John: First up, the easy questions: Who does what in the band and what�s Reino Ermita�o all about?
Reino Ermita�o: The lineup:
Tania Duarte: Vocals
Henry Guevara: Guitars (and mandolin and all stringed acoustic stuff)
Marcos Coifman: Bass
Julio Almeida: Drums
Marcos: We all write the songs, both individually and together, depending on the case, and the three of us write the lyrics.
Tania: Reino Ermita�o is, for me, a concept that has to do with poetry, existentialism, nature, magic, and inner change. It`s about personal isolation from what`s common and "socially expected/accepted." The name of the band (Hermit Kingdom) leads to this idea of a kingdom of solitude, a fortress of fortitude in an urban, "modern" society while living beyond its rules in an unviolent way. There`s obviously inner conflict to do with these dualities that are solved by frequent escapes to natural areas for purification and inspiration, plus the moments of musical or other artistic creation and (sometimes) of performance. This concept is enclosed in a musical style with a predominance of heavy as well as other tendencies each of us appreciate such as Andean music, Celtic melodies, metal riffs, and natural ancestral sounds.
Marcos: I find the name refers to a personal, inner reality, in isolation from the outside consensus. To walk through life with an inner world as rule and reality. A hermit kingdom, where things are what each one chooses them to be. I`d say the band`s music is as doom as it is dense, heavy groove, over a �70`s rock base. Being that there is an intent to engrave as much emotion into the music as possible, and that there is an unplanned but undeniable "mystical" or spiritual undertone, this translates as both melodic and dissonant moments throughout the songs. To me it`s about finding that feeling of pure pleasure, that can be light as it can be dark, and putting your finger in the wound there, so to speak.
John: Influences! Now!
Marcos: Black Sabbath, Zeppelin, Uriah Heep, Hellhammer, Celtic Frost, Pentagram, Hendrix, Captain Beyond, Mourning, South American heavy bands like Mazo or Pescado Rabioso, and a hell of a lot of metal and prog and folk and classic rock and other stuff. We each have different influences too, some besides rock music, and all that blends together, as well. Since we all grew up in the �70`s and �80`s and our music comes from there, we can`t really say we were originally influenced by many contemporary bands that we listen to, but we definitely dig a lot of `em, like YOB, Solace, Acid King, The Obsessed, Buried At Sea, Witchcraft, and many more. Influences are really hard to be aware of, really, I think they either show or they don`t, but we`re not chasing any particular band`s sound. I suppose the �70`s heavies and metal in general play a big part.
John: You have a female singer, a rarity among most doom bands these days. Was that intentional or did it just sort of fall together that way?
Marcos: It just came together that way. Me and Julio used to play in a band called Melquiades, Tania and Henry had played together in another one called Darken, and things came to happen so that we formed this lineup. Us having a female singer never came up as an issue of any kind, really. It was about the sound of it all.
John: With my ace hearing, I detected a decidedly non-English sound to the vocals. Does it matter to the band what language you sing in, and do you think it has an effect on reaching a broader audience?
Tania: It matters in the sense that Spanish is our native language, we feel comfortable writing in it and putting it into melodies to sing in its distinctive phonetics and rhythms. We are aware, of course, that English would make our lyrics understandable for more people abroad, and, since that`s something important for the band, (most of us write lyrics), we include translations in the second CD and our web page.
John: Speaking of which, how�s the follow-up to the self-titled album coming along?
Marcos: We`re very happy with it. We took more time and put more effort into recording this one, both in the gear and the recording process as in the writing, since all the songs in our second, Brujas del Mar, were done after we`ve had all this time together as a band (a few songs from our first CD, we brought along from previous experiences), and I feel it`s a step forward in the same direction. Perhaps a bit different... I don`t know, the musician`s hearing is always compromised. I find it heavier! And gloomier, maybe.
The mixing part is done, it`s to be mastered within the next month, and hopefully out shortly after that.
John: How�s the scene down in Peru? And, on a larger scale, what�s the greatest misconception about Peru?
Marcos: The music scene here, regarding what concerns us, is fairly big in metal, but rather small about heavy rock/doom/stoner, etc. Still, there are a few bands, and some opportunities to play. Like in many South American countries, there have been many influential bands that made an impact but never got to record, as it was so much harder and more expensive in the past, and I think it`s sad they never got out there.
