Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / No Gambling On The Outcome With DAVE CHAVARRI & TOMMY ROULETTE From ILL NIÑO
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Hey, what's up? Is Dave from El Nino?
- 0:04Speaker 2: What up does it? Tommy from El Nino?
- 0:07Speaker 3: Hey going, guys, thanks for joining us today.
- 0:10Speaker 1: Thank you for having us brother.
- 0:13Speaker 4: Oh so Eleno hit Austraia very soon, guys for three
- 0:16Speaker 4: select shows, starting in Sydney on September the twelfth, before
- 0:19Speaker 4: hitting Melbourne and Brisbane over consecutive days.
- 0:21Speaker 3: So not long now, gentlemen, are we packed and ready
- 0:24Speaker 3: to go?
- 0:28Speaker 1: We're gonna fucking destroy for sure. We're psyched.
- 0:32Speaker 5: We just came off a month long tour in the
- 0:34Speaker 5: United States with a parliament five thousand Elino co headline.
- 0:38Speaker 1: That's it was. It was fucking packed every night, and uh,
- 0:42Speaker 1: you know we're ready to go. Man, We're well oiled
- 0:44Speaker 1: and ready to fucking rock right now.
- 0:46Speaker 2: No rust, no rust, oh no Didty, no Diddy, no Diddy?
- 0:53Speaker 1: Oh say why okay?
- 0:54Speaker 3: Why no, no, no, no leave guys. You gotta come
- 0:57Speaker 3: in hard, come in odd.
- 1:01Speaker 1: There is no loop. This has been no loo.
- 1:03Speaker 5: Gonna be Like Heavy Max said, is that no loop tour?
- 1:06Speaker 5: That's what i'na have to call it.
- 1:08Speaker 4: I love Its gonna be the easiest question you've ever
- 1:13Speaker 4: had the answer to, dive and it's a perfect segue
- 1:16Speaker 4: into the next question. But it's been eight years since
- 1:18Speaker 4: Jornina have been out here in Australia loft, So what's
- 1:21Speaker 4: changed in that time.
- 1:23Speaker 5: Oh, we have a new singer in that time, and
- 1:26Speaker 5: you know, we have a whole new lineup that's been
- 1:30Speaker 5: with the band for almost five years now. Uh, and
- 1:33Speaker 5: uh it's been fucking great, man, it's been you know,
- 1:36Speaker 5: the progress of the band has been awesome. We played
- 1:39Speaker 5: some incredible festivals in the past three years. We did
- 1:42Speaker 5: a couple of dates from Metallica in Europe, did a
- 1:44Speaker 5: couple of dates with Slipknot, and some of the big
- 1:47Speaker 5: festivals in Europe. And uh, we also did some huge
- 1:50Speaker 5: festivals in the United States. We did Danny Wimmer festivals
- 1:53Speaker 5: in twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three.
- 1:56Speaker 1: And uh, you know, it's been it's been fucking awesome.
- 1:59Speaker 1: It's been uh.
- 2:00Speaker 5: And now the latest edition of Tommy Uh, you know,
- 2:04Speaker 5: it's just perfect, perfects the lineup really, you know.
- 2:08Speaker 1: Uh, we are like firing old cylinders right now.
- 2:11Speaker 5: Everybody's feeling good, everyone's getting along amazing, and uh, I'm
- 2:15Speaker 5: just fucking psycked for the future for sure.
- 2:18Speaker 3: Fantasy now tell me. It's a pleasure to make you brother.
- 2:21Speaker 2: So interesting, pleasure to meet us.
- 2:23Speaker 3: How I am?
- 2:24Speaker 4: I man, introduce yourself to Australian fans and tell them
- 2:27Speaker 4: a bit more about yourself.
- 2:28Speaker 2: What's up? What's up? I'm Tommy.
- 2:30Speaker 6: I'm from New York. I love Australia. Never been very
- 2:33Speaker 6: excited to go. I love the scene out there. I've
- 2:36Speaker 6: been saying it like every interview we've had prior to
- 2:38Speaker 6: our coming Australia show. I've been saying in every interview,
- 2:41Speaker 6: like I love North Lane, I love Polaris Terminal, Sleep
- 2:45Speaker 6: Speed obviously, Parkway Drive. There's so many great so much
- 2:48Speaker 6: great music coming out of Australia, always has been for
- 2:51Speaker 6: like decades now, so you know, I'm a big fan
- 2:54Speaker 6: of what they got going on. So I'm excited to
- 2:56Speaker 6: see the community, the people, the heavy music scene.
