BARRICATA : First, a very classical question : history of the group. Choice of the name.
CRIA CUERVOS :In May 1999 three angels met to form a claiming trio. Two
came from Ahorcados (punk-rock band) and one from Kochise (anarcho-punk band). From their
first investigation borned a demo with 4 songs the following summer, but it was really completed
with the Outing of " Soap Opera ", in october 2000. Since then, they started a new investigation
which is not ready to finish... Cria Cuervos comes from a Spanish expression which says " Cria
cuervos y te sacaran los ojos", which means " Raise raven and they will pick your eyes out ".
The subject is ingratitude and also education. It is also a film by Carlos Saura (spanish director),
which also talk about the education of three little girls in a spanish well off family in the fascist
Spain of Franco.
B : Why have you created Cria Cuervos whereas you belonged already to others
bands ? Is this an answer to specific waitings ? CC : When the band was created, Ahorcados did not exist anymore and
Geraldine always played and plays in Kochise and Turtle Ramblers. Why playing together ?
It must happened. The three of us wanted to create a female Punk-HC band. We have similar
ideas on many things, all of us are involved in the same causes : vegetarism, antiracism, antifascim,
antisexism, … and above all : we love each other !! Playing in a female band develops different
relationships in comparation with the mixed bands, in fact not only between us but with the people
that comes to see us too. Moreover some appreciate and others hate : " Just play, and don't talk
so much ! " , well it is not ready to happened... Teresa: Regarding Isa and I, I think we would never create another mixed
band, if there had not been Cria Cuervos, we would have stopped playing music probably.
But Cria Cuervos was born above all because it was us. It is a choice of person more than
gender, but I also think that we are like we are, because we are women.
B : Style and musical influences (thanks to develop…) Géraldine : I fell into the punk rock'n'roll pot when I was small. French bands
and of course alternative punk explosion : Béruriers noirs or the Brigades are important musical
influences. Of course, before Sex Pistols had passed by. Then, bands like Crass and Conflict
influenced me, and I became a fan, for the message they transmitted, engagement and deployed
energy. I also listen to female punk bands as Bikini Kill. And other bands as The Ex, HC bands as
Good Riddance or Avail. And I am always also touched by the touching female singers as Edith
Piaf or Ella Fitzgerald. There is also Mascarade (family ...). Maybe in another time I would add
some others, but today I'm gonna stop here.
Teresa : At the beginning, there was Kortatu, RIP, Cicatriz, Eskorbuto
(Basque punk bands of the south), this being due to my Spanish origins. But there were also
bands like Les Rats, Parabellum, Les Cadavres, (for the two last, that seems now incredible...),
this resulting from my suburban musical culture. Currently, my influences are more placed in US
punk-Hc scene with bands like Good Riddance, Avail, Pennywise too.
Isa : Idem that Teresa, I add Bad Religion.
B : Productions (CDs, demos, compilations) and shows (Specify the " cause "
when they are supporting shows) CC : There was a demo, we spoke about before, and now a CD which is just out.
It is a DIY production. We recorded it in the " frigos " in Paris in August of this year, 9 songs.
We are going to press it on vinyl too soon, in coproduction with french labels. Our first show took
place in September 1999, after 4 months of rehearsals and the recording of the demo. It was in Paris,
we took part in the organization and it was in support for Luis V Rogriguez an amerindian-chicano,
who was accused without any serious proof for the murder of two cops. In fact he was arrested because
of his ethnical membership, a racist imprisonment. It was 22 years ago, it was 23... As others
supporting shows, we played in Paris too for the FTP (antifascist people arrested in Marseille.
We have nearly 10 shows in our credit, for now ...
B : Cria Cuervos is a band with political and social lyrics. You think that music
and political stuff can be mixed ?
CC : Music is always carrying messages. It's a way to communicate, and
transmit ideas and opinions. We transmit our sensibility, our emotions. As a communication,
we can talk about our expectations, we can share them with the others. You can convince
people when you are honest, and when your acts and what you says are identical.
