Guilty Hearts
Interview by: Christine Dunleavy
The Guilty Hearts will blow your brains with such a
swamp, fuzz noise that even zombies won't touch them when
they're finished with you. If you want music that intoxicates
the body like some smashed up voodoo ritual electrified in the
lab of Dr. Frankenstein, himself, then you've come to the
right place! Don't be fooled, their hearts might be guilty but
the booze in their veins leaves them howlin' in the moon. The
Guilty Hearts are Leon Catfish, Edgar Rodriguez and Hermann K.
Senac signed to the wonderful Voodoo Rhythm records.
What are some of your guys’ main influences, musical
or otherwise?
Edgar: Oblivians, The Gun Club, The Cheater Slicks,
Billy Childish, Mick Collins.
Making mortal errors and living to tell about it...spending
all your money at a show...being honest.
Leon: Personally, it's a mix between all the bands
I love to listen to and the things that go on in my life. A
lot have to do with drinking and girls and going insane, but
what rock ‘n’ roll song strays far from that anyways?
“Life is Rhythm”, I always say.
Herman: ...too many to mention. Can't, it boggles
the mind
Where are you guys from, and how has that affected your
music, if at all?
Edgar: I grew up in City Terrace, East LA to the
uninitiated. It made me dive headfirst into music. It's what
saved me from a different life.
Leon: We were all raised in some part of East L.A.,
and fortunately, it didn't grasp our necks and make us into
hip-hop lovin' homeboys. I think the city itself has an effect
on everyone that breathes its dirty air, we choose to see it
our own way.
What made you guys first decide to start The Guilty
Hearts? And how long have you been together for?
Edgar: Leon and I were in The Rippers together...it
was fun, the band smoked! But it wasn't what we wanted sound
wise. So we started messing around with new sounds, and a few
friends. The next thing I knew, I was quitting the Rippers to
start a new band, and Leon came with me. We eventually found
Herman, with a punk rock pedigree which we didn't know about,
and then realized. It's going to be 4 years in September.
Herman: Cause we were bored to death
Music
can be your true friend... Your scorned lover... The mender of
wounds... The ghost in your room...
This primitive, lo-fi combo is made up of 3 generations of
native Angelinos steeped in the city’s culture, angst, and
excess. Hermann Senac,
the
group’s elder statesmen, is L.A. punk rock royalty, having
co-founded cow-punk innovators Blood on the Saddle.
Hermann’s primitive pounding can also be heard on records by
Crowbar Salvation/Marty Nation & Ace Farren Ford (Child
Molesters), Loafin’ Hyenas (w/Rob Ritter & Tex Edwards,
Click Morte) & more.
Edgar
Rodriguez, the fucked up fuzz guitarist, spent his most recent
years laying down bass with The Rippers. The Rippers were a
short lived Los Angeles band that appeared on the L.A.
Shakedown compilation, but served to unite Edgar and Leon as a
strong songwriting duo.
Leon “Catfish” Zalez, the youngest member of the Guilty
Hearts, also did time in The Rippers. He brings to the table
his wild guitar, his tortured words and his screaming harp.
With
other wurds.. the Guilty Hearts from the Hispanic quarter of
LA brings you the freshest wind in Hot spicy Tacco
Rock’n’roll and Blues Trash for decades.. in the Spirit of
the GUN CLUB the’ll kick
your head to moon and back |
