Running Potatoes - Buenos Aires, Argentina
Brainless - CD Review and Interview
By Patrick Ferris

I find one of the most exciting things about the Internet is how quickly music, art and humor can inspire and influence artists on opposite sides of the world. So before introducing this month's featured artist, I'd like to give a brief history of ska music:

Designed for dancing and introduced at a time when Jamaica was yearning for its independence from Great Britain, ska music was started in the 1950s as a pre-reggae Jamaican cultural offshoot to jazz. It was always political; it represented musical freedom and good times. Rude boys (hooligans), or the boys associated with early ska were usually poorer youth, pissed off and unemployed or involved in the ganja trade. Oppressive laws targeting the rude boys eventually drove many to England in the early 1970s to search for work, which is when the second ska wave and the pre-cursor to punk, started.

Move the clock ahead thirty years and you'll find ska music's grandchild, the loud, angry, aggressive music of modern punk, again crossing the ocean, this time electronically. A 21st century Argentinean version of rude boys, Running Potatoes, invent punk-ska, bringing back ska roots and good times while maintaining the insanity and explosive unpredictability of punk.

Running Potatoes came onto the Latin ska scene in 2000 as a five-piece band from Buenos Aires, quickly becoming renowned for their energetic live performances. Eventually growing into an eight-piece horn dominated band with the addition of a second guitarist and two more horns, they released their debut CD, Empty Pockets in 2003. In my own words from that initial experience, "Empty Pockets is a blast of high-octane fun that effectively translates their live stage energy, giving the listener a great perspective of what a 'Hot Potato' sounds like."

I've waited, sometimes impatiently, for the last two years to do a follow up full feature to correlate with the release of their follow up CD. Finally… I had the interview, but their second CD, entitled Brainless, is still in the finishing stages of mixing. From what I've heard, it will be well worth the wait!

Brainless relives all of the energy and excitement of Empty Pockets, with more attention and time spent on the engineering. This gives Brainless a more refined sound and an ability to feature Running Potatoes' musical diversity without losing any of the raw energy and candor that has built their following in Latin America.

I hooked up with guitarist Jey-P for an online interview and found that he was also the man behind their websites, e-cards and host of other witty electronic advertising that has branded Running Potatoes as the staple musical diet of the underground ska-punk scene in Latin America.

Running Potatoes - Hey! What's up man?

HotBands - Finally!

Running Potatoes - You know my English sucks but we can try anyway.

HotBands - Your band is one that I've wanted to feature for a long time! I'm on your website right now. Is the playing music from your new CD? What is the name of your new release and is this your 2nd full length CD?

Running Potatoes - Yes! The first song you are hearing is called "Brainless", and is the title track of our new CD. We were trying to finish the CD by now, but it takes too long. This is our second LP and we are trying to make it perfect.

HotBands - Tell me about your band. How did you meet and what were your backgrounds? Tell me what you know up to the point you all decided to form a band, then we'll go from there.

Running Potatoes - I came in a little later. I didn't really know anybody in the band, when I first heard them. The first time I heard about them I was in California with a couple of friends from a band called 4NO1 (they are from Uruguay), and they were really good friends of Running Potatoes. After I came back to Argentina I went to a show and really loved the band! I asked them if I could play a song as a guest and after that they asked me if I wanted to be an official Potato.

I think I wanted to start a band when I went to my first concert. I saw TOY DOLLS! They were fucking awesome! After that I started playing guitar in a ska-punk band. The rest of the Potatoes came from other punk, grunge, hardcore and rock bands. Our range of music taste is really big, using elements of hardcore, reggae, Dixie-land, swing, ska and punk.

HotBands - So the band was formed before you joined?

Running Potatoes - Yes, they started in 2000 with just a singer, guitar, bass drums and one horn. I play guitar and sing and joined in 2002. I also brought some horns from my ska-core band, STRIKE 2!

HotBands - Who founded the band? And who is the main singer/songwriter?

Running Potatoes - The band started with the Alvarado brothers (our current drummer Tom, and the former guitar player El Negro), Ciro (our current singer) and Juan (former bass player, currently a porn and terror movie director). The songs on our first CD were writing by El Negro and Juan

HotBands - So Tom Alvardado and Ciro are the only two original members? Why was there a band shake-up?

