SOLUCIÓN MORTAL
The interview was done in January 2002 by Revista Morbo and translated by Federico. It seems like it was an oral interview and therefore messy and unclear in parts, and since I'm not mexican, maybe I made some mistakes while translating. If you know Spanish, go and check out the original site. In any case, I thought that since there's not much info in English about Latin American 80's HC/punk, it was worth translating.
This band was born in Tijuana in 1982, by anxiety and the need of expressing unconformity to society, and managed to create a real punk movement in Mexico. Obviously, through the band passed different guitar and bass players but the ones who were always there since the beginning were brothers Jose and Alan Lezama, who formed the band. They also went through several break-ups, but always remained active within the punk movement and group communication.
Name of the band's current members:
Guillermo Jauregui: Guitar
Lupillo: Bass
Abimael: Vocals
Jose Lezama: Vocals
Alan Lezama: Drums
How did the band start?
Alan: It started in 1982 because of our anxieties and since we were kids we had a tendency and an interest in music - our ancestors were artists, as well as our parents, and we wanted to add more of a cultural focus to it. Also the education we were raised by and also life (the one we're living or waiting for) influenced, as you realized that you're a protestant being, as the world isn't working right and needs change. And that's the reason we started, to shout what we feel strong about.
SM: Why the name Solucion Mortal?
Well, many people has misinterpreted our name as standing for "suicides", but they're going to extremes here. Technically, we aquired the name, if to talk in a more scientific sense - by the word "solution" (in its "liquid" sense) we mean gathering the 7 deadly sins: just imagine that you have the 7 deadly sins inside test tubes, you mix them and get a solution and that drives you to death. The conclusion can be that that's the reason those sins are forbidden, and there's the meaning of our name. And by mixing the sins you achieve an explosion that the world cannot take - that's what make it mortal.
To which musical genre you consider yourselves part of?
SM: Actually, we don't label ourselves as anything, as that's one of the things we are against: to label yourself is to divide humanity. But our music is hard, is aggressive and supposedly fits the hardcore/punk genre.
What motivated you to play when you first started?
SM: We were always motivated by the preoccupation of survival but also the punk movement as first started in England - which we found about through magazines, showed us that the ideas we had belonged more to the punk movement. It wasn't the only protest movement which existed and we relate to the hippie movement, the Blues, Jazz, but our inclination was more towards the English punk movement and that type of protest.
Who writes the lyrics and music?
Alan: When we started we didn't knew much about music, because the musical side of forming a group wasn't the idea, our concern was to scream our feelings. The making of the music happenned around the way we felt. Our lyrics are experiences we had and those of other people we know and therefore "the words and the music belongs to all".
In which other countries are you known and how that came to be?
SM: Well, we started in the 80's and there was then a lot of cultural exchange with US bands. Back then, we were (and still are) independant cultural promoters and started to exchange with the US and bands over there invited us to play important protest festivals. That was recorded and we appeared in an international compilation after they made it into a record and that was distributed in the USA, places like San Francisco and New York. That paved the way for our '86 Mexican tour and subsequent apperances in US cities like Chula Vista, San Diego, Los Angeles and we hope to be able to go deeper...
Which are the things you managed to accomplish with this band?
Alan: Speaking as a human being, the cultural exchange has always been important, that's the goal we want to accomplish, I mean, we don't have to first meet the people and then criticize. So that has been one of our acomplishments: being able to know better our culture and that of other places. And for us it was never important, as it seems to be for other musicians, to record or get famous. We were offered deals but we never felt like taking that way, another type of achievement is to accomplish a saner communication between the people and achieving our goals such as helping in benefit shows. But I'm talking about real benefits, as many use them for propagandating themselves. Another goal we achieved is our big help to the community.
Do you think you had a good support from the people in Tijuana?
