Somewhere in the L.A.underground, amidst the white noise of constant traffic and screaming babies, you'll hear the distorted strains of Noriega, the band, not the dictator, hammering away on the songs from their debut EP, Desolo. Honing their craft to razor sharp perfect in preparation to take their wild metal machine on the road. We were fortunate to tear the band away from their hectic rehearsal schedule to answer a few questions on their life in the City of Angels and what motivates them to keep plugging forward.
Every musician is influenced by those who came before them, but what were your major musical epiphanies that inspired you to create music? What major musical moments helped define you as musicians?The greatest musical influences for me personally are Between the Buried and Me and Thursday. These bands changed the way I think about everything, and even though I don’t like all the material of either band, they’re both bands that I associate a lot of my own style and taste with. Great musical epiphanies… on the last day of eighth grade I played in front of most of my school with a band I had at the time. All of us had so much fun banging our heads in the faces of our confused teachers, regardless if the music was awful. It was the first time that I considered revolving my life around music. Two summers ago I met the guitar player of a band called Jument (who is incredible) named Sir. The first night meeting him we had a talk about music in which I don’t completely remember but one thing stuck out more than anything when he said “I play music because there is nothing else, there is no other fucking option” I eventually realized that I felt the same so I guess it was that realization that made me know I wanted to play music no matter what my circumstances.
Does Noriega write songs as a band or is the songwriting process more individualistically driven? If the latter, who are the chief contributors?
I think for the most part we write as a full band. If someone does do a lot of writing on their own, the rest of us will tweak that material to make it more of everyone’s vision.
The songs on Desolo are as extremely heavy as any we’ve ever heard, but there are elements to the music that sound like some infusion of jazz. How did these more, for lack of a better word, delicate sounds find their way into such extreme music?
I suppose that’s our way of trying to get across we don’t want to be another Suicide Silence sound alike. Heaviness is more than low notes to me, it’s its own art and construction that has a reason for whatever it chooses. Therefore, nothing sounds heavy if it’s that relentless, it needs some contrast to give emphasis to other parts.
What is you musical intention? What are you trying to express or get your audience to feel? There’s a lot I would hope our listeners to feel, but I would also assume the music to be misunderstood, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. More than anything, I want our music to be a form of therapy for people, the way that other bands are for me. Heavy music allows an incredible amount of relief, relief that I can’t seem to find healthy in any other form.
Where do you look for continuing inspiration? New ideas, new motivation?
Literally, everywhere. Music is my form of communication, so anything I experience is a part of the music I create. I find myself to be the most creative when I’m the most busy, which confused me for the longest time, until I realized it was because it was when I was experiencing the most.
What piece of your music are you particularly proud of?
Ballacaust has the most lasting value for me off of Desolo. The songwriting involved all of us more than any other song, even though we didn’t play it once in full before recording. The lyrics also seem bizarrely cohesive, even though they were written by three different people.
The business of music is a brutal place. Changes in technology have made it easier than ever for bands to get their music out, but harder than ever to make a living? What are your plans to move the band forward? How do you stay motivated in this brutal business? It’s really hard for me to look at this band as a business. If I was counting on making a living in playing drums for Noriega, I’d be shooting myself in the foot. We’re all aware that there’s no money in doing what we are, but somehow that makes it more worthwhile. My most ideal and (barely) realistic future for the band would be that one day it pays for itself, so that the rest of our life isn’t financially affected by the band. That being said, I do plan to pursue a career in music, and the simplest way to put it is that there’s nothing else I could see myself doing. I know I’ll eventually be supporting music I hate, I know money will always be a struggle, and I know that my hard work might not ever be rewarded. Our plans to move the band forward are to keep having fun. With jobs, school, etc. it’s hard to make any band our first priority in life. I just hope we can be as productive as the rest of our responsibilities allow us.
Being based in Los Angeles, what challenges do you face on a day to day basis as musicians? Is it easier to get live gigs due to the vast quantity of venues? Is there greater competition for an audience because of the amount of artists in such a concentrated area?
Nobody cares about music in Los Angeles, nobody. It is over saturated to such a degree that I can’t really blame anyone. I guess getting shows is easier here than anywhere else but I can’t really talk as I haven’t experienced it anywhere else. The best is touring through a city where kids have nothing to do, they all go to shows! People in Los Angeles have seen it all before, and so grabbing their attention is near impossible.
Anyone who’s spent more than a few minutes in the music industry will have had a Spinal Tap moment or two. Give us one of your better rock n’ roll moments.
Our Spinal Tapness really comes out at our band practices. We don’t practice without alcohol. I don’t drink but the rest of them do, the recent bottle of choice has been Gordon’s Vodka. Our motto is that Gordon gets the party started. Trae’s definitely the rockstar of the band, not in a cocky way though, he’s just the most ridiculous. He never ceases to impress me on teaching me about new drug taking methods including literally huffing human feces. No, none of us do that. One time Trae shot sparks across my bedroom through a p.a. head which put the power out in that half of the house for a week. The electric bill for that month was about 1800 dollars, never found out exactly why. A lot of times we’ll show each other YouTube videos between breaks, my new favorite is a music video about smelling dick.
Vinyl, CD, or digital? What's your format of choice?
As I steal most of my music, I own the most digital, however there’s something really cool about vinyl in that it really captures the concept of truly owning something. While it also has great sound quality and all that, there’s something so much more rewarding to collecting vinyl than any other format.
Any last words for the Waveriders (our readers?)
I guess I’d like everyone to check out these bands if they haven’t already, all good people making good music:
www.myspace.com/thousandsfled
www.myspace.com/jumentband
www.myspace.com/thebonedance
www.myspace.com/caulfieldsacramento
www.myspace.com/toucheamore
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