Hailing from Mexico, Virus Hardcore are heavily inspired by the bands and music of their country as well as American punk rock and they have managed to fuse their inspirations together into their own flavour of music. The quartet joined Aggy Gillon for a chat ahead of their debut Rebellion Festival show on the RIS stage.
How does it feel to be here and playing your first Rebellion festival?
Ermax: For us it is a dream come true. We have been playing for sixteen years and this is a great opportunity for us.
How did you get involved with Rebellion?
Ermax: We sent our songs and we were the winner of this contest so here we are!
Excellent! Have you played the UK before?
Ermax: No, this is our first time. It’s awesome! Everything for us is great. We have been chilling around and everything is beautiful. The people are great.
Yeah, Blackpool is quite an interesting place as well. No where else in the UK is quite like it! So, are you all from Mexico?
Ermax: Yeah. It was a long trip to get here.
So, you have been together for about sixteen years, is that right? What was the idea and inspiration behind forming Virus Hardcore?
Ermax: We love music, especially punk rock, which is our biggest influence. We started to learn and play instruments and then we began to play music together.
Can you tell me about the releases you have out at the minute?
Ermax: Yeah, we have four albums. The most recent one we brought here and to play here is self titled. Our first album was released in 2012. Then our second was 2014 followed by an EP called Pesadilla.
Is it just the EP that is available on Spotify?
Ermax: Yeah just the EP at the moment.
So what’s the process for you guys when it comes to writing songs and music? Do you all come together for it or are there some of you who are more involved than others?
Ermax: I think that we fix all the ideas and make the music.We write songs and we start to compose music together.
How do you guys prepare yourselves and get revved up to get on stage?
Ermax: Just before we chill out. Maybe we have a beer and some drinks and then we go to the show.
I always find its worth asking as sometimes people can do something weird like blast Elton John *laughs*
Ermax: *Laughs* No, we don’t have anything like that…yet *laughs*.
So what’s the dream for Virus Hardcore?
Ermax: Well our dream…That’s a good question. I think we will like to be playing as long as we can. As much as possible and have many albums. Here we are right now at Rebellion in the UK and we are aiming to go to more places. This is the place to be but we want more.
Will you guys come back to Rebellion?
All in unison: Yeah!
Malena: We hope!
Ermax: If we get invited back we will be here.
Is this the original line-up? Just wondering as you guys have been going for some time.
Ermax: No, there was another person in the band but they recently left. This line-up has been going since this year.
For those reading this article who have maybe not heard your music yet, how would you describe your sound?
Malena: Oh, I don’t know how to say it…We call it punk rock of the street. I like various styles of music: punk, metal, rock, mexican rock. We make a mix of those genres.
That’s cool. Like your own flavour of punk rock.
Ermax: Yeah, our own flavour and mix it up. Like she said and we call it street rock n roll. Something like that.
Have you got anything you would like to say to your fans?
Ermax: We would like to say to everyone outside of Mexico, thank you. Thank you to Rebellion for having us. Thank you everyone and you so much to you too for the support!
Are there any other bands playing this weekend you are looking forward to seeing?
Ermax: We expect tonight to see GBH. We want to see anyone, everything. The music is great to us! It’s our very first time here so everything is new for us and it’s awesome.
Interview And Photos By Aggy Gillon