The Last Internationale… An Explosive Rock Ball of Energy!

The Last Internationale is An Explosive Rock Ball of Energy formed by New York City guitarist Edgey Pires and vocalist Delila Paz.

The group is known for its socially-conscious lyrics and the very strong lives performances. The duo started writing protest song and playing small gigs when guitarist Pires was studying for a degree in political science!

The group can get very political, with songs about the situation of the First Nations in the United States, war, working class poverty and the abuse of power.

After participating in almost all major international festivals in the USA, Latin America and Europe, The Last Internationale visited Greece for the first time in a concert, in Athens on the evening of the 14th of June 2015 at ¨ The Revocations Festival ¨, in the well-known and welcoming area of the Faculty of Agriculture!

Athenscalling.gr Team also had the opportunity to enjoy them, in Austria at the NOVA ROCK FESTIVAL.

They are one of the bands that definitely belong to Political Rock and that all their songs contain lyrics that attack the absurd and unfair things happening on Planet Earth!

Having explosive albums in terms of lyrics and sounds, recently on September 23rd they presented us with their new single, with the inventive and strange title ΄΄Hoka Hey΄΄ which is surely one of the songs that will be discussed in the coming months!

CHATTING WITH… THE LAST INTERNATIONALE!

Athenscalling.gr: Hi from Athens Greece, it is a big time for us chatting with one of my favorite’s bands… The Last Internationale, dear Edgey welcome in AthensCalling.gr the webzine of culture.

EDGEY (The Last Internationale): Thank you for having us.

Athenscalling.gr: At first I must told you that your new single, is a great single and my opinion is that ΄΄Hoka Hey΄΄, will be the hit single of the lasts months in f the year 2022. Tell us about the lyrics, the music and the video clip of it!

EDGEY (The Last Internationale): This is the kind of song that grows on you. We spent hours and hours editing the music video and even more hours creating the lyric video, so we should be sick of this song by now. But for some reason, we’re not. Maybe it’s the droning riffs and rhythm of the song.

These lyrics are some of our most radical yet. The song is really about uniting all of the Americas and achieving the Bolivarian dream. We find that we are more divided now than ever. We need more working class anthems that strengthen our sense of solidarity. This lyric in the song pretty much sums it all up: “One people, one army.” The vocal melodies are also a bit different than the rest of the album in that there is a lot of modern hip hop influence in there. The repetitive “Ha Ha” and the overlapping vocal takes, for example.
If you listen closely to “it is” at the top of the second verse, you’ll notice it sounds different and overlaps with the line in front of it. You hear this a lot in Cormega’s songs. It’s how the flow is created in the studio. Much different than live performances.

Athenscalling.gr: And what is the next big thing, after ΄΄Hoka Hey΄΄, maybe a new explosive album from your band?

EDGEY (The Last Internationale): We think the next single will be the much awaited “Running for a Dream.” Delila has been playing this one solo on piano for like 2 or more years. It has an entirely new arrangement now. Usually bands release the studio version first, but we are known for not following rules. The full album should be out around April of next year with several singles leading up.

Athenscalling.gr: O.k ! You’re year’s active of the band, are 14 years old… 14 years together the guitarist Edgey Pires and the vocalist Delila Paz. How easy or difficult is it to be with someone together for 14 years, in Studio and about you’re on stage performances?

EDGEY (The Last Internationale): For the first tour, we barely even spoke to each other. Everybody in the band would fight from morning to night, including on stage in front of crowds. We were sleeping together in the van or on the floor or in the backyard of people’s houses. We vowed never to treat each other like that again. It was a dark, dark time. Now it’s still dark, but the two of us are a shining beam of light. Most of our troubles come from others within this fucked up industry. The internal struggles are what keeps our fire lit and we use it as fuel to keep on going. But this music industry needs to be invaded by some outside force or overthrown from within. It’s purely evil!

Athenscalling.gr: Who was the Godfather of the band name?