Alan: First, Jose and me are from Mexico City and came here because of our dad's (R.I.P.) job, he always dedicated his life for art. What we found here in Tijuana is an oftenly undefined class war, that sometimes we cannot understand, as it's all a mixture of cultures down here: there are people who were born and raised here and people who came here from other Mexican states. I think that we did accomplish the fact that people won't care about that stupidity of separating themselves from those who came from different places then them. But in my opinion, Tijuana lacks in culture and that's the reason we work in the places in which it is possible to achieve a better cultural exchange, something that we deeply cared about, here and in the whole Mexico.
Since you started in the 80's, has there been some change in Tijuana's musical scene?
Alan: Then, it was considered ridiculous for people in the street to look extreme and we had to live through that opression, the whole change in the look and music. The music was criticized as being just grotesque noise but nowadays the mainstream fashion took care of exploiting many of it's aspects: the punk movement was stepped on and many people don't consider that type of movements as being serious but the people who are truly interested in change never lose the thrill. Now we need to look after the youth so they won't get caught up in bullshit, as now it's trendy to talk about protest and ecology issues, but they won't do anything with it. For me, the 80's were more real in the sense that people were more aware and less wilfull to bow down.
How many CDs/demos have you recorded?
SM: We have 4 demos, 2 of them live and 2 made during reunions. We also had a studio recording that we didn't liked, as a spanish label offered us to record and we just did it in a rush, and even though money was invested, the studios here are lousy even though they charge you like they're pros. The recording appeared in a rock magazine and 5,000 copies of the CD were made, from all the records they released it did the best and they even repressed it but the label never gave us a clear account of the whole profits. We never really cared about profits, but it's bad to be exploited and to be bootlegged, on the other side, it's good that you music goes around and that, giving us recognition.
What are your current plans with the band?
SM: So the band is 20 years old, during those 20 years we stopped playing for some periods but it doesn't mean that you're not active in the movement. For example: now in 2002 we're not rehearsing but we have plans for making some changes in the scene here, as Tijuana needs now a radical change, like there was in the 80's, as many assholes are stepping on the movement and we don't think it's fair. We don't want to convert them but we need to get respect from them and to educate them by other means, not just with music.
Alan: An example: Right now I'm studying music to be able to do other types of arts like dance and we're experimenting, each one in his own way but still communicating with each other.
What are you trying to express with your music?
Alan: The music that we always created was agressive, as it expresses the courage, the doubts and the ideas we have, but right now, as we don't feel like being so agressive - we don't to became insane, now we want for people to listen more to the music and to explore the music in all it's _expression, as many didn't understood the philosophical message. We expressed the music through different types of moods, in the future we may play more classical type of music for more "open minded" people, people are angry sometimes when trying to change things. I pay respect to kids, but people who are 20 years old and up and don't want to change, they better go to rehab, it's a waste of time trying to help those. We don't wanna feel like we're educating children.
Any experience you had with the band?
Alan: I don't know, I always hear here in Tijuana that everybody criticizes Chilango (???) but at the end everybody wants to play Mexico, I don't understand that...
With experiences of going out and play, well, that's the thing with exploring and improvizing your life, communicating in different aspects. The aspect of cultural exchange with other cities had been good for us, probably because we always kept our ideal strong and if you go and tour it's better to get out with the truth on your side. Among the experiences, there's always the fact that we liked all the invitations we had, we cannot complain.
Something you'd like to add?
Alan: Probably many people don't really know us, as the kids are busy watching TV and on the net and other things, and oftenly, if you're not televised you're useless, if you're not on the radio, you're useless. I invite youth to explore the roots of all the things and to judge rightfully and that they know were they are heading to, as this life it's not a game and we're worried. We're willing to support you all, as long as the ideas you bring are good, and if i talked before about not listening to a child that doesn't wanna understand, well, that's just a saying - sometimes you can get annoyed, but it's actually better to try and talk - talk with your parents and don't get hooked up on bullshit that the system offers. If you wanna get hooked up on something, you rather try sports, study a lot and go to the cultural events of IMAC, go to CECUT and to museums.
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