There`s certainly a lot of room to complain about bad attitudes and bullshit regarding the scene, but I also like that it (at least the metal scene) has managed to endure and grow through the years, with the little support that it gets. Some international bands make it here, but not many, and not too often. The punk scene in the �80�s was very interesting here, by the way. The social climate of poverty, repression and terrorism made for very significant punk rock and HC bands that, again, didn`t reach far beyond our borders, with some notable exceptions. As much of a fad as punk can have an element of, there also was the real deal here.
Tania: About the second question, there`s a crowd of people who think Peru is another Latin American country with its typical vices: corruption, violence, informality, drug elaboration and dealing, poverty, and underdevelopment... and of course these aspects do exist, but there is another side that most people don`t know or recognize, that is an amazing mixture of cultures, a wonderful historical past, traditions and ancient rituals, diversity in all its forms: natural, cultural, culinary, social, and individual as well. There�s a certain mystical energy in the environment, which is inspiring you all the time along with infinite contrasts of cruelty and beauty.
John: What�s the biggest challenge for you as a band getting your name out there? And what�s helped out the most?
Marcos: Well, distribution abroad is pretty hard when you can`t tour. The internet has certainly been a big help for this, and I think somewhat of a revolution for underground music everywhere, no? Locally, it`s just a matter of playing gigs and all falls into place by itself, same as everywhere, I suppose.
John: Tell me about Ogro Records.
Marcos: Ogro Records is a label we`re starting among members of some bands of hard and heavy rock, mainly us, Mazo (one of the first really heavy rock bands here, been playing for a while), La Ira de Dios, whom I believe you`ve heard about, and El Cuy, a hard rock n` roll band, so far. Quite simply, the idea is to do for ourselves what no one here will do for non-commercial bands. Most labels here are focused on the business of things, and we figured it was about time we did something about it, and contributed to the heavy scene in whatever ways we can. I hope this eventually develops into collaborating with more like-minded people, particularly in the region, and that it ends up helping us strengthen our scene (ha ha - sorry, the clich�) and put it on the map, as well.
John: True or false: red wine is a conduit for creativity.
Marcos: Fuck yes! It�s the blood of the Gods. I love writing with some smokes and the damn red drink by my hand. And painting and reading and talking, too. It�s good companionship for everything, basically!
Julio: Traveling, experiences, knowledge and some drugs, also.
Tania: Depression and nature.
John: Peruvian cuisine, with its Incan, Spanish, Spanish, French, and Asian influences, sounds pretty amazing (I looked it up on the internet). What�s a good Peruvian eating experience?
Julio: One of our best chefs (Gaston Acurio) says that our first characteristic is the mix, and this is because we are very open-minded when it comes to seasoning. To me the culinary experience in Peru is akin to the pleasure of sex.
Tania: I think a good eating experience in Peru can be lived every day because of the great variety of ingredients, dishes from all the regions you can prepare and an infinity of markets, small, neighborhood traditional restaurants as well as expensive ones with Peruvian and "Novo Andean" cuisine, which revalues Andean crops, cereals and ingredients in original dishes now being internationalized. Creole desserts are also quite an experience. I`d say seafood (in different preparations) plus a beer in front of the sea in the northern coast IS an experience, or a visit to our local Chinatown with its Cantonese varieties. Eating salted river fish or smoked pork with plantain "Tacacho" is another one of my recommendations when visiting the jungle.
Marcos: Yeah, eating here is to die for. I second the fish and seafood mandatory course. With beer indeed. Something cool is that in Lima you can find such a thing both in fine restaurants as in cheap spots at the neighborhood market. And each has it`s own thing, and both are great.
John: The Peruvian rain forest is in danger due to heavy deforestation due to logging, oil drilling, spraying of chemicals and the clearing of vegetation to eliminate coca plants. Is it possible for man to coexist with his environment, capitalizing on its benefits yet allowing it to flourish?
Julio: It is logical to conceive that a country would want to grow by augmenting and encouraging foreign investment inside its territory, but our governments haven`t managed the exploitation of natural resources well, because powerful corporations with interests in our country haven�t done barely anything to improve the conditions under which they operate. This, combined with the informal industry, has unleashed an ecological chaos in many regions of our highlands and jungle, and on top of this, the state hasn`t been able to enforce the legal and juridical norms that would make the exploitation of our land to be in favor of the communities in the areas where the industries operate.
