On March 19, 1999, I spoke with Sergio Curbelo, lead singer of Puerto Rican metal/salsa/mambo/rock en espanol band Puya. We spoke about their debut MCA release Fundamental, along with what the experience has been like thus far.

Joel: Hey there! IÆve been listening to your CD for about a week here now, and IÆve really been enjoying it.

Sergio: Cool man, glad to hear it.

J: ItÆs pretty obvious after listening to this thing that you guys have a pretty unique style. I mean, you touch on a lot of different genres here. I guess my first question is, how did you guys come up with this stuff?

S: Well, when the band started out, it was originally a trio, they were all instrumental. But gradually a lot of different elements worked their way inà fusion, punk, Latin, Caribbean music. A lot of the music is based on Caribbean and Latin rhythms, thereÆs a lot of that stuff in there. The band started in Puerto Rico, but then we moved to Florida and were originally part of the hardcore scene there.

J: You guys started off as a hardcore band?

S: No, weÆve always been heavy, but when we moved to Florida, we became part of the whole hardcore, speedmetal underground scene there.

J: How long did it take for you guys to fully grow into your sound? I mean, this couldnÆt have happened right away.

S: Well, the sound has always been developing, always evolving. The band has been together for six about years now, and the sound is continually developing. ItÆs taken us several years to get to where we are today. WeÆve always been kind of a heavy band though, but it wasnÆt really until we got to Florida that some of the Latin stuff worked itÆs way in.

J: You obviously incorporate several different styles on this disc. Can you name anyone as primary influences, or is it just like a huge cornucopia of bands?

S: ItÆs just that, just like you said, a huge cornucopia of bands. There are several bands that we all listen to, we listen to a lot of Hendrix, Santana, Metallica, Slayer, [names several Spanish acts]. Definitely Sepultura as well, theyÆre a big influence. ItÆs a lot of different stuff, everyone brings in a lot of different bands, so we just kind of combine all this different stuff.

J: How about contemporary bands? Are there any contemporary bands out there that you really like, orà

S: Yeah definitely, there are a lot of the heavy rock bands out there that I dig. Definitely System of a Down, theyÆre cool guys, and hed(pe). We toured with this band One-Minute Silence on the Sepultura tour. But yeah, there are a lot of new acts that we all really enjoy.

J: Yeah, System of a Down is definitely a cool band. In fact, you remind me a lot of them, when I first put on your CD I was like "yeah, these guys sound a lot like System of a Down," except obviously a little different. I guess that was just a weird coincidence there.

S: System brings in the whole Armenian sound and music, which is kind of like what weÆre doing with the Caribbean stuff. You know, bring the roots and stuff into the music. I think a lot of bands to come will start to do this, bring everything back to the roots, kind of like what Sepultura did with Chaos A.D.

J: So are a lot of other bands copying your sound then?

S: No, not at all, just that a lot of bands are going to start bringing their roots back into the music. YouÆre going to start seeing more of this stuff over the next couple years.

J: Ok. I guess that kind of leads into my next question here. Can you describe the songwriting process for me? Do you write the real heavy parts first, and then decide to spice it up with the Latino stuff, or does that just get naturally mixed in, or how does that work?

S: No man, we work with the flow. ThereÆs no real order to any of it. As kind of an example, we just spent the past two days in rehearsal. WhatÆll happen is, somebody will bring in an idea, maybe itÆs a heavy groove or whatever, and we just work from there. We just came up with this one the other day that starts with this heavy groove, kicks out into a stomp, then settles into a groove [makes a lot of noises to describe the music]. Everything just starts flowing, itÆs totally spontaneous, we just do whatever feels right.

J: That leads into my next one here then, which I guess will be a little more topical for you since youÆre the singer. Why are some of the lyrics in Spanish and some in English, and even some in Spanglish? Most of this album is in Spanish, although some segments are in English, which is kinda weird. Do you pick a language based on the music or the lyrics or whatever?

S: Well no, itÆs the same way as with the music, we just go with the flow. Sometimes someone will come in with lyrics right away or start writing, maybe start writing in Spanish and then throw in some English if that fits better. It all depends on which sounds better, whichever one fits the flow better. When you write the music, it just starts flowing and you use whatever works right. Same with the words. If English sounds better in a certain situation, then weÆll use that instead of the Spanish.

J: My Spanish is pretty mediocre, I took it in high school, but even then a lot of times IÆd think in Spanish when I was speaking it. Is it that kind of that thing?

S: Yeah it is. IÆll bet before you said anything in Spanish, you had to think of it in English first, right?

J: Yeah I did.

S: Well this band has so many different elements. Myself, I was born in NY, but then I moved to Puerto Rico. IÆve always been bilingual, my mother would speak English so it wouldnÆt get rusty, and IÆd also come back here to the States during the summertime and live with my Grandmother, just hang out and party or whatever. So I speak both languages automatically, I donÆt have to think about it ever.

