Hi! Tell me about your band and what kind of previous experience do you have as musicians?
Hey, well, Matalobos is a Doom/Death metal from Leon, Mexico, which has been active from nearly 4 years now, but each one of us had been playing in many projects for about 10 – 15 years now, playing in different cities around the country and recording significant discographies to date.
Why did you pick your band name? How did you form? Why did you decide to play the genre or genres you do?
Matalobos is the colloquial name for a flower/plant, beautiful at sight but lethal to contact, it’s been referred in many horror classic movies as the flower capable to turn human a wolfman or to kill it in other case, so we found it a direct and easy word to be remembered. The band was formed when Dante (vocals) and Eduardo (guitars) came with this project having some demos for a future production, they approached Clemente (drums) so they started working in recordings, sometime after, Carlos (bass) came into the scene and joined to reach the studio. After that the band took the decision to become a live act, so Germán (guitars) came into the picture to complete the band line-up, back in 2015. Since beginning of this band, the main objective was to play Doom or Doom/Death, influenced by those 90s bands that gave us chills and almost tears, kind of a homenage, but adding our touch, so that was easy to decide.
What can you tell us about your latest record?
Our latest production is entitled “Until Time Has Lost All Meaning” and it’s an EP made by 3 songs, each one having a different taste and focus, the EP concept is totally related to death, all the process and stages of losing a relative, close human being, going through pain, somatization and resignation or embracing of the loss, is was released November 2nd (Mexican day of the Death) 2017 by Concreto Records, in a 500 copy limited thin digipack edition. It was produced, recorded and mixed in Leon at Urvn Studios by Rubén Sánchez (Vst) and mastered by Dan Swanö (thousands of amazing metal projects) at Unisound, Krefeld, Germany.
What the kind of album feedbacks are you waiting for?
We’re not that kind of band willing to hear all comments and best regards from listeners, we do this from our hearts, for passion and love to music/metal, so any words, any signals of appreciation of what we do is very welcome and satisfying, feels good to know that your expression could reach someone else and make them have a nice moment, or not that nice since is Doom lol.
Are you gonna to make some world tour in the future? Do you think this is available for everybody option to tour around the globe? What do you think band have to do to get such opportunity?
Surely we have that in plans, it’s a matter of work with documentation and find a good deal to make it work, should be a plan that benefit both parts band/promoters. Of course it’s an opportunity for any band to do it, of you have the investment and the right contacts, you’ll made it, but also it depends of your quality and promotion as band to ensure your shows will be as you want them to be, so the clue is to keep working in good material, to be honest with your music and do thinks as professional as they can be.
Do you believe in heavy music scene without money?
Of course not, there should be money movement everywhere, shows costs, supplies costs, guitar strings, instruments themselves, drum patches, drum sticks, rehearsal ours, album production, recordings, so as any industry, money is key part.
What do you think about online music sharing? Do you ever give your music away for free? Why?
Internet and media streaming maybe could the most powerful tool for publishing not only music but anything, I agree that back in those days the beauty of knowing new music was sharing tapes and CDs with your friends, but well, times change, now we have this ease and for us is great and we use it as much as we can to make our thing go to every corner possible. Yes, sometime we created a contest and we were giving away a bunch of codes to download for free our LP “Arte Macabro”, just because we wanted to give back a little of the support we had received since the beginning from our listeners.
Who are your musical influences? Have you ever think your band could be so famous as your favorites?
As mentioned before, we all as followers of metal 90s acts, such as My Dying Bride, Katatonia, Opeth, Tiamat, Anathema, Daylight Dies (more 2000s), Novembre and so on, but we also enjoy listening to many genres, form progressive to pop, such as King Crimson, Depeche Mode, The Cure, etc. And why not? Maybe if our music is good enough we could made it to some important festivals, and touring with some of them, who knows? Enjoying is the key.
Do you have a formal music education? Do you think it’s a kind of important thing?
None of us has any musical education, we all had a couple of lessons back in our puberty, but we’re totally lyric. Of course it is important, but maybe depending your aim and the kind of music you want to play, it’s all about feeling and dedication.
How do you balance your music with other obligations – mate, children, job?
We see this as a passion made as professional as we can, we have our daily jobs, our degrees, some of us actually works in companies, we have mates, etc. so well, the clue is to manage times, we arrange specific days for rehearsing, especially when we have shows ahead, when you love something there’s always a way to make it work.
How do you handle mistakes during a performance? Or you can assure there are no any mistakes during your gigs? Do you get nervous before a performance or a competition?
We’re humans there’s always some mistakes or situations out of our hands like not so good backline/PA, technical problems, so I think we always try to keep calm and not make it evident, just do as nothing is going on and try to fix it as fast as possible, that’s our tip. The nervous always depends on the venue, the crowd, there places more smashing than others haha…
What’s next? Thank you!
We’re working in new material, and waiting to play and confirm a couple of great and important shows, so keep in touch, follow us in our social media such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube (matalobosofficial for all of them), we are posting content very often. Thanks a lot for your time and deep questions, was a really good time… DOOM!!