MURO
"Punk was right, there is no future - If we put our lives in the hands of politicians and business men."
One of the reasons I do this zine is because of bands like Colombia’s Muro - not only are they a ferocious band, both live and on record, through their endeavors with Casa Rat Trap, organizing tours for a litany of bands in Colombia, releasing records and more they help to push forward the notion of punk as being more than music and perpetuate the global network of friends to help keep hardcore independent and outside of big business. The interview which follows was conducted via email back in 2020 with guitarist Carlos Vélasquez and appeared in Razorblades & Aspirin issue #11. Since those are long gone and Muro just released what is arguably the best hardcore punk record of the year I wanted to make it available once again.
When did Muro first form - and how? When you first started the band, did you have a plan behind it, or was it just to play music with friends? I ask this because you have become such an active band, touring internationally, setting up tours for bands from other countries, but most bands never leave their home city - why is it important to you to tour internationally and participate in the global punk scene? Why is building relationships with punks and artists around the world important to you?
We started rehearsing at the end of 2016 - at the time, we spent a lot of time together, as we worked in the same place and around similar projects. The band started after the dissolution of other groups we played in, and with kind of a clear path. As individuals that gave every day of the week to developing a DIY cultural house and social center, and being part of the diverse punk scenes of this city, we felt the need to form a band that could stand for the things we were living at the time.
The band was formed by a diverse group of individuals between the ages 24 and 37, some people that come from rural parts of the country and others from the city. This cultural blend is part of the spirit of the band. We shared the idea of mixing hardcore punk influences, mainly from bands from the ’80s that appeared on the international compilations characteristic of the era - like Peace/War, Delirium Tremens, Noise of Rebellion and more. We tried not only to pursue the sound that these bands had in terms of creativity, but also in terms of anti-authoritarian action against our current problems, and an aggressive imagery that fits the sound.
Before touring and being a band, all of us were participating in organizing tours for international bands. So far there have been eighteen tours which we have been involved with, it might not sound like a crazy number for cities that are saturated with shows and have two or three international bands coming through every week during the summer, but here, organizing a tour is not easy, because conditions are tough, and even tougher in smaller cities and towns. We felt it was our mission to book things that we feel are needed here, for example the last show Los Crudos played in South America, they played Peru and not Colombia, that was a big blow to us. So we decided to make this a place where people wanted to come because the shows are wild and meaningful.
The touring for us came after the record was released. Because of the network built around the Colombian shows and the commitment of collectives and individuals, it became a reality in late 2017. This was mainly through the help of Daniel from Byllepest distro, Orden Mundial, and Flö in Germany. These passionate people have created a circuit that can offer a new vision of the world and music, where the financial muscle of the companies and institutions is replaced by collective work and DIY ethics. Many pop bands here would wonder how it is possible for a Colombian punk band to play Japan, and it can only be explained by the strength of the punk community, and the will to make things you consider important happen in your life.
Muro translates to “wall” in English - why was this name chosen?
Most of it was that we like how it sounds and looks when it's written, but it also has a lot to do with the world and country we live in, full of divisions brought by a colonial model that prevails until today.
The COVID pandemic has kind of stopped touring and shows for now - punk has traditionally used shows as a means of building community, using music as a conduit to make friends, and then those friendships become a network of support for one another. While we can still write music, release records, etc. how do we create spaces for us to build these relationships?
This is a question we have not solved yet. We have not been rehearsing since this started, and all of us are struggling to survive these hard times. We believe in records and music as an experience that transcends time and space. Some of us have been creating new bands (Unidad Ideológica, Alambrada, Ataque Zero), but the best thing to come out of this has been the initiative of having shows in the streets, where the division between organizers, audience, and venues is totally dissolved into mayhem, and punk is really a uncontrollable force (look on YouTube for videos of "Día del Ruido 2019”).
We’ve spoken a lot in the past about the band being purposeful in its presentation and how it releases music - for example, the most recent album wasn’t available online initially, as a pushback against how the internet makes everything almost too convenient and forgettable. Can you speak about this some more? Why is it important to create tangible objects (records, zines, artwork, etc)?
