The Warning is a Mexican rock band from Monterrey, founded in 2013 by three sisters: Daniela (vocals, guitars, piano), Paulina (drums, vocals, piano) and Alejandra Villarreal (bass, piano, backing vocals). They have opened for and toured with bands such as Foo Fighters, Guns N’ Roses, Muse, and Three Days Grace.
The band first went viral in 2014 when, at ages 9 through 14, their YouTube video performing Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” became a hit among rock music fans, earning more than 20 million views. Due to their newfound popularity, the group set up a GoFund me to raise money to record their first EP, Escape The Mind in 2015.
The Warning has since released 3 albums and another EP with a new album coming out later this year. After extensive touring through North and South America in 2022, and their first visits to Europe in 2023, they are full of excitement to begin their headlining tour through Europe, including festivals in Spain, France and the legendary Wacken Open Air in Germany, 2024.
We met with drummer and bassist Paulina and Alejandra during their appearance on the ShipRocked cruise. We got to talk about their new single, must pack items for the road, and the Jamaican events that led their fandom into a Tweeting frenzy.
Tell me about the new song “S!ck.”
Paulina: “S!ick” is our newest single. We just released it like, a week ago. I think it’s a crazy song about adrenaline and just wanting to live life and just living life to the fullest.
You guys are all sisters, family. Any travel tips for traveling with family?
Paulina: Patience. Patience is key, and a lot of empathy. We’re all tired. A very good tip is don’t expect the people in your family to lend you things. Pack everything you need. Laughing
Alejandra: It’s just understanding that we’re all going through the same thing. We’re all touring. We all have our great days. We all have bad days. So, it’s just being very understanding.
What are your must pack items when you travel?
Paulina: I feel like I always forget my hairbrush, so I always have to check three times. Sunscreen, very important. Wear your SPF. We walk a lot at festivals, so different comfortable shoes.
Alejandra: I feel like my skincare stuff. Different shoes, like really comfortable shoes. I take my Crocs everywhere.
I’ve traveled to Monterrey before for work. I get terrified landing between those mountains every single time, even though it’s so beautiful. What’s the perfect day in Monterrey?
Paulina: Hopefully it’s not that hot. 25 degrees Celsius is a good spot. I would go to Parque Fundidora, I would get some tacos around there. Just sit down, enjoy, drink a coffee.
Alejandra: You know, we also have a good nightlife. Like you could go to Centro, one of the pubs, see a rock band around there.
You’re band is hugely popular in Mexico, but as you started out touring the US and the world, have you been given any good advice by other musicians?
Paulina: I don’t know if this is another musician, but our sound engineer, Lalo, when we started working in touring, especially in the US, we hadn’t done that before. He told me one night, ‘just have fun.’ It’s such a simple thing. Even if you’re not at your best physically, emotionally, there are always little moments where you can have fun and enjoy the tour. So that has been the best advice I’ve ever gotten.
Alejandra: You take it for granted. Like, of course, it’s extremely fun to tour and to play, but it’s also very tiring. So sometimes you forget why you’re doing what you’re doing. It’s important to remember to have fun while we are here.
I saw you guys at Welcome to Rockville and a bunch of rock festivals last year. Did you have any fun festival moments?
Alejandra: I feel like festivals are always so much fun because you get to meet other bands and you just get to see so many people play. It’s weird, but it’s so hectic going. You just meet a lot of bands. You meet a lot of people. You see people from the industry you’ve met before. It’s like a big party. It’s just really a big learning party. You see other bands and you’re like, ‘Oh my God, I want to do that. I want to try that out.’
You guys are about to have a Spring Europe tour. Any cities you’re looking forward to visiting?
Paulina: Italy! It’s a country we haven’t been to, so we’re very excited about that. Going back to Spain. Spain was really fun. Berlin, the last time that we went, it was crazy. It was the first time we went. Now most of our shows in Germany are sold out. It’s really exciting. We’re very much looking forward to that.
Are you guys working on new music?
Alejandra: Yes. Last year between touring, we were recording an album. We just finished recording it. It should be mixed and mastered soon and throughout the year we’ll be releasing singles. Hopefully by the first half of the year the album will be out.
What inspired you as you wrote the new album?
Alejandra: My life, just traveling and people, all these experiences and new feelings that we were having about life were just crazy. It’s there, It’s in the album.
Paulina: Life, hearing stories from other people.
What’s your perfect vacation?
Paulina: Oh my God, a beach. No work, no phone for like three days. If you have your phone, you’re working. Period. Being with friends, sleeping a lot.
Alejandra: Very, very peaceful. I don’t have to go sightseeing. I don’t have to do anything. Just relax.
What do you do in your downtime on the road?
Paulina: We go sightseeing, usually. We usually just walk wherever we are. Sometimes we don’t even go to the touristy parts, we just try and walk around the cities wherever we are playing.
Alejandra: We try to go out of our way because we’re from Mexico, we’re traveling halfway across the world, and you’re like, ‘When am I going to be back here?’ We watch people doing their thing. And we eat great food.
Did you have a favorite show on your South American tour?
Alejandra: The South American shows were absolutely insane. The crowds of Argentina, probably the most crazy and insane show we’ve ever played. It was fantastic. We were there for less than 12 hours. We arrived. We did soundcheck, meet and greet, we played and we left immediately. It was very hectic, but it was extremely fun.
So, while the boat and storm situation was going down in Jamaica, I was looking on Twitter to see what was happening. The only thing people seemed to care about on Twitter was your band.
Alejandra: We started getting a lot of messages from people like, ‘Where are you? Are you okay?’ And we were like, ‘We’re fine!’ Like half of our team was out in Jamaica. We were on the boat and we were in constant communication with them. The crew of the boat handled everything well.
We posted a picture to show fans we were safe on the boat.
What’s your craziest travel story?
Alejandra: I feel like this has taken the cake. We thought we were going to sink and die for a few minutes. We were just so worried. Every time we travel we have something like that happen. There’s an earthquake, there’s an explosion or something like that. So many things have happened while we have toured. So, we were thinking like, ‘Damn it, this is a curse. Like, this is our fault. Oh my God, we’re so sorry.’ Thankfully everything is fine.
Paulina: But before coming to the ship, we were in Miami and there were tornado warnings. So, we’re like, ‘Oh my God.’ But everything worked out fine and everyone is ok and it’s another great story.