- 2:58Speaker 2: I'm just really excited to experience it.
- 3:00Speaker 1: You know.
- 3:00Speaker 6: Never, like I said, never been heard. The food is
- 3:03Speaker 6: great too. There's great barbecue. I heard even the fast
- 3:06Speaker 6: food spots are better. I love the word ton it's awesome.
- 3:09Speaker 4: Yeah, you're an honorary member.
- 3:12Speaker 3: Heavy off to sign that, brother, Congratulations.
- 3:15Speaker 6: There Hell yeah, but yeah, man, oh no, yeah, I've
- 3:21Speaker 6: been with the guy. I've been with the guys for
- 3:23Speaker 6: like a couple of months now, you know what I mean,
- 3:25Speaker 6: Everyone's super great. I couldn't asked to be with a great,
- 3:28Speaker 6: greater group of guys right now.
- 3:29Speaker 2: You know, it truly is an honor.
- 3:30Speaker 6: I'm very grateful and very thankful to be here, you know,
- 3:33Speaker 6: not taking this for granted, you know, so putting in
- 3:36Speaker 6: the work and making it happen, you know, very excited
- 3:39Speaker 6: for what the future olds.
- 3:41Speaker 4: No, it's now you're probably sick answering this question already, Bryce,
- 3:44Speaker 4: So I gotta apologize in advance.
- 3:46Speaker 3: But how did you come to be the new? Vice
- 3:48Speaker 3: was fairly I.
- 3:50Speaker 2: So I've known laz Laz.
- 3:53Speaker 6: Me and him have probably known each other since about
- 3:55Speaker 6: like twenty eighteen. I'm actually really good friends with his cousin,
- 4:00Speaker 6: this dude to Alrodi, who I've known since I was
- 4:02Speaker 6: like maybe thirteen or fourteen, just from like going to
- 4:05Speaker 6: local shows in the Bronx and stuff like that back
- 4:07Speaker 6: in the day. So I always kind of had a
- 4:09Speaker 6: little bit of a connection to last, but we didn't
- 4:11Speaker 6: meet until about twenty eighteen nineteen.
- 4:14Speaker 2: We kept in contact.
- 4:15Speaker 6: We're just like always like he always showed respect for
- 4:17Speaker 6: the music I was doing at the time, so we
- 4:19Speaker 6: always showed love to. Always appreciated that of him, you know,
- 4:21Speaker 6: because he's an OG.
- 4:22Speaker 2: He's like, you know, they, Elino, these are.
- 4:25Speaker 6: Fucking legends, you know what I mean, Like, this is
- 4:26Speaker 6: a legendary group of guys. So any of them, you know,
- 4:29Speaker 6: showing me love as fuck as an honor, you know.
- 4:31Speaker 2: So always kept in contact. He hit me up maybe.
- 4:34Speaker 6: Like a few months ago, asking me, Hey, would you
- 4:37Speaker 6: be interested in trying out? I said, yeah, I was like,
- 4:41Speaker 6: let's give it a shot. I tracked a couple demos.
- 4:43Speaker 6: They they seem to be happy with what I did, and.
- 4:46Speaker 1: Uh yeah, then like I kind of nailed it.
- 4:49Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you nailed it. Yeah man, Yeah, thank you
- 4:52Speaker 2: so much. Brother. I appreciate that. Yeah.
- 4:54Speaker 6: But I just like I kind of didn't really think
- 4:55Speaker 6: anything was gonna come up with it. I always tell
- 4:58Speaker 6: myself too, like, don't get too excited until something actually happens,
- 5:02Speaker 6: you know what I mean.
- 5:03Speaker 2: So I was just like, you know, oh, it's awesome
- 5:05Speaker 2: that I'm doing this. If it happens, cool, if it doesn't.
- 5:07Speaker 1: Whatever.