As much as records can be exclusive possessions, for example how the access to records for punks in the tropics is limited, physical formats are a way to fight the immediacy and oversaturation of information on the internet. The experience shared in objects like records, especially those that include a lot of extras like zines, stickers, and posters, through which you can explore in a deeper dimension the ideas bands are pushing, are channels which have made punk prevail as a movement for decades, by feeding itself with cultural exchange and unity.
Along with things like punk houses, gigs, demonstrations and festivals, records are many times the only way to meet people just like you. I think about that Wretched/Indigesti split, a manifesto itself, made as cheaply as possible, a paper sleeve marked with rubber stamps and a clear slogan that declares anti-commercialism and anti-mass production as the backbone of punk, along writings full of ideas and, of course, cool skulls. Or, the experience of the Brazilian punks feeding their minds with Finnish bands that influenced their scene, and how this goes back and forth like Força Macabra singing in Portuguese.
Tell me about Casa Rat Trap. There is a notion that it is “Muro’s Art Collective,” but my understanding is that it is more than that, and something you were involved in before the band started, correct? What is it? Why is it important? I know that you were renting the space but looking to purchase a building, has that happened?
Rat Trap started as a physical space in 2012. Prior to that, it was called Minora Records for eight years, a punk label that was never able to put out any physical material, but helped to join many of us as a group of friends. It brought together many individuals and people in bands like Final, Tumbas, Abuso, Secta, Dead Hero, Primer Regimen, Trampa, Uzi, Reacción Violenta, and many others. Rat Trap started as a punk house where we wanted to have workshops and a rehearsing space, and was was started by Ximena (from Tumbas, Uzi, Punk Posters, and Mala Influencia Collective), Juan David (from Muro, Final, and Secta, who now has a project called Impact to produce textiles in an alternative way to sweatshops and environmentally damaging fabrics, in case any punks or artists making shirts want to research it), Darcy (who sings in Muro and is also known for being the singer of and Espinoza, additionally he has run Paranoica Distro for almost two decades), Daniel (who has played in Primer Regimen, Dead Hero, and Secta, and is responsible for recording and mixing many of the bands of the collective), Rafa (who plays drums in Muro, Alamabrada, Unidad Ideologica), Espinoza (who has the screen printing editorial El Futuro) and me, Carlos (who plays in Muro, Uzi, Ilota, Cuerpos de Paz, and runs the label Fuerza Ingobernable). Many people have helped us to consolidate and have given us their unconditional support.
Nowadays, Rat Trap is a house that provides 40 persons with a place to work and develop their own projects in a cooperative model, equipped with workspaces to produce records, publications, zines, clothes, and also as a headquarters for activists and collectives related to different social struggles.
It is hard to define Rat Trap, as so many people are involved, and it has evolved into a more open place for counter-cultural communities. We started Fuerza Ingobernable to do the punk related stuff, we try to bring bands from smaller cities and towns to play in Bogotá and record, hopefully next year we will start releasing our own material on formats other than tapes.
What is life in Colombia like under Iván Duque? My perception, from the outside, is that while he does support some progressive politics (Venezuelan refugee assistance, the ‘orange laws’ geared towards supporting the arts, extending family leave, etc.) that he’s also aligned with the old narco-state style elements, and opposes any sort of peace treaty with the ELN, and his regime has resulted in the murders of civilians - can you speak a little bit about this?
