I met Renzo on Twitter and after a few tweets thought that he would be an interesting and fun interview... Renzo lived in Peru where he played with one of the most popular punk bands in Peru.. The band broke up and Renzo wanted to continue to rock so he moved to Spain where he formed Landia... Renzo is the real deal. Enjoy the interview...

Punk Globe: Thanks for the interview Renzo... Give us a little background about yourself?

Renzo Lancho Figueras: Basically I can say that I've spent half my life making music and on stage. The truth is that studying was not my thing. However, I was not a poor student because I passed my courses easily. The time I did not spent studying I spent it learning how to play a guitar all by myself. I am an autodidact concerning playing the guitar.

Punk Globe: Tell us about your very first band?

Renzo Lancho Figueras: It is a very difficult question because it is hard to resume all that Dalevuelta meant. In fact, right now I am writing a book that tells my story on this music band. But in short, I can say that Dalevuelta, my first music band was a personal project that was born from the need to express myself, and although we separated in 2009, it still has a current value on many people that need to listen what was expressed.

Punk Globe: You are currently living in Spain. Were you born there?

Renzo Lancho Figueras: I have been living in Spain for five years now, my relationship with Spain and its history is quite strong. My family immigrated during the post-civil war to Peru and I was born there, more exactly at Lima. I grew up in the bosom of an exiled Catalan family.

Punk Globe: When you were living in Peru you played guitar with Dalevuelta.. Tell us about the band?

Renzo Lancho Figueras: The first instrument I tried to play was the piano thanks to my mother that used to play it, however, I wasn't as good as her and I never learned to play it right. At the age of 12 I started playing the guitar and improved myself with time. The guitar is THE instrument, the one that has helped me to compose the 7 albums I've written. In Dalevuelta I was always the only one playing the guitar until we decided to include a second one as a support for the last album.

Punk Globe: Who was in the band and what did they play?

Renzo Lancho Figueras: Dalevuelta had several bassists. A different one for every disk we had. But the most important band, the one that most of the people remember is the one that we had on our second album. Such band was formed by El Juanca (vocals), El Gordo Carlos (bass), Arturo "El Wiese" (drums) and me (guitar and vocals). El Juanca left the band in 2002 and from the third to the fifth album I was the only singer. It is impossible for me not to mention Diego del Rosario, the last bass guitar player of the band, that became my right hand with Arturo.

Punk Globe: Dalevuelta had quite a large punk following and then you just broke up. What happened?

Renzo Lancho Figueras: Honestly I cannot speak of a large and well established scene in Peru. Mid 2000 there was a consolidated independent scene in Lima. This one was quite large and we had the privilege of being part of it. Surely we contributed to give a leap to music bands (including ours) of playing in bars for few people, to expose their music to thousands of people at festivals that broke the patterns of what we were living in Peru for the past decades.

Unfortunately the circuit was closing mostly in Lima and playing for the last eleven years on those features brings saturation and wears yourself out. To this we must add that the scene of Lima itself was no longer attractive. We were very few left holding the building that eventually collapsed.

Punk Globe: There is a rumor that the band is going to reform to play an anniversary show.. If so do you have any idea's what venue you will play and what city?

Renzo Lancho Figueras: It is pretty curious what happens with Dalevuelta. Since we separated in 2009, we have not organized anything. What we decided to do at that time was to leave the people that followed us with all the good memories they had, that's all. However, we have sometimes published articles or photos that we found on old drawers to keep all this alive. These actions showed us that the people that followed us during those years, wanted us back and that we have a new audience, a younger one.

In early 2014 el Juanca, el Gordo and I met in Lima for Christmas holidays, when people from the 'Old School' learned it, they did not hesitated to propose us a "small" gathering as a recall of those times. That "little" encounter ended two consecutive sold outs where we had to play for more than two thousand people.

Dalevuelta, as a music band, celebrated its 15th anniversary in 2014 and we having been thinking of celebrating it in Lima. Right now, we have 4 interesting proposals, but it is quite difficult to achieve them all because 3 of the 4 members of the band live abroad. Even if Dalevuelta is a profitable music band, it is difficult for us to get into products form Lima's minds and make them understand that we do not represent any risk for them. But I'm sure that soon one of these proposals will be set.

Punk Globe: How many albums did you release?

Renzo Lancho Figueras: Dalevuelta recorded 5 official albums and a documentary. Now I'm producing a box set that includes the reissue of the original CDs with some extras, 2 audio and video CDs with the occasional meeting we had in 2014. This box will also include a booklet with the history of the band as I lived it.

Landia, my new project, has just debuted with a double album. I had plenty of time to compose and the album "Greatest Hits" was released two months ago with the Volume 1. Later this month we will start to record Volume 2 to finalize this album.

Punk Globe: Did you get to tour alot?

