Interview с Hocico : DARKSIDE.ru

Why did you decide to play electronic music? Is it so popular in Mexico? Why not other styles?

I personally love the electronic sounds. I remember listening it on the radio long long ago. And I cannot even tell you what I felt then. Then I realized that I wanna do it myself!

You have a spider as a symbol of your band, but the name of your band is translated into English as “muzzle”. Why spider?

As for spider – you know this is a small animal, but it poisons, and sometimes it poisons to death. It looks harmless, but only at the first sight, because it may kill. We somehow drew the parallels with our music – it also sounds aggressive.

I know that at first your band was called Hocico de Perro. But why did you take a decision to change the name to Hocico?

Well, Hocico just worked better, and that’s all. Hocico de Perro was like specifying. I mean not just Hocico (muzzle), but Hocico de Perro (the muzzle of a dog). We decided to leave the word “dog” and leave the name of the band just Hocico – the mouth of animal, any animal. And it was also better, because it was only one word. We took the context of war in Mexico, Hocico could mean “shut up your fucking mouth or we’ll kick your fucking ass” (everybody laughs). So you can you this word this way. We wanted to take this context of the war to express it with our music, to take it as a kind of flag to the music.

Do you have the strong distribution of duties within the band? Or anyone can contribute whatever he wants – music or lyrics?

We try not to make such boundaries, but it so historically happened that Racso (Agroyam, Erk’s
brother) is mostly in charge for musical part and programming and I’m merely in charge of lyrics and vocals. But we both try to interact, because this is a band and we always acted like this, I mean tried to work together. The band is a mechanism and for this mechanism to run smoothly the connection between the band members should be very tight. In this way we create the songs. For example, when we create an album, mostly the way we work at it depends on what we come up with first – musical ideas or the lyrical ones. Sometimes there is a good idea about the concept or just the lyrics of one song, and then

we develop ideas about the music, Sometimes it’s vice versa. We discuss such things, we try to decide in what direction we should go this time – what kind of rhythm should there be on the new record, for example. I can come up with lyrics everywhere. You see the right atmosphere can be everywhere. And I try to write the lyrics everywhere – in Mexico, in Europe – wherever I’m traveling. When I’m on the road some lyrics come naturally to me and it’s cool. I try to get influence for lyrics everywhere, and I think the same thing is with Rasco. That’s how we work.

Your previous album, “Wrack and Ruin” was released 4 years ago while before that you released albums almost every year. Was there any serious reason for such a break?

We decided to take a little break. We didn’t talk about it, it just happened. After the last album
“Wrack and Ruin” we just focused our forces on helping other Mexican bands and producing them. I focused my energy on my solo project Rabia Sorda. Actually we released a DVD. It was a hard work and it took us one year to complete. And after the release of the DVD, we wanted to focus our activities on our solo projects. And that’s why it only came naturally and it gave us the chance to breathe, to have a rest. And I think it was a very very positive experience, because the new album turned out to be the best out of those we ever did.

Tell us about the concept of the new record. What themes served as inspiration for you this time?

This is a very personal album. We deal with the idea about leaving memories behind. That’s actually what the title means – leave the memory behind this. We wanted to make reference to this idea. We wanted to glance our lives from the past. We’ve passed through very bad experiences and we really wanted a kind of burn this through making music and most of the songs are really very personal.

You have a kind of a trademark – you combine fast tracks with slow intros or intervals. What’s the purpose of those interjections?

I just think that you cannot be all the time full of energy, you need some calm time, you know. Imagine that you go very very fast or run. After a while you feel tired and slow down to have a rest, and to take a breath. Here is the same. We wanted that both at

our shows and while listening to our records you didn’t get tires. We want our fans to be able to listen the record to the end without brakes, because these “brakes” are already in the record!

The new album is released in three versions. And among them there’s a fan box with 3D cover artwork…

Two years ago I was at my label and the showed me the cover artwork (I don’t remember the name of the band) and I really liked it. And it’s really cool to have such a cover! I told them so, and their answer was, “Whenever your album is ready, we can arrange such a cover for it”. And the result was perfect, this 3D cover is amazing. And the idea about the box- we wanted to give something special die hard fans, we call them Hocicones. All of them wait for something like this for us. I just wanted to let them feel special.

Did you deal with the same cover artist this time? Is the visual side of the music important to you?

We worked with different artists last years, and at the last album we worked with German artist, because he is very open to listen to our ideas and that’s why we still work with him. Before creating an album we try to get proposals from different designers in Mexico. And we more or less check them – and the one that’s closer to our concept will be the winner so to speak. Cover artwork is extremely important for me. It should reveal the close connection with the music. I for one think that CDs become less and less poplar among people, though the visual side is extremely important for me. I think CDs will soon become something more for collectors than for usual fans. Now mp3s have changed the music industry and now music exists as a digital binary code. But I come from the generation where we had to touch the music. I’m interested in visual side, I like to buy a CD and touch it and read the information about how it was recorded, when it was recorded, who did the mix, who did the mastering. That’s very important for me, but I’m pretty sure that most people in the new generation don’t care that much about it. And it’s bad, because if you ask them somewhere in the street, “hey, who recorded this song”, they have no idea and they don’t care anymore about who did it. I find it really negative at some point. But nevertheless returning to your question I want Hocico to have beaut

iful covers, and that’s why I choose artists very carefully.

The lyrics of your music is mostly dark. And what you just mentioned (“leaving your memory behind”) is not very positive. Why not writing about something light, positive? Or do you think that your music dictates you to write such dark songs?

