Tour: https://www.octoberpresents.com/illnino2025
Latin American, alternative metal band Ill Niño made their mark at the time of nu-metal hitting the hard music charts. Formed by Pro-Pain drummer David Chavarri, their 2001 release Revolution Revolución made a statement of presence to the metal world, whereby the band enjoyed mainstream success, continuing that drive with subsequent release Confession, with several releases since then, with the most recent being in 2014 with Till Death, La Familia. Delays in new material, and it being eight years since a tour to Australia, somewhat involves weathering a variety of personnel changes, and offshoot bands, but through it all, Ill Niño have still retained a loyal fanbase, eager to catch their powerful live performances. Currently fronted by enthusiastic newcomer to the fold, Tommy Roulette, Ill Niño is finally looking to contain the solid line-up that will at last release some new music, which will also be aired in their upcoming setlists. We had a pre-tour chinwag with Roulette, and band founder Chavarri recently, to discuss their upcoming tour.
It has been eight years since you were here in Australia. What’s been happening?
David Chavarri: We cannot wait to come back to tour. My wife is from Brisbane, and my daughter was born in Brisbane. I mean, I’ve been to Australia every year since then because I’m married to an Aussie. So, we come every year no matter what, whether we are touring or not touring. I love Australia, bro, like a motherfucker.
When you go to other countries, do you ever switch off in the sense that you’d be looking around noticing venues, clubs and booking agency locations?
DC: You know what I loved about the last time I was there for Christmas? Last Christmas, I just told everybody, ‘Don’t call me unless you’re in jail or you’re in the hospital.’ We’re here to welcome our new singer, Tommy, and he’s been crushing on the new tour. The new tour has been phenomenal.
Tommy Roulette: Every band too [has been crushing] with Powerman 5000, Ill Niño and Hed PE; they’re kind of from the same era, because you get the “nu-metal”, but each band has a distinct type of sound, which is very cool. Also, Priest [Sweden] does all goth, synth wave, which is awesome. Every band has their own identity and that’s really cool to see, too. There’s a lot of variety here.
Ill Niño popped out just after Slipknot hit, with that push of extreme metal but got called nu-metal.
TR: Yeah, yeah. That’s the whole thing; labelled all these bands kind of the same, from the same era, but they all had a very distinct thing that kind of separated themselves from each other. I feel like that’s what made a lot of the bands that today be very special.
DC: That’s four leading bands, if you put Limp Bizkit, System of a Down, Korn and Deftones; they’re all so different from each other, but to belong to the same genre.
TR: Yeah, the fans love it all.
DC: I think that’s what makes Ill Niño different. We’re like a Latin metal band, but we are a nu-metal band as well. So, we bring a Latin flavour to all our Spanish vocals, English vocals, and Latin, African, and Cuban percussion.
TR: So, for the culture.
DC: Yeah. Tommy has been crushing since the minute we started the tour, and we’re about to go into the studio and do a record right after this tour. We’re going to finish the record before we go to Australia. We’re busy doing these five weeks, right, back to grinding, back to Australia, New Zealand, banging it out. Then we’ll go to South America and Mexico into the end of October, and November.
TR: Yeah, one thing. I want to bring up is I’m such a fan of the music scene; I like so many bands from metalcore, hardcore, deathcore. I love Speed, Northlane, Dealer, Alpha Wolf, Terminal Sleep and Polaris. There are so many great bands that come out of Australia and I’m just very into all of it. So, the fact that I get to go out there and play out there is an honour. I’m very thankful, and very grateful. I can’t wait to see what Australia is like.
Have you had to adjust any of your singing style in trying to sing Cristian’s [Machado – ex vocalist] material?
TR: Oh, no, no. Absolutely this is the most fun tour I’ve ever been on, but it’s also the most challenging. I’m just figuring out ways throughout the day on how I can do this better, since before this tour started, I was kind of thrown into it a few weeks before, so everything happened very, very fast. But the guys are all great. They’re all treating me very well. I’ve never been on tour in a bus before, so that’s also awesome. I consider that a luxury. I’ve been touring since 2012. Always been in the van, always been doing that, but hung out in buses? Never toured in a bus. I’m very thankful and very appreciative of how cool the guys are with me and stuff like that.
DC: The way we roll is we have each other’s backs and we’re family oriented. The way we work together shows on stage, because you can tell when people don’t get along.
TR: Yeah, you really can. You really can.
DC: People think that you don’t, but you can. People say, ‘These guys don’t like each other. You can tell, you know, and when you come see our band, it’s like, it’s full on. Full on.
TR: We’re just smiling at each other all the time.
There’s obviously rumours of new material swirling around. So, with the set list, can we expect to hear some new material that you’re planning on releasing soon?
