The following is the first part of an interview I did with CULO on the way home from Michigan Fest a couple of months ago. Check back the next few months for the other parts. CULO is a hardcore as fuck band from Chicago with a new record coming out on Punks Before Profits soon soon soon.

Nov. 28^th coming back from Michigan Fest in Mt. Pleasant, MI.

Live interview by Ryan with CÜLO, transcribed by Claire.

 

Okay let’s start by everyone saying “I’m… and I do…”

 

Nathan: I’m Nathan and I play guitar.

John: I’m John and I sing.

Sean: My name’s Sean and I play drums.

Corey: Corey and I also play guitar.

 

Okay so I’ll start off with the question I’ve always wanted to ask you guys. Why do you have the name CÜLO? Why do you have a Spanish name?

 

Nathan: Honestly… I actually got the name from hanging out with my girlfriend who is Mexican. We had so many names and I wanted a name that was offensive to a degree. I was giving words to her and she was telling me the words in Spanish and I said “butthole” and she said “cülo” and for some reason I just thought that was hilarious… plus then it also worked then because I thought it was somewhat ironic that we live in such a heavily Hispanic punk and hardcore scene that I thought it was funny to be in another band with a Spanish name even though we were just four fucking white kids that live in the suburbs that are middle class and completely aren’t working within a tight-knit Latino community, and they wouldn’t even want us to because we are white,  but there are multiple reasons, though mainly out of pure comedy is why our name is cülo.

 

Do you guys ever get any heat or anything from anybody in the Latino community, especially because you are from one of the strongest and largest Latino hardcore areas in the country, do you ever get any heat like “Hey check out this band… oh they’re just a bunch of white dudes”…?

 

John: We’re not really allowed to play any of the…

Nathan: Well I would say we’ve talked to a few people about this before and actually some people seem to get down on us not only because we’re white, I don’t want to turn it into a race thing but we come from the suburbs and we’re not from the city so it’s like instantly looked down upon, like we can’t be taken that seriously. But also everyone in the band, me and Corey both have Mexican girlfriends, and John has a Mexican boyfriend and I think everyone always makes jokes when we’re hanging out in the scene but there’s a little bit of reality in there because people say “oh you’re taking all our Mexican girlfriends” or boyfriends I guess, but like I think some people look down upon us because we are even into mixed race couples which is always funny… but I don’t know. Nothing too much, we don’t really work with the scene and none of us really care to, I mean it doesn’t matter to me.

 

Yeah so bringing into that point, so you guys are from Elgin, kind of suburban Chicago, do you feel like you’re a part of the Chicago scene or any side of it? Or just like kind of your own thing?

 

All: No.

 

Nathan: No and if we really wanted to integrate ourselves we easily could, it’s not hard to sweet-talk someone and you know suck up and be a cunt but like Jerry from Poison Idea put it the best when he said he was only in a band for himself and his friends and doesn’t give a shit about anyone else and that’s completely I would say…

 

Sean: it’s pretty obvious, even to you, whenever we’re at a show, or even one that we play, we’re still socially awkward, we can’t… I don’t even know why, but it’d probably be a lot easier to be involved if we talked to people, especially since everyone else is so much older and in Chicago. Everybody is old there, besides the Latino scene, which is younger, but the hardcore scene is really mature and we’re not mature in any way.

 

John: I would say as a band statement that we are anti-maturity. At least I am. And stay young till I die.

 

Okay well one thing that’s always struck me as weird with you guys is that we love to hang out and drink and party and stuff but it seems like when there’s a party you guys are gone, but if there’s only a couple of people there, you guys are there too. It seems like a lot of people in hardcore and punk deal with social issues like depression, does anyone deal with this, I mean is this what it stems from?

