For as long as I can remember, I have been a fan of this anomalous tropical ska rock band. Its’ unique electrifying punk sound seemed out of place, like a refreshing piece of sanity amidst anarchy. Its’ politically charged songs inspired me and many different generations of Venezuelan youth.
As a child I used to go to every concert possible. Having lived in the UK now for many years, I reverted to a fanatical teenager at the prospect of meeting them.
Like most things in Venezuela, the encounter was semi planned, and the band was in the middle of a photo shoot when I arrived. One by one, the members approached this stranger in their midst and introduced themselves, not knowing who I was, which I found pretty surprising.
The next thing I knew I was being dragged from photo shoot to recording studio where they were rehearsing for their upcoming Mexican tour. My next two hours were filled with good old Caraqueño humour and 30 years of contemporary Venezuelan music history, and I chucked at the thought of my 15 year-old self, disbelieving every moment.
Then I finally got to chat to the legendary Desorden frontman, Horacio Blanco, who is still sounding fantastic…
So, what’s the secret of staying together for such a long time and not killing each other? I asked him.
“Ha, there are probably a few reasons, the first one I reckon, being that we are all in love with music and there is a lot of passion for it. We have always kept music as the main flag for this band. We have never been drunk on moments of fame or success and during hard times we have not fractured too much. But we are all quite stubborn and you can be sure that there has been some rocky periods. I think also the fact that we have such a loyal following has helped… in the there are too many reasons to stay in this band, man.”
You seem to have a lot of fun together…
“Indeed! There is a lot friendship and we have a hell of a time together. We know each other’s sense of humour and all that good vibe helps us to stay together.”
Thirty years is such a long time, are you celebrating it? Any new material?
“On the recording front there is a lot of exciting stuff. We are doing an album with C4 Trio, a very important band. They are part of the new wave of Venezuelan folk, using the Cuatro. They have had a lot of success here and they won a Grammy not long ago. The album is a re-edition of our classic repertoire, songs that C4 Trio and Desorden Publico like a lot. It’s a fusion of Venezuelan folk led by the Cuatro and our music, which is quite audacious for both our audiences.
That sounds pretty good!
“But that’s not all, we are also doing a Box set with eight studio albums on CD format, plus two rare albums, one live and the other in studio. That will be like a present for the hardcore fans. It will be a bit expensive and we are doing a limited run.”
Nice present…
"It will certainly be! But we are also working on a brand new studio album, which projects the band forward, because with this long career of ours, we could easily fall into the nostalgia vibe, greatest hits sort of thing.
This album we are liking a lot, it’s a very strong album that will be great to play live….AND apart from that it is very likely that this year we make a second Christmas album…’Desorden Style’, which would be Guarachando Volumen 2.”
Kind of a lot!
Yes, on that front we are going mad, and then you can add all the gigging and the tours. We are about to do Panama and Mexico, Europe of course later in the year…
So what are you doing for Europe?
We’ll be doing a very dynamic show, with a lot of joint songs, because we have realised it works really well. In Europe we do the whole repertoire, literally 30 years of songs from Donde esta el Futuro composed in 1985 to Me Gusta el Desorden, which was composed in 2015, so expect a hell of show!
