PipemanRadio Interviews Cristian Salamanca CHÜZO About New EP M.T.M.D.

0:00 Hy you have done to censure? Wow for you. Young whycoume of America. It's time for the Adventures of pipe Man on W four c Y dot com. West Pompeats is number one internet radio station. Here's your host, the pipe Manawatle.

0:55 This is the pipe Man here on the Adventures pipe Man W four c Y Radio. And I'm very excited about our next guest because they have some killer new music. So I want to welcome to the show. Chooseo. How are you doing well? How are you mister Pittman. I'm doing great, doing great, And man, I love this new music you have. You have a new EP drop in MTMD. And basically this is like the evolution of the band, I think to the final perfection. Am I right? That is the Yeah, pretty much, that's the That was the journey that had to happen for this album to come out, with the new members that were integrated just this year in twenty twenty four, and with the new enthusiasm, the new drive, and I don't know, the new vibe, it's just kind of coalesced much more. I know, it just felt much more cooler and much more, much more intimate to just write these songs and it came out and the result of this bill speaks for itself, I mean, and impressed us how we recorded it and how it came out. When our first impression. When later we had the first mix, as we were all like whoa, we were just recording and they were with us.

2:13 We were surprised. I was surprised. Yeah, I love hearing that. Like, like finished rehearsing it like two weeks prior, so we had how it was going to sound. We never played it live either. Then we went to the studio and then we did it and there were some edits with the words and stuff that our producers just He's like, oh, it will be more impactful if you we could it this way, make it like hit it here, the rhythm here, And I was like okay, okay, And then we heard it. We were like. Nice, because, I mean, artists are our own worst critic, So if you come out of a recording and think it sounds good, that means it sounds really good.

2:54 Yeah, we were pretty at least at least for me. I can always say this. I'm I'm deternal, fifteen year old angry metal kid that never grew up and so he's happy, and he gets the vibe and he gets like the he's like banging to it. Yeah, it's like, okay, jobs done, nice. I love it, and so tell me. And I think, you know, most bands have to that make it the long term have to do what has happened to you in the evolution, Like you go through a roster, you try to really find your sound, and then there's just that one combination. And I think that's like the magic, the chemistry combination of what you end up finding out and finding out about what you want the music to sound like, because at first, when you're fifteen playing, let's say, you may have an idea, but you don't really know.

3:49 You know, it's kind of like you think it sounds cool. I like to look at somebody like Hetfield. He's absolutely embarrassed of his singing the beginning, you know, and like because he's like, I didn't know how to even sing. I had to learn how to sing, so, you know, and then other people that were into them, you know, they don't hear the difference. But as an artist, you become proud of your improvement and your evolution of an art. As an artist itself. I completely agree. I would like to Misha to answer first case, I think her evolution as a singer for me is much more interesting in the last six months than my evolution is a guitar player. But then her to answer first.

4:30 Sure, Well, yeah, I feel like there was a lot of like fitting in what we were doing. Like we had to because like we have the backings right, and so we have to like blend those in a way that's not clashing. So we figured that out. So it is very different from what I was doing before. And I think even like working in studio and then working live and figure out what would work and like you know, just no tire out and not blow your voice out by the end of the show. That also helped a lot. Like so yeah, there's there was all that, and and like you said, I am definitely my biggest critic. I like I find like little.

5:15 Nuances and be like, oh, man, I didn't pronounce this word properly, or like the timbre just sounds a bit different, and like remember we went back to Kevin and be like, oh, but this take sounds just slightly different, and everyone is like I can't hear the difference. I was like hello, but like, yeah, let's let's fix that. Let's fix that. So and I was listening to this in ten years and be like, oh, this part, this part, but right love you know. And that's so funny too, because like when I first started this network here eighteen years ago, my head engineer, we were like testing all the sound for the radio station stuff and he he's like, do you hear that?

