Introducing vortxz
By Joanna Serrano & Mariana Medina
Hailing from Houston, Texas is your next favorite rock band! Vortxz is a four-piece band consisting of lead singer Rambo Rodarte, lead guitarist and keyboardist Noe Rodriguez, bassist Luar Quintanilla, and drummer Jonathan Lopez.
Vortxz’ formation arose from duos creating music parallel to one another: Noe and Jon made music together for seven years, while Luar and Rambo have played instruments together since the third grade. Noe stumbled upon Rambo’s Instagram account, where he was posting covers and original songs, and offered to work with him as his producer. This relationship led to the formation of a trio band consisting of Rambo on vocals, Noe on guitar, and Jon on drums. Luar was the last to join the band after his enthusiastic impression he left at one of their first friends-and-family gigs. He stood out in the crowd jumping around and hyping up the group, attracting the attention of Noe. After learning of Luar’s history as a bassist, the group convinced him to join the band. With that, Vortxz was born.
The group has since created a genre-bending, unique sound that contains aspects of Indie Rock, Indie Pop, and Latin Rock. If you're a fan of acts like BoyPablo and Inhaler then Vortxz is definitely for you! Their 2023 hit single, “My Love,” is a seven-minute love-professing track that’ll have you dancing and air-guitaring along. Their latest single “For You,” on the other hand, blends a head-banging, Coldplay-esque tune with more melancholic lyrics.
We had the opportunity to speak with the up-and-coming group at their San Francisco show on their West Coast Outer Space tour.
the inspiration behind the music
The group describes how their Latin culture came into play when discovering their love for music. Music was embedded into their everyday lives, and they were heavily influenced by the music taste of their parents, growing up listening to Latin acts like Selena Quintanilla and Mańa.
A couple of the members, however, had their own individual inspirations. Lead singer Rambo shares how his admiration for the band Coldplay influenced his love of music, while bassist Luar had an epiphany after watching the Disney Channel Original Movie High School Musical. He was intrigued by the ensemble musical numbers as a child, finding the idea of performing in a group to be cool.
This then brought the group into a fit of laughter prompting Noe to share an inside scoop about their frontman. It seems High School Musical is an invisible string between the group as Rambo actually played the character Chad Danforth in his school production of High School Musical before joining the band. To me, it sounds like it’s about time the band released an official cover of “Get Your Head in the Game!”
When it comes to creating the music, the group shares that they have multiple ways of approaching crafting a new track. First, it is only fair to point out that Noe serves as more than just the guitarist and keyboardist, he is also the band’s primary producer!
As lovers of a variety of genres of music, they enjoy playing around with different sounds and genres from music they personally enjoy listening to. They are also constantly paying attention to what’s happening in music currently, like what is trendy or popular that could work for them.
Rambo is also a key voice behind their music. He will often come to the group with lyrics and a melody that he’s created and his bandmates will provide their input and assist in finalizing the track.
Behind the Scenes of Life on Tour
Before getting on stage, the four bandmates simply focus on livening up the atmosphere, and enjoy joking around with one another to get their spirits high. As the lead singer, Rambo has his own small tradition of solo boxing before taking the stage. They also take the time to stand in a circle and pray, which is followed by a secret handshake that physically forms a vortex shape.
The entire group can agree that their least favorite part of being on the road is the driving from city to city and its toll on their sleep schedule. This, however, is no match for how much they love interacting with fans on tour. Seeing their fans sing their songs back to them is something that never gets old to the Texas-based group.
Along with this, one of the group’s favorite parts of touring is visiting new cities. Prior to the band’s stop in San Francisco, they had never been to city and are looking forward to sightseeing on their off-day tomorrow. Another city they were looking forward to visiting for the first time and playing was Los Angeles. Next on the bucket list is the East Coast, specifically New York, and cities abroad like Tokyo.
Speaking of upcoming tour stops, we had to get the inside scoop on what’s coming next for the band. They shared that they plan on touring in the fall following the release of their upcoming album in August.
When it comes to the live shows,Rambo has quite the stage presence, but he did not always feel comfortable in the spotlight. The singer has shared in previous interviews that he is an introverted and shy individual off stage.
At the beginning of his journey as a performer, Rambo relied on wearing sunglasses on stage as a way to hide. It took him time to lose the feeling of stage fright. His bandmate Noe helped him by telling him to think of it like a theater act, like playing a role. This piece of advice is what stuck with Rambo, and he finally figured out how to shake off the nerves and be himself on stage.
He highlights the fans here as well as one of his main inspirations. He came to realize that the fans travel far and wide to see him and the band perform, and he owes it to them to give them the best show possible.
Pursuing the Dream: Advice to Aspiring Artists
The group reflects on their struggle learning how to make time and sacrifices for their career. Towards the beginning of their journey, the band hit a crossroads. Managing and balancing their new goals with the band and their everyday lives became difficult. Starting out independently, their day jobs helped fund their careers completely. It was difficult getting the four of them in the same room at the same time. Creating a practice schedule and simply getting everyone on the same page was a constant struggle.
As time went on and their presence as a band began to grow, Luar and Rambo decided to quit their jobs to dedicate time to making the band’s merch. Eventually, the rest of the guys followed suit and decided to fully commit to the band.
Looking back, the group shares that constant communication and dedication is what immensely benefited the band. They worked towards getting over the bumps in the road together. Even now, at the peak of their careers, Vortxz say communication helps them everyday.
Rambo stresses to aspiring artists to not give up on their goals. “It's gonna be hard,” he states. He reflects on times where the band wanted to quit. They were at a point where they were not seeing progress and considered giving up. It was only a couple of months after this moment that their first TikTok video blew up.
This moves into Noe’s main piece of advice, which is to commit to making content every day. “It's gonna feel a little embarrassing at first,” he shares, “but it's a way to get your music out there, and help yourself to start preparing to perform in front of people.”
The group came to realize that consistency and quality is what made them stand out. Creating content that was authentic to them and sharing the message they wanted was important to them. In a world of fabricated and inauthentic content, Rambo shares that creating music and content that you authentically care about will come through in the end. “If you don't care, why would other people care about it,” he finishes.
With over sixty-three thousand followers on TikTok and nearly fifty thousand monthly listeners on streaming platforms, this band is only at the beginning of their journey. Be sure to hop on the Vortxz train and stay tuned for all their upcoming projects!
