RENE D LA MUERTE
WITHIN PUNK ZINE INTERVIEW WITH
THE BRAINS / RENE D LA MUERTE BY PHONE
OCTOBER 21 ,2015 COURTESY OF
MELANIE KAYE PR
J.B: This is J.B from Within Punk Zine and I am sitting here with the Montreal legendary Rene D La Muerte. How goes it my friend? RENE: It’s going good, got out of practice so you know it’s mostly just playing having some drinks and fine tuning some things, having fun, you know… J.B: So let’s get into it you are releasing “Out In The Dark” on October 30th which conventionally is known as Devils Night but actually you play at Midnight which would be technically known in Pagan Rituals as “Samhain”. And more of a weird anomaly the fact that this release celebrates your 13 years of The Brains, do you think these things through or is it just black magic of some sort? RENE: (Laughing) Well you know we always like to do something for Halloween but for this one it’s different it just so happens to be perfectly in line and the album actually was ready on December 14th of last year. And we were just holding onto it to get it mastered by the right person and we found the right person so here it is ready to go on you know. J.B: The cover art on this one you have the same logo as “The Monster Within” but its album art is in the shadows and a really dark feel. Kind of like the feel of the album? RENE: It really has to do with the Brains going back to the roots you know way back with “No Brain No Pain” it has that same type of energy you know. So with the last couple of albums it’s been about movies and Horror and stuff this one is more about human nature. It goes a little bit more in depth like “Out In the Dark” it can be viewed in different ways you know it can be represented by something dark, something always lurking you know? Or it can be that you’re not feeling really well in your head, you know? I think all of us have that there’s always something
COL
LIN THE DEAD / PHOTO MIKE MARSHALL
that’s in there that holds us back or something. There’s the song “Need you now” th are some real monsters out there lurking you know, in the dark. J.B: The Monster Within I felt started to touch base on that subjectively but was hid this one different, more personal? RENE: It is. Every album has to do with where we live or life on the road and prett been producing this band now for thirteen years and all the recordings and on this we have in it. J.B: The Bear in the new clip for the video “Out In The Dark” what’s that about? RENE: That’s what we wanted to go to you know for us. The Brains have been work Why record it that way in the beginning? Well because there was nobody doing it b into the band and now he does all the merch and design and stuff. And then we ha he’s the one taking care of video and web and all the internet social media stuff. An Animation and Bis Films and actually has my daughter in it actually. J.B: It’s not controversial or anything like “Take What I Want” was and getting bann RENE: Well you know here’s the whole thing on that we always love to get a reactio
PHIL THE BEAST / PHOTO MIKE MARSHALL
hat talks about alcohol addiction and some people have that you know so there
dden more by the Horror theme of the inspiration of Lovecraft and Rituals and is
ty much how we are, but this time we really wanted to make it sound the best. I’ve s one after 13 years you can hear how far we have come and how much dedication
king for thirteen years nonstop trying to be self-sufficient in a way you know. back then and we built on that and did the studio you know, then Collin comes ave Phil which has been the drummer for a while now - “Phil The Beast” - and nd also the new video that is coming out for “Out In The Dark” was by Wolfgang
ned by Much Music? on from the people you know? That’s the first thing we try to do is get the reaction
and that’s what we want The Brains to be sort of known for you know. So in that tone when we did “Take What I Want” we wanted to show violence but not violence against women we wanted to show violence that we close our eyes to you know? There’s some serious violence towards women right now even as it was back in the day like the fifties you know. If you see a guy that is taking a girl that is free to do whatever she wants you know and this girl is super sexy super awesome and smart and just trying to hangout and then she gets taken by this guy and killed you know, then the same thing you have this girl working at a punk bar and goes outside for a smoke and gets killed you know. Then you have the last one that is a woman just hanging out with friends doing her thing - which is actually my longtime girlfriend - and she ends up killed by this guy also. So what I’m trying to push on this subject is we need to not close our eyes to this violence that happens against women and change that and in the end of the video you see that woman get up with evil in her eyes and maybe she’s going to get some vengeance to the person who did this to her for a sort of conviction. And most of all it’s really about getting that reaction and how people respond to it just like the video “Screaming” which about people getting killed. That video was shot about rich people paying people to get killed and watching it and it’s called snuff movies. So when you see the video for “Take What I Want” you see how people are and that is what I wanted to portray in that and from there we can move forward and go positive on it. On this whole new video you are really going to see where we are going with this and what this whole album is about human behaviour and the monsters you know “Out In The Dark”.
