"You must find your own way of creativity" - Interview with Hocico

by Stina Isabel Gavrilin

Hocico returns! This Sunday, on April 21st, the legendary Mexican electro-industrial outfit consisting of Erk Aicrag and Racso Agroyam bring their HyperViolent European Tour to Tallinn's Sveta bar. Last week, we called them up mid-tour to investigate the band's collective heart and mind after thirty years of wreaking havoc in underground electronic music.

How are you, how’s the tour been so far?

Erk: It’s been only three dates and I’m exhausted. No, I’m just joking. It’s been a good kickstart. The first two shows were very intense, especially the one in Berlin. London is always amazing as well. In Vienna, we had lots of fun and can’t wait to play the following shows. And we are looking forward to the show in Tallinn. We haven’t been in Tallinn for quite a few years.

Racso: Five years.

This year, you’re celebrating your 30th anniversary as a band. Your sound has gone through quite a progression through the years. What are some of the most unusual places you’ve drawn influence from?

Erk: Musically speaking, Racso is into very avant-garde electronic music. I actually like all kinds of music, I don’t really care as long as it’s good music. But Racso is telling me all the time, there’s G-house and downtempo and-

Racso: Drum’n’bass.

Erk: Of course, I love it. But sometimes he comes with a lot of genres that I didn’t know before, he’s trying to get me into those. And sometimes I just listen to the sound, add my vocals and experiment with it, and at the end the song is something fresh and new. We even experimented with black metal in the last record.

The box set of your latest album, HyperViolent, included some of your favourite recipes, as well as a bag of chili peppers inside. Is that the food item that represents Hocico best?

Erk: Mexican food is very popular around the world. It’s actually protected by Unesco, an intangible heritage. We are very proud of our cuisine and we want to share that bit from our culture too. Not only music and special items, but the food is always a good way to share our culture.

From the very start, your music has always focused on the negative and violent aspects of life in a very confrontational way. Most bands tend to lose that aggressive edge and mellow out in time, do you ever get tired of being pissed off?

Racso: Not at all. The point is, we said that hate never dies. It’s an attitude, Hocico is a part of this negativity that we have as humans. So we’re always trying to share this dark side of the mind. This is the point why Hocico exists. People can be happy listening to it but at the end, it’s like therapy to put these aggressive elements into every song. It’s something that liberates us from these feelings. Of course we are not extreme all the time (laughs), living with these bad black feelings in a cave. This is just the concept of Hocico. I’m a happy person but I like this style and the dark melodies, and to look into something that is not common. Maybe the real life is totally happy, but we’re trying to always include these inclusive dark feelings and negative emotions that we have as humans.

Erk: I think Hocico is just more suited to explore the dark aspects of life. I personally feel much better exploring that side of life in an artistic form. My regular life is just happy and I’m trying all the time to be happy about many things but if it’s about art, I want it as dark as possible.

Erk, last year you fulfilled your longtime dream of writing and publishing a book (Until My Throat Bleeds), stating that you want the reader to distance themselves from social networks to spend time alone with your words as art, not just content. With digital replacing the analogue, do you think art is in danger of turning into mere entertainment?

Erk: That’s not an easy question to answer because we are entertaining, we’ve always been entertainers. Since the beginning of art, we serve, we give to the people. But at the same time, there is a message. And it’s an intangible message. It doesn’t matter if it’s in a physical way or digital, the message is always there. But I think once we create a relationship to the object, it’s easier to create a stronger one if you can touch it. We are real humans interacting right now, you are kilometers away from us, that’s great. It’s a beautiful thing that technology allows us to do but I’m sure when we’re in a room, seeing our gestures and everything, we could explore the topics even further. It’s the same way with art. If you come to a concert, you will get much more from music than if you just listen to it on your phone and on your own. It’s a relationship too but it’s not as strong. That’s the way I see it.

How do you feel about a lot of other dark electro bands in recent years using ‘the Hocico sound’ as a template, copying it in a sense?

Racso: We were suffering ten years ago over this wall of clones. We saw many people deciding to copy our sound. In some way, it’s nice that we could influence people but when you enter the music business, you must find your own way of creativity. For many people it’s easy to catch the idea and to copy. Then it’s like a copy of a copy. It was a little bit difficult to understand all the bands when they decided to use the same sound. Not only Hocico, other bands too. Of course, we always expose special creativity and change and evolve. But then part of the scene decided to just copy. And then there was a moment when all of dark electro started to sound similar. No differences between the bands. It’s difficult, you can explain and they don’t understand that they must find their own creativity and not copy, but a part of dark electro is kind of to clone.

Erk: To me, it’s been flattering more than bothering. I think it’s good that Hocico has been a very big influence in underground electronic music. And of course, when people start cloning it’s definitely not interesting but at the end, the public will decide what’s good or not. And if Hocico is a reference for many people, I think it’s flattering.

Besides your home country Mexico, do you find your music is understood better in certain parts of the world?

Erk: From the parts of the world we have visited, I think it’s mostly capital cities. We’ve visited some small towns too. And we’ve never been to Africa for example, so we don’t know what the people in Africa think about our music. But certainly, there’s a big city vibe, that’s my impression. It goes along with the stress of people living in big cities among a lot of people and struggling with daily life. Of course Mexico, Moscow, Berlin...

Racso: New York.

Erk: People going crazy in Los Angeles... There are cities you go to and the energy is just electric.

You were the first band from the dark electro scene to play here in Estonia and you’ve done six shows here in total. Can you recall any special highlights from these previous visits?

Erk: It’s always been cool. I remember just jumping into the crowd, being totally happy, people having fun. I remember the very first time we visited Estonia, someone mentioned that we are the first Mexican band ever to play a show in this country. That makes me feel proud, of course. I remember asking the promoter, are you sure because there is this guy Santana, the guitar player, he’s Mexican as well. He’s been around the world. And I think the promoter said no, he hasn’t been to Estonia, so I guess we can take pride on that. It’s always been fun.

Similarly to five years ago, you’re also playing in the very intimate Sveta bar this time around. Do you generally prefer smaller or bigger venues?

Erk: Smaller, to me.

Racso: Well, it depends, it’s a different atmosphere when you play to a lot of people. Sometimes in a small club, it’s kind of warm to feel energy directly from the fans because on a big stage you don’t have any contact. It’s always important to play in the small clubs, there is some more craziness in the show but sometimes it’s also good to play in the big stages and to a lot of people.

Well, thank you for these insights! See you on the 21st!

Erk: Yeah, looking forward to playing Tallinn. Hope to see you there!

Racso: Yes, we are very happy to return to Estonia. We couldn’t expect it after the pandemic, we thought that maybe we could play in the main cities. But then to play in Estonia, Finland, is always a big pleasure for us – to spread our energy to every country.

"HyperViolent" on Bandcamp: https://hocico666.bandcamp.com/album/hyperviolent