Ill Niño Interview

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Orlando Florida Guide Interview with Drummer Dave Chavarri and Guitarist Ahrue Luster of Ill Niño.

I met up with the guys before their show at The Masquerade in Tampa, FL. We did the Interview in their tour bus. I found Dave and Ahrue to be personable and friendly. For anyone who has not bought their new album 'Confession' or seen Ill Niño in concert, I highly recommend you do both. You won't be sorry.


January 2, 2004


OFG: How did the band come up with the name Ill Niño?

Dave: Ill Niño was given to us by Billy Milano of S.O.D. He was in Europe and he knew we were starting a band and knew we were pretty strong live. He said we reminded him of a Hurricane so he came up with the name EL Niño and we changed it to Ill Niño to give it a different twist.

OFG: How difficult was it to get inked to a record deal and how long did it take?

Dave: Believe it or not, took the band about five or six weeks, after we did our demo for Roadrunner. I was really good friends with a guy that use to work at Atlantic as an A & R guy and I had been keeping him informed about the band. I dropped off the demo and he fell in love with it. About four and a half weeks later we played a showcase for them and they signed us shortly after that.

OFG: I saw the 'How Can I live' video on Fuse. Great video. What went into making the video and how involved was the band in the decision making process.

Ahrue: It was for the 'Freddy Vs Jason' movie soundtrack so we definitely wanted to have something that resembled some of the concepts from the Freddy (Nightmare on Elm St.) and Jason (Friday The 13th) movies. So the band was kinda stalking the girl in the video and she was in dream sequences and supernatural stuff going on and we wanted to have live band performance footage. We're a really active band live and we wanted that to come across. A lot of the decision making was ours, but Martin Wise had a lot of great Ideas and it was a collaboration.

OFG: Who decided that 'How Can I live' would be the lead track in the 'Freddy Vs Jason' soundtrack.

Dave: It was an unanimous decision. In the beginning the label really loved the song after first listen. We loved the song and the whole record. We felt it was one of the most representative songs of who the band is. Has the edge, the singing, the acoustic flamingo guitars, the percussion and all the Latin elements of who Ill Niño is. We mailed out three songs to the directors of the movie and they fell in love with the song and decided to make it the lead track for the movie soundtrack.

OFG: What will be the next single released from 'Confession' ? Does the band or the label decide on this?

Ahrue: 'This Time's For Real' will be the next single. It's a joint process between the band, the record label and our management on deciding what singles will be released.

OFG: Is there a set amount of time to wait between the releasing of singles?

Ahrue: There's not a set amount of time. If a single is doing really good there's no sense in releasing another single.

Dave: Our first single has been on the charts for five months now. It took about two or three weeks to get on the charts and it definitely helped sales in our first week. It sold about 28,000 copies and entered at #36 or #37 on the Billboard Pop charts, I believe. It was cool to see the single stay up for so long. This Time's For Real will be released on January 18th so please call and request it.

OFG: During the preproduction of 'Confession' the band parted ways with two members and brought in two new members (Ahrue Luster and Danny Couto) how difficult was it to integrate Ahrue and Danny into the band. And what do you feel they added to the band.

Dave: We parted ways while we were writing the record for 'Confession' because basically we weren't seeing eye to eye anymore with two other members. The Four remaining members (Laz, Jardel, Cristian and Dave) always agreeing on stuff and having two other guys disagreeing on stuff. It wasn't working on a creative level and a music level it wasn't working and we decided to part ways. They decided to do their own thing. What Ahrue and Danny bring to the band -- they both are amazing players. Ahrue has been around the block. He was in Machine Head and is also a great friend of mine for a long time. They both bring great elements to the band. They're very talented. Danny with the whole tribal element of percussion and him being Brazilian and his conga playing, to Ahrue's tightness as a player and he knows theory and he plays acoustic guitar great and he fit right in like a glove. Both guys bring a whole new element of new life into the band and they make things more exciting. The two other guys it was just more like an everyday job at that point. Ahrue and Danny enjoy it as much as we do.

OFG: Ahrue was it difficult for you to acclimate yourself into the band?

Ahue: For me it was relatively easy. When I was in my previous band Machinehead we had done two different tours with Ill Niño. I use to hang out with them all the time. I never had more fun touring with any other band. I wasn't coming into a situation where I didn't know anyone. I've known Dave about 14 years. For me it was the second time I've come into a band replacing another guitar player and I wasn't new to that either. A lot of Ill Niño fans are fans of my last band so the fans accepted me pretty good too. All around no negatives. It's been more fun than anything else.

OFG: What was the best thing about 2003 for the band and what can we expect from Ill Niño in 2004.

Dave: Getting two new members of the band as well as adding a seventh member: Omar Claviko. He's been with the band since the first record working on samples and scratching. He's a DJ. Now we have him tour with us. He's a live DJ and does samples plus plays keyboards. We're really happy to have him and welcome him aboard. We're a better band now. Us seven were pretty unstoppable in the sense of what we do live and how we portray our music and how we respect each other as musicians and friends.

OFG: What was it like to play a show on New Year's Eve (House of Blues in Orlando, FL) and how did it differ from shows on any other day of the year.

Dave: I'll tell you what man, I don't know why I get sentimental once and awhile at certain shows. I get very emotional. I was thinking about my grandfather. I was extremely close to him and I was thinking about him and my family all day along with the Trials and tribulations of the music industry. How I'm still here and I'm here with the best band I could be in, you know what I mean? For some reason the first song out, I just started balling. It was defenitely very emotional for me during that first song. It was pretty special to me. It added something that I will think about ten to fifteen years from now -- Wow, that was a real emotional show.

Ahrue: It was a great show for me. The fans were awesome. The show was sold out. Touring with Sevendust is great they are the nicest guys. They're really cool and they always hang out with us, stuff like that. Afterwards, I got pretty drunk and made an ass out of myself, I guess, taking my pants off (laughs) or so they tell me.

OFG: What will be the first and last song played at tonight's show?

Dave: First song is "Te Amo ... I Hate You" from our 'Confession' album and the last song is "Liar" from our 'Revolution Revolución' album.

OFG: How does the band decide this?

Dave: It's same for the tour. We'll sit down and we feel it out and jam at home and see what we feel is good and what feels natural and what's going to work for Ill Niño. We try and give them a good balance of the first and second record.

Ahru: I think our set list has a good balance of new stuff and old stuff. We're a very active live band and we try to keep it where all the songs we play get the crowd going. If a song doesn't feel right and it doesn't move people we'll put something in that will moves people more.

OFG: Is there anything you would like to say to the fans of Ill Niño and the readers of Orlando Florida Guide?

Ahru: We're a band that is really close to our fans. If you ever see us hanging out feel free to come up and talk to us. We love talking to our fans. We totally appreciate all the fans we have all over the world. We're looking forward to seeing them tonight.

Dave: We love playing Florida. It's nice and warm and you actually get to hang out and have a good time. You guys are lucky to have so many beautiful women here. Everyone in the band is turning their heads every two seconds when we play Florida. And to the fans and people like yourself who take the time to help out bands like us we appreciate your help. We look forward to seeing you the next time.

OFG: I'm looking forward to seeing you the next time too. Thank you for your time guys. I wish you much success.

Dave and Ahrue: Thank you very much.

By Michael Montes - Orlando Florida Guide - All Rights Reserved.