Ill Niño on touring, terrorism and toilets

The moment they take their stage positions it feels like someone has switched on a demonic contraption due to Ill Niño unleashing all the power, energy, wattage you’d wish for. And, the entire auditorium remains mental to the climactic end that lives us all in puddles of ecstasy. Riffs are dispatched with passionate abandon, percussions drive the rhythm to the devil’s layer, the bass is firing its lines like a volcano puking magma… In all the sonic riot singer Christian Machado appears on a private ‘Confession’ trip…

They sound mighty, precise, appearing to annihilate competition with barrages of sonic bombs, exterminating with rhythms that infect at the speed of F1 machines running aimlessly just down the road… Only few hours earlier they were having tech-problems during the soundcheck, there was an air of impatience about… The singer wasn’t in a mood due to an earlier encounter at a store that was unpleasant: the shop-assistant must have been stressed out or suicidal to argue with this giant?!

After the technical side of the show was brought under control, we shared a table with guitarist Jardel Paisante to converse about bringing this beast to an end after over a year on the road. Ill Niño have a reputation of ‘the hardest working band in the world’ with touring cycle allowing them home time of - three weeks, precisely.

If we put people in your life aside, what do you miss the most when you are away?

“My own bathroom,” Paisante’s spits the reply instantly, “and you can’t imagine how much. You don’t tend to be in one toilet more than twice before you are off to the next place. When we tour for a year, that means 800 bathrooms, at least. Aside that, for the guys in the band, it is easier to get women in America than Europe.”

“And, places being open 24 hours; there is hardly anything you can get to eat in Europe after 11 o’clock, man!”

Perforated madrugada

Making of the second album encountered some unexpected hurdles when, during the pre-production of the follow-up to ‘Revolution, Revolucion’ they parted ways with two members who were replaced by former Machine Head guitarist Ahrue Luster and Danny Couto on percussion, once a jam-partner of our interviewee in the pre-Ill Niño.

Still officially based in New Jersey, their home is whatever mode of transportation they are in at the time. Extensive travelling has informed the sophomore disc that is “about coming clean with your thoughts,” Marchado explained once, “your past experiences, and within yourself. It's about telling the truth, not only to others, but also to yourself.”

Sharing certain stylistic references with Soulfly [and Max Cavalera-period Sepultura], Ill Niño appear more realistic, propagating a private journey rather than ‘one tribe’ ideal?

“I look at myself as ‘one tribe’ with the human race,” comes a diplomatic answer. “Whatever happens with his band… We recently played a festival with them and I, who knew the old members, thought I’d have a problem to accept them but after their show, I accepted them without any doubt.”

“The ideal of ‘one tribe’ is doable because people around the world have more similarities than differences but we all concentrate on differences.”

‘Confession’ was written during touring breaks; are you following the same pattern?

“No, because all the guys have got ideas now,” guitarist speaks from under a baseball hat with gang-like bandana underneath, “and we tend to jam them. But, we will not start consolidating our ideas until we stop touring and get discussing how and what we want the new album to sound like. Right now, everyone’s creativity is on the up and go.”

“I expect us to get writing in October and the album should come out early next year.”

Fretting sunset

This Latino-flavoured sextet rocks worldly, mixing ethnic beats with Spanish guitar, heavy metal with spicy riffing, tropical chords with bombastic cocktails of percussions with Spanish and English lyrics, appear to have struck, as the writer of their official PR justly notes - “an artful balance between memorable and menacing.”

You hit the stage ready to torch it with raw energy; is there a warm-up ritual?

“Individually we all have our own regime and often I warm up with Christian… What I like the best is to chill out an hour before the show… Before I become a musician I was a great fan of music and at the age of 15 or 16, it was purest for me, I knew nothing about the business side of it, just enjoyed the songs. So, I like to listen to Iron Maiden, Metallica, Judas Priest and Slayer… It brings me back to that mindset before I go on stage and I hope to give the people the same vibe.”

Has touring, or music in general, suffered after the ‘9/11 Tragedy‘?

“Flying has become a major problem,” Pasiante points out the security issue. “Just before we left for Europe we heard of a show P.O.D. played in New York and somebody came to the show strapped with C4. Security guards took him out but there was nothing about it on the news. We know people who work at the venue and the band…”

“Things like these scare us and it is a lot scarier to go a Third World country now than it was three years ago. There was a possibility for us to fly back on July the Fourth but most members weren’t prepared to get on the plane and we had to add few more dates…”

Further probing into quality of ‘rock’ [read ‘corporate cloned’] bands that appear to litter the airways is met with the curt “I never criticize,” and even directly challenging ‘Is there any purpose to Velvet Revolver?”, only prompts - “They believe they do have one and that’s good enough for me.”

What do you know: watching him onstage you wouldn’t think he’d fail to make the critic’s grade!?