Zaragoza is a mid-sized city strategically situated in the northeast of Spain, 300 km from Barcelona, Madrid or Bilbao. This geographical location has enriched the DIY community since the early 80’s: Nowadays we can find a great quantity of bands of interesting and different sounds, but as a whole form an attractive political and cultural network. CHICARRICA, KARNVAPEN ATTACK, CRIATURA, BLOCKBASTARD, DOWN TO AGONY, INSOMNIO ROTTEN MEYER AND THE PSYCHOPUNKS and even YAKUZA HORROR are a clear examples of it. With the release of their new work I believe that it is a good idea to know more about them, of their activity and of their small but powerful local scene. From the police state of Zaragoza for the international community, here is YAKUZA HORROR!! Come in and read!!

Interviewed by Juanme for PE.
Pics by Sonia and Abel.

PE: YAKUZA HORROR have been out there for some years. Apart from playing in several places, you have also released a demo tape and a 7”. Please tell us something about your trajectory for the people who don’t know you.

Dani: We started back in 2003 with the intention of playing traditional crust. It was more a project, as most of us were (and are) in other bands such as DOWN TO AGONY, KARNVAPEN ATTACK, CRIATURA, TOTALIKERS, ASALTO 54, etc. We did some very chaotic gigs, with not many songs and not very many practices. This changed when Alex came to sing with us and the line up was definitely established. Since then we have recorded a demo tape, a 7” (La VI Extinción) and toured in the south of our country. Since there we’ve played all around Spain: Barcelona, Andalucía, Logroño, Valencia, Euskadi, etc.

Alex: For me the story started suddenly when Rubén and Dani, the drummer, who were studying at the same place as me, asked me to join a spontaneous band called SURFIN EBRIOS (Drunken Surfers). This band stole a bunch of songs from another band, Alfredo Landa, I think it was called. We had Rubén and me on vocals, with no lyrics, just one rehearsal, lots of improvisation and tons of humor. The goal was to drink for free and to see the band we played with for free. At the rehearsals they told me “Hey, heavy metaller, you have a punk soul”. So a few days later Rubén gave me an offer to join the band. I had been looking for an extreme music band to sing with for a long time so I accepted right there. And the rest was already told by Dani.

PE: Your first release was put out as a cassette tape. With the band INSOMNIO, you’re one of the last bands in Spain to have released something on this nearly-extinct format. What do you think about bands who just release their works as just a CD? Have the traditional steps a band should follow been disrupted?

Dani: Now it’s probably a whim. Doing tapes right now is difficult because many factories are closing and doing CDs are much easier. When we grew up it was the usual (and beautiful) thing to start with a cassette tape, not just for the band, but also listening to music. When we were young and didn’t have many money we used to buy tapes, so we could listen to as many bands as we could. It’s possible that the younger generations that haven’t grown up with this way of doing things and don’t consider a tape as a “previous step” or maybe even think about it as a format for “snobs”; I think CDs are boring and even more so when we are talking about demos.

J: Demo CD-r’s suck!! They’re really annoying I would never buy a CD-r with a photocopied cover if I didn’t know the band and liked them. I just feel like there hasn’t been put enough effort put into releasing it that way, but on demo tape means more care has been put into it. As kids we used to come to the distro place and buy some demo tapes without even knowing the bands at all. Sometimes you had a good surprise, although you could always get some really nasty bands too. Ha, ha, ha! At the time it was the cheapest way to get to know new punk bands. Now with CD-r demos you feel you’re paying just for down-loading some rehearsal recorded on mp3. I sometimes think bands take the easy way out and are being lazy. You can always record your CD-r on your computer and make some photocopies at the corner shop. But it takes one more step ahead to try and look for somebody to produce a small tape release. It’s even cheaper and way cooler to make a demo tape.

PE: Without a doubt, your EP La VI Extinción has been your best presentation so far. What is your evaluation of concerning distribution, final output, acceptance, etc?

Dani: The 7” received pretty good distribution. The main problem for us was that we were on a kind of hiatus when it finally came out. The final work was pretty good. We recorded it in a computer in our practice place and it was mixed and mastered in a professional studio. You always think that it could be better, but in the end it was fine. For the EP we re-recorded three old songs and three new ones. The response was good, so that means a lot of people know the record. It also means that the labels (Trabuc Records, Busmagalli, Difusión Anarcopunk, Victim Records y Humildad y Honestidad) did a good job!

J: I think it came out really well on the end. We had some troubles during the recording and it was greatly delayed. But the result was really nice and, since many labels participated on the release, it was distributed quite fast and wide.