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Mueran Humanos

 

It was about two months ago, when the Basement team went to the Winter edition of Plissken Festival in Athens. Although for various reasons we didn't enjoy it as much as the previous years, we stuck out and were impressed by a great Argentinian (Berlin-based) band, Mueran Humanos (meaning Die, Humans). Unique eerie sounds and atmosphere combined with spanish words giving an absolutely thrilling and somehow haunting final outcome. The duo, consisting of Tomás Nochteff and Carmen Burguess, was formed back in 2006 and gave us their self-titled debut in 2011. Four years later, in 2015, they released their outstanding sophomore effort entitled Miseress. Shortly after their show in Greece, we had the chance and the honour to chat with them. Well, no more talking from us, we are so happy to welcome Tomas and Carmen to the Basement... 

 

The Basement : Hello Carmen and Tomas. I am really happy to welcome you to the Basement. I have to admit that I didn’t know you before Plissken Festival in Greece. But it was love at first sight. So I ll start this interview with that night: Did you enjoy it being in Athens? 
Tomas: It was our first time in Athens, we loved it, it`s fantastic, the whole vibe is so beautiful it`s intoxicating. I wish we could spend more time there, we found it completely fascinating. It was the last show of the year, the day after we went to the ruins of the Agora. It was very magical to finish our year in those ruins, a very special moment and an enigmatic omen for the future. I hope to come back and play more shows.


The Basement : In one of your songs, there was problem with the sound. For 20 seconds or so, we were listening along a commentary of a football game, did you notice it? Do you have anything to say about the festival?
Tomas: I use a radio which I put through the microphones of my bass and then process with my pedals. A big part of Mueran Humanos is to deconstruct the media. The radio thing is a live version of that. I speak no Greek so I had no idea what I was using as a sonic source. That uncertainty is something I like to play with very much. So it wasn´t a problem with the sound, it was part of our set. The festival was great, everybody was super nice to us. I feel privileged to be allowed to play in a festival like this, I always wanted to travel and play live everywhere, so it´s a dream come true to me.
Carmen: Yes, depending on the country we are, random things would come out of the local radio. I didn`t realized that it was a football play, no.


The Basement : Now that I am done with Plissken, let’s take things from the beginning. You are a duet coming from Argentine, but you live in Berlin right now. How and when did you meet each other?
Tomas: We met in Buenos Aires, in an underground club, Carmen was playing keyboards with a local band, Mujercitas Terror. We felt in love but we didnt started the band until three years later when we met in Europe.


The Basement: How did you come up with your name?
Tomas:
I did cut ups of titulars of newspapers and then put together a fanzine made of these cut ups. By cutting up the newspapers it was obvious that they project fear and terror. You look at the cut up words and the majority of them are negative words, like rape, explosion, war, murder, crash, etc. That`s why I named the fanzine Mueran Humanos. Then when we started the band we use it. It has an ambiguity to it, it can be read with different meanings and that ambiguity suited us so we carry on.


The Basement: Did you choose Berlin cause it is a place with enormous opportunities for a band like yours?
Tomas: It was by chance that we ended in Berlin, but when we were here yes we decided to stay because we felt that it will be better for our band, and it was.Sadly since we are here gentrification went mad. The conditions we enjoyed eight years ago doesn`t exist anymore. It`s problematic when one thinks that gentrification starts with artists moving to a city, then came the start ups and the millionaires and the rich kids who wants to buy an edge and everything go to hell. I already saw this happens to London and Barcelona before.


The Basement: I would describe your music pretty dark, its like “extraterrestial” music; but how you would you describe it on your own terms?
Carmen: We like to experiment with electronic instruments, noise, modified tapes and sampling, but also keep it raw and do live shows just like an old school rock band does. We have some punk, kraut, experimental, industrial and pop elements I suppose. Pretty basic and minimal as compositions, but sometimes complex sound wise, occasionally paranormal. We try to express ourselves trough all the resources we have.  From the violent to sweetness aspects of who we are. 
Tomas: Extraterrestrial is fine.


The Basement : You sing in Spanish, a priori this is a disadvantage for many people cause it is not English. Did you make this choice cause you can express your feelings better or because it is your mother language?
Tomas: Both, it`s just natural for us to sing in our language.
Carmen: We are singing lyrics we write, saying stuff that belongs to our world.  Actually, we didn`t think like “Let`s do a band”, our band just happened. We didn`t think “let`s make songs”, we used to play instrumental mostly, songs slowly did happen, again. It was obvious that it would happen eventually since both of us love art and poetry and both writes since long a go. But we didn`t decide to sing in spanish as well we didn’t decided any else, things just happened in a natural way and we follow our instinct. Spanish is our language. We  might sing in another language, occasionally, in the future… maybe.
Tomas: Yes, we never worked with an audience in mind, we did what we did for ourselves so we never stopped to think about how would be received, for that reason we just did our songs in our language.But you`re right though in that it creates a distance and sometimes I would like to switch to English because now we do have an audience and it would be nicer to speak more directly with them.However we can’t decide to do a change like that, it must be natural, we will never compromise and do things to please anyone, that would be a complete betrayal to the spirit in which we made this band. I`m not ruling out the possibility to sing in English in the future, Im only saying that it only can happens naturally and not forced. So far I don´t see that happens in the short term but who knows.