Running Potatoes - Yes, Ciro and Tom are the only members that play all the shows. El Negro started to play trombone and study as an orchestra director, and didn't have the time for the band. Juan is a film director and just loves to make movies; he won an award with his movies "Run Bunny Run" in a movie festival in San Francisco, CA. He also had problems with his lungs and needed two operations. After that he had to quit drinking, smoking, drugging…he was already the craziest person I ever met, so he didn't really need any of that. Anyhow, he's still going to play ContraBajo (upright bass) in some shows.

HotBands - So you joined in 2002 and brought some horn players from another band. When did you record your first CD and how did you end up finding your 'sound' (or have you?)

Running Potatoes - I think we are still in the "finding our sound" process! We've changed and grown a lot from the first CD. We love to mix a lot of music styles and we have a lot of stuff that we didn't put on our new CD. We have big money problems that slowed the recording process. The songs are like 2 years old or even more, so we already have a lot of crazy new stuff for future CDs.

HotBands - Money problems seem to be an issue for bands worldwide! I've heard similar stories about recording delays from Asia to Europe

Running Potatoes - In 2001 Argentina suffered a devaluation of the money, since then everything is 3 times more expensive for us, and our salaries are really low. I make six times less than I did in 2000. It makes me really angry to see that money is an obstacle for our music.

HotBands - How many total in the band now?

Running Potatoes - Two guitars, bass, drums, trombone, trumpet and sax and lead singer.

HotBands - How many of you write songs? Out of the 4 I streamed from your site, 3 were the same singer and 1 was a different singer, right?

Running Potatoes - No, that music player is from one of our next shows and I put some songs from other bands. We are in the first 2 tracks. On our new CD, there are songs from El Negro and Juan, but also songs from Ciro and me. I really like one that I made with Juan, called "SkaZophrenic" which is a song about a guy fighting with his brain. For live shows, Ciro is the brain and I'm the guy.

HotBands - You look like a band that is out of control and loves to have fun! Tell me about your band. How would you describe yourselves and what kind of response have you had since you first started playing live shows.

Running Potatoes - We love to have fun in shows. I actually hate to play last in a show. Sometimes we are headlining a show and we have to, but I like to play in the middle, so I have time to go and skank with the other bands, drink with friends at the show and meet girls. We are getting great response from people. It's a really weird feeling when I see people that are actually fans of our band. That makes us really happy and we try to give the best show we can for them.

HotBands - How big of shows do you play? What is the music scene like in your country?

Running Potatoes - We play shows from 250 to 700 people. For Argentina, that's not as big as it could be, but I think this new CD will change a lot of things for us. In Argentina there is a big scene and some bands attract as many as 1500 to 3000 people.

HotBands - Do you play all age shows? How does the liquor laws affect where you play, or do they?

Running Potatoes - We are in the middle of the Hardcore Punk scene and the Ska scene.
It's like we are creating the Ska-Punk scene with a few bands. This past December 30th there was a big fire at a show where 300 people died. Try to picture a 1st of January without party, without fireworks, without happiness. It was really sad for everybody. We were lucky because we didn't know any of the victims, but it was still bad anyway…really bad for everybody in the country. We went for three months without any parties or concerts. Right now the laws about safety are changing a lot and like always the most affected are the underground bands. It's hard to find places to play…clubs charge you ridiculous amounts of money and there's also problems with the "all ages shows" and the time to play. In 2 weeks we are having our first "all ages show" because we never have problems with kids and liquor.

HotBands - It sounds like that fire set back the entire music scene in Buenos Aires. Are people going back out to shows now?

Running Potatoes - Yea, the past month we started to see music shows around, but we have to rebuild the music scene, so there wasn't much going on the first quarter of 2005 outside of electronic parties.

HotBands - What is the official release date of your CD?

Running Potatoes - We don't have an official release date. That depends on the money.
We're spending all we have to make our album, so it's just like the name of our first CD "Empty Pockets", but we are very close to finishing it. Today, the guys from Big D & The Kids Table are doing the vocal tracks for one of our new songs called "Ska Is Your Medicine", and the singer from Red Letter M did the vocal track for another song called "Destination". Once we have all the guest vocal tracks, we can start mixing the songs.