- 5:08Speaker 6: But then like three weeks before the tour started, They're like, yo, bro,
- 5:11Speaker 6: you ready for this, and I'm like, oh shit, it's
- 5:12Speaker 6: going down. I'm like, all right, let's let's strap in. Bro,
- 5:15Speaker 6: Let's strap in and just do it, do it all
- 5:17Speaker 6: all cylinders, bro.
- 5:18Speaker 2: We just like going for it. Man. You know, no
- 5:21Speaker 2: time to really even take it in as well.
- 5:22Speaker 6: You know, I didn't really have time to process, like,
- 5:24Speaker 6: oh shit, I'm like fucking on stage fronting.
- 5:27Speaker 2: Al Ninho right now. You know, even the.
- 5:29Speaker 6: Tour, it was, I didn't even have enough time to
- 5:31Speaker 6: like process what was happening. It was just like do it,
- 5:33Speaker 6: do it, do it, get it done. That was kind
- 5:35Speaker 6: of like what the priority was first. But you know,
- 5:38Speaker 6: now being back home after the tour, I've had a
- 5:40Speaker 6: little bit of time to like reflect on just how
- 5:42Speaker 6: much of a chaotic but amazing month it was with
- 5:45Speaker 6: those guys, you know what I mean, Like chaotic in
- 5:47Speaker 6: a good way as in like you know, just getting
- 5:49Speaker 6: thrown into all the music and just like oh snap,
- 5:51Speaker 6: Like you know, I've never played shows with these guys before.
- 5:54Speaker 6: You know, we only practiced like a few times, so
- 5:57Speaker 6: it was just like, you know, that basically.
- 5:59Speaker 1: Dropped where the rules were packed.
- 6:02Speaker 5: So I was like I was feeling for you, like
- 6:05Speaker 5: this motherfucker has to be nervous, because I.
- 6:07Speaker 6: Know, yeah, I definitely was getting some of some pre
- 6:11Speaker 6: show jitters for sure, No, most definitely. It was definitely
- 6:14Speaker 6: a new experience for me compared to like what I'm
- 6:16Speaker 6: like used to, you know, like I come from more
- 6:18Speaker 6: of like a hardcore like New York hard courts type
- 6:20Speaker 6: of background, so like I'm used to playing like shows
- 6:23Speaker 6: with a bunch of people like beating each other up
- 6:25Speaker 6: and it's like only one hundred kids there or something
- 6:27Speaker 6: like that, you know what I mean.
- 6:28Speaker 2: But these shows, I'm like, it's amazing because.
- 6:31Speaker 6: It's like really nice people that people that are just
- 6:35Speaker 6: nice friendly people that like are just showing love. After
- 6:38Speaker 6: the show, everyone wants to hang out and be cool,
- 6:41Speaker 6: and I'm just like, oh wow, what an amazing, like
- 6:43Speaker 6: not hostile environment. This is like I could get used
- 6:46Speaker 6: to this, you know what I mean. So, like I said,
- 6:48Speaker 6: I'm very very thankful to be here.
- 6:50Speaker 4: You know, it's like an awesome And I'm trying to
- 6:53Speaker 4: do a bit of research on you before. So me
- 6:55Speaker 4: and you listened in the Metal atods as being a
- 6:57Speaker 4: drummer as well, so that's the case You're not kind
- 7:00Speaker 4: of for Dave's job, are you.
- 7:02Speaker 2: Yeah, I man, I'll say one thing we do. We
- 7:04Speaker 2: do a drum jam live.
- 7:06Speaker 6: We do a drum jam where I play some drums,
- 7:08Speaker 6: Dave played some drum Miggy. We all do a little
- 7:10Speaker 6: drum jam. We just kind of like freestyle a little
- 7:13Speaker 6: bit and.
- 7:13Speaker 2: Take turns like live. It's such fun, so I do.
- 7:16Speaker 6: Yeah, I get to bring a little bit of like,
- 7:18Speaker 6: you know, my my drumming background into the mix, which
- 7:20Speaker 6: one very.
- 7:20Speaker 5: Thankful, amazing drummer.
- 7:23Speaker 1: He's a sick motherfucker bro.
- 7:26Speaker 2: Thank you, but I appreciate that.