“After 13 years you can hear how far we have come and how much dedication we have in it. J.B: Obviously what I heard on this album was homage to your roots but also faster and more refined. So let’s talk about that familiar sound that is The Brains and by that I mean your Gretsch! So is it a ‘64 Chet Atkins Tennessean or is it a Chet remake of the Setzer model? RENE: I got that Gretsch when I was seventeen and I really like the “Stray Cats” and there was nowhere to really get a Gretsch around here at that time. So I went to this bar with some fake ID from the university - this girl made it for me that was in University. So I get to this bar and this band is playing all these Stray Cats except for “Rock This Town” so I asked them to play it over and
over again. So finally the singer is like listen we will only play it if you get up on stage and sing it. And I was so scared and was like “Oh My God” and I got up on stage no tattoos or anything, this young seventeen year old kid and let it go, I noticed all these people were up on the tables dancing and stuff and the guy said I had a really great voice. So I asked him where I could get a Gretsch and he said “I have two” and I was like ‘wow, two?’ So he said ‘listen for you I will sell you one for $800’. And for a seventeen year old with a score like that because they are way more expensive now I thought that was the coolest thing ever and I did whatever jobs I could do to pay for it like painting apartments and washing dishes. When I went to see it he pulled out a Chet Akins and a ’63 65 anniversary edition, charcoal - with my eyes lighting up and from that day on that is the one I’ve been using for all the recordings. So since then I have bought another one that has been modified and twerked out with pickups and custom knobs but that is a different model - the Electromatic, which I painted flat black to be a clone of the original, it’s amazing though how much that guitar is pretty much the heart of the Brains you know? I also have this Vulture pedal that is like the Roland 301 pre amp section so he started making a pedal that had a these crazy pre amps. If you look in the middle of the system of the Stray Cats setup he has this old Fender Bass man Amp and this Space Echo 301 so he kept his distortion and overdrive from the pre amp section of the Roland. So this guy made a pedal of it at Nocturne and he came up to me a couple of years ago was like hey I like your sound and everything want to try this pedal? And I was like yeah for sure! And then I heard that Brian Seltzer has one and all these other really cool guitar players that I respect and look up to all have his pedals and that is what I use, is a Bill Brain Nocturne. J.B: Not to mention Chet Akins was the birth of Rockabilly, vocalists, and record producers talk about reincarnation? RENE: (Laughing) J.B: So the Witch? RENE: “The Witch” was the first main song on the album actually, I don’t know if I mentioned this before but Colin was the one who wrote all of the lyrics on this album. And why that is on this one and also what the song “The Witch” is about. On this Album he wrote everything because it’s like this when you are in a band, you try to stay alive and you don’t want to repeat the same thing over and over again. So you want to do something different than the last album and
“In order to do this you have to excel at becoming a better writer and lyricist”
RENE D LA MUERT / PHOTO MIKE MARSHALL
in order to do this you have to excel at becoming a better writer and lyricist. A couple of years ago when I started doing that my ideas in English were not coming out right because my natural language is French, Spanish and English. So when I try and say something in English sometimes from French it gets mixed up sometimes so Colin is really good with that so he wrote all the lyrics. So what I did is I wrote all the riffs and actually wrote it all on piano. So I went over to the piano and got in touch, started playing again and it’s been years since I did that. And it was different working it that way you know I was more in tune with it and it came out that way because that is how I felt or thought of the song. So he was like okay let me get back to you and he was like okay what about this and I was like, no it’s not cool and it wasn’t positive. I went somewhere else when I listened to the song and that is how I felt the album should be. So The Witch is one of those songs that when he wrote it - that is what was in his head and all that stuff which it is cool but for me it’s something different. To me the song is about sarcasm. Again it comes back to how some guys always say the girl is different and burn the witch and how ridiculous it is and all that you know. So it all depends on how you view it so conventionally though the song is just made to kick ass! (Laughing) J.B: Did you have any classical training with the Latin heritage? RENE: No not officially I came from Chile in ‘73 when there was a big war going on over there, so I got shipped here and we got to Montreal we didn’t have much money at all and our family was very far away so as a kid I had to start doing something, so I had to relearn language because I only knew Spanish. So of course that language was French, I eventually learned English and so, parents try and keep you happy so they knew I wanted to play music, so we went to a community centre and learned a little bit of piano. And ever since I was a kid I can remember every little melody and piece of music and I have a really good ear and fast learning for that. I use that for recording and writing and because I have a Latin back ground I can work with these traditional Spanish beats and rhythms you know with those fast beats and smooth lyrics. So that is what I bring to The Brains - that and punk rock so we have this basic core of rock ‘n roll you know? J.B: Not to mention that Colin keeps getting faster and faster on that Bass! I don’t think he’s human anymore! RENE: (Laughing) God! He is truly going to defy gravity someday! Collin is such a great bass player so yeah that’s one of things we did when we were in the studio for “The Monster Within”. We were like