DC: Absolutely. We’re going to pull some deep tracks that we have never played with Ill Niño that we’re going to do with this with Tommy and with the rest of the guys; Jes De Hoyos on [lead] guitar and Salvadore Dominguez on [rhythm] guitar and then Miggy Sanchez on [backing] vocals and percussion, and of course my right hand guy, my OG Lazaro Pina on bass. Man, I have such a great band, a great bunch of guys. Now with Tommy, we gel so amazingly. We are all very respectful of each other and everybody just has each other’s backs, man. When everybody’s on the same it is a breath of fresh air.
TR: It’s awesome. It’s a great feeling.
DC: To answer the question though, we’re going to be playing a lot of deep cuts off the new album and we are going to be doing a new song, “Born to Suffer”. We’re definitely going to play a new song on this tour, maybe two. We’ll see what we pull out but you’re going to see Tommy’s flavour, and you’re going to see his attitudes modernising. A lot of the stuff that we’re doing with the band has been around, in some cases for over twenty years, and with Tommy’s vibe, and with our vibe, and putting it together, it’s just a great mixture.
Going back to when you were initially signed, Roadrunner signed you once you got Christian out from bass doing vocals. What do you think was the main selling point for Roadrunner? At the time you had all these different bands.
DC: I can tell you this; I walked into the A&R office with a demo, and I talked to Mike Gitter at Roadrunner [now Vice-President of A&R, Century Media]. I walked to his office, and I played him “Predisposed” and “Nothing’s Clear”, and he said, ‘It’s heavy like Slipknot, but it’s singing like the Deftones,” and it enhances the Latin percussion throughout. That just makes it so ethnic. He’s like, ‘I love it,’ and it was like immediate. We were signed three weeks later. It was like, bam, bam, ‘I want to see the band.’ So, we did a couple of shows, he came out, done deal. The first record sold 490, 000 records, almost half a million, second record, over 700, 000 records and the third record, 350, 000. So, you know, they were happy. Everybody was happy. But as we all know, there’s comes a time where, you know, there’s separation. You know what I mean? It was just like Spineshank, Type O Negative Fear Factory, Cold Chamber. Everybody does two, three records for Roadrunner, and then it seems like after that it’s time to move on, you know? I’m very thankful that they gave us the start. They worked really hard to break the band, and we all worked together very well. And Cees Wessels, the owner of the company, became a friend and they all worked really hard. Mike Gitter ordered back this whole success of the band.
It is also cool because at the time, everyone was trying to sound like Soulfly or Machine Head.
TR: I think the culture brings that balance, too, like, where you come from, what you’re trying to bring to the table. I think that also separates the identity between all these bands, you know, from where they come from since all these bands in the heavier genre bring where they come from into the mix, and it really develops an identity for them. So, I can always appreciate that.
In order to stay in time when you’re singing, do you listen for Dave’s snare, or the rhythm section?
TR: Well, I’m a drummer, originally. I’ve been playing drums since I was seven. I went to Berkeley in Boston for drums. Singing came a little later, but I apply the rhythm aspects to the vocals. I definitely go off Dave a lot when we’re live, and we always look at each other, and Miggy as well. I’m very even, you know.
DC: He’s very percussive.
That makes sense with all the percussion that’s going on with the arrangements.
TR: For me, it’s perfect for me, I’m not complaining, man. It’s in my favour.
DC: Tommy coming in has been such an easy transition. It’s been effortless. You know how things are, so when it’s effortless and it’s easy, it’s the right move.
What are your thoughts on the current metal scene?
TR: I think heavy music is the best that it is right now, to be honest. I didn’t start going to shows until about like 2008, 2009, but now I see a lot of bands kind of going back to the roots and it’s all people even younger than me, people that are 18 to 22 years old, are making really heavy stuff. But going back to the raw effort of the production, kind of going back to the roots of it, not so much focused on the polishing. I feel like a lot of the younger cats are like straying away from that. Fear Factory kind of brought in that triggering thing on the drums.
TR: There are levels to it. There’s are ways to make it authentic and ways to make it sound fufu. There’s definitely bands out there that make it like the way Fear Factory did it. I consider that authentic, the way they did that, especially on Digimortal. That’s one of my favourite Fear Factory records. I love what they’ve done for the genre and everything. But yeah, for a lot of bands, it’s raw, but modernising it and making it more new sounding while also paying homage to the old school. It’s a very different game that’s kind of changing, man, like Knuckle Sandwich, Volcano, Peeling Flesh. I love what all those new bands are doing. They’re selling out rooms right now; they’re killing it, and these bands are going viral because of the mosh footage, which I like because it makes the crowd kind of a part of the show as well, you know, not so much the band. It’s like a lot of the crowd responses that make this whole new movement kind of popping up and I respect it a lot and I’m a big fan, and same with Australia, too, like, Speed. In my opinion, that’s like the biggest hardcore band out of Australia right now. Like, they got Travis Barker, and I forget which Kardashian he’s married to, but she was there, just side stage at a Speed show. I love the scene out there and I just love seeing bands from other places bringing their own culture into the mix while staying true to the heaviness.
