Arguably the most eclectic young rock band in Texas, Giovannie and the Hired Guns are “trying to be lions in a world full of sheep,” says lead singer Giovannie Yanez. “We want to be unique.”
Mission accomplished. The title of the Stephenville quintet’s third album, Tejano Punk Boyz, barely scratches the surface of the band’s anything-goes sound, which includes metal, country and enough pop melodies to endear the group to radio.
Their song “Ramón Ayala” — which tips its hat to Mexico’s “King of the Accordion” — topped Billboard’s rock and alternative charts last summer. In October, “Gio” and the Hired Guns released Tejano Punk Boyz on the first-ever collaboration between Warner Music Nashville and Warner Music Latina.
All this cross-pollination comes naturally. Yanez, 29, grew up listening to Texas country acts such as Randy Rogers and Pat Green as well as rock bands including AC/DC, Lynyrd Skynyrd and System of a Down.
His love of Latin music came by osmosis. His mom blasted Selena around the house, while other family members played norteño music by artists like Ayala. Although Yanez wrote “Ramón Ayala” about two aimless lovers, he made sure to name-check Ayala and Selena in the lyrics.
“Ramón Ayala is a pretty big part of my life,” Yanez says. “Every time I sing the song, it brings me back to Christmas and Thanksgivings with the uncles hanging around the campfire drinking beer and the aunts inside drinking coffee.”
Yanez spent the first 12 years of his life near Mineral Wells, west of Fort Worth, before his Mexican-born mom and Abilene-raised dad moved to the Stephenville area. Soon after that, Gio’s uncle loaned him an acoustic guitar, and he learned to write songs. He formed Giovannie and the Hired Guns in 2015 after laboring in a rock quarry and working behind the counter at a pawnshop.
The band includes guitarists Carlos Villa and Jerrod Flusche, bassist Alex Trejo and drummer Milton Toles, with Yanez writing or co-writing most of the songs. Several tunes on Tejano Punk Boyz hint at dark times he’s gone through: The bilingual song “The Letter” is about Yanez’s experiences with the tranquilizer Xanax, which he bought on the black market.
“I was going through a really rough patch and I took one, and I was just like, “Wow! I don’t care about anything!” he says.
But addiction came quickly. Eventually, his bandmates confronted him after a concert.
“I thought we’d played the greatest show ever, and they said, ‘What the hell are you talking about? The show was terrible!’”
His bandmates secretly located his Xanax stash and flushed the pills. It was then that Yanez realized he had a problem and quit.
“My philosophy now is you can have fun and have a great life if you surround yourself with wonderful people who love and support you. That’s better than any drug out there, I guarantee you,” he says.
“I talk about it all the time at my shows. I’m like, ‘You don’t need a little pill to make you feel better. Just breathe. Take it easy. Call a friend.’”
While Yanez doesn’t shy away from singing about life’s rough edges, he writes plenty of humorous lyrics, too. “Overrated” and its silly video are straight from the Blink-182 school of rock, with lyrics inspired by a spat Yanez had with his girlfriend
“I think I’d forgotten to pick up a plate, and she said I was getting a big head,” Yanez says. “It’s just a super, super fun song that kind of wrote itself.”
Don’t be surprised if he follows it up with a song about his parents, who weren’t exactly gung-ho about his plan to be a musician.
“When you’re raised in a Hispanic household, you can have dreams, but first, you’ve got to have a 9 to 5 job.” he says. “When I moved out and didn’t have a job, it was probably hell for my parents.”
But when his career finally started to click, his mom and dad changed their tune.
“Now they talk to me about how happy they are … they tear up and cry, they’re so happy for me,” he says. “I’m thankful I’ve got amazing parents who stuck through with me.”
Details
Giovannie and the Hired Guns perform Feb. 9 at Hank’s Texas Grill in McKinney and March 10 at Billy Bob’s Texas in Fort Worth. For more information, visit gioandtheguns.com/tour.
