Jipis Atomicos is a really good Spanish band
which sent me some records. They play punk in a
nice way and they do for example a Screeching
Weasel-song in spanish. February 2023
Please tell me a little about every member and
the history of the band? Age, work, bands
before?
Moncho- Peter (Drums) Around 50, he works in a
sewage treatment plant and could record an
Horror film every day. You can find his traces
in rockabilly, country, or speed punk bands.
Miguel, or we must say Dr. Miguel, he’s in his
40s. Physicist and University Teacher. He plays
guitar in 3 bands at the same time (Nitropollo/Culandra/Jipis)
and he even finds time to run a YouTube channel
with classical guitar performances. Moncho 53.
Part-time administrative. I do a lot of things,
most of them not enough good, obviously, who
cares. We joined together as a band just before
the COVID, and after different bands in our past
as Ketchoop, Carton Killer, Molokoplus, A palo
Seko, Reina Roja...we finally realized that we
were 3 individuals with different points of view
both musically and mentally, and decided to
enjoy everything and never force the others to
change. This is the band concept.
Your music is a style which is really own, you
take influences from many different punk styles
I think?
Miguel- Yes, not only from different punk
styles, but also from different styles of music
other than punk.
The name Jipis Atomicos where did it came from?
What do you mean with it…You weren´t afraid that
someone else have named a band like this?
Moncho- Actually, the name appeared by chance. A
friend of us made a joke about my usual comments
against human behavior and pro-mass
destruction... so, one day I wrote something
positive, somebody asked “Are you a hippy now?”,
my friend picked with that the perfect name…
Jipis Atómicos (Atomic hippies). I don’t think
anybody could make such a silly and stupid joke
to steal our name... However, we’ve thought the
same in our old band “Ketchoop”, a stupid name
too, but after some years working as a band, a
one-hit-wonder girls band appeared with the same
name and hit nº1 in the charts.
Is it important to release physical things? Or
can you feel that you have done a record if you
only release it digitally?
Miguel- Well, the physical thing has got
something to it. Even though people hardly use
CDs or discs to listen to music… you know, it
means something to have your album, with cover,
inlays and all. Also, as mature punk rockers I
guess we are as fueled by nostalgia as anyone,
and the physical thing takes you to that
romanticized past where we were skinny and good
looking.
You have never been to Sweden and played or been
here as tourists? If you not have when do you
come?
Moncho- Unfortunately I wasn’t for the moment, I
use to travel a lot, but a lot of random events
avoid me to visit Sweden.
Which countries have had the pleasure to be
hearing the band live?
Miguel- For the time being, only Spain, I am
afraid.
Moncho- With Ketchoop, Miguel and I made a funny
tour through France, Netherlands, Belgium and
Germany. We were younger, we didn’t care about
time, money or sleep in filthy
places....but...hey, we could do it again.
Miguel – But with money and comfy accomodation
this time, please.
When you do songs, how do you do, are you
jamming together or do someone comes with a
lyric and some with the music or how do you do
your songs?
Moncho- Every song has its own story… sometime
it is a joke in the practice room that turns
into a song, but most are prepared at home, I
have more time for that, and for the moment my
neighbors are not complaining about my screams
in front of my PC
You do a Screeching Weasel cover on Paz amor
plutonio, why in Spanish? Do you do any more
covers?
Miguel- I guess we make it more ours by singing
it in Spanish; also we add some added value to
the song by that. Considering the rest of the
songs are in Spanish… it makes all sense to me.
Moncho- When we started we played a cover of
Sofa head, I love that band, but we’ve decided
to sing in Spanish and we abandoned the idea.
Please tell me a little about the following
lyrics….and who wrote it and why?
Moncho- These lyrics are wroten by me:
Paraguas…well,
I’m relative tall for the Spanish size…it’s
usual to be attacked for elderly small people
with his umbrellas scratching your eyes in the
rainy days…this is a prayer to achieve the end
of this practice.
