Rob: What happened with Los Natas and made you decide to start a side project?
Claudio: This is a question I have answered many times, it was a personal thing, and I believe that the decision was made at a correct time, it`s all cool with them, actually Buffalo had played live with Natas twice so far.
Regarding this new project and why I have decided to start it... I have never thought of myself not playing music, so I used some songs I have from the past and I wrote some new ones and that`s it.
Rob: How are things in Buenos Aires and how do you think it effects the way you guys write music?
Claudio: Right now the things are a bit cooler if you compare it with some time ago, specially when we didn`t even know who was supposed to be our president. I see a new faith in people, which is cool, but things are not like we want... it gonna take some time.
Regarding writing music in this situation...we create our own mood and our own environment so our music is not so affected by it. Unless all hell broke loose, we are going to keep doing our shit.
Rob: How often do you guys practice and how is the song writing process done?
Claudio: We rehearse a few times a week...we would love to do it more often, but our personal jobs make it impossible. I tried to play as much as I can at home, and some times I bring some ideas to the rehearsing room where we work the three of us toghether. The songs for this album (Temporada de Huracanes) were written by me because at that time It was just me, but the new songs are being written by the entire band.. we have jus a couple of new songs since we are play ing live as much as we can and we didnt focused on writing new shit. We are planing on writing new song this summer (your winter).
Rob: What are some of the upcoming goals of the band? Tours? The States?
Claudio: Well, since the year is almost over, and argentinean summer is almost here, we are going to play in some places we have never been, some cities were people go for vacations. If any kind of tour shows up, well take it.
Touring the states would be great, I know some US bands that may help us out, but it`s not so easy for us living here. The air tickets are too expensive for us so we would need someone from the states to pay them... I don`t know, we would love to tour the States.
Rob: What kind of stoner scene is there in Argentina?
Claudio: We have many stoner bands, argentinean bands ar every influenced by our 70s rock local scene, which is cool because I think that it makes you sound a bit diferent of the international stoner rock bands.
Rob: What are some of your favorite classic rock bands? And what are some bands from your neck of the woods that deserves attention?
Claudio: I could be talking for our... lets see: I can not ignore bands like Sabbath, Purple, Zepp, but I also love stuff like ZZ Top, the Allmanīs ,Thin Lizzy, 70s Whitesnake ,Fog Hat, Skynyrd and some others...I could continue for ours.
About the Argentinean bands... we have really good bands like Taura, Dragonauta, Superextra, Coda, Fugu.
Rob: How is it to get vintage gear there? Is it expensive and hard to come by?
Claudio: There are tons of great gear that were made some years ago, but to afford it, well, thats too dificult. You have to be very careful as you may find some cool gear at good price. There`s always someone who may want to sell his stuff and that`s when you have to attack!
Rob: How has the internet helped out your band if at all?
Some years ago, when I played in other bands and the internet was not so popular, we used to send demo tapes all over the world, which was more of a "do it yourself" thing, but it was also slower, although things happened, and you got feedback. I think it`s obvious that the internet helps us in a big way..now I can ask a Japanese guy if he wants our CD and in a few minutes he may answer me. Also, the fact of having a web site with music, pics, data, etc, is very helpful.
Rob: Do you have any material to be recorded for a new release? Give us details about any new music/projects that you or any of you guys might be working on.
Claudio: If we talk about Buffalo, we have a couple of new songs that we have been playing live, songs that may end up in our new album, we`ll see at that time. As I told you before, we have been doing our own gigs, we played in a couple of festivals, we played on some radio shows, we even did an acoustic show, and we filmed our first video clip. So to be honest, we didn`t have too much time for the writing process. But we are really looking foward to it.
I also play drums in another band called Gallo de Riņa and we have just recorded our first CD, it`s way heavier than Buffalo, kind of a sludge/hardcore thing... a mix between Eyehategod, Kiss and Cro-Mags. Really sick.
Buffalo`s bass player Javier has his own band called Especies, which is a totally influenced by our local 70s rocks scene, they are three guys and thay have not recorded yet.
