- Jul 27: Skinny Puppy Stockholm showtime moved to 21:00.
- Apr 23: Skinny Puppy @ Gothenburg.
- Apr 23: New venue, Skinny Puppy @ Stockholm.
- Apr 5: Tinitus presents: Skinny Puppy.
- Aug 5: We are back.
- Tinitus 2009 video plug
- Hocico feature
- Spark! feature
- Nitzer Ebb feature & video interview
- Combichrist interview
- Combichrist feature
- Feindflug feature
- Tinitus 2006 video plug
HOCICO
– The return of the Aztecs of el Popo
Way back in the early nineties – or late eighties but then it was only experimental - two cousins; Erk and Racso, raised in the hellish gutters of Mexico began to enact their dreams; to make the hammering aggrotech beat that would get them out of Mexico, far away from the brim of the volcano Popotekeptle and all the way to the US, Europe and beyond. With a fast and furious beat that excelled in both content and deliverance and a cocky attitude they became Hocico and so the saga commences.
Erk’s got the Hocico logo, a spider, tattooed on his forearm. It is faded. As if the boy he once was were trying to send a message to the man he’s become; “Don’t forget who you are, never forget where you came from and who you once were." And indeed it is a very humble rock star that gives an interview to Tinitus.
I try not to let it go to my head, man. So much has happened. When we put out our first demos, we had our home numbers on them. Then, when we got our breakthrough fans kept calling my mother and asking for me or Racso and I never thought that would happen. Now we are, sad to say, more private than back then. Man our first concert were at my mothers’ house and the album Misuse, Abuse and Accident was issued only in thirty copies.
Is family important?
But of course. Europeans don’t make family count for much. But you must never forget your background, your inheritance; in the end you don't take nothing with you when you go, nothing but your soul. And in a corrupt and 
depraved society like the poorer parts of the worlds largest city, family is even more important. Eventhough I've fled the poverty, corruption and despair of it part of me will always belong to my roots and I return to Mexico as often as I can to visit my family.
Hocico translates into mouth (i.e. snout like on an animal) in a derogatory way. The phrase “Cállate el pinche hocico” translates into “shut your freakin’ trap!” and Hocico do advocate a foul french. But does the new 2008 album Memorias Atras continue the traditions of the albums of the nineties or do more than pick up where the last left of, one wonders?
Memorias Atraz suggests memories from before. But this album is really a retrospective of what was in many ways and a new beginning. We wanted to deal with the memories and cleanse ourselves of our past. A lot of shit's happened the past four years and this is a way to burn our past, eradicate it, bury it in flames and starting over from the ashes of whatever survives the flames. Dramatic, isn’t it? (Here Erk blinks and gives me one of his ironic smiles)
Is irony important?
Is irony important? Are you kidding me? How are you supposed to face the world without being able to laugh about it; everything is pretty much turning to shit as we speak. We live in the end of days. The enemy of my enemy is not my friend anymore. Everybody is turning on each other and media plays it like a game of chess; good opposing evil. But who is good? All these wars, they try to make you think that it’s right. I remember when Afghanistan was invaded in 2001 by the righteous world trying to catch the evil fuck that masterminded the terror of 9-11 and someone wrote in one of the major papers in the U.S. that he failed to see the point in sending a 2 million dollar missile into a two dollar tent were Bin Laden probably weren’t hiding anyway instead of doing something about the real problem and he got reeked and scorned for being antipatriotic behaviour. They failed to see the irony of it; they failed to see beyond the problem. And the world got a little bit colder.
Is this a political record?
Well, not really. “About a dead” might be the track that everybody expected from us. It’s blasphemous and attacks the Catholic Church and all it’s hypocrisy at it’s best; the song is about that south-Mexican priest who raped 60 kids and got transferred to the US where the old dirty bastard raped an additional odd 20. He’s still out there, because the Church protects him – the sanctity of the holy sacrament of confession covers his foul ass. And we just had to make a song about that. Guess what my views on his Holiness are?
It strikes me as a rather personal record this album then?
It is. It always is if you really put your mind in your music. The trick is to keep away from being pathetic. Some might think this is damned close, but then some might find something they can apply to themselves. "Stop my madness" is the one song that means the most to me on this album. And it’s not even a song; More a monologue. But it kinda’ says it all - spells the question that everyone asks: - how do I face or forget my ghosts? And the fine thing about it – I offer no solution. No comfort. No nothing. The irony, the irony of life!
So this is a dark record?
Hocico isn’t what you play at your mothers’ birthday – or, eh, I do, but that is just me – the thing about painting the apocalyptic picture of end times is not to offer a solution. That would be hypocrisy for sure. But that don’t mean that we take the evil and the darkness serious. Surely the devils most malevolent scheme was to convince the world that he did not exist if the Church is right. But be it just up to us mere mortals to change the world we are seemingly stuck between a rock and a hard place. Because all the righteous wars we are making for the sake of humanity counts more casualties than the black plague and what have you in history. We are heading for a fall for sure, but at least Hocico can tune in and do the soundtrack! (Erk laughs a catchy laughter; once bitten 4ever smitten, eh?) Dark? Well, the cover features the Aztec calendar. It ends December 24:th 2011. That is when the world ends. You figure it out?
You seem to have covered it all – what’s next?
- I am older than I once was, I can feel it in my bones. But younger than I’ll be and I’ll fuckin’ stick around for a long time still, providing the Aztecs are wrong. My solo project, Rabia Sorda, will be something I'll do some more of and well... Only time will tell - meanwhile you just come and get it at Tinitus this Easter.
Text & interview: Morten Solholm
Image: Out of Line