Tania: Poverty plus almost nonexistent planification on these topics are creating this situation; there is a lack of a national plan and consciousness among local population seeking immediate economical benefits. Controlled ecological tourism is a possible solution, as well as teaching people how to use the resources in their areas in a reasonable way without overexploiting or leading species to extinction through replanting trees or other biological species, avoiding poaching, etc. There is a great lack of guidance and state presence in many areas where people do what they can to survive. Only a few initiatives like private NGOs are creating solutions, educating people, and giving them options towards alternative crops for example, because, obviously, coca leaf is better paid for than anything; and as ecological tourism guides. There`s an expert ecologist (Brack Egg) who thinks our prisons would be fairly liberated if we taught people technical stuff linked to reasonable management of resources, of which we have many for natural medicine, handicraft, exotic fruits, and other crops too.
John: Speaking of coca plants, how has the US� war on drugs and the Peruvian government�s �Land Reform� initiative affected life in Peru?
Julio: The US affects life in Peru in other ways, but in the case of the war against drugs it has only been an ally that gives advice. The problem with coke is very delicate in a country that on one side sees this plant as something related to cult and ancestral beliefs and on the other hand as the main ingredient in the elaboration of cocaine.
The government has had serious problems trying to eradicate the coca plantations that exceed the limits set by law, or that exist in regions where this plant is not used as a ritual object (among other things, coca leaves are used as an oracle in divination rituals). The problem is that the drug cartels pay very well for this crop, and the peasant prefers to sell it to them to be able to lead a "dignified" life that he couldn`t otherwise lead with the alternative crops that the state suggests.
Marcos: I think it is also important to point out that the US controls the drug trafficking, it doesn`t full on combat it. In the Fujimori dictatorship, Vladimiro Montesinos, the man behind the curtains of power, ousted many drug lords only to replace them, and he didn`t get in the bad side of the US administration until they found out he was also trafficking weapons to Colombia`s FARC, who the US was actually combating at the time. This was, in fact, one of the main issues that brought down that government. Montesinos had been a double agent in collaboration with the CIA since the times of the Coup De Etat of Chile`s Allende and Peru`s Land Reform, which took place under a left wing military government, where he was an army captain close to power, and was contacted by the CIA to spy on Peru`s weapons trade with the Soviet Union.
John: The war of terror has proven to be a sounding board for North American and European pundits. What�s your opinion on it? And can anything be learned from the campaign against The Shining Path (the guerrilla arm of the Peruvian Communists, something else I looked up on the internet)?
Julio: Peru has always had political sectors that lean towards socialism and communism, which is not as badly seen in Latin America as it is the US for example, even one of our most traditional political parties began as a revolutionary movement and ended up having one of it`s leaders elected as president. In the Peruvian highland, even before terrorism, the population had a marked tendency towards the left, and many of our most famous writers have had revolutionary ideologies, even some of them being of high social and economical status. But the badly named communist party Shining Path decided that the best way to help the people and the low status classes was fighting against them, forcing them to join their ranks against their will to overthrow the government. The MRTA did their own, too, overflowing the initial ideological current in a war without quarter against Shining Path and the State, where the people were in the middle and suffered all the consequences. This was, in short, what happened with terrorism in Peru, that, and that the government of Fujimori and Montesinos were also part of the problem, striking against citizens, torturing and "disappearing" them, making us believe they had been victims of terrorism. In truth it`s much more complex, but I think that`s a good summary.
Tania: This is a very complex issue. What I can say is that there is a great difference between Peruvian revolutionary groups whose initial aim is restructuring an almost colonial society with indigenous and Mestizo unemployed or underpaid semi-slaves who have been dominated by a powerful, "white" minority for centuries, adding to this the capital city inhabitants (seeking globalized modernity which isn`t bad until you lose and deny your own roots by alienation) who close their eyes to this reality pretending it doesn`t exist or following cultural patterns of racism and discrimination; and the terrorism applied by Muslim radicals with religious, anti-invasory and autonomy rights claims. Obviously blood in neither case is the answer to the problems assumed to be solved by these groups, also supported by other individual and government interests of destabilization for unknown, dark purposes.
