Interview with Laurent of the French band IMPUREZA that plays Dark Death Metal with Flamenco parts

- Conducted by Kunal N. Choksi

Diabolical Conquest (Kunal N. Choksi): I fail to understand how a band of Impureza's class can remain unsigned. Have you figured out the reason behind this outrageousness?

Impureza (Laurent): Hi. No, not yet. Maybe because we are very bad musicians, or because flamenco is too old fashioned.

Seriously, we are in touch with some labels and negotiations are in progress.

DC: Thank goodness! Not many people know about your band's obscure history. Why don't you tell us about it?

Impureza: Because we are shy. But I'll make an effort. The band had been created in 2004 by Lionelito and me. In 2006, Guillermo joined us for the recording of our second demo “Ruina de la penitencia” and our second guitarist, Rafael joined the Impureza's team in 2007 to record our third and last demo CD “ En el desierto de la creencia”. But I invite you all to know more about our saga through our myspace page (http://www.myspace.com/impureza) where you can find a complete bio and listen to our marvellous music. Ok they are demo versions but the recording of our first full length is planned this fall.

DC: I just booked my full length erection for this fall. What sets Impureza instantly apart from their dark death metal peers are the incorporation of flamenco parts. Whose girlfriend came up with that idea?

Impureza: We are gay so it was a boyfriend. I can't name him cause he is a very famous Death Metal singer and nobody knows his sexual preferment. One day, he came back from a European tour which last venues where in Spain and told us:” why won't you make a brutal flamenco band???”. We composed the first song as a Valentine present and found out it sounded pretty good so we carried on. That's it!! Beautiful love story, no?

DC: Indeed. I cried even. Say, which band member plays those flamenco parts? Does he happen to be professional trained?

Impureza: It's Lionelito who compose the flamenco parts and play them in studio. Since Hellfest he plays them live also, before we had samplers but we wanted to keep that flamenco spirit on stage. Lionelito has a great flamenco teacher. But sometimes I have to give him particular extra lessons.

DC: But of course. How does he perform the flamenco parts live? Does he have a separate guitar for it?

Impureza: We have an acoustic flamenco guitar on stage. Lionelito throw his electric guitar away go to his flamenco guitar which is on a tripod, dancing and screaming “Olé! Anda,anda!!”. Then starts the flamenco parts!

It's something you must see on stage at least one time before you dye!! Hahahahahaha

DC: I won't die before that, don't worry. Has anyone actually danced to those parts when you guys were playing live? Have you thought of getting professional flamenco dancers for your live shows?

Impureza: The audience dances in our gigs. They do the show and that's great cause we are very lazy.

We thought about to have flamenco dancers on stage, but actually it's not possible, because we don't have enough money to pay them. But when we will be rich and famous, we‘ll be able to afford ten or more professional flamenco dancers!! It would be very nice visually!

DC: Being a French band why do you have your lyrics in Spanish? Do you know about any Spanish bands having their lyrics in French?

Impureza:  We have Spanish lyrics because we play flamenco!! I‘m not sure that English or French would fit the flamenco music !! Nobody would understand that, neither do I. Hahahahahaha. It's true that as far as I know there is no Spanish bands having French lyrics. But everybody knows Spanish are lazy guys, they don't agree about the correct way to speak their own language, how can you imagine them learning French?

DC: You're right, I take my flawed imagination back. Have you ever thought of recording each song in different language to appeal to the worldwide audience?

Impureza: Yes, our first album will be recorded in every fucking language you can find in the world. It took us hours working on the lyrics but we succeeded. The most difficult languages to sing are Javanese and Lappish. But no language or slang is too hard for us.

DC: No doubts about that. Someone told me you are abusing the French people in Spanish for being overly patriotic and adamant about speaking in French, especially with the tourists. Is that true? If not, what are the mysterious Impureza lyrics about?

Impureza: Ahah no actually we abuse the Americans for bringing us junk food and Mickey Mouse.

But seriously, our texts mainly deal with the roots of flamenco, how people have been manipulated and led astray by the religious authorities during all the Spanish History. We also have some lyrics about the actual problems of the gipsy communities. Because Flamenco had been created to express themselves and denounce this religious oppression.

DC: Dark death metal obviously happens to be your forte. Which bands are you personally fond of?

Impureza: You're right. That side of our music is very important as well even though we all come from different metal styles. But there is only one word concerning my preferences:
IMMMMMMMMMMMMOOOOOOOLATTTTTTTIOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNN!

DC: What do you aim for when you're writing the Impureza songs? Are there any particular features you would want all the Impureza songs to have?

Impureza: The main thing for us is emotion. If a song doesn't touch you there is no point in playing it. We don't want just to string the notes together without feelings. Personally I particularly pay attention to the vocals. I try to live the song entirely. The flamenco is a music which comes from deep inside. That is the feature of our music, each riff has to make you vibrate. That's also the aim of our live performances.

DC: Did you consciously try to write a long epic song like “En El Desierto De Ma Creencia” or did it just stretch out naturally? Are there going to be more of such epic songs in the future?

Impureza: When we wrote this song, we wanted it to have a special ambience to describe the despair of the character. We decided to mix low, middle and speed tempos. That's why the song seems to be very long. And when we play it on stage, everyone is totally possessed.

But it's not the only one, we have other epic songs in our set cause I think that the Epic style fits perfectly to the Flamenco music.

DC: It is mentioned on your myspace page that Impureza are already working on a full length album. Is its music going to be in the vein of your split material or can we expect something different from it?

Impureza: This full length will contain songs which were already on our previous demo and also new material. The new material will be in the vein of the previous songs but with more flamenco parts and some surprises!

DC: A few years back there used to be some cool French death metal bands such as Devilium, Imperial Sodomy, Depraved, Admortem, Gurkkhas, Kabbal, etc. What's new and hot in the French scene now?

Impureza: Cool that you talk about these bands (Devilium and Imperial Sodomy) because we were on the same label, criminal records and we toured together, not with Impureza but with our previous band called Innerfeuds. They are very good friends of us. Some of the bands you named split off…But a new generation of French metal bands is about to destroy the world.

I think about Gojira, the biggest one! And some other bands like Hacride which play an amazing metal and they are conquering Europe ! Their music rock and they will surely be one of the leaders of French metal scene! Love it!

DC: What kind of hobbies do the Impureza band members have, apart from going to the flamenco classes and dancing with chicks?

Impureza: Err…it's a very personal question…I don't know if I should answer to this one… But you seem to be a cool guy, so I will tell you some secrets about Impureza's private life. We love to drink tea, play bridge, solve crosswords, going to church, and help the others. In fact, we try to be good Christians and thank god for giving us the power of Brutal Flamenco.

DC: Very nice. Ideally which labels do you wish to get signed to? Let's hear a prayer from you (in any language) wishing that you'd get signed to that particular label.

Impureza: No label in particular. Sure it would be great to be signed by an important label in order to get a consequent promotion and distribution, but the most important thing for us is to be on a label which takes care of us.

No prayer for me, Dave Mustaine is the best for that kind of stuff.

DC: Amen.