-Mendrugos…Right
wing and fascist are everywhere, in Spain the
thing is especially pathetic, with poor workers,
thinking they’re bourgeois.
-Infierno…it’s
a simple lyric speaking against religion and
specially the fake term of compassion (that use
to be the door through which every excuse is
accepted)
How is it to live in Spain nowadays, racists,
politics,covid, etc?
Miguel- It is as it has always been: churros for
breakfast, paella for lunch and sangria in the
evening. Now, in a more serious tone, here the
political far right has been on the rise lately
and people are quite polarized. We still have
racists, but things are improving I guess, now
that we have had immigration from quite a long
time. In terms of COVID, it almost looks like a
bad dream from last night now.
Are you calling yourself a punkband, oiband,
hardcoreband or what do you call your style??
What is your thoughts about punk when you
started and if you compare with punk today?
Moncho- Not really. In our different bands we’ve
been always in the border between styles, and
this means too punk for HC, too HC for punk…
same integrism same short sighted people. Today
is more or less the same, but worst, because we
have new enemies: tribute bands, and 55th
anniversaries tours of bands that only have a
name.
Do you have any favorite football team(I support
Arsenal(England) and a Swedish team called GAIS
myself)? Or do you don´t care about football?
Miguel- Moncho always said he was a Valencia C.F
supporter, but I don’t know how real is that.
Peter supports Atlético de Madrid and I don’t
really watch football very much. A diverse bunch
of middle-aged punkrockers. I guess we all agree
in one thing: we want Real Madrid to lose in all
sports.
Moncho- Football in Spain is pro or against Real
Madrid, the team of the state since
Dictatorship, it’s really funny to mess with
Real Madrid supporters, and sometimes you can
find a smaller team to make it more funny. Some
time ago I was a barman, in my pub I had a big
screen and we met together a lot of people to
celebrate every Real Madrid defeat… from that
time I keep good feelings always against big
teams, especially Real Madrid.
Beer is expensive in Sweden. I have a very big
interest in beer and brew myself? Your favourite
beerstyle ? You don´t have an own Jipis Atomicos-beer?
Or maybe you are straightedge?
Moncho- It seems really crazy to think in a
Jipis Atómicos beer, but is a funny name isn’t?
I love specially IPA beer, but every tap beer in
Czech Republic must be honored… or maybe that
was 15 years ago, now big corporations have
bought every brewery.
Is there any good bands from Spain worth to
mention? And how is the oi/punk/hardcore scene
living on in Spain right now?
Miguel- I do not listen to a lot of new/current
bands, to be honest. There are some I like,
though, as 13 Segundos, Pangea, Bazka (theirs is
“record of the year 2022” IMHO) and some others.
I also like very much NitroPollo and Culandra,
if only because I play there too.
Moncho- Good bands you can always find...to name
a few...Accidente, Build me a bomb, Craneo,
Rageous Intent, unfortunately the gigs and
festivals are always full of old bands playing
with 1 or 2 original members one and
again...capitalism is here too. But a couple of
“fucks” seems to be enough to make people forget
they’ve spent 30 euros to pay for the drugs that
somebody needs.
What is your strength when you play live? What
is the best with playing live?
Moncho- Playing live is the best funny moment in
the world, there’s a connexion with people,
message, ideas…and we’re specially stupids and
love to break all the rules, and do everything
you mustn’t do if you want to be cool, and HC
and punk, and so on
Which type of people comes to your concerts?
Which type of people do you miss?
Miguel- Mostly middle-aged punkrockers, mostly
long-time friends. I obviously miss younger
people (or do I?), but I guess that’s how the
world works.
Do you buy much records, or is it only Spotify
and those type of things to listen to music? Any
good record store?
Moncho- I keep always buying vinyls, but isn’t
something that I consider as really important…
fashion is everywhere, and I find it’s enough
buying alternative stuff, from alternative
labels, and bands.
