Marisa had intended to do this interview, but
couldn't make it. I was not prepared and I've heard stories
about Jorge. I'll admit, it was slightly frightening to be led
by Darian into a damp, cold basement of a club, to be introduced
to the infamous Jorge Rosado of Merauder, the self-proclaimed
'God'. It felt kinda like judgment day, or how I would imagine
it to be. No. That's a bit dramatic. But I was scared shitless.
The pipes were making strange noises as I maneuvered through
the smoke. He's a bit intimidating. I've 'shot' him a couple
times on stage, and quite frankly, the photo pit was close enough
for me. Oh, and the name of their current drummer, Bobby Blood
- well, that didn't help to comfort me. The overall vibe resembled
a halloween party in the basement of a friend of a friend. You
know, you're pretty sure everything will be fine, but...could
you really trust a stranger? Turns out, yes. Jorge is funny
as hell...but I'll never, ever mention Biohazard again! We'll
just leave it at that!
What does Merauder mean?
Jorge: Merauder just means people that impose their will.
They come in the middle of the night, fuck shit up, take what
they want and go. You know what I mean? That's what we do. We
come into town and f**k shit up, and then we go.
Did you make up the name?
No. It's a real thing, Marauder. We just spelled it different.
(definition of marauder: to roam about and raid in search of
plunder).
Merauder formed in 1990?
Jorge: A little before that. I joined in 1994.
How did Bobby Blood come about being in your band?
Jorge: I met Bobby on a porn site...(laughs) I think he
was spreading his butt cheek...(nah!) He was playing at the
time for Crematorium. I met him one day. We clicked. We had
a lot of stuff in common and we just always kept in touch, ya
know? A position came up. I heard he was trying to come out
here to the east coast, tryin' to relocate. I'm like, well,
if you're doing that, shit, why don't you just join the band?
He's in the band. Things have been great with him.
Your new CD, "God is I". Where did that title
come from?
Jorge: I stole that from the Muslims. It's just a thing
that I always live by, ya know? God is I, I am God. It really
has nothing to do with religion. It's just the point that I
depend on myself. I don't depend on God, or the devil, or anybody
else to make shit happen for me. I depend on me, ya know, and
Merauder depends on itself. It's just basically saying, stand
on your own two feet. You're the only one that can make your
life heaven or hell. It's all on you, ya know? Nobody else is
gonna do it for you. I am God. I am in control of my own destiny.
I've got nobody to praise but myself. Why would you praise somebody
else? Why would you praise somebody that you don't know is even
there. You know, we could be praying to God and believe in religion
and all this stuff and come to find out, we were put here by
aliens. We don't know, ya know what I'm saying? I figure, believe
in myself. If God is out there, He gave me a life for a reason.
He gave me a life for me to make the best of it. I gotta do
everything myself so I'm sort of like God, ya know? It's Godly
to take care of yourself and be on the right path and whatever
shit after that, I'll deal with when I'm dead. While I'm alive,
we are God. Til the real one comes around (laughs).
Over the past twenty years, what has changed the most for
Merauder?
Jorge: I don't think it's (the music) changed at all. It's
still very Merauder(y). When you hear the record, it's a little
more metal and a little harder than before. We're a little angrier
now.
What is your angriest song?
Jorge: WOW!
Darian: "Ahora"
Jorge: We've got our Spanish song, "Ahora", which
means "now". "Kill". "Forgotten Children"
is pretty tough too.
Darian: It's not really about being angry. It's just about the
release in the music. We write the parts first, we write 'em
so they sound angry, as far as musicians…
What's inspiring you to write your lyrics?
Jorge: Life. It's what I've been through. It's all
in the past now, a lot of f*kd up shit, but that was my fuel
to get this band back together to make it all right. The songs
are about real shit I've been through that go on. There's nothing
really fake about Merauder. It's a little political. There's
a couple of songs that have got political aspects to it, but
you know, everything's basically pretty much real.
If you weren't in Merauder, or any band, what would you
be doing... especially to let out your anger?
Jorge: I don't know. I really don't know. I'd just
be doing the same thing I'm doing now. NOTHING! (laughs) I only
live one way. Without the band, I'm always gonna be me. I'm
all settled down now cause of the wife and kids. I'm off the
street. I would just basically work. What I know how to do -
use my hands. I'm not like a computer person, or anything like
that and I can't really sit in an office. I think I'd go f'ng
nuts. I'd do construction or be selling drugs. Seriously, it's
better than doin' construction.