B : In your lyrics, you talk often about women. " Histoire enfantine " (Nursery
rythms) approachs the subject of the incest. " Trève de comptoir " (Story from a bar)
tells the story of Eva, a waitress who set fire in the pub where she is working to avoid
the glances of the customers. Is the inequality between man and woman the fault of
the patriarchate to the capitalism ? How can we avoid it ? By a libertarian revolution ? CC : Eva set fire at the pub not to avoid the customers glances but to make them
burn in the fire.
It is not the capitalism which generates the patriarchate, but capitalism use patriarchate. The
patriarchal system already exists in the communist systems. Moreover the women did not interest
very much the philosophers in the trade-unionist tradition. Some writings of trade unionists CGT,
in the first beginnig of the 20th century, asked that women remain at the house to keep busy with
domestic tasks, rather than to compete with men on the labour market. The women themselves
have fought against these reactionaries ideas. Today women are just a little less than men present
on the labour market. Generally they have on same level of studies less qualified jobs and undergo
more than the men part-time work or unemployment. But let's stop talking of sexual equality in the
labour market. Some people sometimes says they are antisexists people because they fought against
sexual discriminations in the labour market. But the sexism doesn't only exist in the social or political
field, but also in the private sphere and in the families : sexual and home violence, mutilations, exchange
of women between families as objects. The patriarchate is based on the authority of the father, and
valorization of the warrior. The Women History is a very new approach of History. Before, the Women
History didn't exist quite simply because the History rested on authorities like Church or the State,
because they left traces and because women were separated of History. In the same way for the
History of Art, there existed and exist women artists, some of them were famous in their time but
they did not enter the History, because traditionally it was written by men who thought that Woman's
role is to educate children (just in a way) and that her world is reduced to the greeque gynecee
(place reserved to the women in Greek antiquity and who reflects well this idea of closing women
in their interior).
Then, a libertarian revolution to free women from the patriarchal system ? In the writings (we are
not going to talk about Prudhon, what can we say about a social critique which excludes the women?).
They are the libertarians who indeed called into question the patriarchal system because they also
attacked Moral. But what about facts ? So that a libertarian revolution is released from the patriarchate
it is necessary that the reflexion and the practice were made before, if not what can happened ? Men
will make the revolution and will release Women ?The patriarchate must be called in question before
a revolution, otherwise it will always exist. Where does it start ? : Stop treating women like sexual
objects or reproduction objects, stop asking them to prove reliable (what does it means ? compared
to whom? This behaviour is obvious in the music environment for example : because you are a
woman, you will be looked at as you didn't know how to play music, because until now, " arts "
are a reserved field), stop social inequalities between men and women. In the private life, carry out
a real domestic task sharing which means call into question a whole part of our education, in the same
way in the education of the children. Just a question : in a militant couple, which of the woman or
the man remains more at home to deal with the children when there is a meeting?...
All these are many things to say, but the zines are done for that or are they not ?
B : The song " espèce humaine ?" is a denunciation of the experiment on
animals. Do you really think that this can be avoided ? CC : The question does not arise like that for us. In the evolution, the human
being thinks he is a success and that's why he can allow himself everything. On which right ?
WE think that way, that's all. In an ethical point of view, suffering resulting from torture is unstanding
for us. Moreover, we do not concede any special authority to science. The profit carries out the world.
We benefit the ones from the others to arrive at our ends, we benefit from the other species to develop
our ego and this vision which we have to be a " super-specie ". These are values that we reject. We
denounce and fight the human or animal exploitation. That's why we are vegetarian. Don't speak to us
about the human biologism and other arguments against the vegetarianism. We have a conscience,
we can make choices, we did some.
B : " Train Ride " has been written by Luis V. Rodriguez, a political prisoner
sentenced to perpetuity. In the contacts you give in your album, there is references
towards the ABC, the COSIMAPP, the CSIA, the SRA. Are you abolitionists ? CC : These are fights that we support. Yes, we are abolitionists.