5:57 And I'm like no. He goes, we need to fix that. And I'm like, okay, I. Get that feeling, and ganging that exactly what that feeling is. There's a buzz there, there's a little like electric then going on, what is that? Where? Where is that coming from? And I'm screaming in the Kiev b and things like that. It goes on and. At least add on to the to the answer of what miche was saying and the evolution of the music at least. And I'm the last remaining member of all the previous UH incarnations. I always wanted to start a band that was much more rooted and metal, but I didn't mind more or less integrating some other elements such as hardcore such as Brian Corp. Unfortunately for some for for the previous members, it was more like they wanted to pull it towards hardcore and like, no, it's not what I want to do. And then they have to you know, they laughed and had to get some other members that were basically going, uh, to keep the project going.

7:01 And what I want to say it with this is that, as you said, it takes some time to find the right person to gel and get the ideas going. And I think and for me, it was just get the right people, just believe in the riffs that I'm making, Believe the songs I'm writing. One big giant SHOTOWT to have to give is Godlos, our drummer who joined in the early twenty twenty three, and he's the guy who kind of I come up with, hey, I have a riff. I have no idea what to do with it. He goes, hey, we'll fix something out and he just and we we gel, We get the ideas down, and once we have that confidence of like, oh this work is good, this is not and we have the confidence to say, like it doesn't work this digit, we digit we write something better. It goes on like that and this this formation now with Misha who joined in around March and a little bit later Alex or bass player shout out to him as well, this this formation just gels. They get it and we all enjoy the jams. I heard so many times from the other members like this is like the the jam days of the day. I'm waiting for the most.

8:02 It's like the ones on once a week and once our entire work weeks are done, is like, okay, jam day, we got to go and we have a good time. We have a good connection. And also, I think another thing that needs to be mentioned is sure you can gel well as musicians. Another completely different thing and very important it is to jealous people. Yeah, is twenty thirty percent of the whole thing. The rest is hang time. The rest is you know, let's talk about politics or how we disagree with it. Do Let's talk about religion, how we disagree with it. Let's know about food and I don't like Chinese, but she likes India, and it goes on, and it's the basic of. Just I think that's the most important part right there. I'm glad you brought that up because people don't realize that, like, and that is what I mean by geling, because as a band, you're spending like twenty four to seven with each other when you go on tour and do certain things, and like, if you're not getting along, you could be like you know some other people that happen lately, you know, just and I've seen it too. You could see you don't even have to get a fight. You could just see between people on stage whether they want to be with those other people or not. And that comes from the hang, not from the.

9:13 Music exactly exactly. There's got to be mutual respect, and there's got to be at least the conviction that I know that the one thing I can ask from all my bandmates is commitment, and once that's there and I feel it, the rest is okay. I have to be amicable. I know that I have. Political differences with my drummer. Yeah, don't talked about it ever. And it's when I was like, that's not let's just keep with the music and talk about other things that we like, like football, how Venezuela sucks and chills great, Sorry that I said out loud, No, never mind, that's stuff like that. So I'm mischad. I'm pretty sure. And also in my case, this is my first time with a female bandmate, and the gem and the hang has been much more intense, much more cooler, and much more relaxed.

9:58 Like we people, we like our metal. We enjoy what we play, and I think that's the key of it all. See that's really cool. See I like hearing all that too. And you know, talking about blowing out your voice before, Like I have to give you credit because first of all, you have a badass voice. But as somebody that sang thrash metal many years ago, I can't even do it anymore because I didn't know what the hell I was doing. And I did blow out, you know, my throat and stuff, and like try it and doing those growls like you do. Like it just blows my mind how somebody could do that for forty five minutes an hour or two hours or whatever, because I try to get through one song now and it's like tough.

10:40 It's like eating chips with chili is and drinking all to all the bad things at once, I know, right and cigarettes. It's funny story. One of our previous shows, me and Misha, there's we went to a simple tour show like the last tour that they're coming around with me being a civil Touri fan since forever. Guess what I sang all the songs, blow my voice. I had a show two days after guess what happened, so I had to That was a show that I had to does a lesson learned, Like as much as like don't have shows that are too close together, and as I much I love civil too, I don't blow out your voice singing to the territory the entire song with every nuance, Like come on, Christian, you know you're not the teen anymore. You got you have responsibilities with your band, particularly voice, and at least on that aspect. From that point on, I've been much worse, much more strict with like when to screen, when not to scream, when to preserve my voice, when not to preserve my voice.

