 |
LA
IRA DE DIOS:
Peruvian Psyche Stoners Mix Adrenaline;
with Anger and Get a Very Dangerous Cocktail.
|
Over the last few
years a very nice underground rock scene has been brewing in
Lima, Peru. This South American country has never been
associated with quality rock and roll but the latest three
releases of Reino Ermitaño, Serpentina Satelite and La Ira de
Dios (all of them with releases through European labels) may
change all that. The new album from La Ira de Dios mixes the
furiosity of punk rock with the trippy psyche elements of
Hawkwind. This interview was conducted with vocalist/guitarist
Chino. Read on and spread the word!
- First of all I am pretty damn happy to finally see some
very good Peruvian bands. Like I said in the review of
Cosmos Kaos Destruccion, the last few months have dropped
some great releases by you, Reino Ermitaño and Serpentina
Satelite. My question is what the fuck happened? All of a sudden
there were great bands doing great music? Is there a good scene
for psyche/stoner/doom in Lima?
Well it’s not like suddenly cool bands appeared. In fact, all
the bands that you named are kinda old bands. Reino and La Ira
started back in 2001, almost ten years ago. But I guess that
Lima's underground scene always has been exciting. In the 90’s I
remember Hypnoascencion shows were totally mind blowing but,
with long jammings and lots of drone and we were like 10 people
in the crowd. So underground has always been there but
unfortunately people seem not to care. The funny thing is that
these psyche/stoner/garage/punk/doom bands are like the under of
the under and ironically are the bands that reach out further
and had an international exposure. It’s very strange to be
honest, but cool!
- Are there any bands you would recommend?
Bands to recomend...mmmhhh...big list! In old school punk we
have Aeropajitas, in hardcore Dios Hastio (fucking awesome!!!)
in stoner Caballo de Plomo, in strange music Plug Plug, great
band!
- La Ira de Dios has been around for a while. How do you guys
get together? The neighborhood? School?
Yeah, definitely the common bands that we like. It’s not too
easy to find people who like Hawkwind or MC5 or 60's garage
bands. So when you found someone who likes those bands are
really cool. And when these people play any instrument is even
cooler. But of course it’s not a daily thing. In our case in
particular, I’m very happy cause it’s not like I’m playing with
these two strangers who like the same music. Thank god that we
are very close friends who eventually got together to play and I
guess that this adds something more to the band.
- La Ira de Dios is signed to the German label World in
Sound, how did that deal come about?
Well, Nasoni records found us back in 2005 and well, it was like
a friend sent some mp3s to another friend (to a German guy) and
this guy sent it to another and so on and finally got to the
hands of Nasoni people. Yeah very lucky, eh? So that's how they
found us. Then they released our first two albums and then we
change the label and got into World in Sound which it’s the
label of our brother Wolfgang. And we changed it cause Wolf is a
really close friend of the band and we wanted to keep it very
familiar.
- I was listening to some of your older material and there
are some stylistic links between Hacia El Sol Rojo and
Cosmos Kaos Destruccion, but the new material is much more
driven, more hard hitting. To what do you attribute this change?
After Archaeopterix, Carlos and me (by the way, we wrote
the songs) wanted to go into a doom acoustic vibe. More
experimental. But we did our first tour and after it we realized
that we didn’t wanna play slow long songs that build step by
step. On stage we wanted to play the more-in-your-face-rocker
songs and get people crazy. So when we returned from the tour
and got into the practice room we were like...slow songs?
Acoustic??? Fuck it! Push the fuzz and play faster!!! Apart
when we returned, we felt like nothing really happens here in
Lima with us, so we were kinda frustrated and angry. So the
‘new direction’ came very natural in that moment. Mix
adrenaline with anger and you will have a very dangerous
cocktail.
- Like I said in my review, Cosmos Kaos Destruccion
reminded me of Monster Magnet quite a bit. They used to fucking
rule. With that obviously come Hawkwind and a slew of others, do
you consider that your influences of today are the same ones
that were influencing you at the beginning of your career/in
your previous albums?