- 7:27Speaker 6: Yeah, Man, drumming that is the That is my first instrument,
- 7:30Speaker 6: so you know that definitely was a drummer before I
- 7:32Speaker 6: became a vocalist and stuff.
- 7:34Speaker 5: But when I don't want to play drums anymore, I'll
- 7:37Speaker 5: just put them on drums and vocals.
- 7:39Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 7:39Speaker 6: Yeah, you want to do double duties, man, do double
- 7:43Speaker 6: duty drum jam.
- 7:44Speaker 4: Well, for the same time, ships Dave was Tommy always
- 7:50Speaker 4: on your right arm mate?
- 7:51Speaker 3: Or when?
- 7:51Speaker 4: When when did you first think about him?
- 7:55Speaker 5: You know, when we were looking for a singer, we
- 7:57Speaker 5: meant last he's my right hand in the band. He's
- 8:01Speaker 5: in OG's an original member and uh, me and him,
- 8:04Speaker 5: we've been friends for forty one years. He's my daughter's
- 8:07Speaker 5: godfather and my best friend for forty one years. So
- 8:11Speaker 5: we started talking about singers, and we started listening to
- 8:13Speaker 5: a couple of guys and he was like, hey, man,
- 8:15Speaker 5: I got a kid from New York that I've seen
- 8:19Speaker 5: play a while ago. I'm gonna have him come down
- 8:21Speaker 5: and and and you know, record some songs. Said okay,
- 8:25Speaker 5: so recorded, I am local and what comes around? And
- 8:30Speaker 5: he sent it to me that night and I was like, yo,
- 8:33Speaker 5: he sounds really really original to this, to the sound
- 8:37Speaker 5: of the band, but in a very modern, you know,
- 8:41Speaker 5: introduction to the band, and it's really really uplifting, energetic.
- 8:45Speaker 5: And I was like, yo, let's let's fucking work with
- 8:47Speaker 5: him and maybe have him do another demo or now,
- 8:50Speaker 5: let's talk to.
- 8:50Speaker 1: Him, see what he said is at and uh, you know,
- 8:53Speaker 1: we let it sooth for a little while.
- 8:55Speaker 5: We talked for about it, you know, we we heard
- 8:57Speaker 5: it back and forth, and then about thirty days twenty
- 9:01Speaker 5: five days for the tour, I called Tommy and I
- 9:03Speaker 5: was like, Hey, let's fucking go, let's fucking let's rock
- 9:06Speaker 5: this shit.
- 9:06Speaker 1: Fuck up.
- 9:07Speaker 4: You know, yes, there, yeah, there are so many people
- 9:11Speaker 4: trying to put pressure on you to announcing and you
- 9:13Speaker 4: sing of other spit. It's not an easy thing to
- 9:16Speaker 4: do finding a new singer, is There's there's more than
- 9:18Speaker 4: just the fact they can sing that you got to
- 9:20Speaker 4: take into account, Like.
- 9:22Speaker 5: You know what, man, I'm I know Alin knows my
- 9:25Speaker 5: baby right. I started the band. I'm the founder of
- 9:28Speaker 5: the band. It's not of the band in nineteen ninety eight,
- 9:30Speaker 5: in twenty seven years, and so I'm very cautious on
- 9:32Speaker 5: what I do with the band, and I'm very cautious
- 9:34Speaker 5: of how I percent stinks to the band and you know,
- 9:37Speaker 5: to the public and h And at that point it's like, okay,
- 9:42Speaker 5: there's no sense of rushing a singer and introduction to
- 9:45Speaker 5: a singer, you know, like, you know, be everyone's gonna
- 9:49Speaker 5: trust our guidance. I mean, we're not gonna put out
- 9:52Speaker 5: a fucking singer that that sucks, you know what I mean.
- 9:55Speaker 5: I wouldn't even fucking do that. I would rather fucking
- 9:58Speaker 5: put everything on hold for a year before that happened,
- 10:01Speaker 5: you know. But so it happens that we we were
- 10:04Speaker 5: blessed to find them, and we found each other and
- 10:07Speaker 5: we're like, Yo, let's fucking go, you know what I mean.
- 10:10Speaker 5: And then I wanted to do the introduction like we
- 10:12Speaker 5: did with the snippets until the fucking tour came out.
