There is something to get excited about in south-central Texas. In fact the buzz surrounding San Antonio's Hacienda may signal a rebirth of young Rock n' Roll to the country's landscape. Its rock n' roll with emphasis on the Roll when it comes to the music on their debut album Loud is the Night.
The band has always been a family affair with cousins Abraham Villanueva and Dante Schwebel planting the musical seeds that would become the Hacienda sound. The two had modest musical goals but were unable to secure additional members that were on the same page musically and personally in 2004. Meanwhile the two remaining Villanueva brothers were playing together in a band at bars and house parties outside of San Antonio. The fate of their band was short lived, and as luck would have it, the timing could not have been more perfect. Jaime and Rene completed the lineup and Hacienda was now in full swing. The four began playing together for no other reason than to make a complete sound. "It’s strange, but at the time, we had no intentions of doing anything more than putting a cd in the car and trying to trick our friends into to thinking it was some professional band," recalls Dante, Hacienda's guitar wielding cousin. "We all liked playing instruments and were just excited to play a tune that we liked and make it sound as good or close to the original version, that’s it!" It was not until late 2005 that the band purchased a small digital recorder and began tracking demos. As a matter of fate, a demo of 6 songs made it to the hands of Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys and since then, the band's future would be changed indefinitely. Hacienda made quite a buzz in the music world when their 6 song demo was passed around from musicians to record execs, managers, and the like.
After hearing the demo, Auerbach championed the band to continue recording. Jaime, the youngest member, adds "To hear words of encouragement from someone you respect and admire is all you need to focus and work hard."
The band would write and arrange more than twenty songs for the new record, sending homemade demos to Auerbach periodically. After a guest spot opening for The Black Keys as well as Dr. Dog when their tour rolled through Austin, Auerbach invited the band to Akron, Ohio to complete the album. In Akron Analog studios, Hacienda would work hard to record their new catalog in just two weekends. A key to this was recording as much music live in a room as possible. They received a helping hand from new friends Dr. Dog; and together, they worked on existing harmonies, and created brand new ones, that embellish the album from start to finish.
Recorded in 2008, Loud is the Night combines the creative arrangements of the Beatles and the Beach Boys, with the personality of The Band all rolled into one. Rene Villanueva, the band’s bass player says, "We play what we like, and we never stop learning how to make the sounds we want to make. Whether it’s the Memphis sound, or Bakersfield, we try to learn from those sounds, and then incorporate those sensibilities to the songs we wrote."
The sound is fresh and uncompromising. No finger-tapping solos or narcissistic vocals. Just great songs played by four great, young musicians.
