The group started out in 2004, playing bars and clubs mostly associated with the Russian community, but quickly broke through the nationality barrier and went on to win the heart of the native Israelis.
The musical style of Los Caparos combines ska, reggae, dub and jungle and brings together Russian temperament and Israeli sun.
The group was formed by Arkadi Jacobson, Anton Koliadko and Andrey Bar – friends for the last decade. All three came to Israel during the nineties from different parts of the Soviet Union. In the beginning of 2004 Anton and Arkadi began to perform in Russian bars. Their acoustic performance was enhanced by Andrey, and so the idea for the “Los Caparos” was born. They recruited musicians, rehearsed original material, and performed for the first time as the opening act for a popular Russian band "5'nizza"` which was then touring Israel. The success of their debut encouraged them to keep writing and performing.
In 2005 Los Caparos were invited to the “VDOH” Festival in Moscow. Their shows during the festival and in Moscow’s night-clubs were a sweeping success and one of their songs was included in the festival’s album. Once back from Russia, they began working on the debut album. Band’s first album “Rasta Vasily” was produced in 2007 in collaboration with Ben Hendler (LBT, Barry Sacharoff, Balkan Beat Box) and combined guest appearances by Israeli musicians. Following the success of their first production the group has moved from the fringes toward the center. It became recognizable not only by the ever-growing fan base but also by the establishment.
In the end of 2007 Los Caparos performed at the AMI Awards where they were affirmed as the “next big thing” in Israeli music. They widened their Hebrew repertoire and even produced a unique cover for the Zohar Argov hit-single “Nachon le Ha-Yom” which made it into the renowned “Avoda Ivrit” (2008) collection. The band was nominated for the 2009 Annual Channel 9 Award in music category. In 2010 they recorded a song for "Charcoal Sketches" album - a tribute to a legendary Israeli singer-songwriter, Meir Ariel.
Los Caparos has finished recording their second album "Haim Beseret" (Living a movie) in the summer of 2012, and in the following year the band released four singles and three music videos. The album came out in the beginning of January 2013 and received great response from critics and audience and lot of interest from the media. As the previous one, this album too was produced by Beno Hendler and features guest appearances by some wonderful Israeli musicians. Compared to "Rasta Vasily", "Haim Beseret" is conceptually a much more "Israeli" album – more than half of its songs are in Hebrew and deal in different ways with Israeli reality. But, of course, Russian, English and even Spanish are also represented well to keep the cultural balance and the cosmopolite spirit of the band.
In 2013 Los Caparos took part in tribute project to legendary Israeli band Kaveret and recorded successful cover version of “Grocery Song” and later participated in special radio project dedicated to Bob Marley. The group were selected several times to open for the international acts such as popular gypsy-punk collective Gogol Bordello and the legendary Jamaican ska founders The Skatalites.
Over the years Los Caparos performed in front of groups of youth from around the world within "Taglit" program and Limud Festivals, ran workshops, took part in various fundraiser events and in the meanwhile, continued to perform regularly in clubs, festivals, and cultural events around the country, collaborating with different Israeli artists (Berry Sakharof, Muki, Tomer Yosef, Hadag Nachash, Boom Pam, Dory Ben-Zeev, Leonid Ptashka to name a few).
The band is also active in the international scene. So far, Los Caparos had successful tours in Russia, Ukraine, France, Germany and Czech Republic, performing in variety of venues, among them some prestigious events and festivals such as Nice Conservatory, Lviv Opera House, Fête de la Musique in Paris and Mighty Sounds Festival.
Lately Los Caparos has recorded and released three new singles, two in 2014 and one in 2015 while they collaborate for the first time with one of the best world music/reggae producer Yossi Fine. During 2016 the band were continuing to amass a material for their new album and by the end of the year has started the recording of the next singles.