Interview with Muertos

The13th AÑO: 3

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NÚMERO 31

UNA R E VISTA IMA GINARIA

JOHNNY INDOVINA

RACHEL MASON | MUERTOS | DYR FASER | DALTON DESCHAIN LEONARDO JAIME | REGAZZAS | ALAN COURTIS THE MISSION | JOHN WATERS | WEIRD. | MUCHO MÁS...

[ Interview with Muertos by Diego Centuriรณn. ]

I THINK THAT BETWEEN THE THREE OF US WE MAKE A NICE LOUD NOISE.

3 We interrupt a vacations in Los Angeles for the interview. We came to the band "Muertos" by the release of his first EP under the name "EP1", which was launched on 6 October. And as we like to discover emerging bands and present them in our pages, here we go with a new bet.

Hi "Muertos"! thanks for agreeing to answer these questions.

Could you please introduce yourself and the music of “Muertos” to our readers?

Hi, we are Muertos. We are Tom, DeAnna (but you can just call me De, or it sounds like I've been naughty!) and Marc. Our music is dark, energetic, melodic, fuzzy, distorted, sweet, heavy and atmospheric.

Our aim is to make you dance and feel uncomfortable at the same time.

When and how is born the band?

We were born from the shadows. Well, actually we come from Essex, England, just outside of London, and got together through other bands splitting up and a common interest for creating hypnotic songs.

Two guitars and drums. It is that what that is enough to make a good noise?

It just happened naturally for us. Marc and De never played bass in bands before so we decided to give it a go with just the two guitars. Since we have dual vocals going on in most of our songs, we wanted to leave some space for the vocals to breathe. We worked out a way to cover the lower end bass sound through our playing and Tom keeps the drive going with his explosive and tribal drums. Although just to make it clear his drums are not filled with dynamite. I think that between the three of us we make a nice loud noise.

DeAnna Avis, are you Mexican?

This is a big question, identity is very complex. In my heart and my blood, yes. Though I've lived in the UK for so long now, since I was 19, that part of me feels British and I do love it here, despite the weather!

My passports say I am British and American. I was born in California into a Mexican-American household and grew up surrounded by mariachi music as the band rehearsed at our house. We spoke Spanish at home and I remember being chucked in the deep end and having to learn English when I started school. My dad's a very bohemian character, he is 100% American but left his job as a computer programmer for Apple to become a full time mariachi musician, after falling in love with my Mexican mum and the Mexican culture. I also learned to play mariachi music and still perform in mariachi bands in London. I'm a proud chicana, although there aren't many of us here in the UK! Why the name of the band?

We spent a good while trying to work out what the name of our band should be. Marc was angling for something with a dark, evil tone because he's obsessed with horror films and DeAnna wanted to get something that represented her heritage. So Muertos seemed like the perfect combination. It's also a terrible word to search for in google images. Not for the faint hearted.

While you mention to The Jesus and Mary Chain and The Black Angels as influences. I see much the attitude of The Cramps. What influences has "Muertos"?

We think life and music is best appreciated with a balance of the dark and the light. Our influences are old school goth music like “Sisters of Mercy”, the sweaty leather of “Black Rebel Motorcycle Club”, the intimacy and sweetness of vocals such as “PJ Harvey” and “The Cardigans” and the pop-sensibilities of bands like the “Von Bondies”. Garage bands like “The Cramps”, “The Wipers” and “The Velvet Underground” undoubtedly feature in there too.

Our visual mood-board would have lots of 60s love-beads, a crystal ball and candles, lots of leopard print like a tart's boudoir and flickering lightbulbs.

Though we're not religious we are inspired by religious imagery and the idea of the collective unconscious. Everything turns into fuel for music, from cinema, to books to noir comics. Our lyrics are dark

5 and introspective and we like to think that our songs can transport you somewhere different for a little while.

I've been watching your videos live. There are songs like "Sylvia Butcher", "Voodoo" or "Cruel". Already they have planned to record the first album?

Those three songs are actually some of the first tracks we ever wrote together. We are still in the process of writing new songs so we're not really sure just yet if they will make the final cut. Our album will be a like a deeply complicated jigsaw puzzle with all the correct pieces coming into place. We want to make sure its perfect.

Can you revise the EP track by track?

Ballroom Spritzer (Extended Mix) This track is our mantra and dance song. Its an hypnotic tale about being really impressed by someone and dancing under the moonlight to celebrate and show how much you love them.

Black Box The Black Box is where people keep all of their dirty little secrets and lets be honest, there are alot of them out there. This was written at a really lonely point in Marc's life and I think it represents a feeling of frustration. I'm sure everyone has been there at some point.

Snakes Snakes is about nightmares. Falling asleep and having no control over what is happening inside your head. It was born from a dream of snakes biting at your feet, pulling you under the sheets and into the unknown. We all thought it was quite a striking image for the song, a bit like something out of Nightmare on Elm Street.

Write To The devil Summoning up your demons. Letting go to your evil side. Everyone has a dark side and the idea of the nicest person on the planet having a dark side hidden deep inside was really interesting to us. The song is a story about someone driving out into the desert with

plans to do no good. We had all been watching some messed up movies around this time so they probably played a subconscious influence to this track.

What are the next steps after editing “EP1”?

We will be playing a shit load of shows to celebrate its release and then we will be going straight back into the studio for a little bit more recording. Here is a list of all our upcoming shows:

15.10 - The Underground - BRADFORD 16.10 - The Finsbury - LONDON 05.11 - South Records - SOUTHEND 09.11 - The Bassment - CHELMSFORD 18.12 - The Castle Hotel - MANCHESTER Thank you for agreeing to answer our questions.

It was cool to be interviewed by you, cheers dude.

Gracias from all of us xxx

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The13th U NA R EVISTA IMA GINA RIA