Colombia has no national project. It has never been the will of the ruling classes to have healthy and productive citizens that create wealth for them, and maybe a little for the rest, with their hard work. Colombia is still a colony ruled by foreign interests, an endless source of resources for the pleasure and comfort of their citizens. Misery and desperation are necessary to keep things as they are, pushing people to criminality as the only way to survive and distracting them from the deep problems the country has. Colombia is so controlled by the U.S. that it was not even necessary to establish a military dictatorship, because neocolonialism works perfectly here and political genocide has been never recognized by the government, but has been constant in our history. The whole political uprising seems to bring hope to people, but also, people are afraid because of the crudity of the non-stop violence. It's said that in the two governments of Uribe starting in 2002, and representing the interest of the ruling classes and Mafias also who put Duque in power, there were more murders perpetrated by the state than all the deaths that resulted from the military dictatorships in all of South America. This history has resulted in a big difference between the lives of people in the cities and people in the rural areas. Meanwhile, people in the cities are assassinated, and have to compete to survive with more and more people that become displaced by the violence in the rural parts of the country. There is no water for consumption, no roads for commerce, or hospitals, and every week people have to witness massacres perpetrated by the state, paramilitary groups, multinational companies, and drug cartels that control the territory. Since the peace agreements were signed with the FARC guerrillas, 243 people that believed in the government promises of reconciliation have been murdered. Colombia is one the many representations of hell on earth, and it doesn't seem to get better, but is a place where people fight to have a better life and share. With all the impact of the struggle between the communist guerrillas and the government, it has been hard to articulate a strong movement that can oppose the traditional parties that are formed by landlords, paramilitaries, narcos, and traditional families that have drained the public sources in the most variate and creative ways.
What are some classic Colombian hardcore bands? It feels like the scene used to be based more in Medellín and now it seems like it’s shifted to Bogota, is this true or is it just that we hear more about what happens in Bogota these days? I remember buying Polikarpa Y Sus Viciosas records way back, and they were pressed at a plant in Medellín, does that record pressing plant still exist?
The record pressing plants don't exist anymore unfortunately. Some of the classic Bogotá bands are Demencia Libertaria, who are amazing, Morgue, Desarme, Desechos Reservados, La Pestilencia, Eskoria, and Ambiguedad.
Medellín punk has an amazing history really rooted to the conflicted development of the city, and they have a current scene, or many scenes, that are great. Some bands that we like are Victimas, Fabrikando Kaos, Dexenfreno, Sociedad Dekadente, Infexion Sikosis, Ley Sucia, Slam, and Union Kaos. The last four made an amazing split that you can find on YouTube called D-generacion Ruido, released some weeks ago. The classic scene of Medellín is the most well-known, and our all time favorites are Imagen, BSN, HPHC, Fertil Miseria, Crimen Impune, IxRxA, Libra, Dexconcierto, Infesto, Kontraorden, and Ataque de Sonido.
I remember seeing some of the big, older German bands touring Colombia, and was surprised they were as popular they were - I found this surprising because no one in the USA seems to know about the old German punk bands here. How important are these old German bands to your sound, as well as to the sound of bands throughout Colombia?
You mean Bluttat? It is a crazy story about how they became so popular in Colombia. They have toured here about three times in recent years. There has always been the exchange of music and ideas - as we mentioned before, it is one of the things we care about the most. You can see early bands doing versions of songs by bands they found on compilations, and maybe they were not that well-known in other countries. For example, Morgue does a version of “Pensïonar” by Swankers PMS, a band from the Skåne region in Sweden. Many great bands like Puke, The Bristles, and Moderat Likvidation are from that region, but Swankers PMS are certainly not among the most popular Swedish bands. There is a key figure in Colombian punk and extreme sounds named Tomás Cipriano - who played in HPHC, Libra, Parabellum, and Infesto - who did some compilations to share songs he liked. One of the most well-known locally was called Noise of Rebellion, you can find it on YouTube, it featured bands formed by women, and it may be one of the reasons that Bluttat became so popular here. Please check it out - it is so, so good!
I know that you were scheduled to tour the USA and Canada last year but it ended up not happening because of visa issues - I don’t think a lot of people in the U.S. understand how hard it is to tour here, can you tell me about the experience?
