Raul Pacheco turns reflective on the latest track from his Man Boy Brown solo project

Man Boy Brown, the alter ego of Raul Pacheco, vocalist, guitarist, songwriter and co-founding member of three-time Grammy-winning Los Angeles mainstay Ozomatli, releases his new single “Twice” today.

Click here to listen now, and watch the music video.

Opening with an ominous piano and horn, “Twice” finds Pacheco taking stock of a life lived and asking the bigger questions that come with looking back: What did you do with your time, and what did you leave behind to better the world?

“Once your sun dimmers and falls / The movie starts, remember it all / Like a history that is told / Was it meek or was it bold?”

“This is a reflective song along the lines of the Allman Brothers or the Grateful Dead,” says Pacheco. “There’s a jam band element to it.”

“Twice” is the latest glimpse into Pacheco’s first solo album as Man Boy Brown, a project that gives him room to explore the music and ideas that have stayed with him throughout his life. Steeped in everything from romantic Latin ballads and Mexican corridos to the rock music he heard through his older sisters growing up, the songs leave space for melody while turning inward toward love, connection, growth and the passage of time.

After three decades with Ozomatli, Man Boy Brown isn't about leaving that history behind. It’s about giving Pacheco another place to go musically and the freedom to follow ideas wherever they lead.

“I’m at the age where, if I don’t do this now, I might never do it,” he explains. “I want to delve into all the things I love musically.”

Dividing his time between an adobe home in New Mexico and Boyle Heights, where he grew up, Pacheco finds himself both surrounded by his past and looking toward what comes next.

“I’m proud of where I come from, but I’m also a man of the world,” he says. “I feel like I haven’t peaked yet... The best is yet to come.”