Talk about Piranha is to talk about one of the most honest and crude music projects thrash, who has managed to break through on the scene by stomping and getting into the taste of lovers of the genre not only nationally but globally. Queretanos gave us an interview prior to their participation in the Candelabrum Fest to be held on September 19 in León, Guanajuato; and here we leave the answers of César “Tarellevil”, vocalist and guitarist of the group.
It is difficult with so much competition in the thrash and with the difficult part of the national scene reaching two decades of life and you are short of it. What has been the formula to stay current all that time?
Stubbornness - laughter - along with a lot of heart. When you make music with passion and you are stubborn and you turn a no into a yes, you continue regardless of how far you go. We started in 2003 and although it is true for example Chava -bass player- has been a member since 2015 and had been a substitute in some presentations for ten years. What I am going with all this is that in addition to everything we are united by an enormous friendship of knowing each other for a long time, and the fact that also among members of the band we have alternative projects in common. That union added to the stubbornness and love of music seems to me the formula to keep the project alive.
Podrías describir para nosotros su más reciente trabajo “Blood Zone”
It is a job that we suffer a lot to get out. We had problems with some ladies who disappointed us at the time of editing and we went through many delays, searches for the label that would help us finally launch it and many problems like that. In the end the album was achieved which is the important thing. It is without a doubt our most mature and forceful album; but above all very thrash. It is not innovative because it is not what interests us: we do thrash already thrash it is what we like to sound; but if I can tell you we did it in a much more adult way. We want our records to be like receiving a blow to the face and in this work we succeed. We recorded it in my house but the subsequent production was carried out by the legendary Bill Metoyer (Slayer, DRI). We did not want to sound clean or neat, but raw and powerful, which is what Piranha he knows how to give in his live performances. It's our style and we don't want to change it and sound like those bands of neo-thrash of the last years; we put together a thrash for others enjoyable and faithful to what we are.
Tell us a bit about the tour that you are going to put on next to the Australians of Desecrator
Indeed, we have a joint tour in September with various dates of which we will give details later. We are going to Candelabrum and it is prior to this commitment that we will be with them giving those concerts. Desecrator are without a doubt the most important band in thrash from Australia. We became friends in 2015 when we coincided on a tour where he was also Hirax, and then we put together a tour in 2017 with the theme of Mad Max that they love of course. We had to accommodate a lot of things thanks to the eastern issue of coronavirus disease but it still stands. There were indeed plans that we would also go to Australia to play, but the aforementioned public health situation made it economically no longer viable.
Without a doubt Querétaro has grown a lot in terms of scene and there are more and more rock and metal shows there. Do you perceive it that way too?
I believe that the number of promoters that have turned to Querétaro has grown to make it a constant place to schedule shows by international bands, but the scene as such has been around constantly for a long time. There is always a hard capacity between 40 and 200 attendees depending on the group when there are metal concerts in the city. Sometimes tours come like that of Neil Turbin that if at most we were about twenty people in total, but in general the events are well put together here. Querétaro that itself is well known for being a hotbed for large metal projects such as Disgorge, Tulkas, Majestic Downfall or Paracoccidioidomycosisproctitissarcomucosis and of course Piranha. In fact we brought as producers to Incantation to the city: Querétaro has truly positioned itself as a good plaza, more so now with the boom from social networks and all that.
I had the opportunity to see them in Querétaro next to Bulldozer and there were a lot of people with Piraña shirts singing their songs. Do you always have that great support in all your presentations at home?
Piranha It is a street band, the truth is that we are not much of networks or likes and such things. We go with the people and we play, and right there we sell our records, t-shirts and all our merchandise itself. Our audience may not be enormously numerous, but if it is faithful at heart, and whatever they are, they are always supporting everything and they know the songs, and we are infinitely grateful for that.
Speaking of the shoal, we know that they will also be at the Candelabrum Fest. We suppose they know it will be a great experience and more being so close to home. What do you expect from this great commitment?
We are going to present our new work and we intend to give everything that day. The festival Candelabrum It has the particularity unlike other festivals in that the selection of the bands has been almost almost handmade: the bands that make it up fit the very specific taste of the organizers for a much more direct selection. That flatters us but it also puts us in the plan of having to respond to that great honor, bearing in mind that there were only three national bands chosen to be part of the cartel. A poster that is truly bulletproof. We appreciate the space to Summa Inferno and we wait for all fans from all over the republic to meet us.