Are you selling any merch on your gigs, do
people buy it? What sells best?
Miguel- We try to sell stuff, of course: CDs,
shirts… Sometimes, some people buy some things.
Some other times, we sell nothing at all.
Which is your own favoritesong among your own
songs? And which song is the people choice?
Moncho- Maybe my favorite song is “Coetaneos”…
people use to love “Misil” maybe because there’s
a guitar line that people sing as football
hooligans
What´s the biggest difference when you plays
live nowadays if you compare when you first
started to play in a band? Or is this your first
band maybe?
Miguel- It is not our first band, but funnily
Moncho and I played in another band ages ago
called Ketchoop. To me, the differences are we
can afford better gear; we do not feel we need
to prove anything to anyone; we are not in the
urge to imitate anyone; we know we can’t quit
our jobs because of the band.
Do you care about reviews? Which is the most
peculiar you ever had, with this band or any
other band you have been to?
Moncho- I really love reviews when they’re
honest… with this band we collect “influences”
and “sounds like…” maybe because our style isn’t
easy to fix and we hear names that we found
crazy and sometimes bands that we never hear…but
everything is interesting when you make a song
and somebody put there his own thoughts about it
and take part of his time to write about it.
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 chosen?
Miguel- Well… I don’t know. I guess you mean
punk-ish bands, so I’ll go for Bad Religion,
Propagandhi, RKL, Toy Dolls.
Moncho- I’m gonna bet for an all styles gig...Jethro
Tull 70’s, Zero Boys,
Life... but how to live it, Sofa head and
Amy Winehouse
with Jipis Atómicos. Wow!
Is music a good way to get out frustration and
become a nicer person outside the music?
Moncho- That’s interesting…of course something
like music can avoid frustration, but there’s a
bunch of pricks doing music…so to be nicer
doesn’t seem to have a relation here.
You sing in Spanish, why not in english?? Which
is your most political song or do you not want
to put politics into your music?
Miguel- That was my requisite to join the band,
haha. I’ve played in bands singing in English in
the past, but know I feel I don’t like it. To me
it feels like if you have something to say, you
will say it better in your language, plus people
(i.e. the people who will actually listen to
your stuff, your friends) will understand it
much better. Our English is not that good. Our
listeners’ English is not that good, if it
exists at all.
In terms of politics. Many songs have somewhat
political lyrics, in the sense that most of them
are Moncho’s opinions about life.
Moncho- Of course there’s a lot of tricks and
very specifical localisms and jokes that you can
only manage in your mother tongue, I definitely
find more options writing in Spanish and as
Miguel said we realize 20 years later that
people prefer to read the lyrics in Spanish.
Miguel- Plus, it is really easy to improvise
lyrics if you forget the proper ones while
playing live…
Any good Swedish bands you like?
Moncho- Lot of Swedish bands are cool, I’ve
always asking me how a relative small country
can produce a incredible number of fantastic
bands in all the styles, from ABBA to
Hellacopters, Refused, Adhesive, Purusam...
Is it boring with interviews? Is it much
interviews? What do you prefer
Telephoneinterviews, face to face or as this one
via e-mail?
Miguel- The truth is we do not do that many. It
still feels good to me. Makes me feel important
and famous hahaha.
I guess face to face is always better, for
everything in life.
Futureplans for the band?
Moncho- We’re just now planning some gigs to
present and support “Quebranto” and trying to
release it in LP version with the help of a kind
of crowdfunding, that you can check in
https://www.verkami.com/locale/es/projects/34723-jipis-atomicos-quebranto-lpcamiseta
Futureplans for yourself?
Miguel- Try to enjoy life and to be as happy as
humanely possible without causing too much
damage to others.
Wisdomword?
Moncho- Undramatize yourself
Miguel – Wash your hands before eating and after
going to the toilet.
Something more to add?
Miguel- Only 30 questions? Oh, come on, that was easy! Please buy our records and bring us to Sweden.