Where have you toured?
Japan was cool. We've pretty much been everywhere. Except,
I'll tell you the places I haven't been - China, Russia, Korea,
Cambodia.
Darian: We went to China.
Jorge: Yeah, we went to China.
Where are the best fans?
Japan. Europe was great too. Europe's a little bit like
America. When we suffer economically, they suffer too. You'll
see it there. They have a little better system than we do. I
mean, everybody has a better system than we do, but they're
very supportive. They're just very good kids out there, but
Japan...
Darian: They're hungry still for the metal.
Jorge: Japanese kids, they don't f*k around man. They don't
f*k around. Give them a sword and some Ninja stars and forget
about it. Everybody's getting f*kd up! (laugh) They're great
out there. They can party. They can drink.
What's your craziest fan story? (Yes, this is currently
my favorite question). (extended silence)
Jorge: There was one kid in a sea of like four-thousand
kids dancing and all of a sudden like forty people turned on
him and we could see it and me and Sob jumped into the f*ng
crowd and crowd surfed until we got there and me and him, We
lit the whole crowd up. They beat him to a pulp. He was bloodied
up. They almost killed him. The kid came to the show like a
week later and his eyes were still bloodshot and all f*ked up
and he told us, 'You guys saved my life man. I thought I was
gonna die'. They were stompin' on him. And it was weird because
the crowd wasn't movin'. Everybody was attentive cause it was
like their first time seein' us and then after me and Sob went
into the crowd and had that fight and came back through the
crowd, I got back up on stage and started flippin' out and screamin'
"You mother f*ekrs think you're tough!" and all this
bullsh*t and then we started playin' and the whole f'ng place
went nuts. That's pretty crazy, ya know, you gotta go f*k somebody
up once or twice, ya know? We played the federal penitentiary.
Nobody's ever done that. Nobody in hip-hop, nobody in rock.
Nobody's done that.
Darian: Johnny Cash
Jorge: We played a federal penitentiary in the middle of a basketball
court. Cops went back into their cubicles; locked themselves
in there. I'm like, "Yo! Where you goin'? Come back"
(laughs) I'm like "Hope I don't drop the mic! {insert jokes
of pants dropping/butt cracks showing, and a comparative description
of mere cats standing up on their tip-toes w/the look of fear
in their eyes....} (You just had to be there for this hysterical,
visual interpretation Jorge performed.) 'Come here little boy!'
Get the f*k outta here! I felt like such a bitch in there...so
violated!
What are some off your favorite bands that you toured with
?
The Haunted are amazing people. I was really, really pissed
off with the American metal scene because that's an amazing
band right there and them are great dudes. Kids did not rep
for that band. There's so much social bs. It's like hardcore
has become fashionable. You just like what everybody else likes
because they tell you to like it. Back in the day, I had friends
that used to say, 'I'm not goin' to see the Cro-Mags cause I
don't like 'em!" Everybody liked the Cro-Mags, but you
found people who didn't cause they weren't afraid to say, 'I
like this, I don't like that'…
Darian: Obituary
Jorge: Obituary are great dudes. Sand from Japan. Great f*ng
kids. They don't speak any English, but we partied with them
like rock stars. We don't do enough with bigger bands. Exodus
are cool guys, great dudes. Gary Meskil from Pro-Pain. I mean
outside of my boys, outside of the whole, Madball. There's a
lotta great bands, Zero Tolerance from Germany. Black Friday
from Germany - Straight edge band.
Jorge: I just wanna say that no matter how we look, cause I've
been getting that a lot, we're a metal band and people don't
understand that. We're metal, whether it's metalcore or whatever
the f*k people wanna label it. We're metal. There's nothing
too hardcore about us and there's nothing too deathmetally.
We don't stray off left or right. We're right down the middle.
We're a band for everybody. There are kids with hair that look
at us weirdly. They judge us by the way we look. It's just who
we are, ya know what I'm sayin'? Our music's got nothin' to
do with who we are. It influences our attitude and all that,
and bs, it's all mixed in there, but we're metal. These kids
who don't know us and are judging us by our looks, just pick
up the CD and give us a listen. We're more metal than these
mutha f*kers with hair down to their...
Boob-ankles (laugh)
Jorge: Did you smoke a little?
Contact (all laugh) \m/
