Artist Highlight: Cori Rios of The Hourglass Cats

Our artist feature this Wednesday is musician, songwriter and clothing designer, Cori Rios. Cori is the frontman of The Hourglass Cats and songwriter/composer of a new solo project, under which he is putting out his first LP at the end of this month. He is also the founder of his own clothing brand, Airizona.

Over many years of sharing the stage with Cori and The Hourglass Cats, we've had the pleasure of watching his audiences grow throughout the southwest. For our question for Cori, we wanted to dive into how he has found influence in some of the amazing places he travels to perform.

It seems like a lot of your music and clothing brand’s aesthetics are inspired by the landscapes and cultures of the Sonoran desert. Can you tell us a story about a specific song or clothing design that was inspired by the aforementioned?

"I would honestly have to say that almost everything I've done and a lot of the things I'm into end up having something to do with the Sonoran desert. I'm a third generation Phoenix boi and I honestly believe my whole sound, style and kind of artist image and the things I like seeing/hearing usually have a something to do with the Sonoran vibe. 

When it comes to specifics, my little clothing adventure Airizona is obviously inspired by the desert. I kind of got really into collecting random Arizona shirts and random Southwestern gear the last few years. The whole Airizona idea actually started after a fun little spring break weekend playing shows down in Rocky Point with my Hourglass Cats bois/girls. After I came home from one of those trips, I realized I had lost my favorite AZ shirt and was so bummed out that I decided I wanted to start making my own. I came up with a little sketch for the Airizona logo that night and the rest is history.

As for music, I would honestly have to say that a lot of my songs have a very Sonoran influence, songs like Bailar Para Mi and Too Damn Rude are very much about Arizona or situations growing up here. Too Damn Rude is actually pretty much about a few specific Arizona girls with a certain rough attitude. The one song though I would feel guilty about not referencing specifically would be "Sonoran Señorita," which could easily be one of my favorite songs to play as it's just one of those songs that always seem to get the people shaking their hips. To this day, I'm not entirely sure which trip or what night we actually came up with the song, as we've been down to play so many times now that all the trips have kind of blended into one amazing 3 month trip, with multiple different Hourglass Cat crews fading in and out.

However, I think it all kind of started with our good friend and Rocky Point native, Omar Banner, who's just an all in all good friend for all the musicians that head down there. After a typically wild night playing Boo Bar, we somehow ended up over in an area they call "Cholo Alley," where all the locals go to tailgate and party late at night. They have this truck contraption with a cumbia band that plays while they cruise up and down the alley. I think we may have gotten stuck behind this truck for like 30 minutes and just went crazy with this cumbia band and decided we were gonna be that band the next night at Boo Bar for shits and giggles. So the next night, Josh Montag and Seth were laying down the nastiest Cumbia/type dancehall jams and somewhere in there emerged the best song we've ever jammed. As per usual, by the end of the night we had completely forgotten what the song even sounded like, but what you hear now as "Sonoran Señorita," is kind of an interpretation of us trying to play some Sonoran Cumbia hahaha...

The song lyrics are a pretty much an ode to our typical Sonoran adventures down to our favorite beach town. Drinking tequila, meeting Señoritas - that's the way that we roll every time we pack up the CRV and head down to Mexico. Then I added a nice little love story into the words just to spice it up a bit. I feel it's easy to meet someone in Mexico and for them to disappear and fade into a memory or possibly a drunk fable that never even happened. Can't tell you how many times I've heard someone talk about how they met someone in Mexico only to never see them again and pretty much loose contact after one really good memory. That kinda seems to be the whole mystique and fun of the Sonoran Desert and places like Rocky Point, at least for me, where everything seems so temporary that it makes you appreciate things more in the moment."

Check out Cori's band The Hourglass Cats on Facebook and Instagram for updates on shows and new music. Also be sure to check out his clothing line Airizona on Instagram @AirizonaWear or order at www.airizonawear.com

For our readers in Arizona, check out Cori's solo album release party happening at The Listening Room in Phoenix on March 22nd. He will be joined by Haley Green and Tom Kumagai. You can get tickets HERE. 

As always, thank you for reading and we'll see you soon.

RIVIR