11:37 It is, it's so funny you say that, because like I do. I go on tour and I do radio coverage at festivals, and I have to literally tell myself not to do certain things the first couple of days because literally, like subfestivals, if it's like one of my favorite bands, like the next day I'm doing I have like twenty interviews lined up and I have zero voice. Yeah, playing with other bands, because like I really like new music, so like I'm like Oh my god, they're so good. I'm really enjoying this and I want to like jump around and you know, and I was like, nope, I need to preserve my energy.

12:17 Until we're done and then we can have fun. Yeah. It's like even like when I do the festivals, Like first day at the festival, I'm like, uh, yeah, I don't think I should go in the pitt today the first day and be you know, damaged for the rest of the weekend. There's there there are priorities in life, especially if you're a metal head. Well yeah, and that priority is like, okay, so riot Fest first time in five years Slayer played. So I broke my rule. I broke my rule and like I had to be right. I had to be in that pit. I don't care what the results were going to be, you know. Forgivable, right, you're not fired.

13:00 For the time. I was like, oh, this is like what Brio a Metal? Isn't that their first time they ever were in Brazil too? Maybe it was like in I don't know, twenty thirteen something like that. So yeah, yeah, it was awesome. I was destroyed. I was like, my life has been changed for the better. Right, Well, I you're gonna die. I went to the first Slayer show ever. So I've seen them, like, I don't know, at least a thousand times, and I still could see. There's some bands that you could see every single time, and then there's other bands like I've seen them, like, I'll go do festivals and they'll be the same headliner throughout the whole run, and I'll, you know, first time, I'll be excited, and then there'll be some for some bands, and then it's like, uh, I don't.

13:50 Have to go to that set. I already saw the whole set, you know. And then there's other bands like Okay, I could see that every single day. Yeah, there's yeah, there are levels to this game. No doubt, one hundred. So speaking of like first gigs and stuff that got you into metal, both of you, what would you say the first live gig you ever went to that really got you into Oh my god, I'm a metal head for the rest of my life. Misha, Oh my gosh. Well, back then, I was like fourteen maybe, so it was a lot of power metal at the time. I saw like Symphony Eggs, I saw Spread Various, I saw Hammer Pall, and I had a lot of fun I saw moms too, and I was a kid, like I had no idea what I was doing.

14:43 I would go by myself. I didn't have friends that would want to do that, but like I always had a good time and people were so friendly and they were like, oh, you're all here by yourself, like, oh, we could just lift you up so you can see the show better. Oh, And I was like, oh, that's so nice. And that was it. I started collecting shirts, which is like a like a prize, you know. I was like, right, totally, yeah. It's just like no, I want to keep this forever. And so yeah, that's where I started back then. I also saw all the new formation of Angra back then and they had that free show, and that also just blew my mind.

15:23 Yeah, you know, it's funny too because like, so I was talking about this with one of my friends at s BAN after done to an interviewer sitting bullshit, and then we're talking about you know, like we had talked about in the interview, about how metal heads really are opposed to what people think we are. Yeah, and then afterwards he's like, yeah, maybe we should edit that out. We don't want everybody knowing that, you know, we're nice and welcoming. You know, we might keep up that image, you. Know, but it is the metal family, like there is no other family like that in music there is, and it is nicest people. I'll tell you a funny story and it will relate to your point there. So one year I had two festivals happening at once I had to cover, and obviously I couldn't be at both. So this girl that was working for me, she was a country girl, and so I recruited her to go cover this festival. And she had never even been to a rock show, much less a metal show, okay, And so I kind of explained to her, I'm like, listen, it's not like a country show where you got a bunch of rednecks get drunk and fighting with each other. Even though you would think that because there's a mosh pit, you're gonna find that.

16:47 You're gonna go there. It's a big family. There are no fights for the most part, and you'll probably meet your new boyfriend, and you'll probably make a bunch of new friends and all that, and you'll have to time of your life. And she was kind of scared about it, you know, not you know, not gonna lie like most people that are not metal heads going to a metal show, you know. And she comes back after the weekend, she's. Like, oh my god, you're so right. I got all these new friends and this new boyfriend and this favorite new band of mine. I don't know if you ever heard of them. They're called Bring Me the Horizon. And I just laughed, you know, like I was like, see there it is like, and you know, it is so true.

