And caught up with Madina Lake’s guitarist Mateo Camargo after their Main Stage set at Reading Festival ‘09.
PT: Mateo, good to finally meet you, I think you’re the only Madina Laker we haven’t spoken to this year!
Mateo: It’s a pleasure to be speaking to you guys, I’m the one that doesn’t talk that much – I’m the silent type!
PT: How do you think your set went this afternoon?
Mateo: It was a lot of fun, it was cool because there were so many people that were really into it, but for us when we go out there, we really like to just kill ourselves, and jump on everything and use every ramp to jump off, but the stage was really wet and slippery so it was a bit frustrating. We really couldn’t do our whole thing you know. It was a fantastic set though.
PT: Have you been to many festivals as a spectator?
Mateo: Well I grew up in South America, in Bogotá, Columbia so we didn’t get any of this shit man! We don’t get no festivals down there! I remember Guns ‘N Roses came but I was like eight years old so didn’t notice that much.
PT: Talk me through your summer, where’ve you been since we spoke to Dan in May?
Mateo: Well the first couple of months we did Warped tour, which was gruelling, but it’s such a fun time – it’s like punk rock summer camp but it does get to the eighth week, and you just start losing your fucking mind. It’s like if I have to queue up in line one more time for catering, have to take another shit in a portapotty, my mind will explode. At the end of it we were all really, really tired and totally ready to go home. We made a lot of friends though, and saw a lot bands. Any complaints I may have, that makes up for it.
PT: You’ve shot a new music video for ‘Let’s Get Outta Here’. What was the concept behind that?
Mateo: Well we talked about doing something where someone’s in a situation where they’re not comfortable and they want to get out of it. So the girl in the video is at this totally cramped party and totally an outsider, and she just blasts her way through the wall – that’s how the director ‘saw’ the lyrics as it were. I love the video, man. Every video that we’ve done up until that one, I’ve been disappointed with.
PT: Why’s that?
Mateo: Well a lot of them don’t really capture us live, or the narrative is so meaningless, but this one, I was just ecstatic about.
PT: You’re back over here supporting Papa Roach in October. Who knew they were still going?
Mateo: Yeah, man it’s weird. I was never a fan – when they came out they were in that whole Korn thing, that nu-metal thing, and I never really got into that. But we crossed paths in the States and I saw their show – that band could fucking rock a mountain – I was blown away. I had this perception of them, and then I saw them and I just couldn’t believe it, so since then I’m a FAN. We’ve done a few shows with them since then and we’ve become really good friends, and they’re fantastic guys. Hopefully their fans and our fans will get along and it’ll be a nice little package of pleasure!
PT: You mentioned on your Myspace you’re planning on getting back over here for a headline tour in the New Year too. What can you say about that?
Mateo: Well yeah sure, I can’t tell you too much about it yet, but it’s gonna be sort of two-thousand capacity places, and fun times. They’re the kind of shows that I like. Shows like Reading are amazing, because they’re so overwhelming, but you have to kind of disconnect from the audience – you can’t really see anyone it’s just a big mass. There’s such a big gap, which is a bummer – if you wanna get to the audience you have to pretty much pay a train fare to get there! Me, personally I grew up on hardcore so I love just getting out there and getting into it, but on shows like this you’ve got to take another approach!