Dave, how would you say your drumming has changed live over the years?
DC: I play a little more now than I did in the past when we were doing the first couple of records. We had producers about, like Bob Marlette, and the whole flavour of the week at that point was less is more. So, stay more in the pocket and don’t overplay when there’s a chorus going on, just stick to the beat. But music has changed, you know, even with bands like Meshuggah, who have changed trajectory and now it doesn’t matter if you’re doing a chorus. Go off, if it feels good, that is what you do. So, I’ve been following that trajectory a little more, and I’m going out a little more and being a little more flary, but a little choppier, you know, Meshuggah.
There are almost digital drums in a live environment, which is kind of amazing to see.
DC: I use both, man. I use triggers live and I use regular microphone live. Yeah, I like the organic feel because Ill Niño is a very frantic band. You know, we’re punching you in the face. Heavy, heavy, heavy, then bam, into a beautiful flamenco guitar part with Latin percussion. So, I can’t be using a metal trigger by itself because then those parts would sound really fake. It wouldn’t sound right. Yeah, so we use both elements.
TR: Once we started touring together, Dave started showing me all the past bands he’s been in. He’s been in the thrash, crossover thrash scene since the beginning of metal in the 80’s. He’s been there, you know, he’s been in hardcore bands. His old band had a song with Ice-T in the early 90s, and it was like fight riffs, really heavy stuff. So, I’m just like, ‘Yo, this guy has been there through the era.’ So, that’s why I can appreciate that too, because he was making music ahead of its time, even prior to Ill Niño.
DC: Respect. Yeah, you mesh the old school mentality, all the Ill Niño hits. Now you mesh Tommy coming into the fold, bringing that modern hype and vibe. Dude, it’s the new is fire, man. When you hear “Born to Suffer”, we’re going to be releasing it before we go to Australia with a video, and we will be playing it live on this next tour. It’s heavy, as you know, it’s like Revolution Revolución heavy.
TR: It’s great. It’s right up my alley. I love heavy and, on this tour, this is the most singing I’ve done in a band on tour. So, very challenging, but awesome and very rewarding.
Are you also using backing vocals a lot?
TR: Miggy will do harmonies with me on choruses
DC: We have never allowed backtracks ever on anything we’ve done live, and that’s why Miggy is such an integral part of the band, because he kills it on percussion and he’s a great singer as well. Tommy and Miggy; they’re fire together.
TR: Yeah, man, I love the guys. I love the group. They’re treating me so well. I’m just thankful and grateful to be here, and I’m not taking it granted at all. I’m always just figuring out a way just to keep improving, keep making the show the best as it can possibly be.
DC: We’re going to bring a killer show to Australia, man. Be ready because it’s going to be Ill Niño hype on ten. We’re going to blow smoke the out of everybody on that. Oh, yeah.
How would you say that your songwriting has evolved as well?
DC: You know, for the first two or three records, we wrote that record organically. We were all six of us in a room. We all wrote the record together. We feed each other’s vibe. We kind of stopped doing that after the third record, and for the four records after that, it was, ‘I’ll send you the files, in an email,’ and one guy was in Florida, one guy was in New York, one guy was in Texas. There’s a sterile vibe to it that I just wasn’t feeling anymore. Now on this new song, and on this new album, actually, we’re all going to be in the same room at the same time. We’re going to be jamming hour after hour after hour, just sitting there playing and feeding off each other’s vibe.
TR: It’s just more coherent when everybody’s in the same room. I think a lot of bands, especially today, are straying away from, ‘I’m in another state, let’s just do a remote.’ A lot of bands are kind of straying away from that because it’s very important to keep that authenticity within the music.
DC: Yeah, you know, how spontaneous, and for people that don’t write music or they’re not in bands, you can feel when it is the case. When you listen to a song, you can hear how not sterile and how organic it feels when it is spontaneous like that because it feels real. You know, it isn’t like, ‘Oh, okay, you write that riff, you write that vocal,’ and I’m looking forward to it. It’s going to be a kick ass record. We’re going to have three days off after this tour and then we’re going to go right to the studio and start writing the new album, finish the album, go right to Australia, come home, have like a week and a half, two weeks off, go right to Europe and South America and then we have a couple of huge tours that we’re going to be doing next year that we can announce at the beginning of the year.
All right, we will see you here fairly soon. Thank you for the chat.
DC: Oh, thank you for having us, man. I really appreciate your time.
No worries.
DC: Absolutely, brother. Thank you so much.
TR: Thank you so much, Paul. Take care.