Filthy Interview - 'Morfin'

We recently posted Trevor's review of Inoculation, which is the terrific new album from Californian Death Metal upstarts, Morfin. It's a fine album, and one I highly recommend checking out. Since that review, Trevor's also had the chance to launch a few questions in the direction of guitarist, Pedro, resulting in the following interview. Enjoy!

Trevor Proctor (The Lair of Filth) with guitarist Pedro Gonzalez from Morfin.

LoF - Firstly thanks for taking the time to answer these questions and congratulations on the debut album “Inoculation” – have you all recovered after the FDA Rekotz launch party?

Pedro (Morfin) -  “Haha, yes we have finally recovered from all the celebrating we did on Saturday (22^nd Feb) with our friends and fellow FDA Rekotz Family (Skeletal Remains, Derogatory); which by the way was a very wild night, followed by a brutal hang-over.”

LoF - As you’ve read in my review I am very impressed by Inoculation, how pleased are yourselves with the finished album?

Pedro - “We are extremely pleased with releasing our album and having our material finally out and ready to be heard. Also, we are all happy that our hard work and dedication to our music is really starting to pay off.”

LoF - You’re all currently from California, did you all grow up in the same area, hang out together etc.?

Pedro - “We are all from Southern California but half of the band is from different cities. Miguel and I are from the city of Pico Rivera which is more of a suburb type of city about 30 minutes away from Downtown L.A. Miguel and I met in high school and due to our love of metal and jamming out we hit it off pretty well. We would hang out about every day after school and always jammed out to covers from: Sepultura, Slayer, Sodom, Death, and many more bands. Jamming out was truly our passion I remember we couldn’t wait to get out of school just so we could get to my house and commence jamming out for hours without end. Chucho is from Boyle Heights which is really about less than 8 minutes away from downtown. We didn’t meet Chucho until we started going more to gigs closer to his area. Michael is from Highland Park, a city also pretty close to Downtown LA. He was the last member to join the band and probably the only member who we had never met till the day Chucho brought him to try out for bass. He did an excellent job during his try-outs and then from there on we finally decided that our line-up was officially complete.”

LoF - There was around two years between the “Crystal Darkness” demo and “Inoculation” – how busy have the last two years leading up to the release been for Morfin?

Pedro - “They were extremely busy due to each one of us having different schedules for either work or school. But we always tried our best to keep practicing on the weekends and scheduling time to record at the studio. This is why it brings us great pleasure that we finally have our material out on the market.”

LoF - Old school death metal influences are apparent throughout the album, which bands would you say influenced you the most?

Pedro - “Without a doubt we would all have to say Death was our biggest influence in our album. That’s the reason why we paid our respect to the almighty Mr. Chuck Schuldiner by covering Leprosy and adding it as the final track of the album. But alongside to that there are many more bands that influence our music. For example the heaviness of Bolt Thrower combined with the speed of Cannibal corpse, added with a good touch of Pestilence and Cancer.”

LoF - I’m now a fan of Morfin; I feel you have achieved a credible, authentic sound without ripping anyone off – However, there are always naysayers willing to cry plagiarism at the drop of a hat, what would you say to these doubters?

Pedro - “We would have to say that they are either with us or against us, but in the end we all have our own opinions. We write music that sounds like the music from the past because we love that shit!!!! We love it to the point where we want a similar sound in our material close to the old-school death metal sound of heaviness, speed, and in your fuckin face brutally awesome music. The doubters all I can really say is to give us a chance and they will hear originality with and old-school feel to it.”

LoF - Which bands did you all listen to the most as you grew up, and what were your first metal gigs?

Pedro - “Well as most young metal heads growing up we started off with the essentials of course like Slayer, Iron Maiden, Exodus, Megadeth and a bunch more bands that would fall part to the essentials, but as one gets older we want more of everything in the music we listen to. More speed, darker lyrics, brutality, and an obscured sound. Which is right about the time when death metal comes in to place, and we start picking up albums like Scream Bloody Gore, Testimony of the ancients, Serpents of the Light ….etc. Personally my first metal concert was off course a Slayer show \m/. Followed by Overkill, Deicide, Death Angel, and many more concerts that I have been to, and many of these alongside with Miguel.”

LoF - What bands would you most like to tour with?

Pedro - “As of right now we are looking very forward into having a couple tours with our local band mates Skeletal Remains and Derogatory. We all practice from within only a couple minutes away from each other. We are all also sign with FDA Rekotz so, we think us touring together would be a great idea but also a very killer show”.

LoF - So, what does the rest of 2014 hold for Morfin?

Pedro - “The rest of this year is going to be another busy one from trying to raise big money for touring to beginning to write new material for our next album and also keeping up with shows here in our own back yard of Los Angeles.”

LoF - It’s bound to have been a very exciting and proud time for you all recently what with the album release and the praise it’s garnering – what do you do to keep yourselves grounded?

Pedro - “Well we’ve been trying to keep up with practicing especially more now that our album is out. So, that way we can be ready for up and coming shows. We also try to hang out on the weekends to get a bit of Bro time together. Also we are working more on our communication towards one another which is why we will soon start hanging out closer together hopefully".

LoF - If you had a choice between releasing your debut album at the start of the 1990’s or in the present day which would you select and why?

Pedro - “We would have to say present day, because back then, although it would have been awesome, we don’t think it would make such a big impact as it does today.”

LoF - What other up-coming death metal bands do you listen to and support?

Pedro - “Aside from Skeletal Remains and Derogatory we would have to give a big shout out to our friends from Detest who are also writing great material with an old school sound.”

Morfin's Inoculation is released by FDA Rekotz and is available now on CD and Vinyl (both black and red/black marbled), with the option of T-shirt bundles as well.