EDGEY (The Last Internationale): The name comes from the Internationale. We wanted a name with some kind of urgency, as things are getting progressively worse in the world. Unfortunately, not everyone shares this sense of urgency.

Athenscalling.gr: I like very much all about the lyrics of your songs and I will ask you, what are the causes to create?

EDGEY (The Last Internationale): Our lyrics are about everything – love, the personal, the political, etc. We don’t pigeon hold ourselves to one thing. A very big influence is writers from the past and some current writers. This may surprise some people, but we don’t really listen to much modern rock and we are not that influenced by rock lyrics in general. We prefer Gil Scott-Heron, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Bob Dylan, Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, Victor Jara, and so on.

Rock today really isn’t saying anything. The lyrics don’t even reflect any sector of the population. They are completely divorced from reality. Therefore, there is nothing for a person to relate to. Even the love songs are so abstract that you can’t find a lyric to apply to your life.

How did the genre become so reactionary and imitative of old blues lyrics that someone likes Justin Bieber can come along and create better lyrics? “My mama don’t like you, and she likes everyone” is going to connect more with the youth than “mama… she’s so sweet, so fine.” The latter could be pulled right out of a Zeppelin or Bowie song, along with the melody. But the consensus in the rock elite – radio, magazines, labels, managers, etc – is that rock is back simply because we plug into Marshalls and play guitars.

Rock is dead largely due to ourselves. We can’t blame radio or MTV if we can’t organize or help each other out. Without this collective community, the art suffers. Right now the only way to truly “save rock” is by giving instruments to kids in impoverished cities and let them take over. Dr. Dre will then sign some of these new rock acts and you’ll see the genre explode. We don’t have a Dr. Dre in rock, so it’s every band for themselves.

Athenscalling.gr: What is it that makes your heart bleed in the world?

EDGEY (The Last Internationale): Community! We are sick and tired of all the division over party lines or bullshit Hollywood “woke” culture. Rock has joined the Hollywood elite. The left in the US has also sold out – to the point where it’s not even left-wing anymore. For us, our message is the same and we will not change it to accommodate the new narratives constructed by big tech or the Democratic Party. It’s the connection with real people at shows and on socials that inspire us to keep on going. This TLI family is our community.

Athenscalling.gr: O.k! Let’s travel now in the past and three questions for you!

(No 1).Do you remember the first teacher in music?

(No 2).What was the first album in your bag?…

and (No 3).Your best and your worst time in the past?

EDGEY (The Last Internationale): (No 1). Cloud William. He is a blues legend in West Hempstead, NY. He taught us about the blues and the foundation to music.

DELILA ( The Last Internationale): (No 2). The first album I bought was probably the Pocahontas soundtrack lol.

EDGEY (The Last Internationale): (No 2) I remember listening to my dad’s tapes, so probably Creedence.

EDGEY (The Last Internationale): (No 3) The best was probably creating our first album. The worst was probably creating our first album. It was hell getting there, but when we finished, it was the greatest feeling ever.

Athenscalling.gr: We live crazy years with the economic crisis, war, immigration, pandemic, if is it really possible to change the world and if … in what way?

EDGEY (The Last Internationale): It’s not a matter of “if,” but rather a question of “who.” The world never stops changing. So are we the main agent of change or is it some other group? The ruling class is tirelessly working at shaping our world for the worse. The less we fight back, the more influence they will have.

Athenscalling.gr: Your answers are very interesting! Now I want ask you about the future plans of the band … about a new single or album or a new music video clip, about tour maybe?.

EDGEY (The Last Internationale): We have a Euro tour planned for April. It will coincide with the release of the new album. We will then hit the states in May for the first time in many years!

Athenscalling.gr: Any plan maybe for a concert in Greece?

EDGEY (The Last Internationale): We want to. We haven’t been there in years. We need to go back.

Athenscalling.gr: O.k I think that it was a great chatting with you … all the best for The Last Internationale… Thank you!

EDGEY (The Last Internationale): Thank you.