South America these days throbs to a persistent metal beat, or at least its underground music scene does. One band with plenty to offer is Lefutray from Chile, full of Aztec spirit. Here ZT’s Paul Castles speaks with Lefutray guitarist Cristian Olivares and finds out a little about their new album Oath.
ZT: Hi guys, many thanks for talking with Zero Tolerance – The new album Oath sounds great. Is there any particular concept carried through the songs?
CO: Hello Paul, thanks for having us at Zero Tolerance. Our album is concentrated on what the world is manifesting, from the ecological to social, it speaks about human decay and their consequences in society and our environment, that’s what we want to talk of with Oath.
ZT: This is your third album but first to be released via Sick Bangers. How did the move to that label come about?
CO: It is a very important step for the band, being part of a label roster and especially in one label that help the band is essential for building to a new future. Sick Bangers is a label that is starting here in Chile with strong and conviction, that make us feel safe and comfortable
ZT: To what extent do you think your sound has evolved and matured across the three albums you’ve made so far?
CO: The sound has been growing with us. As well as playing guitar I am also the studio engineer and producer of Lefutray and I’ve been growing too, gaining experience and it is reflected in our albums. We feel satisfied with what we achieved in Oath and obviously we hope to evolve further.
ZT: There’s a lot of anger and aggression on Oath – Is your songwriting shaped by your own experiences growing up in Santiago?
CO: Definitely, living in a metrópolis makes you feel some kind of aggression, in our case, we’ll develop beyond Santiago. The world is filled with injustice and garbage that make us incorporate that anger in our music.
ZT: The sleeve artwork is by Costin Chioreanu who has worked with bands such as At The Gates and Arch Enemy. How did you meet up with him?
CO: We liked a lot his work with the last album of At The Gates, so we decided to contact him. I found his portfolio on the internet and we love his work. He is a real professional in his job and immediately grabbed what we wanted to do. He just needed some concepts that we sent and our music to hand us his proposal. We were really paralyzed by it, it was just what we wanted, Costin is undoubtedly a great artist.
ZT: What is the metal scene like in Chile at the moment?
CO: Chile has a incredible and varied metal scene, they really are making good stuff and has been growing even. Many bands are taking this seriously, professionally and taking our metal scene to the rest of the world. This fill us with pride and strength to carry on.
ZT: How much encouragement and support is there for bands in South America starting up metal bands?
CO: The support is good but not incredible, sometimes it takes a lot of work for the public to support their local bands, they are causing changes but everything is very slow.
ZT: How strong a unit are Lefutray? How long have you all known and worked with each other?
CO: Really we are very close and we are constantly coming together enjoying not only music, we like to spend time together, not only for rehearsal and composing. It is 11 years since we started to work together and have previous musicians who are no longer in the band. The last to join us is Julio Yañez, our bassist, and we are very happy with his arrival. We usually compose together as a band. I have an a idea and we check over with Yonattan (drummer) to make the rhythm or Yonattan brings the idea and then we started to build a song, then incorporate the bass and vocals. Definitely we like that every member share their opinion.
ZT: I know you’ve got some big shows in Chile such as the Santiago Metal Fest. Any other bands from Chile we should look out for?
CO: There are bands who are making an interesting and professional job, Nuclear, Conflicted, Recrucide, Sadism…to name a few
ZT: You’ve been to Argentina and Brazil – is Europe a possibility or are the logistics of travelling such long distances just too difficult?
CO: We are working in our first Euro Tour this 2016, we are still booking dates and we are announced in some festivals in Germany, Czech Republic and Russia, definitely it is difficult but it is our goal
ZT: What’s the best thing about living in Chile?
CO: Chile is nice, very quiet and we have a stunning and majestic nature especially in the south.
ZT: And the worst…?
CO: Political administration, definitely is the worst what we have, full of corrupt politicians that rob us every day.