J: Do you feel itÆs been hard to gain acceptance in America as a Spanish-speaking band? Has the language barrier been a problem?

S: Well up to this moment, and thank God for it, it hasnÆt been a problem. I think about it this way. When you listen to Pantera, you canÆt understand half the stuff he says, but you donÆt really care because you like the music. Nobody really cares about that stuff, the important thing is getting into the sounds. ItÆs the same way with Hetfield, when I finally picked up the booklet I said "wow, so thatÆs what he was saying?" So no, I donÆt think the vocals are as important as the overall sound.

J: So just as long as it captures the listener thatÆs really all that matters.

S: Exactly. WeÆve had a pretty good response, again thank God for it.

J: Do you guys have any plans to play over in Europe?

S: Oh man, IÆm dying to go over to Europe, weÆve been invited to go by another band. But, the record label wants us to concentrate on America for now, the album hasnÆt been released in Europe yet. I think weÆll definitely go there by the end of this year, or the first quarter of the next year.

J: Another thing I was wondering is, what kind of a crowd do you get at your shows? What kind of demographics?

S: Well, itÆs really varied, just a cauldron of different types of people. WeÆve got the older people whoÆve been listening to metal for a long time, and weÆve also got some real young kids, 11,10,12 years old.

J: Wow, that young.

S: Yeah, those kids, they donÆt care.

J: They havenÆt been brainwashed by MTV yet or whatever.

S: Exactly. So weÆve got young kids, and all the way up to 35-year olds, all races creeds and colors. We even got some girls coming too.

J: I was just going to ask, you guys get chicks coming? ThatÆs all thatÆs really important, ainÆt it?

S: You bet! I think though that if you get the girls coming, the guys are gonna wanna come too.

J: IÆve also seen comparisons of you guys to bands like Korn, Deftones, bands like that. Do you guys consider yourself a "hardcore" band, do you like being lumped in with those kinds of bands?

S: I donÆt like this kind of comparison, I donÆt like a comparison to anybody really. We have our own sound and itÆs not like what those other bands play. I know that people like to make comparisons though, thatÆs the type of music that the young kids are listening to. I guess it can help you get an idea of the sound, but we like to think of ourselves as a little different.

J: Well, anything that gets you a little more exposure is worthwhile. Ok, now I have a couple of questions from my website visitors. The first one is, is it true that Bob Ezrin had a hand in getting you guys a deal with MCA?

S: ThatÆs not true, but we did work with him before. We did a track with him for "Outlandos DÆ Americas" on Arc21, which was a rock en espanol tribute to The Police. It was all done by Miles Copeland, the owner of the label. The song we covered was "Spirits in the Material World."

J: IÆm not sure I know that one.

S: ItÆs that one that goes [sings a few bars]. YouÆd know it if you heard it. But anyway, we did do a lot of work with Bob, he actually helped us get our publishing deal. Our manager and our producer were actually responsible for getting us the record deal.

J: You guys are actually on the main MCA label and not the Latino one, something which I know youÆre proud of.

S: Yeah, weÆre actually one of the few heavy bands to have a major label deal. Most of the heavy bands have to go to Roadrunner or Century Media or something like that. ItÆs an honor to have been signed by a major. We had a few deals along the way with other labels but we didnÆt take them. We wanted the maximum exposure that only a major label can provide.

J: Would you say itÆs been a good experience so far, being on a major?

S: Definitely, theyÆve been behind us the whole way, they love the music and they love the band.

J: Okay, and my other question from the website is, is your first album still available anywhere?

S: Well, itÆs on Noise Boys records, they have a website but I donÆt remember it off the top of my head. TheyÆre out of Pompano Beach in California. They may still have it, but itÆs difficult to find. There was only one other band on the label, it was actually started by a friend of ours, he made the label to release this disc. We didnÆt have any distro or anything, we just sold them wherever we went to play, mostly Puerto Rico and Florida. There might be some floating around California or Florida, but itÆs pretty hard to find, it was a limited pressing.

J: Alright, hereÆs my final question for you then, Sergio. Puya means "black coffee," right? Is there any significance to that?

S: Yeah, it means "black coffee" in Puerto Rican slang. That refers to just straight black coffee with no sugar, something that just knocks you off your butt. It also means the point of a sharp edged object.

J: So is that just like "hard coffee" because youÆre a hard band or something?

S: Well, the original name of the band was in English, but all the songs were in Spanish, so we felt we needed to change the name to something in Spanish. We just came up with Puya. ItÆs short and easy to remember. But Puya, that stuff is organic, it gets you hyper, just like our music.

J: Ok Sergio, thatÆs all I have for you, thanks a lot and good luck to you!

S: Thanks, IÆll talk to you later.