If you like your rock, chances are that they probably shared the stage with one of your idols, as their impressive CV includes collaborations with Robert Plant, Neil Young, The Who, Deep Purple, Kiss, Guns and Roses, Kings of Leon, Slash, Tom Morello, Lenny Kravitz, The Cult and many more.
Known across Europe and the US for their heavy tunes, political lyrics and powerful live performances, Delila Paz and Edgey Pires – or The Last Internationale – are coming to Cyprus in the scorching heat of August to rock the locals into action, in the opening day of Fengaros Festival (03/08).
In a no-punches-pulled interview with in-Cyprus, they argue that rock music today lacks depth and poetry while stressing that musicians must start seeing themselves as workers and organise.
What is the inspiration behind the name of the band?
Edgey: The name comes from the International (i.e. the Communist International). We have working-class backgrounds and our music reflects that. We fight for our values and ideals, and it definitely shows in the lyrics. We also wanted a name that sounded kind of urgent. And there’s nothing more urgent than a name like The Last Internationale.
In some of your previous interviews, you mentioned that while growing up, other kids your age were listening to popular music but you both started getting hooked on folk and blues. How was it for you, having different interests and views than most people and how did you embrace your identity?
Delila: When we started listening to that music, it was already generations old. But to us, it was like ‘Oh my god, this is amazing.’ And it was so different from popular music. When we started the band, our inspiration gravitated to the stuff that was a lot older. And it just felt like there was a lot more depth to the music, lyrically. It spoke about things that rock is not really talking about now. So we wanted to continue the lineage of artists like Nina Simone and Bob Dylan. I feel there’s more connection to that music.
What are some modern bands or artists you think have more depth?
Edgey: I would tell you that one of the main reasons why we started this band, is because we wanted to do something that no longer exists in rock. Nobody does poetry, it just doesn’t exist, period. Mainstream rock and the underground rock bands that are popular, seem to be very superficial and shallow.
Rock bands don’t do what rock bands were trying to do in the past. There are a few local bands but it’s not a cultural phenomenon. It’s not like you’re walking in Greenwich Village, and you hear these protests and music coming out of every venue. Culturally, it’s dead. There’s no culture whatsoever of protest music within rock. No one’s attempting to make protest music and poetry anymore.
This stands for journalists too: Many people have their own personal opinions but are afraid to voice them through their work because they are afraid of the backlash, or going against the status quo and maybe in the future find closed doors and fewer opportunities. How do you do away with this worry in your own work?
Delila: We didn’t care about making enemies. And we did make a bunch of enemies in the business because of that, or because we always stand our ground. That’s why is the reason why we left the US and are focusing on Europe. Also, we wanted that freedom to be totally independent. You shouldn’t be afraid of closed doors or people talking about you.
How do you think Europe is different from the US?
Edgey: Man, I’m gonna get in trouble right now. They’re becoming very similar. We spent a lot of time in Europe and I can tell you with 100% confidence that Europeans don’t understand Americans and Americans don’t understand Europeans. They don’t understand each other. My whole entire life, I’ve been hearing stereotypes of Americans, so much so that I started to believe it was true. But after travelling Europe so much and now that we’re here all the time (editor’s note: the duo currently resides in Portugal), you can see the similarities.
One stereotype is that the US loves war. But I see Europe being pretty hungry for war. I see Europe, censoring people and shutting down journalists, but America got the stereotype for doing that, for not having freedom of the press or freedom of speech. They (Europeans) laugh at our journalism, but now you can’t turn on one TV station in Portugal or probably any part of Europe and have one news station, or any news show that has anything which is the truth anymore. It’s all complete propaganda. So I’m seeing Europe being more and more in love with war and censoring people.
And more and more McDonald’s are showing up. A KFC just opened up. McDonald’s is over here down the block and Burger King. All within walking distance of each other.
Nowadays we are very pessimistic about the future, but despite the negative developments, if one looks at the US, they can see things moving. There is resistance and protest movements. How do you evaluate this, as Americans?
Edgey: If you told me 10 years ago how the state of the world and how politics would be right now, I wouldn’t believe anybody. I’d think you’re crazy. Like, the world flipped completely upside down. The Left in the US is not what the Left is in France or the UK. The Left in the US, they’re the warmongers. They’re the war machine. So is the Right, but the neocons in the United States, the ones who have been pulling all the strings, starting wars, their favourite party is now the Democratic Party. They’re the war party, they’re acting like Republicans. And they’re the ones censoring, they’re the ones kicking people off Facebook and shutting down accounts.
