Sounds from underground/File N°008

  and from Odessa we move to Puerto Rico. a good portion of anarchopunk with <<República Bananera>>. movingly.

Ocupation! Ocupation! Ocupation! 

0. name of band

República Bananera

1. where are you from? 

Northwest coast of Puerto Rico.

2. what kind of instruments/equipment you use? 

For these recordings just my Devlin Imposter guitar (chinese surf guitar replica), a Fender Mustang iii and 2 tom toms. That’s it.

3. what do you think about the music context nowadays and how you place yourself in? do you feel a part of any scene? 

There has been new wave of bands coming out in the last years, we've played great shows together but I wouldn't call it a scene. 

Music nowadays is going through a very tragic situation. But i guess we'll just have to accept it, there won't be anymore Tchaikovskys or Wagners around. 

4. which is your method of composition? 

Most of the time the words come first, which are just lines that come to my mind during any time of the day while I’m thinking about certain subjects. Then I put some riffs to the lyrics and it’s done. I don’t really polish my songs, it’s all very minimalistic, very simple.

5. how is your recording approach? do you use some particular record technique?

My principle when it comes to creating (and pretty much life in general) is to stay primitive. Recording ‘techniques’ may vary. Most of the time I capture the live sound with a cheap mic. I don’t really like the direct recording approach. All my recordings are done in a portable digital recorder, where they are mixed too. I like to keep things unsophisticated and as raw as they naturally are; no computer tricks. 

6. do you play live? how public react to your music? 

República Bananera is in early stages, not sure if it will go 'live' but judging from my experience with my other project ‘Madd Blake Y Los Stalins’ I've noticed that people don't know how to react to something different from what they're used to even if they dig it, but after a few songs they get into it.

7. Genesis P-Orridge said "Our records were documents of attitudes and experiences and observations by us and other determinedly individual outsiders. Fashion was an enemy, style irrelevant.". What do your records represent to you? 

Perfectly described. This project expresses my thoughts and rejection of the current situation in our country as a colony of the US: cultural destruction, invasion of multinational corporations, resources exploitation and many forms of experimentation... so for me it’s an historical document in a way.

The whole artistic scene is very much focused on trends, ‘coolness’ and fashion. Many people perceive music (and other kinds of art) as some kind of entertainment or background music to get drunk or get high, which results in devaluation; for me is much more than that.

 

República Bananera's debut EP will be out soon on Krampus Records. Don't miss it!