How is this new tour goin’?

Jorge : I think it’s going great man! It’s a tour you know, but to me it’s more like a showcase because we don’t really want to tour. We wanted to do real tours with new songs but I came out to show everybody my new guys because these are my permanent band members now. I mean, you guys remember I came around with Gook on bass and all these different line-up changes. I could really never find people who really wanted to put into it as much as they get out of it you know? These guys now are workers and this is Merauder - Darian, Drew, Tony and Anthony. We have two guitar players again, two original guys so... I don’t think the format of Merauder is really gonna change much. It’s just gonna be better because there’s new chemistry with them. With Anthony that was like most of Merauder right there but with these guys it’s just gonna be brutal. So, We’re back with different guys in the band but Anthony’s back in the band. We’re back!

But Anthony is apparently not on tour with you?

Jorge : He had some paperwork to do regarding his passport before he could fly but he’s finished it now. So once we get back everything should be all taken care of. He’s just writing right now.

You were supposed to come in Europe last year but you guys didn’t make it. Why was this?

Jorge : Same reason. The band weren’t committed and it was time to do something. There was too much hassle and I can’t chase people around. When you’ve got things to do, you do them you know?

So can you maybe introduce us to your new band members, or introduce yourself one by one?

Tony : I’m Tony. I was formally Darksilence and I got the pleasure of joining Merauder. I hope it works out good! This tour is going alright…we’re having a lot of fun, playing good shows.

Drew : My name’s Drew, I play bass. I used to play in One Nation and Unbalance with Darian. My old band played with Merauder ten years ago, now I got the honour to be playing in the band. I’m very excited to be playing in Merauder. I’m really happy and I think everything’s going really well.

Darian : My name’s Darian, I used to play with Drew in Unbalance. It’s an honour to play with Jorge. I was a big fan 15 years ago when they came out and now he’s just here next to me! We’re all looking forward to recording a new heavy record.

Jorge : Heavy? We’re gonna put rock in the CD! (Laugh)
No seriously, I could have easily given up with music. I have two children and not many people who have kids continue to play in a band you know? It’s very difficult, but I have a lot of confidence and I see a big future with these guys so I can’t walk away. I gotta keep doing this. I feel that we still got what we deserve but the other side of that is we haven’t really put out as much stuff as we should have. We’ve been around for a long time and we had 4/5 years we played with empty pocket’s…but it’s not gonna be like that anymore. Everything happens for a reason and maybe that’s why we’re here now, so hopefully it’ll all go good.

2 years ago you told us that you wanted to release a new record or a split with 100 Demons but it never happened… Was that for same reasons?

Jorge : Exactly! It’s down to just not having steady people in the band. I just can’t do things where people come in and out. Merauder’s not like a revolving door. I don’t want to be that kind of band but unfortunately it has happened but then again you go through people to find people. That was the big problem with Merauder. At the begining we signed a really bad contract with Century Media but afterwards we got a little smarter. We were like "We gotta do something about this" so we didn’t to keep pruducing under this contract and got off Century Media. We do our own thing now. We have no label, no back, we’re on tour on ourselves. I’m pretty positive we’ll get something though. We don’t need Century Media or anything like that, there are many labels out there. Rachel Martinez, our manager, she’s the best man! She’s a big part of why we’re on tour today. I mean I can’t take all the responsibilities of doing this. It’s hard for us to do everything, to be musicians and business people when we just want to write. So we needed somebody who’s a good manager and she’s the best. She was the manger for Pissing Razors from El Paso in Texas a while back and…Rachel Martinez is the best!

Do you have a plan of releasing a record this year, or will it be next year?

Drew : It should be at the end of this year. When we get back from this European tour we’re gonna start writing some stuff. We have songs already written but we’ll finish it up and try and get it out by the end of this year. Hopefully.

How many songs do you have already?

Drew : We got 2 or 3 written that need a little bit of work here and there.

There was 2 re-issues recently for "Master Killer" on vinyl and also a double CD with all 3 records...

Drew : Yeah the vinyl is sold-out already!
Jorge : You know that vinyl that came out? I didn’t even get one! They didn’t send me nothing. I’m re-releasing, with my friend Patrick Kissel at Reaper Records, “Master Killer” on vinyl with a different cover. I can show you later the artwork later on computer but it’s the Merauder "Master Killer" guy standing on the Brooklyn Bridge and every metal mascot are all there with him on the bridge! Megadeth’s, Anthrax’s, Iron Maiden’s, Ozzy’s, Quiet Riot’s...