17:34 You go to a metal gig and it's somewhere like the Lincoln Park song, somewhere you belong, like all of the people that are the outsiders are on the inside at a metal show. Yeah, and that's that's how I feel as a metal guy. To answer previous question might just middle of I know, I don't want to flex, but whatever. Nineteen ninety eight, Santiago ChIL Pantera, caught dying by spas Enough said nice to get onto the question. Yeah, No, I cannot be in a hardcore band because I got zero credibility in hardcore. I have never had the excess in my hand. Never I respect it. I know what the hardcore scene is.

18:15 I cannot be in the black metal scene because I got zero credibility. In that I never burn a church or never stepped nobody. Never. I don't know the stereotypes of goal with it. I've always been the angry Subletuta loving Pantera, chuggy, riffing, fear Factory, Bluchhetia, Dino Cassyrus inspired kind of kid that carried that throughout the years. And I'll be honest as a metal guy, I kind of I'm a very big representative of my generation and anything that came after was some of some of it I liked, but I straight up skipped twenty five to twenty thirteen. So whatever that had like little hair tight jeans, the verb, the noun banzie, I was a poison the well, unlocking the truth, this, this and that, like the whole skip that and then I just regained my inspiration by all these bands that are just like you know, nineties worship HM two and Tune Fear Factory, simple Buddha like MaTx, carolere Is. I think more popular now than he ever was in an entire career, I know, right, And it just comes down to thinks like I was right.

19:19 I was right, you know, the riff thing that the beach uning, just that's who I am That's how I represent myself in the in the riffs I write, and I'm glad I have bandmates like Misha, who is from Brazil, who understands that that that attitude understands the whole metal thing. She has into power metal. I wasn't much more to the grindcore and death metal. We met in the middle. We made agro metal, and that's where we love and that's where we stay, and that's where we're pretty at least in my sense, I can say I'm pretty happy writing songs and collaborating with the musicians that I have because the songs that we're coming out right now are just more than inspiration. I mean again, the fifteen year old kind inside of me is just banging his head like all day long with the songs that we write, and like that's that's something that kind of I gotta put myself like against, like when I'm listening to it, like, Okay, you didn't write this, This is not somebody else wrote this and just pretended somebody else wrote this and said, Wow, this is freing cool. Get that vibe and just nice.

20:13 It's the fire inside of the metal kid that never dies. I don't know what to say, I love it and I'm glad because the next thing I was gonna ask about is what is agro metal, because that's something that you referred to of what your band is now. So tell the listeners what that. Is agro metal. First, I'll be honest with the term. In the nineties, living in Chile, right on the cusp, when new metal blew up, like nineteen ninety six Corn's first album, death Tones for ninety seven death Tones first album, then the other ones that came after, and it is like the whole transition from radio rock brunch into like more new metal esque quote unquote. In Chile, somebody came up with the term, oh this is and just like and then Eric caught on. I do remember the nineties some TV shows and some movies referring to like, oh dude, you're getting to agro chill with the agro the term it says, caught on. So that died out. Eventually that became new metal, and the wave came and went, and as time passes by, I'm trying to get trying to get a show in the Montreal scene with my band choose what what are you? And same say death metal this and done that, some bands here would make their own moniker and a ridiculous sounding like moshcore, uh new gaze, and I'm just going all right, fuck it, we're agro metal because yes we have grind coore tendencies. Yes I love Swedish death metal. I'm gonna mix them both. We got thrash inside. It's just the blend of all the

21:45 aggressive sounding riffs that we can think of into one package called Chooso with the soaring vocals of Misha. That represents exactly what I've always wanted this band to sound like. When when it comes to like expressing the angry lyrics should be expressed away. It should be that she does on the on top of the you know, on top of the layers of riffs that I have. So that's one more or less. What agro Medal is is just aggressive riffs, rindcorep death metal, your favorite ones. Ok, here you are, I choose him nice. I love it. And then you know what I thought of instantly, which is funny. You know, Paris, It's so funny that you are still related to hardcore because Paris is new band front is called agros or it's been new bands.