I think tit is the other way around. The life in itself demands this kind of music. Our music is the reaction to the environment. We were raised in Mexico city – we saw this violence, the wars, the injustice. And Hocico was born as the reaction to our own environment. At this point I cannot see how Hocico can write about some positive things. We live in this world of injustice and we all see this world turning and going to shit. Our songs are just like the pictures of the world, they are like a reflection in the mirror.

You have a project Rabia Sorda. What was the reason for creating the project which music sounds like that of Hocico. Many of your fans find that the music is very much alike.

For me it’s substantially different. We try to use as low as possible effects on my vocals. The music is more meant to be listened to and less to be danced to. I think it’s the major differences, though you are right – there are definitely some similarities between the two bands. In this way I wanted to explore music in a different direction.

During the concert in St.-Petersburg one of you jumped to the crowd. Weren’t you afraid to do this?

(translates the question to Racso)
Racso: No, no!

Erk: Yeah, they were wild and crazy, but we enjoyed it, it was a great experience for us. It’s pretty cool when the people react this way, when they are intense and active and crazy – why not – it means that they love our music with all their hearts. During that concert people were dancing, screaming, shouting. I cannot even describe. They were very happy (at least they seemed to), just like us.

Your every concert is like a bomb. Share the secret of your energy with us! We want to know it!

Chili! (laughs) You’ve gotta eat lots of chili. It’s chili power! And to be serious, I don’t know what the secret is and whether we have one. It just comes naturally when we are b

oth on stage, the crowd is there – it’s a kind of magic. They give us something and we return it in a way. This exchange is so powerful and wonderful and we feel so energetic because of it! So when we come on stage something just happens.

Have you had the chance to see the Moscow today?

Unfortunately we had an opportunity only to see the Red Square for a half an hour and that’s it, which is a pity. It’s pretty bad, because I really like Moscow and its atmosphere. But still we had a quick glance at the Red Square. Being in Russia for us is always great.

I know that several years ago you moved to Europe from Mexico. And now you live in Germany. Why did you move? What’s the reason?

Love. I married a German girl. Everything is simple (laughs). But to tell the truth I don’t even know if she likes my music or not. I try not to get her so much involved into this aspect of my life, into what I do in terms of music. I think it’s quite dangerous. I think she likes some part of it and she hates some part of it.

You write your songs not only in English, but you also use your native language - Spanish. Aren’t you afraid that most of the people wouldn’t understand those songs?

It is important, that’s why we do it mainly in English. We’ve been thinking of making a record only in Spanish for some time, but due to the commercial issues and the label we haven’t done it. And actually now it’s more important for us that more people should understand our lyrics. That’s why we’re doing it mainly in English.

Is music a profitable occupation in Mexico?

Well, I can say for myself - we haven’t had a regular job for many many years. We’ve been living via music for sixteen or seventeen years. We had hard times, of course, but so far music pays quite enough for us to live. We are lucky to be among a few bands that can survive and make living through what they like to do, through they enjoy to do and that is extremely important. As for other bands in Mexico – I think it’s not always possible to earn one’s leaving via music. We don’t know how long the success will be with us, but as far as it’s with us we’re going to continue in the same way as we do now – write albums, play concerts, talk to fan

s. That’s amazing.

Are you choosy about the music you listen to? Do you judge it very strongly? I think that all musicians are choosier than an average listener, because they may look inside the CD and see much more, than we can…

Perhaps, yes. You are right. But I try not to restrict myself to some boundaries and I listen to all kinds of music. It’s always cool to travel around and to listen even to different radio stations – I don’t speak about some pop radio stations, I mean stations playing some local music. It’s a fun! I try to get influence from this kind of music. I don’t listen only to aggressive music – I have very wide taste in music so to speak. It’s the same with rock music. I like this music too, and I listen to it.

I’ve heard you had some collaborations with Tristesse de la Lune in 2002. Could you tell about this collaboration?

Oh! Not often people ask me about it! These girls used to be in another band. And then they stopped working with this project and founded a new one. And during our tour in 2002 they asked us, if we wanted to record with them. We agreed. Actually that’s how it happened. There was a very funny story about the recording, it’s too long, but I’ll put it into a few words. It was very complicated to record, because Germany was flooded at that time and we recorded in Germany. We were stuck in the middle of the flood, it was kind of funny. We couldn’t even work for a few days, then I finally recorded my vocals! (laughs) But that was a real fun recording it!

Did the nowadays status of Hocico live up to your initial expectations?

I think we’ve always dreamt about what we do now. It was always in our hearts, but of course as for me at least I didn’t expect the success that dropped from the clouds. We did it naturally as our reaction to the environment. People started to connect with our songs and our music, lyrics, things started to grow and now we are here, far away from home – in Russia. We play in many many places, and we are happy about it. So I didn’t expect such a thing, but I’m extremely happy with what Hocico is now and with what I have. We live on stage. It’s our life. We travel, we meet people and it’s wonderful. There always something funny happening to us. It’s always a fun when something goes wrong on stage.

Like what? Like forgetting the lyrics?

Yeah, it happened a couple of times, but I try not to do this. It’s embarrassing for me and for everyone. It was more funny when I once fell on stage, because of somebody who spilled some water on stage or some other shit – I don’t know. I fell and broke my finger. And now it was like two weeks ago I feel on my back during a show in Amsterdam – and it was fuckingly stupid, but it’s always funny. So keep your blood boiling!

Interview by Ksenia "Wolfin" Khorina
5 июн 2008 the End

Hocico

Keep your blood boiling!