They’re all there in the bridge. We’re just trying to make a statement you know? It’s just an album cover for the new "Master Killer" but this it has a meaning of its own. It’s basically just to show that we’re coming back and we’re coming back hard. We want people to think – "What’s the Merauder shit? " and then "BAM! " (Jorge shooting with a plastic gun)(Laugh).
Jorge talking about his gun : I got this because I don’t trust the Germans (Laugh).

A few month ago you uploaded on your website a video of Merauder covering "Back With A Bang" by Skrewdriver. Ian Stuart, the singer was a lot into Nazi shit...Why did you cover that song?

Jorge : At the begining Skrewdriver were not nazis, they were a punk band. Unfortunately something happened to him on the street, he got beat up by Turkish guys and his ideas has changed. If anybody knows me, my nationality, who I am, I like to joke all around with that. My life has been a lot of pain and sorrow so when I’m on stage I don’t want to be an depressing motherfucker. I just want to have fun and shit. I like to get a rise out of people, I like to shock people. I like people to think I’m a crazy motherfucker. (Laugh)
I mean seriously the whole point of this is that if you can see it’s a joke and you can smile at this that means you’re stronger and better than these people. I explain it on stage but sometimes I don’t feel like I have to. We’re hardcore band. I’m Puerto Rican and I got black, Spanish and Indian in my family and we joke around. It’s just a big joke and we can laugh at because racism doesn’t stop us from being who we are and to me it makes me stronger. To me racism is very small, to me it’s bullshit, so for me to do the Skrewdriver cover and people laugh at it and joke about it, to me it’s a good thing. I break the barriers, I break the whole concept and people laugh at it. I make this thing which is very big to people a small thing. You laugh at these motherfuckers, its bullshit, it’s ridiculous, really! It’s just the chorus of the song we just wanted to use, as joke with Merauder fans just tryin’ to say that we’re back! We’re back with a bang! It’s just a joke man and people got to learn how to rise above this. Like in New York everybody knows, a nigger. The word “nigger” has no meaning. Chinese and white kids use it a lot. Look at me, I’m Puerto Rican but I’m very white but my whole childhood my father called me "Negrito", which means "little nigger". But that’s affection, that’s love. In Puerto Rico, no matter colour you are, you’re black! We cherish our roots, we break that! Even gay people called themselves queers, fags... it has no more meaning, we killed the stereotype.

I think a few people were shocked with this cover, because in Europe the scars from the 2nd World War are still opened, that’s a strong part of our history...

Jorge : We’ve got Nazi’s back home too, you know? If you really see the places where we’ve played then you’ll see that we play the places people told us not to. The places people warned us about. We played it in Berlin, Dresden... you know places with alot of skinhead history. I do crazy shit you know? Anybody who’s ever been on tour with us knows how we are. We do alot of crazy shit. It could be worse because I could be doing someone physically crazy. I just do it for this exact reason because now you’re asking me "Why ?". It’s just a joke though and you can’t get offended by it. You have to be stronger than these people. If you can hear these songs and laugh at them then you take away the power. That’s how it works.

Still about cover songs, have you heard the one done by Heaven Shall Burn for "Downfall Of Christ"?

Jorge : Yeah I’ve heard it. I was pretty upset you know because they played a festival with us a couple of years ago… Pressure Fest. They don’t do that song live but one of the guys in the band asked me if it was ok if they did. I don’t fucking care though! Do it backwards if you want! I don’t care. I don’t take offence to anyone who plays my music. Never! To me is an honour! It doesn’t make me feel like they’ve stolen my style, it makes me feel like I created a style. I don’t make money from this, my reward is seeing kids have a good time and seeing bands try to do what we do, that’s my reward. I’m like "Oh shit I started something. I’ve got a following, I’ve got a cult". It’s good to have people by your side. It’s an honour when people try to be like you. I don’t know why they want to be like me though ! I’f they only knew.(Laugh) I love it! I’m glad they did it. I wish I met them but I didn’t get the chance. I was honoured...

At Hammerock – Spiritribe, we actually make somehting which could be seen as a Tribute to Sob, asking hardcore Ogs a funny story happened with him. It was impossible for us not to ask you the question...

