DEADLY STORM STRÁNKY/PAGES

▼

středa 17. června 2020

Interview - THE SCUM - We play some putrid old school Death metal from the depths of Colombia.



Interview by: Jakub Asphyx for Deadly Storm

Interview answered by: Jose Ospina - Vocals, The Scum.

Correction and style: Camilo Muñoz - Wild Noise Productions. 

Recenze/review - THE SCUM - Dead Eyes (2020):
https://www.deadlystormzine.com/2020/05/recenzereview-scum-dead-eyes-2020.html


Ave THE SCUM! I have not found the interview with your band in Czech anywhere. Could you please introduce THE SCUM to Czech metal fans? Who are today’s THE SCUM? 

Hi Jakub!!! So many thanks for this interview!!!! In this moment the players in The Scum are guitarists Santiago de los Rios and Checho Gallego. Julian Lopez in the bass, Mauricio Aristizabal on drums and me, José Ospina doing vocals. Together we play some putrid old school Death metal from the depths of Colombia, South America.


I have received your newish record EP „Dead Eyes“ for review from the label Wild Noise Productions and I am really delighted! I was waiting for good gravedigger handwriting, however, I did not expect that it cut me into pieces so much. How was the album created? How exactly THE SCUM writes the music? 

It’s great that you appreciate our work. The two tracks in our newish EP were taken from a bunch of songs that we are writing since 2018 when our first album “Ashen“ was released, the idea was to make songs in a traditional way with verses, choruses, etc. And to write the most direct, brutal and catchy riffs that we can. Normally we begin with some cool riffs (Normally Santiago writes them), then we build the songs during our rehearsals with the ideas of all the musicians.

The sound of the record is also really great. It is dark, cold and harsh at the same time. In which studio did you record the new album? Did you have a chance to say/argue something to your producer regarding the resulting sound?

The EP was recorded in a studio located in our hometown Manizales named Rock Manizales, the songs were mixed by the legendary producer Tomas Skogsberg at Sunlight Studios in Stockholm Sweden and the mastering was done by the renowned musician and producer Andy Classen at Stage one studio en Germany. All that we have to Tomas and Andy is acknowledgment for their excellent work. It’s been really awesome for a band like us to have the opportunity to work with people that have construed the history of Death Metal in the world.


Could you reveal us who is the author of lyrics and what is their background? Where do you take your inspiration for topics in the lyrics? 

The lyrics are made by me and I take inspiration mainly in horror cinema and literature. All of us in The Scum are really horror fans mostly of the horror movies made in the last 40 years of the 20th century. Although we have to recognize that in recent times are appearing great horror movies in different parts of the world. Other source of inspiration are some weird and twisted nightmares that assault me sometimes.


You have always had the amazing cover arts. Is it very important for you, how the whole album, booklet, cover looks like? Who is the author of the cover of new album EP „Dead Eyes“? I really like his work. How was this cooperation formed? 

The artist that worked with us in our last two releases is Yan Sek from Indonesia, we have the opportunity to work with him from the moment he contacted us and show us some of his work.It was very good! We really liked his art because has some influences from the Oriental horror movies imaginary and some simplicity that we think fits very well with the aesthetical intentions of our music. We think that the art of our releases must say something to the real metalhead about the kind of band that we are.


When I revealed to my friends that I am going to make an interview with you, everybody recommend me to ask, how the underground in your country works? Czech Republic is a small country; we have only a few death metal bands, which are really great. How do you perceive your scene? Do the fans go on concerts, to buy merchandise? Do the bands support each other? 

The extreme metal scene in Colombia is one of the best in South America concerning about quality and quantity of bands. The scene has getting better as a good amount of foreign bands have visited us lately, but I seriously think that the culture of buying the material of the bands and the sales of tickets for concerts of local talents could be much better, anyway, exists a solid group of die hard metal heads that are disposed to support the work of the colombian bands.


I am old metal dog, who listen to metal music more than 30 years. The time has so changed during these years. We have an internet, young fans only download mp3 and sometimes I really miss „the old good times“. How do you perceive the changes in music, at concerts etc.? Did you have to change an approach as a band? 

I am a real old fart!!!! Hahaha The same as you, I have more of 30 years listening to metal and I lived the different eras that our scene has passed, since the tape trading of the old days, the old vinyls, the cds, the mp3 and streaming music in internet and now your majesty the vinyl again!!! I think that the new generations have so many facilities to get the music and that situation make that the old mysticism about the physical material decreases making that the young fellows don't appreciate sometimes the real value of the music... Or maybe I just became an old grumpy man!! Anyway we are fully aware of the present situation and we are pushing really hard to open with the band in all the new internet possibilities.


Do you remember who created the THE SCUM logo? Recently we talked about the best death metal logos with my friends in the pub. Besides of we were drunk, the result of this discussion was that we could not decide which logos are the best. I was voting for yours! 

Thanks for your vote man!!!! The logo was made by a designer from Manizales Named Xiomara Valencia. And the idea was to have a logo inspired by those of the classic death metal bands. We love the logos in the old fashioned way like the ones of Death, Benediction, Entombed, Dismember, Obituary, etc. We think the logos must be brutal but legibles!!!

And what about the THE SCUM and concerts? How difficult is for you to organize the tour? Do you prefer to play in Colombia or do you want to go also abroad? I know, everything is about the money, but I still think, the live shows are bringing to the bands more and more fans.

We really love to play live!! We have in Colombia a model of public rock festivals made with money of the government and we’ve played in some of them opening for bands as Pungent Stench, The Haunted, Ripper Owens etc. Also we had the chance to play with Destruction in their last tour here and made a little tour in Ecuador but one of our main goals it’s definitely touring in Europe and The USA. We hope that this could be possible in two or three years considering the pandemic situation and it’s consequences. It would be simply great to play in Czech Republic someday!!!!


Thank you for the interview and I wish you a lot of sold CDs, hundreds of crazy fans and tons of great ideas. 

Thanks to you Jakub for this interview and the review that you made of our EP “Dead Eyes” It’s an honour to be featured in Deadly Storm, alongside so many great bands that you interview now and in the past. Cheers to all the readers and Death metal fans from THE SCUM! 



------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
sledujte nás na sociálních sítích - follow us on the social media:

instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/deadlystormzine/

facebook:
https://cs-cz.facebook.com/deadlstormzine
https://cs-cz.facebook.com/JakubAsphyx
https://www.facebook.com/groups/DEADLY.STORM.PROMOTION/

twitter:
https://twitter.com/deadlystormzine
https://twitter.com/jakubasphyx

tumlbr:
https://www.tumblr.com/blog/deadlystormzine
v