Our drummer Alfredo is playing with some garage rock bands, he plays with "The Hates" and he also helped out with `The Tormentos`, which is a surf band.
Rob: Here is the part of the interview that we call the silly questions...you can be as short as you want with these...if you weren`t a rocker, what would you most like to be?
Claudio: Film director.
Rob: What was your worst gig and why? What was your best gig and why?
Claudio: I really cannot say that I have a "worst" gig because you learn a lot from every gig. But if I have to name one, I remember when I was playing with Natas and we played with a nü metal band called A.N.I.M.A.L. and the entire crowd was spitting at us, cursing, throwing shit...we felt really bad because we were invited by this band and they didn`t do shit or speak to their fans who were against us. But it also was a good gig because those fuckers didn`t stop us, they only get more music from us.
Claudio: My best gig was my first one, because it helped me to realise that it was what I want to be.
I also remeber thefirst time I playend outside of my country, it was very cool to know that people living really away from me liked my music.
Rob: Top three movies, books and albums of all time?
Claudio:
Movies
1 The good, the Bad and the Ugly
2 The Time Machine
3 The Duel
Books
1 "The Clockwork Orange" Anthony Burgess
2 "The Devil`s Notebook" Anton Zsandor La Vey
3 "Farenheit 451" Ray Bradbury
Albums
1 "Dark Side of the Moon" Pink Floyd
2 "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" Black Sabbath
3 "Master of Puppets" Metallica
Rob: How often do you surf the net and what do you mostly do while online?
Claudio: I check my mail everyday, I visit some websites...some boards.. some band web site.
Rob: What is your favorite city and venue to play, and why?
Claudio: It`s difficult to say... most of the time we played in Buenos Aires so I would like to play in a far away city. I remember playing in San Francisco where the crowd was insane, really cool people. Also, Santiago de Chile is really cool.
Rob: What is the most rock `n` roll thing you`ve ever done?
Claudio: Some time ago, I was playing in a City that is in Buenos Aires coast, there were a lot of people, and when we were playing our second song we have to stopped because people from the goverment arrived and they didnt want a rock band playing there. But I didnt gave a fuck and I said "next song". So they cut the electricity... I was so mad at them that I throw away my guitar, and since the roof was not too high the guitar end up nailed to the roof, it stayed there for a second tan then it falled down and the neck of the guitar was broken. It was a rock and roll thing, but it was really stupid, specially havinf in mind that it was the only guitar I had and there were three gigs left in that tour.
Rob: What`s the most rock `n` roll thing you`ve seen someone else do?
Claudio: It ws in 1993 or 1994, I saw "Dee Dee Ramone and the chinese dragons" drummer being so drunk that he was playing and throwing up at the same time! wow!
Rob: What`s your worst "bad trip" story?
Claudio: Donīt have one.
Rob: What`s the most painful thing you have ever witnessed at a rock show?
Claudio: Being in a Biohazard concert here in Buenos Aires, it was a small place... someone jumped from the stage and when he get to the floor his leg went through it... he made a hole in the floor!!! oh, it was me.
Rob: How old were you when you first realize you wanted to rock?
Claudio: I was 8 years old... I picked up a guitar (I think it was my mother`s guitar). At that time I picked it up for fooling around but I never stopped.
Rob: What`s the most embarrassing job you ever had?
Claudio: I used to put dust in bags...dust with colorant, kind of a toxic shit... I had to be all day with a gas mask on my face so I can breathe.
Rob: What`s your favourite ice cream flavor?
Claudio: I like crafty ice cream with some chocolate, fruits and cookies.
Rob: If you could date any rock star dead or alive in the world, who would it be?
Claudio: Lita Ford
Rob: Movie star?
Claudio: Clint Eastwood, definitely...
Rob: What would be the ultimate dream gig of all time line-up be, with your band opening? Limit to three bands please (including your own...) and where?
Claudio: It could be BUFFALO - BLACK LABEL SOCIETY - ZZ-TOP
We can play in a mountain in a cool late afternoon with high sound towers... really loud.