 

Nathan: I mean definitely to a big degree, the biggest factor especially with me, though no one in our band is cool, like I went through four years of high school as well as Sean and John and Corey, like I went through all of high school without having a girlfriend or going to a party once, actually I went to a party with Corey once and that was the only time. I have never gone to any parties or hung out with any people, I’ve never had multiple friends. The only people that are my friends are literally the three people in my band. We’re not too keen on people and we’re not too used to the party environment and it just sucks. It’s cunt life. The worst environment to be in, people just waiting around to finger-fuck someone, that sucks. Like I’m fine with getting fucked up, it’s fun as hell but I’d rather do it with three of my good friends in my room listening to records as opposed to being at a party and having to bullshit and talk about the stupid same shit over and over all the time. It’s just a drag.

 

Yeah. Anyone else want to comment?

 

Corey: I think it would be nice and we could better ourselves if we socialized a little more, obviously I can’t get you three to ever do anything so I just go with the group I guess. Like I’m down with talking to people even though I don’t have much to say and I’m awkward but I can see the benefits of doing it. But you guys don’t do it so I give up easily.

 

Nathan: I personally do not care at all. I’m going to be in my own band regardless.

 

John: I’m mostly just anti- parties and I’ve never really been to a party besides like hanging out. I read Conan novels and…

 

Nathan: Yeah sometimes he won’t even hang out with us he’ll just go home and go home and read a book… like Conan.

 

In hardcore and punk it’s supposed to be such a community, like through being inside and watching bands and stuff but I think a lot of people deal with depression and anxiety and when I was younger and people would sit outside I would never think about how the people coming to these shows were fucked up people who possibly dealt with some of these issues. It’s like taking a whole bunch of fucked up people and putting them in a room and telling them to get along.

 

Nathan: Yeah a bunch of people who don’t want to be alive that much anyways, and like “force yourselves and jump around in the pit”.

 

Yeah and like force yourselves to get involved in something… Do you ever come across people who wonder why you aren’t inside or why you’re anti-social as a band?

 

All: Yeah….

 

Corey: Yeah I have a good example, remember when we went to see Perdition in Chicago? The bassist of Perdition, we hung out with him when we toured New York then when he came out to Chicago and it was like kind of a little party going on in the back yard and it was literally like the four of us and him sitting around in a circle and he was like “so this is what you guys do? You don’t talk to anyone or anything? And we were like “nah”.

 

Nathan: Yeah people say “oh you’re anti-social… that’s cool”, but they’re all partying big time. Even in our hometown. Everyone in the band has pretty refined tastes and like punk rock is my life. I’m not even punk-rock. I’m a punk. It means more to me than a bad-ass bracelet. And my taste in music, as well as everyone in this band is pretty refined and I’m not cool with listening to anything. I like music too, just because a band is playing fast doesn’t mean I’m going to instantly lick it up, I also want to hear good fucking bands. I understand not every band can be great but sometime I get sick seeing all these shitty bands I don’t give a fuck about. I’m like… well everyone in the band is kind of like dicks in that sense, which is honestly truthful…

 

Sean: We’re kind of used to it—in Chicago at least—there’s not really many shows we get on, one here and there but most shows… everything in Chicago is really cliquey and we’re the complete opposite of that so I think whenever we go anywhere else it just happens like that, even if we don’t mean it to.

 

Nathan: We’re an extremely self-sufficient band.

 

John: The thing about what Nathan said earlier, about these being our only friends essentially, and so maybe that’s a part of it too, we don’t really have any other friends… we just hang out with each other. Like even on a weekday we’ll be hanging out at night.

 

Nathan: Plus a lot of people can’t really seem to stand hanging out with us anyways.

 

I’m always interested in what people in punk bands do outside of punk…  what do you guys do? Are you in school or what?

 

Nathan: I did graduate High school, and am working a manual labor job 40 hours a week and it’s the worst thing I’ve ever done in my entire life. I hate it. There’s nothing worse in the entire world than doing manual labor. It’s stupid. I’m so passionate on hating my fucking job. It’s the worst thing in the fucking world besides maybe cops. But besides that, having to spend the majority of my day working for shitty fucking wages, when I’m not doing that my life is completely controlled by punk. It’s like the only thing. I skate, play D and D, comics, star wars, punk rock, and hardcore.  My band fills up my entire day. I sit there for 8 hours and think about writing songs, lyrics, records coming out, my life revolves completely around punk and hardcore, and that’s all I ever want to know.

