Brujeria: Viva Brujeria!
The new album from BRUJERIA, the marauding band of Mexican death/grind maniacs is titled Esto es Brujeria and it sees the band blast back after a seven year long hiatus to terrorise listeners all over again on a record that salutes their roots but with an eye and an ear to the future. We caught up with lead vocalist Juan Brujo to hear all about Esto Es Brujeria, the band’s recent live shows celebrating their debut album, Matando Güeros, and tales from their debauched history.
We kick things off with Juan telling us exactly what we can expect from the new BRUJERIA album. “Well, it took a while to get out with the COVID thing in the middle, it ended up being a lot of work, but a new way of doing it, passing around through the internet. It came out good. It’s been a long way, and I’m relieved to see it come out now. It’s gonna be different, it’s gonna have one song with Mexican horns in there. It’s a modern BRUJERIA album, let’s say, with the subjects we deal with.”
Juan then enthused about the feelings around the band at the moment, and the passion they have for this new record. “We’re excited, when we play those songs, they’re really good. We’ve been doing a 30 year Matando Güeros tour, and after that, when this record comes out, then it’s going to be a lot of new songs in the set we can’t wait to play. It’s gonna be good.”
Juan then gave us a lowdown of who played on Esto Es Brujeria. “On the recording, we’ve got Nick Barker (Hongo Jr) on drums, Anton Reisenegger (El Criminal) on guitar and Shane Embury (Hongo) on bass, alongside Jeff Walker (El Cynico). Then the singer are me, Fantasma, who’s our singer from all the way through, he doesn’t tour any more but he’s on the record with Pinche Peach and Sangron. We’ve got a new girl singer too, Jessica Pimentel (La Encabronada), she’s a great actress and she’s a great singer.”
We finish discussing Esto Es Brujeria, with Juan telling us about the artwork for the album, which was designed with the brilliant Bite Radius Designs. “We took an old sculpture of Aztec god of the dead, and modernised the sculpture with our own Coco Loco head on there, he’s the new god of the dead!”
We continue with Juan telling us about their recent European tour in support of their iconic debut album Matando Güeros and gave us a rundown of how the tour went. “We just got back from Europe, and we blew them away! They loved it and there was a lot of sold out shows, we’ve never done that good in Europe. I was surprised completely and the response was incredible. People singing along that didn’t even speak English or Spanish. I was very impressed with it. I didn’t expect that at all. We’re going to South America now with Matando Güeros. If it was like Europe was, it’s gonna be crazy down there.”
Juan then rolls back the years as he tells of his main memories of making Matando Güeros all those years ago. “Oh god, when we got together, everybody was together for four days, and we went to the studio and we wrote and recorded and mixed everything in like three or four days. I remember Roadrunner gave us $800 to record it, and we spent $400 on dope and beer, and then we only had $400 to record it. So it was like, ‘okay, we gotta get this done right and quick!’. When you hear it, it’s really raw, just taking a first run. That’s it. That’s the songs done, but it really worked out to our favour, saying that we were drug lords from Mexico! People heard it, and it was so raw, and they believed because there was no way to check if it was right or wrong.”
He goes on to explain just how BRUJERIA we’re still a maverick band and did just what they wanted to and didn’t play the media game and expected career routes like most bands. “We never toured it. We never played it live it but it just took care of us. It sold itself. All the first three albums did. We didn’t tour them at all. We didn’t have any interviews. We couldn’t get a band together till 2002 to do tours, so it just really took care of itself.”
Juan then told of how the mystique of the band helped them in those early days, before the internet kept everyone aware of everybody else’s business! “There was a total mystery at the beginning until the internet started showing up here and there. Even then, they couldn’t find anything on us. It was hard to find stuff on us. It took until like 2002 or something like that.”
That mystery was definitely important to the power of BRUJERIA though as Juan explains. “The mystery part of it’s great, and I love that guys that are into knowing everything, looking and they can’t find anything and it driving them nuts. I heard that Tom Araya was in the band, crazy stories like that! It made me laugh. I had people tell me I wasn’t in the band! They don’t know me. No one knows who I am, that’s the best part of it, when they don’t believe you!”
With a band like BRUJERIA and all their notoriety, there is bound to be a whole host of crazy live shows which Juan tells us with a laugh. “There’s so many crazy ones in Brazil, and Mexico. Just the amount of people that sometimes like diving off the speakers. In Brazil, someone stole Jeff Walker‘s hat, and some guy with a gun went on stage looking to kill the guy who took the hat. He’s waving a gun around and it turns out the guy with the gun was a cop! What’s funny is that they took his hat and a year later, they mailed it back to him! But yeah, we’ve had crazy shows, there’s been quite a few good ones. We’ve had naked girls, dead chickens on stage, crazy stuff like that!”
We finish our chat with Juan as he reveals that BRUJERIA will be back pillaging musically on these shores next year and hopefully with Hongo Jr behind the kit. “We’ll be in the UK next June, I think. We’re gonna hopefully bring back Nick Barker if he’s healthy enough to bring it back for a couple shows and do the Barker thing back there. hopefully that works out.”
Esto Es Brujeria is out now via Nuclear Blast Records.
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