Exclusive Interview With Conquistador

Conquistador, real name Alexander Antebi, has quite the resume. In 2007, he placed first in the Imperial Moustache category at the World Beard and Moustache Championships. He’s also recorded with Latin Grammy nominated band Kinky, appeared at the MTV Video Music Awards in a pink rubber catsuit, and late last year he released the video for “With A Love Like That,” which took home a prize from the Machinima Interactive Film Festival. We chatted over the phone the other day, right after the Supreme Court overturned Prop 8, and talked about the upcoming Accidental Bear Music Tour, which kicks off in LA next weekend.

– Lawrence

Photo credit: Jen Starr

Read our interview, watch a music video and listen to some of Conquistador’s songs below:

Lawrence: How are things going? You seem very busy.

Conquistador: It’s going well, we’re just sort of scrambling to finish our record. We just finished an EP that’s getting mixed as we speak, and we’re getting ready for the tour, and celebrating the legislation that just got overturned here.

Tell us about the EP.

It’s called IIWII, and it’s being released on Kin Kon, which is the label started by the band Kinky. We’re looking at late August for a release date.

We’re a duo, myself and Carlos Chiarez who’s the guitar player in Kinky. Carlos and I met at a party in Hollywood and bonded over a mutual affection for psych horror and sci-fi soundtracks. He’s the son of an engineer and an avid record collector, so even though he’s from a border town when he was growing up instead of norteña music he got into Gary Numan, The Cocteau Twins and the Clash.

The music is psych-wave, a genre which marries sixties psychedelia and New Wave. It sort of embodies both the sixties and the eighties and reinterprets it in a more contemporary way. When people ask we always cite Goblin, The Zombies, and Tones On Tail as major influences.

Why the name Conquistador?

The name is kind of interesting. I was with Carlos in Mexico and he asked me if I wanted to visit his abuelita. When we got there she showed us in, and she was like 87 or 88 years old and about 4’7”. She looks at me and at my hair and my moustache, and she looks at Carlos and she says “Carlos, who’s this gringo Conquistador that you’re bringing into my house?” Then, when we met up with the rest of the band, they all started calling me Conquistador.

And how did you get involved with this tour?

We met Mike [Enders] after he wrote about me on the red carpet at the VMAs. We stayed in touch, and he asked me to participate in a New Year’s video. And this EP that we’re releasing is in step with what Mike’s about, and the tour really spoke to me.

It isn’t always easy being bold in LA, and I can only imagine what it’s like to be in a small town. There’s depression, you know, and all of these things that can wear on the spirit. We wanted to do something positive. So with each ticket that gets sold for this show, the money goes to a community center in your own area. When you work with big organizations you have no idea where the money’s going, but here there’s a certain level of transparency, and we believed in these organizations and that’s sort of how we got involved.

I personally have been the recipient of many types of attacks, from online and also in the street. I wasn’t even dressed that crazy one night, but I had heels on and a hat, and they threw glass bottles at me and called me a fucking n***er idiot wannabe faggot. It was interesting because this happened in Hollywood. Things are not equal and there’s a lot of hate.

We released another single recently called “I’m Alive”, and that song was sort of inspired by the Zazous in Nazi-occupied Paris. The Jews were forced to wear yellow stars, and so the Zazous made their own stars to mock the Nazis. And they used personal adornment to speak and to say something. Clothing and personal adornment can have real meaning, which is why you’ll find me in heels in the pit at a skinhead show. It’s important to be who you are. Be comfortable in your own skin, or in my case, Spandex. I wear my heart on my mandex.

So what can we expect from your live show?

It’ll be three of us total, and then four in New York. We have a drummer, Argel Cota, and then we have Alex Bajos Miller, who plays keys and bass. And then Carlos is always playing with Kinky, but he’ll be playing with us in New York. The recorded music is special, but it’s a different animal when you take it live. But our live performance is strong, we’re not just a studio project. We have some new material that we haven’t played live yet that no one’s heard, so we’re premiering it on the tour.

Okay, one more question. I feel like I need to ask about the World Moustache Championship…

They took place in Brighton, England that year. I was the first American to win, and the youngest winner and also the first Jew. I was doing some stuff in Sweden at the time, and when I learned about the competition, I just went over.

Outside of Tom of Finland, I haven’t seen this level of dandified machismo before. And all of these men who are so follicly well-endowed, all dressed in colorful, garish garb. And from an identity standpoint, I could relate.

I mean, people have had moustaches for quite awhile, and when I started growing mine it wasn’t a cool thing. But it’s a badge of experience. You know, with hair there’s a level of commitment and it all takes a while, you can’t just put it on and take it off the next day. This isn’t something you could grow overnight.