- 10:15Speaker 1: And now we're gonna release some music.
- 10:18Speaker 5: Next week, we're gonna release snippets of the new song,
- 10:21Speaker 5: and then shortly after that the song and a video.
- 10:24Speaker 5: So we're just taking the time. And there's no when
- 10:27Speaker 5: it comes to music, there's there's no rushing music. You
- 10:31Speaker 5: can't fucking rush it. You rush it, you're gonna shoot
- 10:33Speaker 5: yourself in the foot. You're gonna fuck yourself.
- 10:36Speaker 3: Now.
- 10:37Speaker 4: Told me this is gonna put you on the spot
- 10:38Speaker 4: a little bit, brother, So what what did you think
- 10:41Speaker 4: you actually.
- 10:41Speaker 3: Bring to you? Elina?
- 10:44Speaker 6: I think I bring something a little bit like because
- 10:47Speaker 6: like I'm not I'm not that young. I'm thirty one
- 10:50Speaker 6: years old, but you know, I'm definitely younger than like
- 10:53Speaker 6: you know, Dave or Las. I feel like I've kind
- 10:55Speaker 6: of been in the mix, like in like I only
- 10:57Speaker 6: started to come into shows and being a part of
- 10:59Speaker 6: like the quote unquote music scene about like twenty ten,
- 11:02Speaker 6: so I've kind of like I've seen how like the
- 11:04Speaker 6: new flavor has kind of evolved a little bit, so
- 11:07Speaker 6: like I'm a big part of that as well. So
- 11:09Speaker 6: I think I'm bringing like I'm bringing some sort of
- 11:11Speaker 6: just new wave shit to the band, you know what
- 11:13Speaker 6: I mean. And even when they started the band back
- 11:15Speaker 6: into the back then, like in nineteen ninety eight, they
- 11:18Speaker 6: were doing something very new, you know what I mean,
- 11:20Speaker 6: the alternative, new metal, whatever you want to call it.
- 11:23Speaker 6: So and that's why I think they also get like
- 11:26Speaker 6: what I'm doing as you know, for myself as well.
- 11:28Speaker 6: They understand because I'm very very much like I pay
- 11:32Speaker 6: attention to everything that's happening right now with newer bands.
- 11:35Speaker 6: I'm a big fan of newer music. I think heavy
- 11:37Speaker 6: music is the best that it's ever been at like
- 11:40Speaker 6: right now to at least for the past like ten years.
- 11:43Speaker 6: I think heavy music is at such a strong point
- 11:45Speaker 6: right now. So I really like I'm thankful too because
- 11:48Speaker 6: they kind of let me spread my wings with that.
- 11:49Speaker 2: They want me to kind of bring that new flavor.
- 11:51Speaker 6: But I'm also you know, while being aware of the
- 11:55Speaker 6: band's history and with nothing but admiration and respect for them,
- 11:59Speaker 6: because I understand and what this what the legacy of
- 12:01Speaker 6: this band means I understand what they've brought to the
- 12:04Speaker 6: table throughout their career, and you know that's also very
- 12:07Speaker 6: important to me. So while while bringing my own element,
- 12:10Speaker 6: you know, I don't want to stray too far away
- 12:12Speaker 6: from what the band's already done. But it doesn't even
- 12:14Speaker 6: feel like I have to try.
- 12:16Speaker 2: It feels very natural.
- 12:17Speaker 1: But it fits. It fits without trying to make it fit,
- 12:21Speaker 1: you know what I mean?
- 12:22Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly exactly.
- 12:23Speaker 5: It's not it's not a fucking too much of an effort.
- 12:27Speaker 5: It's like we look at each other and we especially
- 12:29Speaker 5: writing the new music for the new album. It's like
- 12:33Speaker 5: he'll say, what do you think of this? Like that's cool,
- 12:34Speaker 5: what do you think of this? And before you know it,
- 12:37Speaker 5: like we're both like thumbs up everything.
- 12:40Speaker 2: Hell yeah, yeah, man.
- 12:42Speaker 6: It's a great it's a great working environment, a lot
- 12:44Speaker 6: of great chemistry, a lot of fun on stage two.