Jorge : Oh man I’ve got too many fucking stories ! Wow man, SOB was a crazy motherfucker. SOB was just one unique individual. I know him better than anyone else. People may comment and ever only saw one side of him but I knew SOB. He was a very difficult person and very hard to deal with. If you didn’t know him then he’d be like ‘Who the fuck are you ?’. He had a very old school attitude. But he had a heart though. If you could get close to him and really knew how to get inside him then you’d see he had a big heart. SOB would never let anything happen to anybody. Sometimes stupid things would happen like I’d ask him not to smoke all my weed then I come back and he smoked all my fucking weed ! (Laugh) You want a good story ? SOB and I in the Dynamo. Some girl gave us a little jar of honey and some mushrooms. She said to only take a little bit but me and SOB ate them all day with our fingers. Later that day we were hanging out with Stuck Mojo who I think were on tour with Neurosis. A few of the guys said the dudes in Neurosis didn’t treat them very good. You know, they’d talk alot and make fun of their music. So while listening to this me and SOB are tripping. So we walk over to the guys Neurosis and are like ‘You know my friends motherfucker ?!’ I don’t like this. If you don’t have anything good to say then don’t say it. They’re a working band too. Not every music is for everybody. Not everybody likes Neurosis or Stuck Mojo or Merauder or Madball or Hatebreed. Different strokes for different folks. Too fucking bad. They were on tour with them. I’m not a big fan of them either. Some songs I like and some songs I don’t but as people they’re great dudes, great fucking guys. When you have a great friendship music doesn’t matter. Fuck Neurosis, I’ll kick the shit out of all of them myself. You don’t do that to people! They just got a big rock star attitude, but they got to remember where they came from too, They gotta remember they used to play with 5-10 kids too. Anyway, me and SOB were basically gonna take the situation in our hands. He was just crazy. Everywhere we went in England we got into a fight because SOB beat up a nazi on a bus. He took all his money for hash so he beat him. I go to another heavy metal club and see SOB beating up a guy with long hair. Everywhere we went. That was SOB, he was my boy. No matter what he was my boy.

You did a lot of stuff as guest with Candiria, The Promise, Skarhead... Did you do some more?

Jorge : I did a couple of things with Brick By Brick from Albany, NY, really good band, check’em out! I did a couple of tracks with Golpe Justo from Puerto Rico, very old school hardcore band, very heavy, they’re like the AF of Puerto Rico, they’ve been around for a very long time and they still play, they’re my brothers, I did a few songs with them. And I’ve did some other stuff here and there too. I don’t really do stuff with big bands, I’m not looking to help big bands, I’m always looking to help out smaller bands. I had a side project called God Is I with Scott from Path Of Resistance and with guys from Skarhead, it was coming good at some point but Scott went on tour with Path Of Resistance and we never heard from him again. So I was like "Fuck off! You wanna use the songs then use them but give me back my lyrics." That didn’t work. Merauder is my heart and soul, I can’t do anything else.

And Rob from Will To Live told me that you were supposed to do a song with them?

Jorge : Well I’ve not done it yet. We had a show booked in Texas and it was our second time trying to play there. It fell apart though. Apparently the promoter was in hospital but it sounds like bullshit to me. He owes us money. We were ready to fly out 2 days before and the next thing we know he cancelled. That was the second time. So I never got the chance to go and do anything with Will To Live. Mabye we’ll get to do something eventually, maybe they could send me something... I’m starting my own production company though, it’s called Por Vida Productions. There’s too much crap and bullshit going on and bands suffer for it. I’m booking my own shows now. I got my first one coming up in november with Obituary, Merauder, Ringworm, Brick By Brick, Murders Row..., that’s the first night and I’m working on the 2nd night... Maybe God Forbid as well. So I’m doing my own shit now. You know what? Maybe I’ll go to Texas and book my own show there and then I’ll do the Will To Live (Laugh). I have to, I’m 38 years old and I feel like I can put another 10 years into this. I don’t want to go out as just a musician, I wanna be involved. I wanna have my own festival with my manager Rachel and my driver Jay who ‘s Dutch is gonna help us too. We don’t know what we’re going to do, we have futur plans, maybe a festival, a 1 or 2 day festival or a travelling festival, maybe the "Master Killer Fest". I dunno... I have future plans, things are gonna happen. I want a company run by people involved in the scene. Rachel and Jay have worked on both sides of the field. We want a family company where bands can come without all the fighting bullshit. We understand! Some promoters don’t understand because they’ve never played in a band before. We do! We’re gonna start out with hardcore and metalcore bands and maybe punk. I love all types of music. I don’t understand kids who only go to hardcore shows and kids who only go to metal shows because it’s the same shit man! We all have to work together you know? Like 7 Seconds said "If we can walk together then we can talk together." Everybody, metal, hardcore or punk. One big fucking show. Why not ? The world is getting better as technology wise but peoples minds are going backwards. We want to get everyone together, underground bands or big metal bands.
What about your other projects. You already talked a bit about God Is I...
God Is I is done... I’m doing a hip hop project though called Satata. That was my nickname as a kid because that’s the only word I knew how to say!(Laugh) I’m working with DJ Shock from Japan and I have some beats also given to me by Marshall Law. He gave me some tracks and I’m still working on it. Mabye I’ll do something with the Schooly Boys from Holland. They’re real crazy. I’ll have something out. I stopped for 6-7 months cos of Merauder but when I get back I’ll probably put some stuff up on myspace or something.

