Cabras started out in Ecuador in 2014, at a time when their style of music had little presence in the country. “We formed in Guayaquil, through a shared love of emotional heavy music, which was something that didn’t really exist locally at the time,” vocalist, guitarist, and founding member Carlos Proaño tells No Echo. “There was either the indie rock scene or the Punk-with-a-capital-P scene.”
Over the next few years, Cabras built their own space in the scene, releasing the CBRS EP in 2017 and Ensayo sobre los afectos in 2019 before breaking up later that year. They reunited in 2024 and put out a self-titled EP in 2025. The current lineup is Proaño, Xavier Rendón, David Ayora, and Andrés Veintimilla. “At this point, I like to think of Cabras as a meeting point to play urgent and honest music,” Proaño says. “I think that flexibility has kept the band alive.”
Cabras take influence from late-1990s and early-2000s screamo and post-hardcore. Earlier versions of the band also leaned into heavier shoegaze. Proaño sees Cabras as part of the Latin American emo and screamo revival of the 2010s, alongside bands like Joliette, No Somos Marineros, Corriendo, Vorágine, Fiesta Bizarra, and Procrastinación 1 Yo 0.
Cabras’ latest single, “Pretendí levantar mis manos como antenas hacia el cielo” (“I tried to raise my hands like antennas towards the sky”), moves their sound closer to melodic hardcore. The track came out on Guayaquil label Pensador Records and was recorded at producer Julio Paredes’ home studio.
“We worked with him because we were looking to do a more polished version of our music,” Proaño explains. “Historically, the band’s production has leaned towards a lo-fi, organic feel, and we wanted to see how polished we could get while still sounding like Cabras. I think Julio nailed it in this regard.”
The single comes with a video directed by Guayaquil filmmaker and photographer Linda López and produced by Cóndor. It is Cabras’ second official music video, after 2019’s “No olvidar, transformar.”
Lyrically, “Pretendí levantar mis manos como antenas hacia el cielo” is about searching for meaning beyond material things and recognizing that growth often comes from making mistakes and trying again.
“It deals with themes of finding meaning beyond materialism and coming to terms with the fact that life is an endless cycle of making mistakes, learning, trying again, failing again, and how that (often painful) process makes us grow as humans,” Proaño says.
The environment surrounding Cabras has also changed considerably since their earliest days. Proaño describes Ecuador’s current heavy emotional music scene as “more exciting than ever,” pointing to No Gracias, Dejar Ir, Wilson Serrano, Razones Para Odiar, Agatka, Kain, Huracán N-90, Anecso, and Mapioso as bands worth exploring.
“When we began, the only people I was aware of who were exploring this side of music were us and our friends Finlandia/Singapur from Quito,” he says. “But the new (and not so new) generation has brought many exciting and varied projects, each one with their own take on it.”
After a recent hometown show in Guayaquil that marked the release of the new single, introduced the current lineup, and looked back at the band’s catalog, Cabras are already planning their next steps.
“At this moment, we really want to go back to the studio to finish the composition process for new music and keep releasing new material,” Proaño says, “which is, at the end of the day, what we love the most.”
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“Pretendí levantar mis manos como antenas hacia el cielo” is available on Bandcamp via Pensador Records
Cabras on social media: Instagram
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