Los Fuckin Sombreros return: a band that enjoyed success in its brief life will give a concert for the 20th anniversary of the “Bazuka!”

A few years playing together, and when they were at the top, they disbanded. but between The Fuckin Hats, even separated, the friendship remained. “If not, we wouldn’t get together,” Pipe Villarán told El Comercio about the meeting they will have this Friday the 25th for the 20th anniversary of their first album, “Bazuka!”. The Lima that saw the release of the album was different. Back then radio was a bigger boost to artists’ careers than it is now. Several record stores were still not closed and, in the absence of Spotify or YouTube, there were Ares and eMule to get the mp3s of the latest hits.

And among the musical offer was “Bazuka!” (2002), classic rock, with strong rockabilly influences. Rock to dance to, if you will. The public, the radios and in general the media responded well to the debut album and the band, in their best days, played every weekend. When the fourth album arrived, “Always On My Mind” (2007), the project dissolved and each one made their own career, but always together with the music. Since then they have returned in sporadic gigs, flashes that go away as fast as they appear.

Could such a classic album have emerged in this 2022, from TikToks and challenges? “The ‘Bazooka!’ It is a sample of our tastes at that time, of what we felt, of how we composed. Then, (today) something completely different would come out. What I like about ‘Bazuka!’ It is that it is a great testament of that time”, says the member Francois Peglau.

Twenty years after the first album, El Comercio spoke with Pipe Villarán (lead guitar, vocals), Francois Peglau (second guitar, vocals) and Arturo Ríos (drums). The fourth member, Miguel Barreto (bass), was out of Peru, but will return for the big night. Here, an excerpt from a conversation with nostalgia, humor and, above all, love for music.

EC: What have you been doing all these years since the separation?

Arthur: I have continued in music too, all these years, playing with different bands. And besides, with my work as a graphic designer and cartoonist.

Pipe: I continued with the music, with my bands. Now I’m with the Smoking Pipe Band and I’ve put out records and have concerts. I’m very happy.

Francois: And I had my solo project since I went to London. And now I play the piano in a bar.

Arthur: And he sells churros in El Peruanito [todos ríen].

EC: And how are you in the mood? Because they have not been easy times.

Arthur: For the musical meeting, the spirit is always present. We have always wanted to play together again. We’ve taken our spaces for each other’s personal projects, but it’s always a pleasure to get back together. I think that it was never really a goodbye, it was always a “see you later, see you later”.

Pipe: I am very happy, I have never stopped being so. The pandemic sucked, but it’s over and here I am.

Francois: I kinda think he feeling to meet together was also realizing that many close people have died, and that our time is short. We felt it was worth doing one more time before…

Pipe: Before we’re sixty [risas].

Francois: Before we’re sixty or Pipe can’t walk anymore [risas] and we wanted to avoid those issues.

Arthur: Before arthritis.

Pipe: Or having to wear a stomach bag.

EC: Reviewing the newspaper’s archive, I see that we describe that period, 2002 and 2003, as “the renaissance of Peruvian rock.” But was it really like that?

Pipe: Peruvian rock never died.

Francois: I think that at that time punk, new metal was very strong and, of course, we were doing a bit of rock and roll, there was a lot of rock influence. So you could say that as a way of “hey, look, it’s one more example of rebirth”, because there were other bands that did the same. Although they weren’t many, were they? It was us and Turbopotamos.

Pipe: What I perceive, as a retrospective, is that the color palette of Peruvian rock, if you want, was very monotonous. They were new metal and punk, let’s say. And there was nothing else. And all the people sang choked up, they all seemed upset. We, in a way yes, were like a breath of fresh air.

EC: Well, there were plenty of reasons to be upset, right?

Pipe: Sure, but I don’t mean annoying that society is shit and the world is going to end. I mean the musical part, singing chorado and that your lyrics are “f*cking mother, everything is shit” [Pipe dice esto imitando una voz gruesa, como cantante de metal], and in the photos you come out with a hoe, because you’re a metalhead. So, that nonsense kind of reached us a bit to the skewer. Rock and roll is danceable, it has always been happy. If you can’t dance to it, it’s not rock and roll.

Francois: Also, new metal and punk came a little bit from the end of Fujimorismo, from all that. I think there was also a time of optimism, right? In other words, democracy, people wanted to hear a little more melodic things, more danceable as Pipe says. And we are part of that and later, much later, in the middle of that decade and other things started to come out. A little changed everyone’s chip. We all became a little more optimistic.

