1. What’s the band?
AIRE COMO PLOMO (Air Like Lead). A metal band from Bogotá, the huge urban chaos in the middle of Colombia.
2. What’s the core concept?
The core concept of the band is to stitch together different artistic expressions that have extremity and transgressiveness as a common ground. For example, psychological terror plus real and raw daily news from our country can become the means to question the status quo through countercultural rage and add a cinematic feel. Sounds like a lot, but it’s basic, free, liberating and very sincere in that way. Basic because it’s something we want and love to do. It’s free because it’s meant to reach the eye, and ears, of the beholder. Liberating because it can be fueled by grindcore as much as graffiti or journalism from the era of ‘La violencia’. And sincere because we bred the band and took serious risks inside a scene that’s known worldwide for its radical way of life and no holds barred filter.
3. What visuals do you incorporate and what role do they play in the band?
Everything from movies to comic books and video games. The brother’s have a professional background in the arts and that’s the soulmate to the music A.C.P puts out. But in essence, it has a lot to do with growing up listening to metal. When we were kids and started getting into the heavier stuff, that opened a huge sensitivity towards different themes, darker themes. Still, we’re geeks at heart, but our views on society, religion and politics become subject to the type of content we consume. Sounds kind of negative, but you sort of see the world through a permanent horror lens. Something that’s unsettling, but at the same time helps to exorcise a whole bunch of feelings that can be more dangerous and hurtful if kept in containment, unattended and restrained. Having a way to visualize our sound makes the ritual complete.
4. How is it working with a sibling and creating the music and visuals?
It’s become very natural. We never gave it much thought, but there came a moment when we realized a whole lot of bands are or were blood, you know, biological family. Or movies we like, directed by brothers. Same with comic books, written or illustrated by. There has to be an obvious syncing pattern to get things done, and there is, but the best thing is to have a different and immediate input on everything you put out: from ideas, lyrics, and sketches to a final product like ‘Cabeza de olla’. That one really got our aim together in what we were looking for conceptually, musically and visually. It’s what has us working on a whole new record right now. We both have this bond from birth, but we like to extend it to our bandmates. Having a band does that to you. It’s what they say about friends: it’s the family you choose.
words } Jack Latimer
