We had the pleasure of chatting with Mario Rivera, the dynamic vocalist and guitarist of the veteran DIY punk band Left Unsaid. Hailing from Albuquerque, the skate punk outfit emerged from the local scene in the early 2000s. Recently, Mario has taken on an impressive new role as the mastermind behind the band’s documentary Never Ending, It’s Better This Way, out now on Amazon Prime Video. This film, which Mario shot, directed, produced, and edited himself (wow!), charts Left Unsaid’s rise from the vibrant Albuquerque punk scene to becoming hometown heroes with a fervent following and a presence on mainstream radio. In our conversation with Mario, we’ll explore the challenges of putting this documentary together, reflect on the music scene’s evolution from their early days to today, discuss their latest single, and get a glimpse into what’s on the horizon for Left Unsaid.
JG: The documentary Never Ending, It’s Better This Way seems like a labor of love. Can you share what inspired you to undertake this project after all these years?
Mario Rivera: Our band Left Unsaid started in the late 90s and over the years, I’ve just been collecting tons of footage of tours, the local scene, etc. Our band broke up in 2004, but we’ve been playing these reunion shows all the way up until now. We just kept selling our shows out and there’s something really special about Left Unsaid and the community we came from.
During the pandemic, when we were all in lockdown, I was going through a bunch of old footage and was thinking what should I do with this? I wanted to make a documentary to tell our story because I feel our story is unique and relatable to anyone who has ever been in a band or part of the music scene. Not only that, I wanted to put something together to share with all our fans. Everybody in our band now has kids who never really knew much about our band, so this would also be a great way to share our story with them. I packed up my car, got all my film gear, drove to Albuquerque and for two weeks, I was just driving around interviewing musicians, DJs and everybody who has ever been a part of Left Unsaid. That’s where it all came from. When I got back, it took me about three and a half years to complete it.
JG: What was the most challenging aspect of piecing all that footage and those interviews together?
Mario Rivera: A lot of the footage I had was on VHS, Hi-8, and DV tapes. I kept constantly having to purchase old school cameras off ebay. Then I had hundreds of tapes that I needed to transfer. That was definitely a challenge. Going through all the footage and transferring it all. I had to play the producer role, too. I had to work within everybody’s time and schedules to go interview them. Everybody lives in different states now. I had some of the band members fly out to San Diego where I live to interview them and I did a couple of interviews over Zoom. The hardest part was just orchestrating this whole thing.
JG: You touched on how relatable the doc is and that chasing dreams is a big theme that comes up throughout it. How do you think Never Ending, It’s Better This Way will resonate with people that aren’t in music?
Mario Rivera: For people that aren’t in music, they’ll connect with it being a story of friendship and a team effort. You know the saying, there’s no “i” in team.
JG: Albuquerque’s music scene clearly plays a significant role in Left Unsaid’s story. How did growing up and starting out in Albuquerque shape the band’s identity and sound?
Mario Rivera: We were always focused in Albuquerque. But for myself, I moved to San Diego nine years ago. I’ve had a band called Nights Like These for the past eight years now and we’re still going. For me, coming from Albuquerque to San Diego, I can see the difference in the music community and how the scene is. Albuquerque is a smaller scene, so the competition isn’t as wild as it is here. The local promoters in Albuquerque would give every single band a chance to help them grow their following by putting them on national tours that came through town. Now, everything is done through social media. When you’re living in a bigger city like San Diego, there’s so much more competition. It’s not as easy to give bands an opportunity to play in front of bigger crowds.
I don’t think living in Albuquerque gave us a certain sound to our music. Plus, it was a different time back then as we came up in the ‘90s and 2000s. I think social media has changed how music is taken in and promoted now.
JG: Totally. It was definitely more DIY and grassroots pre-social media.
Mario Rivera: Absolutely. I used to book all of our tours. Back then, I would have to get a physical copy of the CD. Print out the bio. Go and mail that out to a venue, then call them on a long-distance phone call to try to book tours. As we got older, we could use technology. I would book tours using Myspace. Instagram now. It’s crazy to see how things have evolved.
JG: Speaking of that evolution, Left Unsaid is out now with “Wormwood,” the band’s first new single in 20 years. What’s that like?
Mario Rivera: We were always playing shows just randomly throughout the years. For the documentary title, not only is it a lyric from our most popular song “Dresden,” it lives and is kinda like the motto for this band because this band is never ending, it keeps going. While we were doing this documentary, I was telling the guys that we haven’t written and recorded a new song in 20 years. Maybe we should jump on something like that and have that also be released with the documentary. We were sitting on some riffs and our other guitarist/singer Hunter had some song ideas that he was messing with from some years ago. We took that. He gave it to me and I wrote the bridge and structured the song. We all worked on it together and added our parts to it. That’s how we came up with it.
We recorded everything separately. Our drummer Jeremy lives in Richmond, VA and he recorded his drums in studio. I recorded my guitar parts and my vocals in San Diego here at my house. Hunter recorded his guitar and vocals in Portland at his house. And Eric, our bass player, who’s the only one that still lives in Albuquerque, recorded his parts there. Then we got it all together and sent it off to audio engineer/producer Joe Marsh who we’ve been working with in our other bands and he mixed and mastered it. Now we’re all in the mindset of keeping it going and writing another one. That’s where we’re at. I think we’re going to keep Left Unsaid cruising and play shows here and there, keep trying to release new music, see where this goes, and have fun enjoying the process.
JG: That’s so cool! What’s the fan response been like so far to the new song?
Mario Rivera: It’s been great. Honestly. We just had a sold-out move premiere at the Guild Theater in Albuquerque. After the premiere, we had a sold out show at Launchpad, which is mentioned in the documentary. We highlight that venue like crazy. It’s like our home. We released “Wormwood” the day before the premiere, so people had a day to listen to it. But people were singing along to it at the show. That was cool. It feels like nothing has changed after 20 years. The fact that we can still sell out our shows and have everybody come is incredible. It’s the best feeling.
JG: With the crowd already knowing the lyrics after a day, it really speaks to the impact you all have had on your fans. They’re ready for more music!
Mario Rivera: Our biggest song was called “Dresden” and we kind of threw a little reference to that song in “Wormwood.” If you listen to it, you can hear a bit of resemblance in the lyrics. The “he said, she said” line in “Dresden,” we took that and brought it in. With “Wormwood,” we wanted to go back to the beginning of when the band first started. When Left Unsaid started, we were a fast skate punk band. Then when I joined, we moved towards more of a pop-punk, emo, hardcore type of sound. We’re excited to see what we can come up with next.
JG: With the new single and the doc out now, what’s next for Left Unsaid?
Mario Rivera: Right now, we’re just playing it by ear. I play in two other bands here in San Diego. Our drummer Jeremy plays drums in another band in Virginia. Eric has another band he plays bass in in Albuquerque. Everybody does their own thing. Everybody has kids now, except for myself. We’re all older. We’re all in our 40s. I know we want to keep doing these pop-up shows, but aside from that, we don’t really have a set plan for what’s coming next.
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Left Unsaid’s documentary Never Ending, It’s Better This Way is out now on Amazon Prime Video.