22:38 Yeah right, so. Yeah, yeah, so I was like, it's so funny because as you were talking and even when I first saw that, uh, you know, it's so funny because even though like what you were saying about hardcore, somehow I got related agro metal to hardcore because of Paris. Yeah, yeah, I remember seeing those in our jam SPU. There's a flyer agro is playing in Montreal ex members of PROMA. That's interesting and I'm thinking, no one's like, no one's no one's like listening to me and ship like okay, some great minds think alike when I see things like when stuff like that, like, that's my that's my best explanation.

23:24 I love it. So tell everybody how they reach out to you guys on socials, on the web, how they get the new EP, buy your merch tour date, it's all that good stuff. Yeah. We're mostly on band camp and Instagram. So at Chooso dot band where you can look for Chooso Montreal kind of easy to find. That's pretty much it. We have merched there, we have yeah, we have the downloads there. We were on Spotify. We're all on all platforms so Apple Music anywhere, these as sound Cloud. It's no hard YouTube. Yeah, and your socials how they fund you on socials.

24:07 Mostly Instagram at Chooso dot band. Okay, also too, yeah. Also we got Unfortunately, I think for the as of year ends, we probably not gonna have any more shows for twenty twenty four, but we are packing shows for twenty twenty five, and so thank you so much for this opportunity. Mister Pointman, Oh my pleasure, and I'm glad you'd. Like the songs. And before you, before you this hands, can I just ask you something like I kind of asked this to everyone kind of listens to my music or to our music. If you're just a regular riff rock guyde whatever, and you just listen to the radio, not much into the music, but you appreciate the culture or whatever, and you hear choose it for the first time, what would be your first reaction?

24:48 Brutal? Thanks? Thank you so the way. I love the riffs and I love the thrash component of it because that's like I love all my but I'm thrash first, because which gives me. Okay, I have a trivia question. Okay, what thrash metal band was originally considered power metal because there was no such thing as thrash metal. I want to say envill Nope, ooh, I don't.

25:34 Don't want to just guess. I'll be just like guessing they're shooting Darks. I'll get Exodus. No, you were close, you were close. But I'll tell you a story to answer the question. Okay, So I went to this other band's first show ever and the guitarist came off stage. I think I was like fifteen guitarists came off stage and started talking to me, because that's what happened back then, you know, like that's always what happened. And and he handed me his business card and it said Metallica power Metal. Dave Mustain. A great story that, right.

26:17 Like, could you ever think of them being considered power metal? You know, like I think it is cool if you have a business card. I know, right, that's so cool. Damn can you imagine. And that's back in the time where they didn't have stuff like that, and you know, it's the tape trading days and. So like, to have a business card. It just proved that Dave and all of them, probably Lars, all of them were just business people right from the get go. You know, musicians first for sure, but you do have to be a business person to make it as big as that in the music business, especially nowadays.

26:58 I think then of the value of what they were doing. We knew that they were above their cut, above the mediocre stock of whatever, the thrash metal, power metal era, metal era of their time. Yeah, it's I think it's just musicians magicians confidence, Like that's that's what I feel. That's what I feel like when when I hear stuff like that, here, here's my card, We're power. I'm being mistaining. Well, even the even the other bands that they were like with at the time, you know, the Anthrax, the Slayers, the Exodus, the and all them, like I'm friends with love of them because of back in the day, and they all used to say, like Metallica had something special.

27:38 When they were all sleeping on a floor in one room, like four bands, they all knew the one that was gonna make it big was Metallica. That's a cool feeling, that's a cool right, right, So that. That may be part of it, you know, maybe some of the things that people make fun of Laws for that makes them so big like that, because listen, I think everybody should give him some credit. He was right about uh napster. Yes, that's where we are now, like everybody should listen. Yeah, it was right. You know, it's hard to be what's the word in there's a there's a saying in Spanish the West, which means you can't be a profit in your own land.

