They’re nervous about taking on larger venues and new cities, but they also feel a lot of pride in the hard work they’ve put in. frenchpolicia | ✍️ Jocelyn Martinez Rosales
Left to right: Manny Herrera, Brian Flores, and Jesse Flores of French Police perform at Museo de la Ciudad in Querétaro, Mexico, on April 1, 2023.Packed into a garage in Garfield Ridge, Manny Herrera and brothers Jesse and Brian Flores practice for an imminent tour of Mexico by their postpunk band French Police. It’s late March, and their first Mexican date is just days away. It’ll be the Mexican American trio’s fourth tour, and their first outside the States.
The pre-COVID version of French Police had been used to drawing crowds of maybe 20 people, but the band’s first show back—a house show a few blocks from the garage where they practice—was totally packed. The trio remember this as a pivotal moment. Immediately afterward, they’d bang out three more shows, rapidly boosting their exposure until they had hundreds if not thousands of fans.
Before French Police, Brian and Jesse played in the band Karma Wears White Ties, formed in 2012. Herrera was a fan of their poppy mix of indie rock and new wave, whichat the University of Houston described in 2015 as “something between the lines of Two Door Cinema Club and Walk the Moon.” KWWT topped out at more than 15,000 Spotify listeners, but in 2018, Brian dismantled the band, having found himself uninspired and bored.
“[The songs] pull from a lot of different sounds, a lot of different things into one,” Brian says. “Every time we release a new album, it’s kind of slightly different. I think that’s why we have such a broad audience.” French Police played in Mexico City, Querétaro, and Guadalajara. They had the most fun in Mexico City, Brian says, and the tour was a success in part because they did it alongside Closed Tear.
French Police’s North American tour will be more than 20 shows. They’ll play Phoenix and Minneapolis for the first time, and they’re excited to revisit Riverside, California, where they remember having a super engaged audience. Their tourmates will be Closed Tear and another band that’s hit the road with them before, Lesser Care from El Paso, Texas.
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