About

In the beginning…

There was a love for mariachi music. David, who would eventually go on to found MES, had an uncommon perspective on a common idea: to realize non-mariachi music using mariachi instrumentation and musical idiosynchronicity. Every mariachi wants to play something that is decidedly not mariachi music in their mariachi career. It was not a new idea by any stretch of the imagination. The world’s greatest mariachi Mariachi Vargas had played music from Star Wars in the 1970’s, some non-traditional repertoire has even become standard in various mariachi circuits around the world.

But one unique thing David did have for better and for worse was that despite having been in the traditional mariachi circuit for years by the time MES was formed, he fell in love with mariachi in adulthood and learned the style through the lens of developed influences/training in classical music, marching band, heavy metal, rock, broadway musicals, jazz, salsa music and of course a love of video game music. Unsure if anyone would want to participate in something so experimental, David began writing arrangements of non-traditional mariachi music while getting his Bachelor of Arts degrees in Music and Psychology at Texas State University some time around 2003, 2 years after beginning his professional mariachi career. No other musician would see those arrangements for another 12 years. Some arrangments have yet to see the light of day. But in 2015, after having spent over a decade buying and selling dozens of microphones, cables, mixers, audio interfaces with the hopes of creating music, yet without ever having recorded a single note, David began to become irritated by the waste.

A breakthrough in therapy on a single day in March 2015, coupled with a chance viewing of a YouTube video featuring The Moon Theme from the NES classic Duck Tales led David to take on what he believed to be a an easy risk: adapt The Moon Theme into mariachi…. at least on paper. David saw video game music and mariachi music as undervalued, and marginalized. David sought to demonstrate that mariachis were worthy musicians, and that video game music was a worthy style. David approached the idea understanding that quality execution would be the key to making this message clear.

The adaptation seemed like a collection of obvious conclusions, the strings would play the intro, the bass and rhythm would play….. the bass and the rhythm and the trumpet would take on the responsibility of filling out the pop mood suggested by the iconic melody.

Armed with a ton of gear and no knowledge of how to use it, not to mention no musicians to play the music, David marched on. He reached out to friends and orchestrated a highly compartmentalized recording process. He guessed his way through using a DSLR camera, and flew completely blind through recording, mixing, mastering audio and editing video. With Robert Casillas on guitarron, Gilberto Martinez on vihuela/guitar, Amy and Alfredo Rabago on Violin, none of the musicians ever heard any music outside their own part in the recording process.

On the evening of April 23, 2015, with the help of a handful of class-act musicians, David uploaded his first video on YouTube.

The following morning, David awoke to find the channel had reached 500 subscribers over night, and amassed over 10,000 views. Work on the second song began almost immediately, and the familiar process of piecing together helpful musicians in a circuitous, compartmentalized recording process was on repeat. Believing that no one would make a long-term commitment to such a strange effort, David named the channel after himself.

As MES gained notoriety, there was an emerging focus on video game music, recording renegades became regulars; the name Daveyard Shift just didn’t seem to fit. At the suggestion of a Patreon subscriber, the name was changed to Mariachi Entertainment System.

Over the years MES has added flutes and featured various other instruments and vocals, we have seen members come and go, we have released 4 albums, 2 EPs, and performed live at the main stages at MAGFest in 2020, PAX South from 2017-2020, PAX West in 2023, been featured by Huffington Post, Playboy Magazine, Buzzfeed, and various other publications. MES performed virtually at GDC in 2021. MES has participated in the creation of the soundtrack for Guacamelee! 2 by Drinkbox Studios, and taken commissions from RIOT Games for League of Legends. MES continues make non-traditional music and expand their horizons; every genre of music is on the table, but MES will always have video game music in our DNA.