The anemic shade under the canopy of Simon L.A.’s Mexican seafood truck was no match for the 95-degree heat radiating from Sunset Boulevard’s black asphalt on the hottest day of the year this past weekend.
Yet, 24-year-old Marcos Crespo, known as Markusiano, the founder and frontman of Depresión Sonora, was unfazed as he turned his head 90 degrees to take the biggest bite of chef Francisco Aguilar’s “Ceviche Taco.”
One of the truck’s best sellers, it's a battered piece of basa fish topped with shrimp ceviche as a garnish. It was loaded generously with Aguilar’s habanero salsa and salsa macha. Nonetheless, the rising post-punk star, wearing all-black and using a cement k-rail as a table, smiled, swooned, and took the double dose of heat like a champ.
An ice-cold Topo Chico in hand, Markusiano's got a sly grin and the weight of a generation’s malaise in his music. He arrived in the U.S. a couple of weeks earlier, shortly before playing Cruel World and marrying the love of his life. Now he's getting ready to do a tour up the California coast.
Markusiano's 2020 self-titled EP sparked a darkwave bedroom revolution, and with his 2024 "Makinavaja" EP still ripping through streams, Markusiano is no longer just a sound—he’s a movement. But today, under the unforgiving L.A. sun, he’s just a guy in love craving a good fish taco and enjoying his moment in the current explosion of Spanish-language music to the top of the charts.
But first, tacos.
We’re here to talk tacos, being big in Mexico, selling out the El Rey Theater all by himself the last time he played in L.A., and how a kid from Vallecas, Madrid, became post-punk’s latest prophet.
L.A. TACO: Off the dome, what is your opinion of Los Angeles?
At a cultural level, it’s a shock. A lot of us around the world have always consumed American culture. Coming here, it’s a bit of a deception. The reality is that it is a lot more cruel here in real life. It feels like a city that can get lonely if you don’t have an established social circle, because everything is so far away. It’s a city where you can live well and with dignity only if you have money, but if you don’t, you are nobody, and it must be tough to live here.
What would you say is the most significant difference to L.A.’s taco life versus Mexico City’s taco life … and Spain’s taco life?
Markusiano: Excellent question. Before I started playing music in Spain, I would go to Mexican restaurants in Madrid and I ate tacos there. But after playing in Mexico, there’s no returning to eating tacos in Spain. In L.A., the tacos are good. But it’s not the same as Mexico. The tortillas are different.
Spoken like a true emerging taco expert, aside from the tortilla, is there anything else different from tacos in L.A., Mexico, and Spain?
We have excellent gastronomy in Spain, but spicy, delicious things like tacos are not every day. However, I still recommend you travel to Spain to eat our food. It’s some of the world’s best.
You’re staying in East Hollywood and have confessed to loving Yuca’s whenever you come to L.A., what’s your order there?
A friend from Medellín, Colombia, told us about the ritual of going to Yuca’s—not for their tacos, but for their cheeseburger. He told us that eating it properly meant bringing our drinks from the liquor store across the street, eating it standing up, and going about our day afterward. That cheeseburger is incredible. It’s the best one I’ve eaten anywhere so far.
Everyone is always surprised that Depresión Sonora is not from Sonora, Mexico. No, not yet, we have not played a show there, but it’ll happen. I studied audio engineering, and I learned about the concept of sound pressure level. Depresión Sonora is a play on words but in Spanish.
You’re huge in Mexico City. It’s the city that listens to you the most on Spotify. Does Mexican culture influence your music?
When I first started this musical journey, Mexico was a faraway country and a place I knew nothing about. But now that I’ve gone a few times, I’ve grown to have many friends from Mexico and understand the country. Last year, I toured around Mexico City four different times. I’ve played there for months at a time. I also spent a month there in 2023, so yes, for sure, Mexican culture, in some degree or another, has influenced my music.
Have Depresión Sonora played a show … in Sonora, Mexico?
[Laughs and nearly spits out his food]. Everyone is always surprised that Depresión Sonora is not from Sonora, Mexico. No, not yet, we have not played a show there, but it’ll happen. I studied audio engineering, and I learned about the concept of sound pressure level. Depresión Sonora is a play on words but in Spanish.
You are sharing the stage with New Order at Cruel World this weekend. How does that feel as an artist continuing in that band’s pioneering post-punk style?
It feels big and significant to me. It’s one of those bands you have listened to since you were young. It excites me just thinking about it. This is my second time playing at the same festival with them. The first time was at Dark Waves in 2023.
You teased a new album coming out soon. What will it be called?
That’s still a secret. But you can rest assured that a new album will be out before this year ends.
Thank you for speaking with us.
Thank you for these really good tacos.
Depresión Sonora plays at Cruel World this Saturday and in Santa Cruz on May 13th, Berkeley on May 14th, San Luis Obispo on May 15th, and Phoenix on May 18th. For more details, check out their Linktree.
