¿Qiensave? Makes Their Way Back to Texas

Last March, Salinas-based band ¿Qiensave? made quite the impression on audiences at SXSW.  It was the band’s first time performing in Texas.  

“It was a great welcome,” says Jhay Cortez, founder of ¿Qiensave?, of their busy SXSW week culminating to a packed performance on South Congress at The Continental Club. “People have fun then we have fun and we want to come back.”  

Coming back they are as the band is coming to Houston for their first time and playing our own Continental Club on Friday, October 24.  The evening will begin with Houston’s own Skarnale, Felipe Galvan’s Pachuco Boogie Sound System spinning vinyl to kick off the night followed by music from Dallas-based Cayuga All-Stars.  

¿Qiensave? has an explosive live presence where the band mixes traditional cumbia sounds with more modern dance and techno elements along with a reggae vibe creating what they coined “Cumbia Urbana.”  

“Texas is great. There’s a different vibe there and I think people really appreciate music in a different way there,” says Cortez who founded the band back home in California with three of his brothers back in 2009. “ We are still exploring Texas, it is so big.”  

¿Qiensave? does have a great tie to the Lone Star State through their collaboration with Corpus Christi born and based nu-cumbia pioneer El Dusty.  The band worked with him to create their album released earlier this year, Reanimacion.  

Reanimacion saw the band doing what they do best, taking sounds from the past and making them new as the album features all covers of traditional songs pushed into a new direction.  

“It’s hard,” says Cortez of shape shifting old songs. “There’s always traditionalists and people who are very connected to the music and it could be tough sometimes to see it change and evolve. In all human aspects, change is hard,” he says.  

This year the band also teamed up with Chuck Prophet while their fellow Californian was processing his recovery from cancer for his album Wake The Dead.  The album is a beautiful and balanced combination of Prophet’s poetic skills and the bands uplifting, traditional musical sounds. 

“With Chuck it was a melding of two sounds, he really fell in love with the cumbia sound.”  Though on Wake The Dead the band did not provide lyrical content, Cortez says the whole project cemented the band’s original focus on their influence of Americana and folk influences.  

“They’re beautiful in the sense that they communicate a lot and it has a lot of deepness in the words,” he says of folk music from all over the world. “The communication is sometimes really simple but it has a strong message. It’s not meant to showcase the musical knowledge, it’s more to showcase a story so sometimes the chords are a little simpler but the words are a little heavier.”  

Lyrically each member of ¿Qiensave? writes lyrics and songs. “That’s what gives us our varied sound,” says Cortez of working with his brothers Mario, William and Ricardo Cortez. “Everybody has their own story to tell and sometimes it’s a different perspective and that’s beautiful.”  

The band sings and writes songs in Spanish, oftentimes using simple, repetitive phrases meant to immediately hook the audience and though the music makes the listener want to dance, the words are meant to awaken the soul.  

“That’s why I sing in Spanish, it’s an act of rebellion in a way ,” says Cortez. “I could sing in English but I also want people to gravitate towards it and to understand that it’s okay,” he says adding that their use of the Spanish language can serve as a connection for third and fourth generation Latinos to hold onto their native tongue and culture.  

The name of the band itself comes from what Cortez describes as a “Chicanada” where he misspelled “who knows” in Spanish, actually spelled “quien sabe.” Cortez describes embracing the mistake as further evidence for the common first generation experience stating,  “I’m not fully Mexican and I’m not fully American.”  

The band is currently working on their upcoming album tentatively titled, Así Las Cosas, due out in Spring 2026.  For this album the band again counted on help from giants teaming up with Latin music producer Greg Landau and Raul Pacheco from Ozomatli. 

Through their new songs, Cortez and his band will continue to build upon the idea that by mixing genres and opening people’s minds through good dance grooves the beauty of diversity can be celebrated. 

“It is an interesting time right now with all the politics and all the challenging times,” says Cortez. “But that’s the beauty of the music. Going to a ¿Qiensave? show, you’re just able to dance and in a way put that on pause for a second and just enjoy yourself because all that’s going to be there and it’s going to be there all week, every day. When me and my carnales sing we like to bring a little lightheartedness to the week.”   

¿Qiensave? will perform at 10 p.m Friday, October 24 at The Continental Club, 3700 Main. For more information visit continental club.com. $15-25.

For more information on ¿Qiensave? visit qiensavemusic.com

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