Renzo Lancho Figueras: Dalevuelta was a band that allowed me to see places in Peru that, probably, I would never have visited. It was part the part I enjoyed the most, to travel. We were lucky to travel 3 times to Chile and to cross borders. Although Peruvian rock is not known for being exported abroad to festivals, I can say that I am one of those few privileged musicians who used his passport to play.

For me, Lima has always been a quite boring city. I have never been identified with its system and its idiosyncrasies, probably this is as a matter of upbringing. I've always had a clear vocation associated with cultural management; in fact in 2008 I went to Argentina to study a Master of this matter. I could not continue living in a city that had no cultural offer, and Dalevuelta no longer served me as a support to continue living in there.

I came to Spain because it just fascinates me. I was raised as Spanish so it was something I wanted to do since I was a child, so one day I picked up my suitcase and my guitar and I bought a ticket with no return.

Punk Globe: After Moving to Spain.. How long did it take you to get your new band Landia together?

Renzo Lancho Figueras: Landia was and will remain to be a very long labor. When I left Lima I thought that I would never go on stage again. Thanks to the "normal" life I've been living in Madrid, I had plenty of time to compose at exorbitant volumes. I didn't know any musician when I arrived. I had to start from scratch like any mortal and I began frequenting bars where there were some local scene exposure. I touched briefly a couple of bands that did not offer me anything and basically that was the panorama.

Over time, a group of friends (even one Dalevuelta fan that was living in Madrid) suggested me to gather a band with all the songs that I had already composed and recorded in a demo.

So that's what I did. Great coincidence that Emilio, a great friend of mine and a big fan of Dalevuelta, was coming to Madrid from Lima to live in here. He lived in Barcelona for a long time studying drums at the conservatory, so I did not hesitate to recruit him.

If I'm truly honest, Landia is my alter ego. Landia is the result of all that continue happening in my head and transformed in songs. Musicians know that music is something that you'll never get rid of or get divorced from and Landia is just that, the oath you do with the music.

Landia is Emilio and I. He is responsible for all batteries and I am in charge of the strings and voices. At least the debut album is conceived just like this. For live performances, and until we can solidify the band as a sustainable project, we have been collaborating with Flavio, a great friend of mine, since the opportunity of playing with us came out, I hasn't stop feeling and being part of the project.

In terms of number of music bands, I think the scene in Spain is similar to Peruvian one. Both in Spain and in Peru if you lift a stone you will find another 50 bands. In what they happen to be alike (at least from my point of view), is that both scenes do not live anymore in those golden years they did in previous decades. Most of the bands play in bars and when they play for 200 people it is now considered as a big success.

For the rest, in form and substance, it is exactly the same. People with different motivations that came together with their friends to make some noise and that bustle became in occasions in a success.

I will always stick to my roots, that is what I love to do: bars filled with people hugging you, climbing on stage and with whom you can drink a beer after the show, that will always be my ideal type of concert.

Playing at festivals, on stadiums it's something I do like and surely this something that any musician has dreamed of, but if someday I stop doing it, this will not take my sleep away.

Punk Globe: So Landia released a double album.. Congratulations! Tell us about it?

Renzo Lancho Figueras: I always wanted to have a double album on my resume. In the past, it was difficult for me because it was more difficult to record and because of logistics management. With Landia I decided it was the right time and the time to do it the right way.

Grandes Exitos is presented in "Volume 1" and "Volume 2" is the debut album with a total of 36 songs and some extras that mean the second part of my history.

On this album I have showed all that I am able to say in 3 chords. It's an album that fills me with hope and that will I probably bring me back to where I belong, on stage.

Punk Globe: Where did you record at?

Renzo Lancho Figueras: The album was recorded in my house and it entirely done by myself. The recording mixing is ours and for the mastering, we turn to the former sound engineer of Dalevuelta, Carlos Saona who took care of all this from Lima.

Punk Globe: Has the band played alot of shows? Any plans for a tour?

Renzo Lancho Figueras: Landia's debut album has seen the light two months agoand in the first month we have already played in 3 shows. We are working to increase the concerts and so this can help us to consolidate as a band on the Spanish local scene.

Punk Globe: Any Internet Addresses that you would like to share with the readers?

Renzo Lancho Figueras: Sure! These are all our routes:

Landia

https://www.facebook.com/landiax
https://twitter.com/LandiaOficial
https://landia.bandcamp.com/
http://instagram.com/landiaoficial
https://www.youtube.com/user/Landiaoficial

Dalevuelta
https://www.facebook.com/dalevuelta
https://dalevuelta.bandcamp.com/

All our music is also on Spotify, iTunes, Amazon ...

Punk Globe: Renzo, describe yourself in three words?

Renzo Lancho Figueras: Musician, determined and simple.

Punk Globe: Any final words for Punk Globe readers?

Renzo Lancho Figueras: First of all, to you Ginger, thanks for this big opportunity you are giving me to bring my experience to more people. And to Punk Globe readers an extra thanks for giving me some of your time to read all of this.

Rock 'n' roll for all.

Renzo.