B : In the song " Histoire enfantine ", the kid shoots his father. When you
are against the prison system, what do you do with rapists ? You shoot them ? CC : It is a very polemical subject, especially when you are abolitionist and
when you are convinced that nobody has the right to decide to let live or die someone else.
Often the rape is considered as exclusively pathological, generated by impulses, but that's not true,
that's generated by the domination of men on women, on kids, or on any human being. That means
that put someone in prison cannot change anything. The solution rests on the disappearance of the
patriarchate and the relations of domination which it generates. However, today that's not already done,
and that's paradoxical, but concerning his integrity, we think that someone who have been raped,
must carry complaint. Moreover, we give the contacts where people can address itself. Why ?
Because the good conscience of the system often fall silent about these violences whereas
they must be denounced, and it develops a guilt feeling on the raped women. To carry complaint,
it is hard when one was forced that way. You have to endure the accusing glances, but it is also the
way of denouncing violences and facing there. Shoot them ? It is also difficult to talk about this in a few
words, but there is just one person that can judge, that's the raped person, and definitely not a court,
nor whoever would be believed to be authorized under the false pretext of moral or the right.
B : Teresa and Isa are members of the HORCA association, which organizes
Punk-Hardcore shows in Paris. Can you tell us more about this ? Teresa : All the three belong to Horca today (with other people…), even if at the
beginning Isa and I have created the association. Horca was born when we are playing in Ahorcados
and we first begin organizing Punk shows (not Hardcore) with french punk bands like Les Rats, Heyoka,
Légitime Défonce, Kochise... in bars of Paris and suburbs (Vendémiaire...), small clubs (Confluences,..).
Then, we started listen to hardcore bands, and organize shows for other punk-hardcore bands, most
of them are american. Our purpose always was to organize shows with a low ticket price, and today
it is a great satisfaction to be able to organize shows with Burning Heads or No Use For A Name with
a 60 FF ticket price (a DIY show, without any subsidy). Others promoters would have organize the
same shows with at least a 90 FF ticket price. That's a revenge for us, and our principal motivation,
with the fact we like this music too.
B : What does the redskin movement represents for you ? A bunch of machists ? CC : You want to orientate the answer ? That's a musical movement which have
a political conscience, just as the punk movement, although the word " movement " is a a bit
exaggerated, let's remain humble... However, in the two cases, for some people the political subjects
are not the most important, they are redskin or punk for the image and on that point they join the bunch
of machists …. Just a last thing : " red " is not what we claim ideologically, it would be even what we
fight. We prefer, " black " or " red & black ".
B : Let's talk about the english and spanish lyrics. Will of internationalization
or internationalist conscience ? CC : Of course that's to carry out an international career ! Just kidding ! Isa
and Teresa are spanish, and Isa writes the spanish lyrics, she also writes in english, because
she is bilingual too. Geraldine writes the french lyrics. In fact, we dont think about this, that's
natural for us … But it is also a certain internationalist conscience, the languages should not be
a barrier.
B : Your album lasts 18 minutes, don't you think that's too short ? Are you satisfied
with this album ? CC : I don't think we have said it was an album, that's just a CD with 9 songs,
because when we recorded it we had only 9 songs. The songs are short, but that's a choice,
we prefer to go directly to essence. If you calculate, even if we record an album with 18 songs,
it would lasts approximately 35 minutes... Too short? 4 songs, 15 or 9, that's not a problem, the
problem is when the price of the CD is too expensive some is the length or the material (vinyl , CD)
We are satisfied with this CD, but our purpose is to always do better.
B : Next Shows / Projects ? CC : Right now, the shows are not booked yet, even if we think about some tours
in France and Spain, for example. Our projects? Continue to develop our friendship in the band,
our ideas and to develop the female presence and insert of the linked ideas in these musical
movement that still remains little open to the women.
B : Greetings, contacts … CC : Thank you, Nico for your work.
" Stand up and resist! "
Cria Cuervos
c/o T.Moya
3 allée des Cytises
91100 Corbeil-Essonnes
FRANCE
E-mail : cria_cuervos@hotmail.com
Web site : www.chez.com/criacuervos
