Feeling kinky?

Four years ago, when the Mexican electro-dance quintet Kinky moved to Los Angeles to set up a new home base and recording studio, they were greeted with mud. It flowed into their house / studio, onto their furniture and recording equipment and covered all of their instruments. Mud was everywhere.

Lead vocalist Gil Cerezo couldn’t believe it.

“It happened right as we were moving in,” Cerezo said by phone from L.A. “It was raining, pouring, storming for more than a week. There was a big mudslide, and we were asked to evacuate the area. It was a pretty extreme welcome to California.”

The band was disappointed, but they pressed on. After an extensive clean-up, they stayed there to record their third album, 2006’s Reina. The experience ended up serving as a metaphor and infused the entire band with renewed interest. For Cerezo, it even took on a somewhat mystical quality.

“I don’t know in English, but in Spanish, we say a ‘limpia,’” he explains. “It’s when you have bad karma or a bad situation over you and you go with a witch. She prays over some bowls, gives you some dirt, does all kinds of weird stuff and cleans you. And it really worked that way. It was like a wash out of all the bad. We finally found a studio that works really well for us.”

Kinky, well-known for their unyielding, high-energy live shows, did plenty of touring for Reina before returning to work in the studio. Once back, they were excited to record, this time without any serious distractions from Mother Nature. To help with the process, they enlisted musician and Beastie Boys producer Money Mark. The two had worked together once before on “Presidente,” the opening track from Kinky’s sophomore release, Atlas. What started out as a plan to do one or two songs together ended up becoming nine.

“We felt so comfortable with one another that we did more tracks than we expected,” Cerezo says. “He was there for the whole process. His point of view was very refreshing to the formula. We wrote and composed in different ways with him there and didn’t feel pressure or the time running at all. I think it shows in the music and lyrics of Barracuda. We all felt good, and it shows.”

The music on Barracuda remains all fun and games, but there was an effort to base some of the lyrics on life experiences.

“All of our albums have been about movement,” Cerezo says. “They’re about groove. And, of course, we love that, but we wanted this album to be about more than that—more than just about groove.”

Cerezo has taken the first step himself, penning the single “Avión” during a recent near-death experience. Traveling between Buenos Aries and La Patagonia in a small, private plane after a show one night, the band again ran into some unexpected weather.

“We took off and ran into a huge storm on the way,” Cerezo recalls. “It shook the whole plane and was a very intense ride. We really didn’t know if we were going to make it, so I started drinking champagne and writing the song at that moment.”

Perhaps their upcoming tour of the States, Mexico, South America and Japan will yield more experiences worth writing about. For now, the quintet will try to avoid the wrath of nature long enough to make it to their 10th anniversary at the end of this year. That, and they’ll keep trying to expand their sound while keeping one hand in the confetti.

“We just want to keep doing music in all directions,” says Cerezo. “We want to try all ways possible to reach something new. It’s the only plan we have.”    

Kinky plays with Mexican Dubweiser and Chico Sonido on Thursday, Feb. 26, at House of Blues. www.kinkytheband.com.