Interviews

 

Ill Nino

 

Words: Rod Yates

 

If you happen to be in the vicinity of Latin-American metallers Ill Niño’s bus during their upcoming Australian tour, don’t be alarmed if you hear the sound of men shrieking hysterically. It’ll just mean that tour mates Static-X are on board, and that the booze is well and truly flowing.

 

“One night from our last tour together that I will never forget, was Tony [Campos, Static-X bassist] on our bus with his laptop and we were trashed, we must have drunk a fifth of Jack Daniel’s, two-fifths of vodka and a ton of other liquor,” chuckles Ill Niño vocalist Cristian Machado. “Tony’s like, ‘Let’s bring my laptop over to your bus and we’ll play death metal!’ I was like, ‘Fuck yeah, man! Put some Morbid Angel on! I’m gonna get my Suffocation belt buckle!’ It was the hysterical drunken death metal festival on the Ill Niño bus.”

Are you expecting a repeat performance in Australia?

“I think that we’re going to have a great time,” says Machado. “We’re definitely going to be drinking every night. After all, it’s our first time in Australia, and how the Hell could we not make it go down in history? It’s impossible!”

The fact that it’s taken the New York based sextet seven years and three albums to make their way to Australia is not lost on either their fans or Ill Niño themselves. Indeed the only positive to come out of the wait is that it means the band will be here in support of arguably their strongest album to date, One Nation Underground. A seething representation of Ill Niño’s trademark clash of musical cultures – specifically metal and Latino-inspired instrumentation and percussion – it’s a return to the form promised on their debut album, 2001’s Revolution Revolución, which was temporarily lost on its follow-up, 2003’s Confession.

“The first time I heard the record I said to myself, ‘Wow, what an intense mixture and blend of style’,” recalls Machado. “It’s so three dimensional, diverse and original, and I think it’s just a cool way to show the heavy music community that it’s okay not to do the same thing; it’s okay to make music personal to you, to bring your individuality to your songs. You can really hear each member’s story and identity in the album. You hear the Caribbean bass lines, that’s where Laz [Pina] comes from; you hear the Peruvian tribal esque sounding drums; you hear Ahrue’s [Luster, guitar] Santana-esque influence but also his Bay Area style of metal. And then underlying it all you hear the East Coast attitude, the New York hardcore attitude that we put into our music.
“I think that on this record we never had anyone looking over our shoulder and we really felt that,” he continues. “We literally were in charge of every aspect of the recording process – from where we wanted to rehearse to where we wanted to record to which engineer we wanted to use to who we wanted to mix the record to what amps we wanted to try. We just felt like we wanted to be free, and not have someone saying, ‘Don’t forget the single’, ‘Don’t do that’, the producer saying, ‘Nah, don’t use that amp.’”

Put it to Machado that the fire in One Nation Underground is the result of the critical mauling Confession received, and the laidback vocalist bristles.

“Those are the same critics who’ll rate a record that sounds like 300 other bands nine out of 10, so to me, their criticism is really horrible. If they gave me a nine out of 10 it would probably mean I sound like the 300 other bands that they like. The people who understand our band are more intellectually open, or perhaps more broad minded than the normal one dimensional type of person, and unfortunately there’s those kinds of critics out there.”

In Ill Niño’s bio, Machado talks about how album number three represents a lyrical shift for him, in that he’s no longer focusing purely on the personal, and is instead a lot more aware of what’s happening in the world. It is, he says, a direct result of the travelling the band has done over the past couple of years.

“I think it took me until the age of about 27 to finally say, ‘You know what? I’m not the only one in this world.’ I realised, wait a second, I can have a voice. Maybe I should speak my mind about topics that matter to everybody, not just write a song about personal feelings. I think that being able to travel all over the world is what I needed to do. I’ve lived in South America and I’ve lived in North America, but I never really travelled to Asia, I had never been to Japan, I had never been to Europe, and I think that changed me as a person a lot. I got to see so many different cultures. It wasn’t like living in New York City, where you’re living with a lot of different cultures but everybody still feels and looks New York City. I think going to Japan changed me a lot, seeing how technologically advanced they are yet so humble and calm as people.”

And soon he’ll be able to add Australia to that list of worldly experiences...

 

“It’s something I’ve been wanting to do my entire life, is take a trip to Australia,” Machado smiles. “At one point I was looking at these 35 day vacations where you got to Australia and you take a cruise to New Zealand and take a ride across the desert, and it’s something I’ve always wanted to see. I don’t really know much about the country, but from what I’ve heard the shows there are amazing, the people love music, there’s beautiful women, and I heard the country’s something to be seen. The anticipation is building up so much, I’m ready to explode!”

 

 

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