IMMUNE TO THEM - A Love Letter To Extreme Music... (Spain - Hardcore/Grind/Crust - Interview with Eugenio).

Hi! Could you introduce yourself and tell us how it all started for you: your first encounter with this musical universe, what attracted and fascinated you, and what led you to dedicate yourself to music?
Hi! I'm Eugenio, vocalist of Immune To Them, from San Fernando, a town about 10 km from Cádiz, in southern Spain.
I got into this world when I was young. As a kid, I was really into disco and electronic music, but during high school, thanks to some friends, I started listening to skate punk and it completely blew my mind.
Then you get hooked and start exploring more and more music. I discovered new genres and styles — I love rock in almost all its forms — but I especially developed a weakness for the first metalcore bands from the late '90s.
As for the scene itself, I've always tried to attend almost every gig happening around Cádiz and nearby areas. I've met amazing people and bands over the years and, actually, most of my friends were basically the same three or four people you'd always run into at every show.
Music is a huge part of who I am, both personally and socially.
I started screaming almost by accident, singing some songs with friends who had a band. That's when I discovered I actually had the vocal ability to do proper harsh vocals.
My first band was No Hay Otra Mejilla, a neocrust band with people from the Cádiz Bay area. Later, I moved to Granada to study and sang in Cobradancers (rocking hardcore) and Indeskai (grind/powerviolence). After finishing my studies, I came back home and stayed inactive for a while until I joined Immune To Them.

Tell us about the band. How did you meet, what's the current line-up, and most importantly, why did the need to create THIS band arise?
I spent a few years living in Granada and, when I came back, I tried playing with some bands, but nothing really materialised. I was actually the last person to join the band. Antonio (guitar) contacted me through an online ad board and we met up to jam. I've always been involved in the local rock scene to some extent, so I was genuinely surprised that I'd never seen any of my bandmates before. We live in a pretty small area, after all!
The band started after the pandemic with Antonio and Dani (drums). Dani comes more from a metal background and had been playing in cover bands, while Antonio comes from doom, black metal and grind. He's been playing since the '90s, but, according to him, previous projects never really took off.
In 2022, after several line-up changes, Rober (bass) joined the band. Back in the '90s he played in Gutless Parturients, one of the pioneering grind bands in the area, and that's when the band really started taking shape.
I joined in 2023 after the previous vocalist, Agustín, left the band. From that moment, we all really stepped up our game, especially me, since I'd spent years away from playing live.
Everything is going great because all four of us pretty much share the same ideas and tastes.
Nowadays there's way too much intolerance, social division, fake appearances and superficiality everywhere, so we feel it's necessary to express ourselves the way we do.

Describe your sound and tell us why people absolutely need to listen to your band ?
Even though we share a lot of musical influences, each of us comes from a different background. Our sound is the result of those four different paths colliding together, with each member bringing their own identity, roots, passion and personality into the music. This album is basically our love letter to extreme music, which we deeply love and respect.

What are your lyrical and musical inspirations and influences? How important are lyrics for you? Is there any message or idea you try to develop and share through them?
For Immune To Them, some of our main influences are Cursed, Baptists, Trap Them, The Arson Project, Converge and Implore, among many others, although we all listen to pretty much everything. Lyrically, I've been heavily influenced by ironic and sarcastic punk rock, from Siniestro Total to Dead Kennedys. I also love raw, political bands like Propagandhi, Tragedy and Los Crudos. From my personal perspective, and because of my influences, I feel the need to speak up and express my vision of the world around me. I always respect and consider the opinions of the rest of the band and try to merge all those perspectives together.
We're a very tight unit. Punk runs through my veins. If I see something that could be improved, I usually won't stay quiet. I always try to be critical, but also constructive when writing lyrics.

About the band's discography: imagine someone who knows absolutely nothing about your band and wants to get into it. Which release would you recommend first and why?
I'd recommend our first full-length album, "Hell Is Us". It's our latest work and the freshest representation of who we are right now.

What can you tell us about your latest release?
"Hell Is Us" is our first full-length album.
It features 13 intense, dirty and straightforward tracks where we explore both personal and global forms of hell and how they affect us. It was recorded and mixed at El Bisonte Estudio by Rafa Camisón and mastered by Brad Boatright at AudioSiege. The artwork was created by Nerea (Makabre Design). It's currently available on digital platforms and CD through Hecatombe Records, and a vinyl edition will be released soon.

Future plans?
At the moment, we've got a few shows lined up around Spain and we're always open to new opportunities and suggestions.

What's the craziest dream you'd like to achieve with the band?
I'm not exactly young anymore, so unfortunately you start losing some dreams and ideals along the way. At this point, it's more about facing reality with optimism and enjoying whatever comes next. That said, playing outside Europe would be absolutely amazing.

Your BEST and WORST gig as a band, and why?
The worst one was definitely our first gig. We went in without really being fully defined yet and, personally, I'd only been in the band for five months and still hadn't figured everything out. As for the best one... it's always the latest gig we've played.

Upcoming live shows?
We're planning to play some shows around southern Spain in September and October, although no dates have been confirmed yet.

A few words about your local scene. Any bands you'd like to mention?
Honestly, there's some really good stuff happening in Cádiz province right now. In Jerez, there's Decadente, who play old-school metalcore and never stop gigging.
Feral are also killing it, as well as Reo. And of course, the legendary G.A.S. Drummers are still going strong !