HotBands - So you collaborate with other bands in your area on your CD?

Running Potatoes - We have other guests from our area including some from PERICOS, which is the biggest reggae band in all Latin America. We have been lucky because I used to work with their guitar player and I also made their website. I make all the graphic stuff, websites, animation and multimedia for our band too.

HotBands - It's hilarious

Running Potatoes - heheh thanks, if you were living in South America, it would be funnier. There are a lot of inside jokes in the stuff I made for the band. Maybe with some "South Park" influences.

HotBands - That's what I think is the most incredible thing about the Internet, and electronic media in general...how something from one culture can totally influence another culture's music and humor.

HotBands - Your band is a fun band. What inspires your songwriting?

Running Potatoes - I know that sounds like the same stupid answer "life inspire us", but I think that's the right answer. We try to have a funny and crazy life. The song "Brainless" is the continuation of the song "SkaZophrenic", where the brain starts to fight with the owner of the body because it is tired of cigarettes, beer and drugs. In "Brainless" the brain decides to run away. It's like anybody's life; sometimes we ask to ourselves "should I stop with this?" That's life, and we have to enjoy it till the end!

HotBands - Do you have upcoming tours planned for this summer?

Running Potatoes - Well, actually our summer is in January. We did a summer tour called "LIVIN LA PLAYA LOCA" (the name comes from some mix of the Ricky Martin song and one of the most crazy and funny movies from Argentina "Bañeros 2: La Playa Loca", for the people that don't know, that's like a "Naked Gun" movie). In the tour we went all around the Argentinean coast in a bus with 2 more bands. You gotta check the official site, then you can see a crazy intro with Mitch Bukanon from Bay Watch, Ricky Martin, Bob Squarepants and more crazy characters http://www.livinlaplayaloca.8k.com. That's he spirit of the band. A TV channel actually sued us because we used pictures from TV stars!

HotBands - That's funny... what can they get from a bunch of broke musicians?

Running Potatoes - They can't get anything…that's why I just didn't care. The funniest thing is that our trumpet player works as an actor on a TV remake of "Married With Children" at that channel!

HotBands - I hope he doesn't lose his job because of it!

Running Potatoes - I don't think the lawyers from the channel really know about him. He also made a stencil of our band logo and had it on one of the background sets. A lot of people have asked how we got our logo on that show.

HotBands - You sing some songs in English, others in Spanish and some in German? (Or is that just a website preference). Are you targeting specific markets? Also, who does the graphics for you? It's really funny!

Running Potatoes - We used to sing in English, but on the new CD we also have some songs in Spanish. The German thing in our site was just because I used to work for a multimedia company in Germany and they were about to release our CD and make a tour for us. By the way they still owe me more than 1000 euros!

HotBands - With eight members, it must be difficult working around your jobs. How many of you are full-time musicians?

Running Potatoes - Nobody…it's too hard to make a living at it.

HotBands - Everybody working toward a common goal in music though, right?

Running Potatoes - Yes. Sometimes I don't how we do it, but we do.

HotBands - Where from here? I know it depends on money as far as your next release, but what are your immediate and mid-range goals for the band?

Running Potatoes - First thing is to get this CD released all over the world and tour! We love having fun and meeting cool new people and places. I believe this CD can open doors for us to go and play North America and Europe. It's hard when we are eight members, but we are a hard working band and we help our labels and the people that promote our shows in every way we can.

HotBands - I think your attitude is there and you have a fantastic sound. You just need to get spotted by the right person.

Running Potatoes -Thanks a lot!

HotBands - What kind of things do you want to say to any perspective readers?

Running Potatoes - I love when I find a song that can express exactly how I feel in a particular moment, place or situation. Nothing would make me happier than if you got that feeling with some of our songs, and I hope one day we can share that experience together at a live show. Finally, if you really like the band, you can make a big difference and help us greatly by joining the Potato Army! Enjoy music and keep skanin'!

For more information on Running Potatoes, CLICK HERE