- 12:46Speaker 6: Like me and the guys like we're always like pointing
- 12:48Speaker 6: at each other and like playing little jokes and like
- 12:51Speaker 6: giggling at each other all the time.
- 12:53Speaker 2: It feels really good, you know what I mean. It
- 12:54Speaker 2: feels very natural.
- 12:55Speaker 3: It's like breathing, bro, that's fucking awesome.
- 12:57Speaker 1: Man.
- 12:58Speaker 3: You used to play that one month throughout the show already.
- 13:00Speaker 4: So how's the response being, I guess how's the finback
- 13:03Speaker 4: coming back in on the Lung Chong fans happy those dude?
- 13:08Speaker 6: So dude, I mean like literally, like ninety nine percent
- 13:11Speaker 6: of the comments are all positive, Like nobody at.
- 13:14Speaker 2: The shows has told me to go fuck myself in Everybody.
- 13:19Speaker 2: Everybody at the shows are showing a lot of love.
- 13:21Speaker 2: Everybody's super nice, you know.
- 13:23Speaker 6: I like, I'll literally I'll go out to the crowds
- 13:25Speaker 6: like by myself, you know what I mean. Everyone's super friendly.
- 13:28Speaker 6: Everyone's very nice, very approachable, you know what I mean.
- 13:31Speaker 6: So I couldn't be more happy with the response. You know,
- 13:33Speaker 6: it's actually way better than I thought it was going
- 13:35Speaker 6: to be. And especially with the tour, Like like as
- 13:38Speaker 6: the tour was going on, it just started to feel
- 13:40Speaker 6: really really together with the band. So it just it
- 13:42Speaker 6: just kept getting more exciting as the time goes on.
- 13:45Speaker 4: You know, y's cool now already some that you're re
- 13:48Speaker 4: recording out material to relations Is that true?
- 13:53Speaker 1: We are? We are?
- 13:54Speaker 5: I me know, Look, we're working on the first album first.
- 13:56Speaker 5: That's the most important thing. Once that record's done, you know,
- 14:01Speaker 5: after Australia. We have a good three months, solid months
- 14:06Speaker 5: of you know, working on the album, and we're gonna
- 14:09Speaker 5: work on a bunch of stuff. We're gonna work on
- 14:11Speaker 5: record on the album, of course, and we are also
- 14:15Speaker 5: gonna work on a covers album as well. We're gonna
- 14:17Speaker 5: do a lot of We're gonna do a lot of music,
- 14:19Speaker 5: you know, shoot all the videos, get everything ready for
- 14:21Speaker 5: the beginning of the year. We have some incredible tours
- 14:24Speaker 5: that we cannot announce, but there are let's put it
- 14:26Speaker 5: to this way, there's a couple of amphitheater tours that
- 14:29Speaker 5: we're gonna announce and for twenty six and the shit.
- 14:34Speaker 1: Is crazy right now.
- 14:35Speaker 5: Like the response that we're getting on a business level
- 14:39Speaker 5: as well as you know from the fan base. I mean,
- 14:42Speaker 5: there's a lot of things that you would never expect
- 14:45Speaker 5: only get to do that we're going to be part
- 14:46Speaker 5: of next in twenty twenty six. I mean right now,
- 14:49Speaker 5: we're booked solid all the way through October of twenty
- 14:52Speaker 5: twenty six.
- 14:53Speaker 1: So yeah, I'm pretty fucking crazy right now.
- 14:56Speaker 3: That's crazy, is there.
- 14:58Speaker 4: Yeah, you guys are gonna be playing the new song
- 14:59Speaker 4: born a Soffer for us here in Australia or you're not
- 15:01Speaker 4: quite finish yet.
- 15:03Speaker 5: Yes, Yes, we're gonna We're gonna do it for you guys,
- 15:07Speaker 5: and we're gonna smoke it.
- 15:08Speaker 1: It's gonna be heavy as fun. He want you guys
- 15:11Speaker 1: to pick and we want you guys to go crazy.
- 15:14Speaker 2: Definitely want you to pay. You gotta swing your arms
- 15:16Speaker 2: and do all.
- 15:17Speaker 3: That, but take care of each other.
- 15:22Speaker 2: Take care of each other. I don't want nobody gets
- 15:24Speaker 2: knocked out.