Interview with Alex Merbouti, Cumbiamba Band

Alex Merbouti is a Miami based multidisciplinary artist. He’s a photographer, DJ, and musician with a history and acclaim for performing in popular projects. His most recent endeavor is Cumbiamba, a psychedelic Cumbia band which formed in May 2025. Late to the party, I caught Cumbiamba's set closing out the inaugural Mango Festival in Lake Worth, where they played the outdoor stage of the block party. This introduction to the band was impressive. The large crowd danced and grooved to the music through the entire performance, even as it began to rain. I spoke with Merbouti the following day to learn about the development of the band. 

Steve Imas

I remember you putting out a video introducing the band, explaining that Cumbiamba started after you saw Los Mirlos perform live at the Bandshell last April. I've been watching what you guys are doing and seen your progression and it looks like you guys are really picking up steam, kudos for all that you've you know grown in such a short time. 

Alex Merbouti

Thank you.

S.I. 

Was that Mirlos show your first live experience with Cumbia?

A.M. 

No, I had seen Cumbia here and there. I grew up in California, in L.A. so I saw a lot of Mexican Cumbia there. But that was my first time seeing a band of their caliber. In terms of a psychedelic Cumbia band, which is like the style of Cumbia that I first got into and what we lean most heavily towards. I remember being at the Bandshell, it was a near sold out show. I didn't know Miami had such a large Peruvian audience but it also got me to thinking: there's all these other Latin genres in Miami like Salsa, Bachata, & Meringue but I'd never really seen Cumbia represented at large in the city. I know a couple vinyl DJs that spin Cumbia and I would spin Cumbia when I DJ too, but like it is really just kinda a handful of people. There's a couple of bands like Sonora Tukukuy, they do kind of a different flavor, I guess like modern and more alternative fusion. There's another band called Paziflora and they do more like Colombian Folklore, Afro-Colombia style. So yeah, I thought "no one's hitting that psychidelic 60's/70's middle ground", and I kind of saw an opening. The next day after the Mirlos show I posted a story on Instagram and I was like "OK just looking for people that are down to jam on some Cumbia". I listed all the instruments and it got a lot of interest, the story got 600 0r 700 views. 

S.I. 

Wild, so a lot of people were passing the story around. How many people showed up in the end?

A.M.

I got maybe like 20 or 30 replies of interest. I set up to rent out a rehearsal space and gave the address, date, & time to whoever responded and half of them showed up so like 15 people came out. 

S.I.

Did anyone you know show up? What happened next? 

A.M. 

Yeah, some friends & some people I had never met made it out too and it was fun. We had a few preliminary jams and then I kinda made it like a weekly thing and I was like yeah whoever just wants to show up can with no pressure, I wasn't even necessarily trying to start a band. I was just wanted to jam with anyone who was into this music too. 

S.I. 

Super loose open door policy type thing, that's cool, a great way to figure out who is down for it.

A.M.

Yes, that's a big funnel, we had a couple of these jams you know anywhere from like eight to like sometimes 15 people. I thought it was cool, people are having fun, but I didn't expect anyone to stick around or wanna do it seriously. And to my surprise a month or so later, these people kept coming back and the core group started forming. 

S.I. 

Well there's a good segue to talk about everyone in the band and and what they do. I know you have nine members in the band, can you tell me their names and what everyone in the band does.

A.M.

Yeah, so Cody, plays the drums as you know, Caro on bass, then Kevin is our keyboard player, then we have Liz is a vocalist, Vanne our other vocalist, Camille on guiro & vocals, Chris on percussion & trumpet too, Sara on flute & vocals, and myself on guitar & vocals. With the core in place we put together a DIY show together on July 28, the Peruvian Independence Day. Our Peruvian guitarist (now former guitarist), worked at a bakery in North Miami and we had the event there. We decided to make a goal to have some songs ready for the show. We thought it was gonna be a cute little soft opening, maybe 40 or 50 people. We posted the flyer and it got like 40,000 views and I think it was shared over like 700 times, people sent it to each other that much. 

S.I. 

Wow, you guys were breaking some capacity laws there I'm sure, hahahaaa.

A.M.

Hahahaa yeah, definitely. we set up outside in a parking lot in the back area and I wanna say at some point maybe like 300 to 400 people were there. 