And with Rag Men?

Jorge : Dunno...Talk to Mitts! (Laugh)
But you know he’s busy with Madball. A lot of people like Ragmen, I had a lot of expectations for that band. That record meant a lot to me. It was a period of my life where I was going through some shit and those lyrics reflected that. I really felt that record. It was hard for me to sing them on stage. It was deep. It was a great band you know, but it was a side project. Maybe one day we’ll get a show together again. I can’t do it alone and I can’t do it without Mitts. As of now I don’t know...

Maybe Madball will stop 1 or 2 years because since they’re back, they haven’t stopped...

Jorge : I wish we could do that. I have to build this band now though. This band, we got a reputation from so little and I’m grateful but I don’t feel like I really deserve a lot of the love we get. I respect that, but I really feel like I have to do more, to prove myself.

According to me, Merauder and All Out War have a lot in common, for me both bands are what the real metalcore is about...

Jorge : All Out War is from an original Merauder member. That guy who wrote "Final War". My boy Chris (Chisholm), he started All Out War! So he continued his style which is in offshoot of Merauder. That’s why there’s alot of similarity. They do it better than a lot of other people. They’re more metal then metalcore to me, very metal! Same as Merauder, we’re very metal too and our next record will be more metal. Not like 80’s metal but it will be formatted like that. Not just verse, chorus, & breakdown. It’s gona be more music, more guitar. I want people to see we’re talented. We want people to see we progressed but never forgot our roots. We’re not just underground and we don’t need hair to be metal. I was a skinhead, then had long hair, then cut it because of that. I wanted to be metal but not typical metal. I like to always be different, original and do my own thing, my own style...

I think there’s a difference between Merauder on records and Merauder on stage. You sound definatly more metal on records and more like a typical NYHC band on stage...

Jorge : That ‘s the thing about us. That’s why we didn’t need the hair. People hear the record and they think something but that’s not the way we are, and they don’t know we came from the hardcore scene. That’s what we do. It’s a metal band with a hardcore attitude. Hardcore stage presence I guess. I think when you’re on stage you need to look like you’re having a good time at least. I have a good time. If it was just a business then I’d stand still but I go crazy. I see kids going crazy and I feed off them. It’s like the energy, the more I get the more I give back! But I think, bands should be always energetic on stage... When you watch MTV and see pop punk bands... they go fucking crazy !
We’re just a metal band man. We’re whatever anybody wants to call us. Call us what you want.

So, have you heard All Out War's new record "Assassins In The House Of God"?

Jorge : I’ve heard a couple of songs but not the whole record.

Drew : My boy Jimmy is on that record, he’s the new guitar player.

Jorge : Mike Score, I remember back in the day everybody thought he was straight edge cos he had bleach blonde hair. Straight Edge? But he’s just getting drunk right now! (Laugh) But he had that look and alot of kids became straight edge thinking he was straight edge. That was crazy! (Laugh)

Jorge, We can see you often on the web, especially on myspace or even on Danny Diablo’s "Livin’ By The Gun" video clip with your son... Is it a way to show him what hardcore is about?

Jorge : Yeah he’s crying in that fuckin’ video! (Laugh)
Well, I think he knows already man. I think my kids are gonna love music regardless. My wife and I play a lot of music in the house : Sabbath, Maiden, Agnostic Front, Negative Approach… all of it. I don’t want them to be caught up like anybody else in one style of music. Don’t know what they gona do in the future but I want them to know as much music they can. I want them to know as far back as they can go musically so they can be better than everyone else and enjoy music. Everybodys afraid to be themselves today. It’s your life. When you die you’re gonna be by yourself so why care what people think ? I want my kids to be themselves as long as they know music, the real pioneers, before Merauder...

So your plans for the next month after the tour? Writing I guess?

Jorge : We’ve got a few shows, writing… get a job! (Laugh) I’m just gonna basically work on my production company, work on the band and work on the new record. We’re just gonna do what be gotta do, tryin’ to get this to a new level, be the best that we can be and be more than what we ever were before. If people are gonna talk good about Merauder then we want it to be for a good reason. Not just because of 3 records. I want to put out at least 5 or6 more records in the next decade. We’ll see what happens. Then I won’t have to work... (Laugh)

Interview Manu & O.S
Translation Coleen Nimmo