Marcos: Only after so many years after the Peruvian war on terror have we learned that the death toll on all sides came to be as high as 80,000 dead, Shining Path coming up being the most bloodthirsty. And I don`t think that a totalitarian corrupt regime as the one we had is a solution, as it sunk our country to a deeper level, particularly through misinformation and the hijacking of the media, which had the country absorbed in stupidity through smoke curtains while corruption ran rampant, ideology became a crime and civil rights and liberties were lost. We still haven`t recovered from that, and there`s a considerable amount of people, many of whom have a lot of power still today, who are interested in the return of such a regime. At one point, being suspect was enough to be convicted, as the trials for terrorists were made by hooded judges with distorted voices through a Plexiglas on the way to prison, with no defense and infamous laws as the "regret law", which allowed terrorists to walk as long as they turned ten others in. The whole thing ended up in too many innocents dead, tortured or imprisoned, and all that time is remembered as one full of bombs, blackouts, curfews and bloody news everyday by all of us.
John: I read about Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo�s �We Peruvians Can Do It� campaign and his short-lived appointment of Fernando Olivera as Foreign Minister. What the hell were those all about, and what�s your take on your current President?
Julio: The Olivera thing was just another one of this government`s blunders. On the other hand, while it is true that the current government has managed to improve the economy, this only happens at macro levels, which doesn`t alleviate the people at all, since they want the micro economy to be activated, which is what would get money to the common table. It`s something very delicate because while some thing that this will arrive with time, others think that the economic policy is not being handled correctly, and believe that if inflation has been managed to be stopped somewhat and the big corporations have a good capital to keep investing, this should not only generate more work but elevate the wages so that the average citizen can spend and so activate the internal economy that is what will get the country moving in the end.
Tania: About the "We Can Do It" slogan, it has to do with government publicity and marketing of course, but it has another side, which has to do with enhancing our national self esteem after so many corrupt leaders have taken us to the borders of economical and social disaster on top of a colonized population who already brought this low self esteem genetically after being oppressed, repressed, exploited and humiliated for centuries by Spanish colonizers and later by Republican oligarchies. Somehow there has been a generalized feeling among many, that foreign things are better, looking up to foreign people, products and creations lead us to adoration and copy of these in detriment of an authentic National feeling of self respect and valuing. Peruvians have lacked self respect and believing in ourselves for centuries. Now we are in the long way of re-valuing who we are and that slogan is part of it. If we continue having governments that in spite of being corrupt do almost nothing for the masses in health, education (and support of values), application of firm laws and discipline, our population will continue growing in number as well as in chaos and ignorance. This President is not an innate leader at all and his family and entourage are always related to corruption, violence and dishonor. For things related to democratic rights reinstalled and a macro-economical growth, some say he will be remembered as not such a bad President as many believe he is now.
Marcos: While I have discrepancies with the current government, and am well aware of many of it`s immense fuck ups, I must add that, personally, I find all the other former governments I`ve lived through to have been much worse in one form or the other, particularly in issues of corruption and civil rights. The faults of the Fujimori and Alan Garc�a regimes make this one`s faults pale in comparison and seem like petty, pathetic thievery, compared to the hundreds of millions of dollars that Fujimori stole from the state by just pocketing the money from the sales of national services to foreign private industries. I feel that at least now we are on a process of recovery from totalitarianism and while the deep social rifts still remain, the economy and foreign investments are growing, democracy is reinstated, and I can allow myself to be hopeful. I don`t particularly favor the market society we are have to live in now, but it seems that that is the tune we are forced to dance to at the moment. I wish we`d get a government that would keep the economy growing, but with much more social investment which is deeply needed in the very poor, not only in the essentials as food and wages, but in education which has gone to shit in the last decades.
By the way, Olivera is just an opportunistic career politician as so many others, and just became known there `cause he broke the record as the man with the least time spent as chancellor in our history (mass resignations caused him to be fired in less than three hours after taking office)
How did we end up talking so much politics anyway?! Ha!
John: Have you ever seen a Chupacabra? If you could capture one, would you keep it as a pet or eat it? If the latter, how�d you think it would taste?
Tania: Chupacabras are a myth...They`ve seen a couple in Arizona, though.
Marcos: I figure they taste of guinea pig. I dig stewed guinea pig. Spicy.
