Twinmusix spoke to Dave Chavarri from ILL NINO about their upcoming tour and more.
TM - Hi, This is Amelia and Elizabeth from Twinmusix and we are here with Dave Chavarri from ILL NIÑO, thank you for having this interview with us today we appreciate it.
DC - Thank you.
TM - What can fans expect from your Australian tour?
DC - We cannot wait to come to Australia, it is our second home. we are doing New Zealand first and then we are coming to Australia and we are excited to come and we cannot wait. I absolutely missed the Australian crowds, they are insane and very lively. My favourite crowds are South America and Australia. I don't know why but they are two of the most brutal audiences.
TM - What can fans expect from your setlist?
DC - We are definitely going to be playing all the singles and we will do a set for as long as we are allowed. We are going to do stuff from "Revolution Revolución" alot of stuff from "Confession" a couple of hits from "One Nation Underground". We are going to be dropping a new single at the end of june and we will be playing that new single as well.
TM - Can you tell us more about your new Single?
DC- It is very ILL NIÑO but a lot of our music has changed in the past ten or fifteen years. Since the bands Inception twenty Five Years ago nu metal has taken a new shape. It has a lot of these similar roots of nu metal which KORN and System Of A Down brought into the forefront. Now everything is a bit more Electronica a little bit more sample oriented and a little bit more rhythmic. There are more modern sounds and it is not as organic as it used to be. I am cool with that, i like change and I don't like things being the same. You can never pin point and album ILL NIÑO has done that sounds the same as another that's one thing. I make sure that we are not repeating ourselves. There can only be one AC/DC and one Ramones and these are bands that are amazing in their own right, but all the songs sound similar and rightfully so as they are iconic bands, and that is what they are set out to do.
TM - Are you working on a new album?
DC - We are in the middle of writing a new album and we are going in the studio next week to start recording the new album. It is our first real full album in about three years. We will be announcing our new record label next week and we will start taking looks at little Peaks of our new music.
TM - What is your favourite song to play live?
DC - It is like saying which is your favourite out of all your kids. ILL NIÑO has been my baby since day one. I started the band in in 1998 and I am the founder of the band ILL NIÑO. It is dear to me in many ways, and people ask me that all the time. I don't know there is alot of cool Mosh parts. I like the breakdown in "Te Amo...I Hate You" it is definitely a crowd favourite. I also like the songs "This Is War"and "I Am Loco" because of the live interaction.
TM - If you could have any band play one of your songs, what band would it be, what song would it be and would it be in your style or their style?
DC - I have two favourites, Metallica has been my favourite band since I was a kid, so mabey Metallica doing a song like "This Is War or Te Amo...I Hate You", something like that, and they do it in our style.
I think it would be interesting to have KORN, who are the leaders of NU Metal, and have a band like them do these same songs and see what it sounds like. It is funny you say that because last week I was f****** around on YouTube and there are so many mashups of bands and there is an ILL NIÑO song that was playing as if KORN were playing it. It is so spot on, it is ridiculous, and they have done it well. There are a lot of songs like that, and there are a lot of mashups of other bands. It's Cool to see that.
TM - Who was the first band or Artist you saw live and can you tell us a story?
DC - Iron Maiden and Queensryche on the Powers lave tour in Radio City Music Hall in New York. I am from New Jersey and I came to the United States when I was ten years old from Lima, Peru, where I was born. In the show, Iron Maiden came out raging and killing it.
I will tell you a really cool story about that, the first band that I saw was Iron Maiden they were very impressionable on me. I was like holy s*** these guys are amazing, and you fast forward about fifteen years and it is 1997 or 98 and I played drums for a band called soulfly for a little while. I was filling in playing drums for Soulfly and I did the Hatebreed tour in America in the United States and low behold. We do direct support for Iron Maiden, and it was the wildest day of my life. We showed up at the venue in Los Angeles, California and it was so surreal that Soulfly was going to open up for Iron Maiden, and it was like I remember seeing this band when I was a teenager and it was so impressionable on me, and now I'm getting to play in front of their crowd. It was a turn around moment, all of a sudden I looked at my left and I saw the drummer of Iron Maiden checking out our set, and I was like this is crazy and then he picks up a beer and nods his head and I don't drink alcohol smoke cigarettes or do drugs i never have. The drummer came up to me and said hey buddy, do you want to have a beer and I couldn't tell him that I don't drink beer so I said sure let's go and have a beer. We go back to his bus and we are sitting there kicking it and talking in the front living room and he was like do you want to beer and I'm like sure and then I took a sip of it and it was disgusting. I was like I am going to make believe I am drinking the Spear because I am having a beer with the drummer of Iron Maiden right now who checked out my set. It was pretty funny, i was like I can't believe I'm doing this.
TM - Is there anything else you want to say to your fans?
DC - Australia is family to us. I remember coming to Australia when we did Soundwave festivals, and the first time we came to Australia it was Static-X and ILL NIÑO Co headline tour in 2005 it was amazing, and we can't wait to come back. We have a lot of family and friends there and it is going to be a great show. It will probably be the most production filled ILL NIÑO show Australia has seen its going to be sick.
TM - Thank you for having this interview with us today, we appreciate it.
DC - Thank you.