Brothers till we die is a young spanish hardcoreband which really took me with storm. I interviewed them in the beginning of july 2015

Please tell me a little bit history of the group?

-Brothers Till We Die has its origin in april 2012 and we began doing gigs in Madrid (Spain) our city, with just a 3 songs demo. In the summer of 2013 we had recorded our first EP called “Ars Longa Vita Brevis” which defined a little bit more our style of music, it helped us to being known by a lot of people around Spain and allowed us to play live outside Madrid. Our second work called “We Will Never Grow Up” went out in December 2014, with good reviews and reception we got to go all around Spain and defined more our style, which we’d define like a mixture of modern Hardcore, Metalcore and Beatdown.

Please tell me a little about every member in the group right now, age, family, work, interests and something bad about everyone? Earlier bands?

-In the band we are Pablo Martín, from Spain, is our drummer, he is 19 years old and studies psychology. Riccardo Calabrò, from Italy, is our bassist, he’s 19 and is going to study cinema. Mario Vian, from Spain, is our first guitarist, he’s 21 and studies physiotherapy. Edu Barber, from Spain, is our second guitarist, he’s 21 and studies sound engineering and music. Felipe Alemán, from Colombia, is our vocalist, he’s 22 and studies medicine. All of us have had earlier bands but nothing serious like Brothers Till We Die.

I can hear much of old American hardcore and some bit of death metal in your music? Am I right? Favorites from the past?

-Well, yes, we are inspired from a lot of bands from different styles of hardcore, metalcore and beatdown, like Expire, Stick To Your Guns, Lionheart, Malevolence… but always searching for our own style so is not strange to find a bit of death in our songs like in the end of “…But the princess is in another castle”. We have a lot of favorites band from the past, for example we love Have Heart, but there are a lot of bands of others style too.

Brothers till we die are you satisfied with the name? How did it came up? Which is the best bandname you know?

-Yea we love it, we think it represents perfectly our philosophy as a band and friends. It came up in 2012 when we had to search a drummer and we didn’t had a name yet, so we took this name from a verse of the song “Scared of the light” of Your Demise, a hardcore band now inactive that we used to love and we still do. The best band name I can think of now is Malevolence, just listen to any song of this guys from UK and you’ll know why I love it.

What´s the best thing with playing live?

-Everything. In stage is where you can show, face to face, the 100% of what your music truly is. Playing your music in front of a bunch of people makes you feel so good, it doesn’t matter if there are 20 people, 200 or 1000, we always give everything to the public and they always give everything to us. Playing live is the best thing we do and the one that keep us alive as a band.

And where is best to play? And the worst place?

-We love playing in concert halls, so we are always close to the people and we can go off the stage and the people can jump from the stage, we also have a lot of choirs so we need to keep close to the public so they can sing them. We have played in a lot of different good and bad places, so the place we play is not a problem for us, but we hate places with little stages because we move a lot, and I mean, a lot.

How is to play this sort of music in Spain right now? Which types of bands do you have concerts together with?

-It’s clear for everyone that this kind of extreme music it's a very minority genre, but the ones who like it live it passion. And that's what happens on our shows and that's what we love to transmit. We've played with lots of bands on every corner of our country just like Wildernes (Barcelona), Thirteen Bled Promises (Madrid), A Promise to the Fallen (Murcia), Skill To Kill (Valencia), Greeve (Galicia), etc

How would you describe your music in three words?

-Heart Music Family

What does punk mean to you, is it only a word or is it a lifestyle?

-Our music owes punk that revolutionary way to make things, it was a breakdown in the traditional way of life. We think that thanks to punk, hardcore has learned to say no if things are not fair, it is a lifestyle to so much people and we respect that. 

How do you see on downloading, mp3 and that stuff?

-As a young band, we think that downloading makes possible to people all around the world to listen to our songs. We have all our music avaiable on youtube or bandcamp for free so they can download everything and support us.

How is it to live in Spain now? Politically?

-We’re on bad times now, there is a government that makes unfair laws just to make their friends rich. There is now a new party that is trying to change this, made by people who don’t belong to the traditional politics, but that are normal people who want to get things right.

Is there any good bands from Spain now? Is the punkscene big? How is it in your hometown?

-There are so many good bands in Spain, punk bands like SKA-P, Escorbuto or Piperrak are some of the biggest bands in the punk scene, they can travel around the world playing, and that is sick!

What do you know about Sweden?

-I (Felipe) had the pleasure to travel to Sweden last summer and I love the country, people is really nice, food is really nice, there are lovely cities and girls are really pretty, it’s like paradise!

Have you heard any good bands from Sweden?

-We love Refused (we’re gonna play with them at Resurrection Fest) and Raised Fist are really cool too!

Your lyrics, who does them and what influences you? Why not in Spanish? Is it so it feels We will never grow up?

-Felipe writes all the lyrics, he gets the influence by friends, family or ourselves. Problems that normal people get in their life’s so most of them are made to get people close to the band, so they see that we understand what they feel. We chosed English cause it easier to understand if someone who doesn’t speak Spanish listens to our songs. We want people to understand lyrics, so English is our key to achieve that. We will never grow up means that we’re learning so many good thinks these years, about friendship, love, family, and sometimes growing up destroys all the good things that you made when you were young just because society says so, we will never renounce to all the good things we promised these days.

