Confessions from Ill Niņo
by Don Sill
October/November 2003
"We were in the middle of rehearsing and all of a sudden it was lights out," recalls Dave Chavarri, drummer for New Jersey's Ill Niņo, about the night of the great 2003 blackout. "I was like, 'Oh shit.' We had to walk through the rehearsal room in the dark to try and get out of that building. We kept kicking the shit out of ourselves, falling, scratching ourselves on stuff, it was a mess."
Chavarri, and his band mates made it outside along with 15 other bands who were also practicing in the building. Instead of complaining about the situation Ill Niņo and the others took advantage of the moment and while the day was still lit by the grace of the sunshine a big party emerged in the street. "Everybody was hanging out right outside the building and a few guys were like, 'I'm gonna go get a six-pack while there still cold.' There was this store around the corner and the owner basically was wearing an apron with a change belt and he was selling all his beer before it got warm. It was hot as hell that day and all these guys were going there and getting beers and it became this big block party. Oh man, everybody was sitting on the stoop outside with their shirts off, drinking beer and it was cool [laughs]."
While the big blackout of 2003 may have ceased rehearsal that day it did little to disrupt the charge behind Ill Niņo's highly anticipated follow-up to 2001's breakthrough "Revolution, Revolucion".
Their latest album, "Confessions" takes Ill Niņo and their Latin-metal sound to the next level. The sophomore effort, released on September 30th, demonstrates the growth and maturity of the band. They added more melody and structure to the songs giving them greater depth and quality while keeping their trademark Latin percussion, heady guitar riffage and a full on verbal assault demonstrating Niņo's bi-polar persona. "This record was no hold barred for us," Chavarri explained. "It wasn't about trying to create something in particular it was more about whatever came out, trying to be ourselves and just keeping it heavy, keeping it interesting and having a genuine Latin sound."
Producer by Bob Marlette (Saliva, Black Sabbath,) helped the band focus and work on developing their own identity in the studio. "He was really, really open and wasn't afraid to be musical and wasn't trying to write singles but write whatever comes out and have fun doing it," Chavarri said. "We just had a great time recording this record, It was something where we can look back and have great memories from.
"Confessions' to me is very true, very honest, it's really, really heavy and there is a lot of beautiful singing on it," continues the drummer. "I think Cris sounds amazing on it and to us this album is the second stage of our career's where we got to do whatever we wanted to do musically and had a good time doing it. We explored new ground, you know. One thing about Ill Niņo is that the first record we were very original sounding and this record is very original. That's one thing we always thrived on was being a very original sounding band and not sounding like anybody else."
Ill Niņo have also undergone some member changes. During pre-production for "Confessions" The band parted ways with two original members and recruited former Machine Head guitarist Ahrue Luster and percussionist Danny Couto to fill the vacancies joining vocalist Cristian Machado, drummer Dave Chavarri, bassist Laz Pina and guitarist Jardel Paisante in the Ill Niņo line-up. "The new guys changed the dynamics in a total positive way," gleamed Chavarri. "I think this new blood and new fuel in the band has fueled us. We still have much love for the guys that were in the band, but it just didn't work out and we weren't seeing eye to eye, it was like us four weren't seeing eye to eye with those two. But, Danny and Ahrue want to do what we want to do and we feel more of a unity with them. Danny is an amazing percussionist, he brings a lot f the Latin flavor and a Brazilian style into the band, which is what he does best. And Ahrue Luster is a great guitar player, man. He just came in and made it heavier and gave it more attitude."
Their first single "How Can I Live," also featured on the "Freddy Vs. Jason" movie soundtrack has been impacting rock charts giving Ill Niņo a solid push towards the front. "Yeah, it was an honor to be on that soundtrack," said the stick man. "It was very cool because we grew up watching a lot of those scary flicks and listening to a lot of those bands on those soundtracks. I grew up on Freddy and Jason movies and it was cool that the director really dug the song and the label really liked the song so everyone was in total agreeance that it should be the first single."
For now Ill Niņo is on the road with Spineshank, 40 Below Summer and Skrape. "Yeah, it's gonna be cool. We rehearsed yesterday, it was our first big rehearsal, our first real production rehearsal at a big studio and it was amazing," Chavarri said. "Get ready, bring your knee-pads and a helmet, bro it's gonna be intense. We're gonna make sure we start up a huge pit."
So look out, the salty dogs are hitting the road once again and they are ready to bring the noise.and even a blackout won't stop them this time.