picking letters kind of like the scales and the alphabet right! You know like EGBD and go from there to kind of write the songs and “Misery” is one of those songs! S much time doing nothing and they were like “Boo”! And we are always making fu had some songs recorded but I had everything setup you know, the drums, the ba couple of days and then started hearing songs flowing and usually with bass lines we recorded a couple songs live and it turned out really exciting and interesting an feel and just play the whole song and don’t stop till we get it super tight you know ment that got recorded and that is why I think it sounds awesome, at one point I w okay! And on the songs “Need you now” and “The Witch” you can hear that sound, it’s s cians that can push themselves more than what you expect! J.B: Do you find it hard to be a producer and not be influenced by other bands yo RENE: No you know it’s all part of the mastering and finishing for example when it in stereo and then I restart again and do it over again and I do that about three ple of years and that energy we had. So on this album I said okay I’m going to just needed you know. So I have a little bit of systems here and there and not go crazy buzz and I called Colin and was like, ‘I feel like puking’! And that’s the thing abou Should I put a compressor in there or a delay and on and on, little details to make ables in there. J.B: Any possibility of another covers E.P? ‘Cause dam that “Rebel Yell” was amazi RENE: YA there’s always a possibility because it’s just time and things always com J.B: Tour wise, a brief tour across Canada with label mate Kung Fu Monkeys and o RENE: Yeah Kung Fu Monkeys is from Mexico. I love Mexico! I would love for th Mexico I heard it’s quite big up there. It’s cool meeting new bands especially shari that way because it’s intimate. I know you said it’s a small tour but when you give wear you down. With every night that way and with everybody it’s not a small tou was in Europe for over a month and Canada for almost a month and so that one m I have kids. My daughter you know she understands what I do and there’s never g
“I pushed the guys to the limit but it’s aw push themselves more than what you exp
stuff but it’s hard because you have to be supportive and also there at the same tim if it’s every night, right? As a dad that’s awesome as a musician maybe not so muc has accepted it so whatever it takes for what we have, we will do and that’s pretty m we lived it everything is there, it’s a nucleus - the three of us is there and we expan part of it from Lilly being in “Out in the dark” to my girlfriend being in several vi the one who painted the cover art of the new album “Out In The Dark”. J.B: So my favorite album has to be “Drunk Not Dead” because it’s fast and full of
DF on sheet music? So we would randomly just blurp out a letter like “B” or “D” So on “Out in the Dark” I said ‘two weeks, guys that’s it!’ Last time we spent so un of each other and that’s the fun you know. So we got to the studio we already ass and guitar ready to go and just started going at it! And we did that for a we record part by part so that way it sounds really tight. On “Monster Within” nd on this album I try to capture that. I always try and get that moment and that w. So when you play back “Out In The Dark” you have this energy and this mowas like I’m happy with it and Collin is like “No not good enough” again! Well
so tight you know! I pushed the guys to the limit but it’s awesome to have musi-
ou work with? n I do the final mix it’s done when I feel it’s awesome, I stay and print it so I have or four times. But my years of producing it always comes back to that first cout do one mix and sit on it and expand and just take out extra shit that is just not with an album like “Drunk not Dead”. I did so many mixes it made my head ut producing because the brain is thinking about so many variables at that point. e it super entertaining for the ears, because there’s over a hundred thousand vari-
ing! me out maybe a rockabilly version of The Brains. on some dates East End Radicals? hem to invite us up there sometime and cruise around doing some shows up in ing stuff and being on the whole tour you know you really get to know people it your all every 110 percent, everything that you have you know it can really ur you know? It’s so much time you start to view it as time, it’s so consuming. I made almost go insane. It was a big problem being away from my family because going to be like, ‘dad sucks’ you know! They are always going to be proud and
wesome to have musicians that can pect!”
me so if a tour is only three weeks, it’s three weeks that’s an alright tour especially ch but it’s our lives and it’s more important to us. So I’ve accepted and my family much how it is you know, so what I do is production and music. And you know nded from there and we’ve been around a long time. So the family is also a big ideos “Turn Around” and “Take What I Want” and also she’s a painter and she’s energy. What is your favorite over the years?
RENE: Well I definitely would have to say “Zombie Nation” J.B: Oh yeah why is that? RENE: I like Zombie Nation because it’s the new direction of The Brains and “No Brain No Pain” because that was the beginning of this whole adventure! But it didn’t capture it, the white album didn’t capture it then it clicked on “Zombie Nation” and the drums are more metal and used a lot more technology and the intro of the second guitarist. So Zombie Nation because of the change but also “Out in the Dark”. J.B: We always end with a famous book or a famous quote that inspired your life anything come to mind? RENE: Never give up! Always go further and stay true to yourself!
AVAILABLE
OCTOBER 30,2015