But now the population in the United States, they’re trying to realise that Republicans and Democrats, they’re two sides of the same coin. And they’re the ones that are resisting draconian measures and any kind of repressive elements of the state. Just normal everyday people who don’t necessarily identify as Republicans, right-wing or left-wing. They’re there. They have legitimate movements, that a lot of the Left can’t get behind due to their own limitations and their own thinking because they function within a very narrow paradigm. So I think we’re in an interesting situation where the world can actually rupture ideologically. Something new could come about. I’m kind of hopeful about it in a way.
You’ve said that the most important element that’s missing from music today is community. Could you expand on that, considering that you’re coming to perform at a festival, which is a breeding ground for community formation?
Edgey: We talk a lot about this and it’s often misunderstood what we mean. We keep saying that there’s no culture of solidarity or community within rock. For some reason, the words culture and rock are never mentioned next to each other. Whereas in hip hop, you almost have to say the word culture after hip hop, it’s hip hop culture. Rock doesn’t see itself as having any culture.
I could give you a perfect example of this from something I read this morning in the news (editor’s note: the interview was taken on July 18). In Porto, a city nearby in Portugal, there is a place where all the rock bands rehearse (Centro Comercial Stop). It’s a building with 100-something rooms and rehearsal spaces. We’ve been there a few times. People talk to each other, hang out with each other. You can say it’s a rock community, right?
I went there. And the first thing I said is they’re going to get rid of this space. I said it right away and people were shocked. I said you’re looking at a great piece of commercial real estate in the centre of the city. The place is rundown. It was abandoned. It used to be retail stores. Musicians started squatting it. They went in and took control. But today, they shut it down. The authorities came in and shut down 105 rehearsal spaces.
As I said a long time ago, you’re all getting kicked out in a matter of time, because that’s how capital works. Capital has to develop and swallow up everything in its path in the interest of profit-making. This is commercial real estate right in the centre of town. They’re gonna make a hotel, they’re gonna do something out of this. You (musicians) need to organise. You can’t just drink beer hang out and give each other high fives. Organise a union, some kind of collective amongst yourselves, put money into the pot, maybe fix the place up or try and become legal. You got to organise amongst yourselves and get ready for them when they come to kick you out.
This is what I’m talking about. If musicians saw themselves as workers and organised themselves as a union or some kind of movement, I guarantee those musicians would not be out of that place. That’s what we mean by there’s no community in rock. You need to have each other’s back.
How would you respond to the argument that music should not be political?
Delila: That makes no sense. You’re living in a world and you’re a part of it. Let’s say you want to be a hermit. But if you’re going to be a musician in this world, there are things happening around you, like Julian Assange is in jail. Even if you speak about something personal. The personal is political. You need to be part of the world you’re living in, otherwise, what are you talking about? It’s just a saying people tell artists that they shouldn’t get political. I think that’s just lazy. They want you to write lazy lyrics.
Edgey: Some artists are forced to get political and mostly feel compelled because it benefits their career. So now it’s easy to attack Trump. There’s no political backlash, there’s nothing that’s going to happen to them, if anything, they get rewarded for it. So that’s an act of cowardice. You were silent throughout the entire Obama administration and throughout most of Trump’s administration until it becomes cool to attack him and then you start to jump on the bandwagon, so you borrow the hashtags from Hollywood. And now Biden gets elected, you start praising him and playing in his inauguration. He bombs a family of eight, kills innocent children, and you say absolutely nothing about it, you’re silent. But you still support the war machine through your silence. It’s like musicians are not living in reality, they just do whatever is beneficial to them. And they just want more sponsors and more endorsements, and they don’t want to rock the boat or upset the record label, but they want to appear rebellious by talking against Trump, which is very easy to do.
Would you like to send a message to people in Cyprus who will come see you on August 3?
Delila: Well, Cyprus, we can’t wait to step on your soil, to rock out. And I’ll be in the audience at one point. So get ready for grabbing people up to the stage. So if you want to be on stage, just make eye contact with me. I always bring people up!
*Fengaros Festival 2023 will take place between August 3-5 in Kato Drys. Get your tickets here!
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