The Basement : Through your work (lyrics,song titles, cd covers and of course your name) you seem not to like humans a lot... Is this a point of view for life generally? 
Tomas: I cannot say I disagree with you. It`s a name. The Sex Pistols were`t about sex, right? Well, ours is not a band about misantrophy. The overall theme of ours, if  any, would be rebellion. The ugly face of society. The melancholic sound of freedom. Ours is a story of love. Love, beauty and horror.


The Basement : How would you rate the acceptance of your last album “Miseress”? Are you up on something new now? What are your future goals ? 
Carmen: We are working on our next album right now, it will be ready quite soon actually.Acceptance, quite well I think.
Tomas: Yeah.


The Basement : If you could collaborrate with anyone dead or alive who would you choose and why?
Carmen: I don`t think much on collaborations really. I guess if something come out naturally I would`t say no.
Tomas: John Balance, Nico, Steve Stapleton, Lee Perry, Conny Plank, Brian Eno, Miles Davis, Sun Ra and drummers like Klaus Dinger (Neu!), Mo Tucker (V.U.),  Stephen Morris (Joy Division), Big Paul (Killing Joke) because I hate to program drum machines.


The Basement: We have a thing with lists here in The Basement. So I would like you to make a Top10 with your best albums of 2016 and if you want a top10 with the best tracks of your life...
Tomas: I am ashamed to say that I didnt really listen to more than 10 new albums this year so I am not able to do a list of best of. Albums I liked were the new for some of my favorite bands, Swans, Silver Apples, Consumer Electronics, Legendary Pink Dots and for new music I liked Marie Davidson, Seaford Mods, Ratka, Marching Church. And some new Argentinian bands: OK Pirámides, DHD, Rosalux and Tensión.

Top ten tracks... I suppose it changes all the time but here are ten of them in no particular order:

Velvet Underground - Venus in Furs
The Fall - Before the Moon Falls
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - The Mercy Seat
Acid Horse - No Name, No Slogan
The Stooges - Dirt 
Nico - König 
Coil - Paranoid Inlay
Wire - A Mutual Friend
El Angel y los Volcánicos - La triste historia de Jane Miranda
This Heat - The Fall of Saigon

Carmen's favourites.

1. Eiti Leda - Charly Garcia.
2. Heroin - Velvet Underground.
3. Mañana en el abasto - Sumo
4. Hip Priest - The Fall
5. Ghost Rider - Suicide
6. O Superman - Laurie Anderson
7. Running Scared - Roy Orbison.
8. Past, Present And Future - The Shangri-Las 
9. The fairest of the Seasons - Nico
10. Rise - PIL


The Basement: Which band or artists would you consider as your main influences?
Tomás: The Velvet Underground, The Fall, Coil, Suicide, Silver Apples, Captain Beefheart, Nico, Psychic TV, Einstürzende Neubauten, Black Sabbath, Charlemagne Palestine, Alvin Lucier.

Carmen: The Velvet Underground. Throbbing Gristle. Suicide. Joy Division. Laurie Anderson. Silver Apples.


The Basement: Over the last 6 years, our country, Greece has been struck by an unbearable economic crisis. Same thing happened to your country about 15 years ago. What are your memories of back then? How did the years of “Great Depression” affect your lives afterwards? What would you advise us?
Tomas: It was indeed very similar. I have the impression that events like this are rehearsed in the periphery and then performed closer to the center. What can I say? Fifteen years later in Argentina the people voted the same politicians that triggered the crisis so it`s very depressing. I can only ask you not to forget, because in Argentina people forgot and it`s governed by the same fuckers now.I watched the Greek crisis very close. I felt that the UE betrayed their principles by backing the financial institutions which provoked the crisis instead of backing the countries that suffered the most, like Greece.The logical and the only positive outcome of this disaster would be a democratization of the UE, and to use the common force to resist the super powers of the financial institutions and the United States, Russia and China to prevent that to happen again.Instead we got a fragmented Europe, a fall into petty nationalisms and ethnics identities.The ones weaving the national flags are the totalitarian right. The outcome of totalitarian far right governments with the current technological advances in surveillance is terrifying. And don`t forget the atomic bomb and the ecological crisis.I feel that very dark times are approaching.

The Basement: Thanks so very much guys! We wish you the best!  

 

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