Well, in the beginning we were really into krautrock. In fact,
the name La Ira de Dios, came from a Herzog movie Aguirre, the
Wrath of God and the soundtrack was made by Popol Vuh. Bands
like Ash Ra Tempel or Tangerine Dream influenced us a lot. Of
course that our MC5 and Los Saicos devotion also has been there
since the beginning, but now is more obvious. Actually, we
listen more to bands like Bored! (which is one of my favorite
bands) High Rise, Acid Eaters, Bad Brains, The Clash and lot of
60's garage bands and well, this definitely has an effect on our
music. The next album...which we already have written most of it
it’s more in that direction, even more raw stuff, but with psych
noises. That is something that we wanted to do from the
beginning. Psych tunes but with fast and hard riffs. I really
hate when people thinks that psychedelic sounds must be mellow
or slow songs. Chaos, fast rhythms and hard driven riffs are
what we want and how we understand psychedelia.
- The recording Cosmos Kaos Destruccion is pretty
good. It’s raw and not very clean which I like. It’s got a lot
of punch and is very natural sounding. The guitars are furious.
Who was in charge? How long did it take?
Eddy Plengue and me were in charge of the sound. I told him that
we wanted a Bored's Negative Waves sound for this album,
and in a way we got it. I think it could be more organic and
more natural even...but we are still learning so next time I
guess will be better. I won’t say that I’m not satisfied with
the album. I’m happy with the sound of the album, but I still
think that we can do it better. We are into it.
- You guys were on a European tour a few months ago. How did
it go? Which countries and with which bands you played? How was
the reception to La Ira de Dios?
Yes, we did our second European tour last year. We travel
through 8 countries and had more than 30 shows in over 100 days.
Was a blast! Like always you have good dates/bad dates but at
the end it was such a great experience. Just amazing. We met
cool people and reunited with some old friends. Very emotional.
We got a very good answer from the people, you know. We got some
bad reviews for the last album. I guess critics expected
something in the way of our first two albums, but at the
concerts the answer from the people was very enthusiastic. Dance
a lot, buy a lot of merch, came to us to tell us how much they
enjoyed the show. So fuck those comments hahaha. We played with
a lot, and I mean, a lot of bands, like Burn Pilot, Witchcraft,
Gunslingers, Atomic Bitchwax, Fungus a long long etc.
- Any great stories from the European tour?
I made a bet with Doomraiser bass player BJ about drinking all
night and next day go to the Vatican (we had been drinking the
previous 24 hours straight) I made it! so we went together to
the Vatican and after hours and hours of thousand of famous and
beautiful paintings, we just fell asleep in some chairs in a
very big room. When I woke up I found myself, beside BJ and
Litros (who were sleeping too, both of them) in front a huge
group of Japanese tourists and below a big painting and the
tourists were taken pictures of us. You can imagine the scene.
This big epic religious painting and in front 3 drunks dressed
in black with tattoos. Hahaha. Italy was too much man, too much.
I really miss those crazy motherfuckers.
- What's the lowdown, where is the best pot? Amsterdam or
Lima?
Hahaha Lima for sure!!! Hahaha Amsterdam has good weed, but we
always heard these stories about hard shit almost-like-an-acid
weed. I remember we walked in the coffee shop and asked the man,
'hey dude, give me the strongest shit that you have?' And
he was like, ’hey dude, I really don’t recommend this shit,
its too hard. It can be dangerous. It's not easy bla bla bla’.
Of course we take it, roll it and light it up, and it
was hard shit for sure, but just another joint. So it was very
very good, but come on! Here in Lima we can find really cool
weed and very but very, and let me repeat it, very cheap. So if
you put in a balance I guess I will go for Lima for sure...Viva
el Peru Carajo!!! hahaha
- I am always looking for new music, what current bands are
you guys digging now? Which classics got you into music?
Through my whole life I listen to lot of music; metal, punk, new
wave, garage, blues etc etc etc...but capital bands that made me
go ape...mmmhhh, I would say Iron Maiden (I was just 8 years old
when I saw the video of “The Trooper” and blew my mind) Ramones,
Sonic Youth, Spacemen 3, and then came the MC5 and changed
everything for me. Personally MC5 and Los Saicos (a punk band
from ‘64, and I meant punk in a way of lyrics talking about
bring down the train station or madness or graveyards...and they
are Peruvians...maybe the first punk band in the world...yeah,
suck it Johnny Rotten) are my all time favorites. Right now I’m
listen to a lot of Bored! and Acid Eaters stuff.
- What’s next for the band? Tours, recordings?
We want to get into the studio around mid this year and probably
tour again by the end of the year. Hope not only Europe...so
watch out US...we are coooming!!!
- Last words…
Thanks and
MANTENGAN LA IRA CARAJO!!!
MySpace
Read
our review of Cosmos Kaos Destruccion here. |
|