28:21 You have to you know, slowly, get get your get to get people to agree with the idea, and you know, and and you're right, and you're right. And it took a long while. I don't lived through those the year two thousands and all that when everybody was making fun of Lars, South Park made fun of Lars, and yeah, it was and it kind of coming to a plant like, you know, this whole free thing, this whole napster thing, this whole parrot parent parrot Bay thing. I don't even remember the freaking website. Yeah, and it's it's gonna collapse, It's gonna collapse. It's good eventually, it's good. It doesn't make sense to basically have your music out for free if no one's gonna be making money off of it. And there's there's this kind of like stupid mentality of the whole sellout and not sello things like guys and I was.

29:03 Like that as a teenager, but you know what, you get to be an adult and you realize it's not really selling out, because how are you going to keep playing and keep going on if you're not making money and you're not you're not relevant at all because you're not selling out. Like I remember when they came out Listen, when they came out with the Black album, I was one of those original twenty five fans. I was like, fuck THEAMN, a bunch of sellouts, you know, posers, blah blah blah. But at the end of the day, listen, there's still one of my favorite bands. It was just me being young and stupid and like we all are in the beginning, you know. But the Botmob line is as I think, and that brings me to like, maybe don't think that way. Maybe support your favorite band so they can keep playing and keep going because it is not an easy industry number one, number two. There is no money in it anymore. There's not that rock star thing like it used to be. And you know, like, if they're giving you, making you feel good, giving you good therapy, don't they deserve to at least be able to live a decent lifestyle. And so they're not sell outs.

30:12 They're just doing what they gotta do, exactly. I totally completely with that, mischa. Yeah, that's why, like every time we go to a show, like Okay, let's go see live music, let's buy merge, you know, let's do all that. Like, and it's like you said, it's a business. You have to promote things like, uh, it's not. The music doesn't just. Go out there by itself, right, compeat it to the algorithm first, you know, and all that. It's all part of it. Yeah, and you know, I mean the thing is is like even like when I go shows and I see people buying the shirts outside, I'm like, don't do that. I'll go, I'll walk right up to the people, like, don't do that. The band's not getting anything out of that, they're getting ripped off, you know. And yeah, maybe T shirts are more expensive nowadays because it's a lot of people have their hands in the putt, but that's the only way the artist is.

31:05 Going to be able to get to the next show. So by the merch, that's my thing. Yeah, that's how we that's how you show support exactly. Well, you guys definitely are badass, and uh, I hope to see you live too, and uh. We're making all the work to get there. Trust me, we're doing all the hard work to get there. See you guys get on these US festivals or you know, you gotta play at Hell Fest. Oh that's that's the dream, dude, that's the dream. Now the only festival, one of the only festivals. There's a few, but one of the only festivals I haven't done yet or attended was the Rock and Rio And every artist I've talked to that's like one of their favorite festivals. So I have to look into that one because apparently you guys in Brazil go nuts at that festival.

31:58 Oh yeah, we're so passionate, that's what. That's one thing I always say is like, why why are we more passionate than everyone else? Why are we like giving our blood, sweat and tears at every concert? Why is it so meaningful for us? And how how do we draw? You know, how do these bands draw like four hundred thousand people like I know, right, City of Rock, you know, and other acts. But I don't question it. I just accept it. There you go. So, yeah, you guys will have to play rock and Reo. To We just got contact there apparently, don't you. I know people who played there, so we'll get there.

32:41 Okay. Well yeah, thanks a lot for the for the interview, and thanks a love for being honest about you know, the music that we're making. If you think it's brutal, that's that means the world to us for sure. Yeah, and I've found I'm the type like you know, I'm a true metal head. If I don't like the music, I can't do the interview. I don't understand some of these other press people that don't even like me and do interviews, Like how can you do a metal interview without having the passion for metal? Some people, Man, what can I say? Just take it till you make it, I suppose. Yeah, so I'll never tell you it's brutal if it's not brutal, and brutals like one of the best compliments I could give. You so much. You guys rock and all my listeners and they need to go out and support you. Check out the new album, merch all that stuff, or they can't listen to my show.

33:31 And thanks for being on the advent here's a pipe man. Thank you so much. Yeah, thank you so much for having us here. My pleasure. Thank you man, Thank you. For listening to the adventures of pipe Man. I'm w for CUI Radio.