Mesa Cosa
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Mesa Cosa

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Few bands in Melbourne can honestly say they possess core DIY ethos as tightly as Mesa Cosa. These guys have spared no expense in getting themselves to where they are today and put more effort into furthering music in Melbourne, and more broadly, all of Australia than most bands playing today.

“Mesa Cosa has always been a bit of a random band,” Alvarado suggests. “It’s never really fit into a scene, genre or style. We got frustrated by this and wanted to do some solid international supports. At some point we realised we had the will power, and we had the cash in the bank to bring out the people we loved, and so we just did it. We got to play with bands that we loved.

“At the end of the day, we really believe in Scooby Doo adventures, and believe in being a gang. We’re all about keeping the dream alive, touring around Australia and meeting cool people. We thought, ‘Well, we don’t know how to get these gigs, how about we just go out there and do it ourselves, get everybody involved, make it free and make it inclusive?’”

It’s hard to broaden your horizons and look at the big picture. The vastness of Australia is a confronting thought for a band when considering the expenses involved with moving half a dozen people and their gear across state boarders. But this challenge hasn’t deterred Mesa Cosa.

“I think that Perth and Adelaide need a lot more love, and bands should go out of their way to make it out there,” Alvarado advises. “It’s not the financially viable option,” he admits. “But we’ve got to forget about money and start thinking about community. I think it’s really important for people to build bridges there. We need to stop thinking, ‘How are we going to make this work?’ and just start throwing ourselves out there. If four or five bands started building that bridge, we could really make something work and make the cities start working together.”

To describe Bone Soup as a bold venture would be an understatement. But according to Alvarado, it was a simple process to make it work. “We just got in touch with some bands by email,” he says. “We’d say ‘Hey can I buy a T-Shirt? I love your band; do you want to come out to Australia? We don’t really know what we’re doing,” he laughs. “But we can make it work.

“Sometimes it feels a little too competitive and people are a little too worried about finance and how it can work, but these things are dying,” Alvarado continues. “If you can pay the rent and do something you love, you’re winning, so we’re trying to make it happen. We’re really into the artwork, the bands and the promo, because we love being in a band, and we love bringing out these bands. We’ve lost money, but we’ve learnt lessons.

“I hope that we’ve cut a path, Alvarado ponders. “I mean, if anyone asked us how to do it, I’d be more than happy to tell them. The most important thing to do here is to not keep secrets. Everybody should benefit from it. There might be an old order that’s really cliquey, but I think it’s really important to be inclusive and sharing our knowledge. We’re trying to do things DIT, not DIY. Not do it yourself, but do it together. So when we have parties, we say, ‘Hey, bring amps, bring lights, bring whatever, we’ll do it all together’. There’s a bit of high school territorial-ness in Melbourne, but that’s just because we’re spoiled for choice, so that’s naturally going to happen. I want to break that. Everybody is totally welcome to enjoy everything we do and have fun.”

BY KEATS MULLIGAN