S.I. 

Wow, amazing that's so cool and you guys are just starting up at this point. 

A.M.

Yeah, we were fresh, never played in front of anyone and essentially we didn't sell anything but it was a sold out vibe for a show.

S.I. 

Right on, what an insane turnout! 

A.M. 

Yeah, yeah that was the craziest debuts I've ever had for a band. The fact we did it on Peruvian Independence Day there were probably 200 Peruvians there. Then this is also right around the time that Churchill's and Las Rosas reopened. A couple weeks after the event I left to New York for the entire month of August to DJ and solo gigs and that kind of created a demand because we played this great show and people were trying to book us everywhere but I was gone, so we had to say no. 

S.I. 

That made more of a demand I'm sure, when you can't get what you want.

A.M. 

Yeah, so we planned a show for Las Rosas in September, for when I came back and it was packed out. That was our second show and it was like at an actual venue so it felt kinda like legit. 

S.I. 

So you have your year anniversary coming up, right, based on that gig? 

A.M.

Yeah, it's gonna be on September 18 back at Las Rosas. 

S.I.

That makes sense yeah, the first official show like you said at a legit venue.

A.M.

Yeah, official legit venue show so that's kind of what the anniversary is based on. We have three anniversaries, getting together in May, our bakery gig in July and the September one for the Las Rosas gig.

S.I. 

That is great and the momentum keeps going, at least one gig a month. 

A.M.

Yeah, ever since that show the inquiries never stop scrolling in, sometimes several times a month. Yeah, in those next two or three months, we played Gramps, Zey Zey, and Propaganda in Lake Worth. 

S.I. 

Yeah, and people in Palm Beach County are loving it, huh? 

A.M.

Yeah, actually decent up there. Last night I saw some familiar faces that have been to the Propaganda shows. Actually, after our set we hung out super late and we went to the after hours party at Frenchies and there were people there were coming up to us "hey you guys played on J St".

S.I.

So nice to get recognition like that in the moment. I know you guys play a mix of covers and originals. What is the dynamic when you like fleshing out the tunes, like different people like start a seed of a song?

A.M.

Yeah, so what is cool about having so many members that we have so many different styles of songwriting and ideas to bounce off of we kind of never run out of juice in that form. So until recently had 10 people in the band and so pretty much each one wrote one or two songs so that's like we basically have an album's worth of material in the works already. 

S.I.

What a nice advantage you all have, so have you started recording an album? 

A.M.

We bought a mixer recently that works as an interface so we've been recording ourselves, recording every rehearsal and recording our songwriting like multi tracking our songwriting session so we kinda like reference everything, it's sped up the process a lot. As for a release date we don’t have a concrete date yet but definitely by the end of the year. There will be singles and a full album. We’ll most likely start with a 45 record.

S.I.

So cool.

A.M.

And yeah, we are a large group, so we have that like a weekly meeting time usually every Tuesday, but in between that some of us kind of live closer to each other and so we'll have little like breakout writing sessions or if we can't all meet before a big show or something we get as many little groups as we can. 

S.I.

That helps to get a core tight, yeah that's cool. You guys sounded great! I've been seeing all your posts and all the buzz about you guys. I've been wanting to go to the shows but it's tough with an 8 year old. I am glad to have finally seen you all last night on that proper stage and in that block party environment. What is next for you all, a tour? 

A.M.

Yeah, yeah we've been trying to come up with more Sunday daytime kids friendly shows, a lot of our friends have kids too. It's cool with this band, we do bring quite the party, we definitely plan to get it on the road north, out west, and then internationally too.

S.I.

With Latin communities all over all over the place, I see what you do as a show that people that enjoy all over the US and beyond.

A.M.

Yeah, definitely feels very very universal. I grew up in California so I'm familiar with the L.A. and up in San Francisco scene. Also having spent a month in New York I've made a bunch of connections. We've had people from all over reach out. I basically found like every Cumbia party and collectives and that are active but kind of worldwide and like it's actually like a pretty small community so everyone's kind of aware of everyone else so it makes kind of like a tighter network

S.I.

Very cool Alex, thank you so much man for taking the time to talk to me. 

A.M.

Yeah man, thanks for reaching out to us.