Pipe: I feel like we had a bit to do with that. After us, like there were a lot more “rock and roll” bands in quotes, not heavy metal or punk. They were no longer afraid of making melodies, making catchy choruses and things like that, without being “strawberry”.

EC: I remember when I was at school, in 2002 or 2003, and I would come home, put on Studio 92 and listen to you. Did it mean a lot to you to be on the radio?

Arthur: We sound on the radio, right? It is true. The topic of the radio is always good. However, I believe, it was not like an absolute goal. If the radio is with us, perfect. And if not, we continued on our way without any problem. Even more so that, although this came after the separation of the band, social networks and all that just arrived.

Pipe: The radio always gives you an important push.

Arthur: It’s always good.

Francois: Well, it was good. Now… (laughs)

Pipe: Social networks have somewhat replaced radio.

EC: Could we now say that the challenges of TikTok, or TikTok itself, is what has replaced the radio push?

Francois: Not necessarily that, but yes, social media in general [son un empujón]. I don’t think everyone who does a music project is doing TikTok challenges. They are on TikTok probably, but not doing challenges. Now they’re doing these reels of “hi, how are you? My name is I don’t know what…” [imposta la voz]. But each era has its own medium, right? The radio already I believe that it already was. In other words, it does not have the power of before and now it is a slightly more fragmented world, more with niches. But at the time, radio was still powerful in the early 2000s. And at that time, I remember, Radio América helped us.

Pipe: Jammin was very important in the beginning, because it covered all the spaces that the bands didn’t have. Because one thing is to see the band in a photo of El Comercio and another is to see the band playing. And playing on a television set, with a proposal like the one Jammin had [de Movistar] when Edu was driving it [Saettone], it was great. That helped us a lot. We get a lot of people.

Arthur: In addition, the Jammin allowed the band to demonstrate all its artillery live.

Pipe: There was good sound.

Arthur: It wasn’t like, back in the day, just playback. I remember, several years before, with the Dream League, for example, we had to do a lot of playbacks. Instead he broke away from all of that and allowed us to show the band live.

EC: Besides, the fact that the band appeared on television helped them to have more experience (musically).

Pipe: We don’t really know why, but since the band came out it seems that they already had an audience, it seems that they already had the attention of the media.

Francois: He had a good start. The truth is that the history of the band was very short. For the last album, you already saw that the thing was super mature. I mean, I remember that we played on a Monday night, I don’t know why, and we said “no one is coming” and it was full. And I was like “oh, what’s up” [imposta la voz de pituco].

Pipe: If Los Fuckin had continued and made the transition to the networks… Because Immediately after we finished, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram started. And the festivals also began, the great festivals. Los Fuckin didn’t have that window of opportunity to play in front of 10,000 or 15,000 people. If we had come to that, we would perhaps be talking about a much more popular Fuckin Hats than we are now.

EC: Just as soon as you broke up, there began to be more international concerts.

Pipe: We left when the party started, let’s say.

EC: I imagine they could have opened for, for example, Kiss or Guns N’ Roses.

Arthur: In truth, anything could have happened. It seems interesting to me all this kind of multiplication of the band as a result of social networks. In other words, we left and there was no YouTube*. YouTube arrived and music began to be shared everywhere. There were more and more people. I said what a pity that this did not happen when we were in the ring.

[Nota del redactor: YouTube empezó en 2005, dos años antes del final de la banda].

Francois: Everything has its time. We even had a tour in Mexico, our very popular tour in Mexico that opened many doors…

Arthur: Especially the taxi door.

Pipe: The exit door [risas].

Francois: But I think the Fuckin time was the right time and you’re not going to cry over spilled milk. It was good, and really the movement started to go elsewhere. Everything changes, everything evolves, and I believe that we have done the same in our lives.

EC: And friendship remains, right?

Pipe: Otherwise, we wouldn’t get together.

Francois: For the money, nothing more (laughs).

EC: In a way I feel a little bad talking to you about the past when you are present, you are alive. After that 20-year reunion, are there more plans for the Fuckin?

Pipe: Step by step.

Francois: Well, we are going to edit an album for older gentlemen…

Arthur: From the geriatric section [risas].

Pipe: We are not sure.

Francois: We have always held our meetings as a single shot, hence each one has his life. In addition, Miguel continues to live abroad. In other words, this is the opportunity to see each other before the wheelchair.