 million Hispanic-Americans in the U.S. However, several major labels that showed interest in the band wouldn’t commit.

Another worry for the record business was the straight-ahead rock ‘n’ roll style of the band. “They liked our music and they didn’t lie about that, but they didn’t know what to do with it because it was rock,” Perez said. “If you go back and look at the Billboard charts back then, the songs topping the charts were ballads by Enrique Iglesias or Ricky Martin or Luis Miguel. So they wanted, naturally, an artist that was going to be able to compete with that type of style… We just didn’t want to be that type of band.”

It might seem like a record in two languages would be a benefit, drawing double the audience. But it’s not that simple. “Businesswise, it’s easier for a record company to market an album in one language only,” Perez said. His band has two marketing teams working at Hollywood – one for English-language radio and one for Spanish radio. So far, the results are good but different from what Perez expected.

“This may not be the case but the way I feel is that the mainstream market has been a little bit more open-minded to it than the Latin-speaking world. And I thought it was gonna be the other way around.”

However, in concert, the band is getting the best of both worlds, sharing the stage with top Spanish- and English-speaking acts. “I never thought I’d be playing at the KISS-FM radio show concert with Elton John, Rod Stewart, Backstreet Boys, all these huge mainstream artists,” Perez said. “We can go from that to opening up for Maná.”

In fact, Chris Perez Band recently finished a near-sellout tour with Mexican supergroup Maná and is now opening for Blues Traveler frontman John Popper.

Standing onstage and staring out into a sea of people is nothing new for Perez. For six years, he toured and recorded with the multi-platinum Selena y Los Dinos. He expected to perform in front of huge crowds again, but he seems to have been very patient in getting there, saying it was nice to start over from square one.

“I had to come to grips with the fact that those days, talking about Selina y Los Dinos, are behind me,” he said. “I put that to rest and wanted to play what I’m playing now.”

Now he just wishes that everyone else would put his past to rest. But with all the hype around the Selena movie and the unauthorized books and such, it’s been hard. “I think people forgot what I do first and what I’ve loved to do since I was a little kid – just play music. And that’s why I got involved in Los Dinos. I got chosen because of my ability to play my instrument, just like all the other guys in the band.”

Still, many of the songs on the album were written while Perez was mourning the death of his wife. The lyrics are heartfelt and touching. Though he has gotten on with his life after four years, it’s hard for some fans to put the grieving-widower image to rest.

The band’s latest release to English-language radio, “Best I Can,” is a song that digs deep into the feelings of a man who has lost a loved one. When Perez wrote it, he did not intend to put it on an album. However, the band’s other founding members, vocalist John Garza and keyboardist Joe Ojeda, thought it was too good to pass on. The next thing Perez knew, he was making a video for the song. “Like a lot of other things, I’ve learned to not try and run or hide from certain things in my past, just not exploit it,” he said.

Because he refuses to exploit his past, touring is a must for Perez and the band. It’s the only way they can get the point across that they can stand on their own merits. “I’m not using the old avenues that we used to use and the ways we used to use them,” Perez said. “I’m not willing to sell my albums on that, so I’d rather be out there touring and talking about the music.”