We were so happy about visiting the USA, so much history of rock ’n’ roll, movies, and culture which has permeated over to us, even if it kind of sucks and perpetuates colonialism. Martin Crudo was gonna organize two shows in Chicago that we were gonna play, we were gonna play with Skizophrenia and Kriegshög, The Skull Fest in Pittsburgh, and so many cities, it was so sad it didn't become a reality. Until recently we also had a visa requirement for the European states, which has become easier now, and maybe that's why there are so many Colombian punks spread all over there. Having a visa requirement is a way to exclude certain kinds of unwanted migrants and visitors, and before all the wars caused by the US. in the Middle East, the attention was centered on the war on drugs. That is another big subject about our two countries that made it really hard for us Colombians to travel outside Colombia. Another difference that made it possible for us to tour Europe is the conception of culture as a human construction that has a value beyond entertainment and business. It seems at least for the institutions in the U.S., playing music is just another job, and the penalty for trying to play without an artists’ visa is about $5000 USD - for a band that is really high, not to mention the exchange rate which means anything that involves dollars requires a lot of years of work for us. When bands come to tour [the US], they are worried about equipment, because they ignore the fact that not everyone has their own amps or drum kits, and bars don't have P.A. systems, and everyone has to play many times with the same instruments.
It feels like a lot of the lyrics on Pacificar deal with the divide between both the rich and poor, as well as the urban versus rural populations in Colombia - “La Ciudad es Hostil,” "Fantasia Del Progreso," or “Exterminación” immediately come to mind as examples. Can you chat a bit about that?
In one of the previous questions we touched on this idea, but is really nice that you have made an effort to check what the songs are about, and yes, this is one of our main concerns. Life is quite different depending on which side of the fence you are on. In a interview done by El Zine of Japan, they asked Darcy why he didn't dress in punk clothes, if it was an statement or just a fashion choice. He and Wilson, who plays the bass, are from Putumayo, a rural area of Colombia where there are many forces that dispute the control of the territory. What he answered is that besides the fact that accessories were not important for him, dressing in certain ways in the places he lived in before Bogotá could mean a direct threat to his life, as the militaries and other groups that control the areas are extremely conservative, homophobic, and religious. This just to talk a little about the difference between the daily life in the rural areas and in the cities in Colombia. Anyone who is interested in this subject may research the False Positives method implemented by the state, used as a campaign to demonstrate the military victory over the guerrillas during the government of Alvaro Uribe until today (a method used since 1988). The establishment, in cooperation with paramilitary groups, has killed 2,248 civilians that were presented as war casualties in official records, but social organizations assure us that there are more than 5,000 casualties, and many of these where young teens, disabled people, sexual dissidents that were offered jobs in rural areas, taken from the cities, murdered and dressed as guerrilla members to justify their deaths, and create the feeling of security, and engineer the defeat of the terrorist groups that the state has always shown as the main reason for the tragic developments in this country.
Attaque Hardcore Punk kicks off with the blistering song “El Futuro,” setting the tone for the record - do you really feel this sense of despair that there is no future? Why was this song chosen to start the album?
The song “El Futuro” talks about the concept of progress, it repeats over and over that the future keeps coming and it's not for you. Certainly all the developments and research that were supposed to stop suffering, bring a better living, enjoyment, health, and better quality of life to the human species are mediated by things like the market and efficiency. It was chosen to start the record because it was our first song, and is a good singalong.
I know that you are all great supporters of your fellow Colombian bands - can you tell us a bit about other active bands that people should check out?
Trampa, Victimas, Exilio, Unidad Ideológica, Corrosión, Alambrada, Systema, Azfixxia, Pvrvlisis, Quimeras, Comemierdas, Estentóreo, Hijo Bastardo, Reacción Violenta, Estruendosis, Veri Veri, Cuerpos de Paz, Ilota, Menores Poseídos (Chile), Infexion Sikosis, Ley Sucia, Slam, Union Kaos, Kabrä, Gusanoss, Suerte y Muerte, Vienenbalde
Anything you would like to add?
Thank you so much for inviting us, sorry for the delay. Please everyone stay safe, and don´t fall in total desperation, because we are not alone, there are many people that feel suffocated by the way we are forced to live. Let's organize and create community, because gathering is the only power we have! Abajo el estado y que viva el punk!