Is there any subject that you never will write anything about?

-I don’t like to write those deeply metaphorical lyrics you find in some bands, that are so hard to understand that you never really get their meaning. Maybe their speaking about sadness but write some shit about the dark ocean in the night with underwater crows, what the fuck dude. we use easy language.

Politic and music, does it goes hand in hand? Which is your most political song?

-Politics and music goes hand in hand, of course. There are so many bands that use their music to spread a political thought. We do not write about politics, because we think everyone got to get respected but what they think as long as it is based in loving each other. Maybe or most political song is “nowadays”, where we talked about all the riots that Spain suffered because of all that people who lost their homes because of the government helping the banks instead of the people.

Best political band/artist?

-Pink Floyd, always.

Do you think that music(lyrics and so on) can change anyones life, I mean people who listens to music?

-Yeah of course, Thats what I want to believe and the my best example it's me. Music it's the best way to feel and understand life questions for me it's a lenguaje of the heart and mind I used it for everything every sound has it's meaning and if you have a powerful imagination the music on your head can be the best place to stay in a bad situation.

Your cover on your CD looks really nice, is it important to have a record cover which shows people which type of music you play? Your favorite recordcover? Who does your covers…

-The truth is we're very happy with our cover it was made by our beloved friend from Galicia Xabier Barreiro Álvarez who is getting better everyday, he also sings in a highly recomended deathcore band called Above The Seas. And of course we think is important to have a good first impression by seeing a cover that doesn't leaves you indifferent and catches your attention.One of my favourites covers could be the one from The Eyes Of A Traitor – A Clear Perception I always stare at it and makes me think and frees my imagination just as their music (Edu - Guitar talking)

Is it important to get out physical records of your stuff? Why or why not? Label??

-It’s important because there are so many people that wants to buy physical records. However we put all our music on internet free, because we want to be listen by all people that we can.

We are not in a label, but we would like it. We think that this would be a big help to promote our music.

Please tell me a funny thing which have happened during your career and under some gig?

-In one of our gigs in Madrid, we sang “ happy birthday” with all the crowd to our Belgium friend Elias (We love you man).

How does your audience look like? Which people do you miss on your concerts? Which is the biggest band you ever have played together with?

-Our audience could be from very different styles sometimes can be just kids discovering this music or maybe guys from others genres that start to give it a try. And well their looks mostly depend on their musical taste I mean you can see hardcore kids, metalheads or maybe just normal people it depends on the event. Obviously we miss our friends if we're playing far and they couldn't reach us they have always been and will be an important pillar of the band. I'd say that would be the legendary Madball it was really an honor to share the stage which such amazing musicians.

Please rank your five favoriterecords, five favoriteconcerts and five most important things in life?

Edu-   BringMeTheHorizon Suicide Season    Rage Against The Machine Rock In Rio Madrid                      Do what you love                

Felipe- The Dark side of the moon- Pink Floyd.    Roger Waters The Wall live tour

My family

Mario-  The Ghost Inside-Returners   Malevolence-Desolated, Stick to your guns…friends

Pablo- Stick to Your Guns- Diamond         Metallica Rock in Rio Madrid                                       Friends, Family, Band.

Riccardo- Nirvana – In Utero          Desolated                 Art

Is it boring with interviews? Is it much interviews??

-It depends on who makes the interview sometimes there's just the same generic questions you may feel like a robot but there are others when you see the interest on the band and you can speak about things you like to share and it's a good experience.

If you could choose five bands from the past and the history and nowadays

and both dead and living bands to have a concert together with your band. Which five have you been chosed?

-I choose Nirvana because is a band that I love since I was very young. Your Demise because was one of the first bands that I listened of this genre. The Ghost Inside because is a very loved band of all the members of BTWD. For Today because is the favourite core band of our singer. We would like to play with Nasty, a very big beatdown band in Europe and USA.

Is music a good way to get out frustration and become a nice person outside the music??

-Music makes you feel alive and full of energy. It’s a good way to express feelings and emotions. It’s like a therapy when you feel down, a good way to scape. Also, I think that having a band and travel to different places, know different people and talk with them, make you feel better and have a different point of view about your problems.

Which is the most odd question you ever have got in an interview?

-I remember an interview last year where they asked us to talk about spanish bands we hate or we don't recommend their music and it was such a difficult question because we think that this kind of answers are personal and doesn't really matter to the people.

Which is the question you want to have but you never get. Please ask it and answer it?

-Will you be able to participate in this edition of Warped Tour? – SIR YES SIR.

Futureplans for the band?

-Actually we are composing new songs and we'd like to release them as early as possible. We would also love touring outside Spain for the first time as a band and reaching as many people as possible. We really love sharing and playing our music in as many places as possible too. We don't have in mind to stop moving for now and we just want to have fun and have a great time together, and to make people have a good time watching or listening to our music!

For yourself?

-We are all studying at the university right now so we are just wishing to finish or careers and continue rocking with the band. We just want to continue doing what we love.

Wisdomword?

-Friendship.

Something to add?

-Thank you Skrutt Magazine and specially Peter for giving us the chance for being interviewed here today. Hope you all liked it and if you are more interested in us, feel free to listen and downloading our music for free via https://brotherstillwedie.bandcamp.com/  or contact us via facebook/brotherstillwedie or Twitter @BTWD_band. Peace!