 

John: I graduated high school, but mostly I’m just in this band. I just quit my job and am going to school to be a massage therapist. I like to write shitty ass short stories too and that’s about it.

 

Sean: I graduated high school awhile ago and went to college for a bit and failed every class and stopped going. Then I started working and I obviously hate it but the band is everything. It’s all I do besides work.

 

Corey: graduated high school in 2006. Definitely some of the worst years of my life, but if it wasn’t for them I wouldn’t be in this band right now.  I met these guys through it so it is what it is. Then I started going to CC in Elgin and basically have been dicking around there ever since and taking a couple classes here and there, failing sometimes, succeeding others, and I’m still there. I don’t know exactly what I’m doing but I’m there so I’m like ‘what the hell’… I’m giving in. I work maybe 30-40 hours a week at Target filling all the dairy products and honestly I’m fine with it it’s cool, I don’t mind it too much. It’s easy, and it’s cold and I get paid shitty. It’s fine I don’t have to talk to anybody. It’s the first job I’ve had that I’ve been okay with.  Besides that this band is a big part obviously.

 

 

So you guys are playing a pretty dated style of hardcore punk. What do you guys think of today’s hardcore? Do you think it has the same urgency and anger? How do you guys feel about it?

 

Sean: I think it’s older people who all wear flannels and vans and go to college and are art students…

 

Corey: And then there’s us. That’s what I see when I go to shows, a bunch of college kids.

 

Sean: But it’s different depending on where you go. Obviously I don’t know what it was like back in the day because I wasn’t there. But I guess we just try to make the best of it as we go. Seems like everything is wayyy too trendy now… too cliquey. But there’s nothing you can do about it except try to make it better through every show you play.

 

John: Hardcore is still relevant today but seriously fuck people who go to art school who cannot draw. I am so sick of that.

 

Nathan: My answer is different than anyone’s. I think honestly hardcore today is better. If you have the mentality that hardcore sucks now I think that’s bullshit because if you’re involved in punk and hardcore, even in the past couple years there have been so many bands, there are so many good bands out there.  There’s a shit ton of bands that blow me away. And as much as I love my 80s hardcore, you have to give a fuck about what’s going on now, there are so many fucking good bands I think.

 

Corey: everything has to progress constantly. You can’t live in the past… I think there’s a lot of bands that are really great today it’s just the social part of it.

 

Nathan: But yeah fuck that. If I’m just thinking of bands that are around today that I think are good I think of a shit load. I’m really excited on the fact that I’m into so many bands that are around nowadays because I hate the whole ‘shit was good, I don’t care about now’. I think we have a sound that draws from 80s hardcore, but I’m not really down with the whole powerviolence grindcore thing, that’s fine, I just like my punk catchy too. There’s an awesome touring network, I mean we’re a shit band that no one gives a fuck about and we can tour and play awesome shows and met awesome people. Including you. I think shit’s great. There are some really great tools out there for being really D.I.Y. and really self-sufficient. We have tools now that make it way easier than it used to be .I had no contacts and booked a tour years ago online and I was just some random person. It’s pretty bad ass. And so innovative.

 

What are some of the bands you guys are into right now?

 

Nathan: The Ramones, that’s it.

 

Nathan: New bands? I think for the past while Civic Progress and Cardiac Arrest have been owning my life. Like for a while. Bunny Skulls. A band you introduced to me. Anything that’s pure hardcore punk rock. Smart Cops… even though I don’t know what the lyrics are about. Great band but I don’t know what they’re singing about. So many great bands. Carbonas… that’s too broad of a question because there are so many bands I could fill that with.

 

Yeah it’s a tough one. I just like to ask. I like to mention bands in interviews.

 

Nathan: Yeah I can understand. Personally a lot of the No Way releases I’m really down with. I hate seeing the 80s hardcore revival thing but whatever it’s just hardcore actual punk to me. There’s too many bands… Acid Reflux… I think they’re great lyrically and musically. They’re a good band.

 

STAY TUNED FOR PART 2!!!!!!!!!!