Diego Sanchez and To Violently Vomit reminded us the roots of death metal and brought Disgorge‘s legacy to Quantic a week ago, an event organized by Axa Valaha Productions! A unique opportunity to interview the amazing guitarist, the driving force and, if I may, the legend!
DinIntunerec: Hello, Diego, thank you for getting on board with this interview and welcome to Romania. How are you? What have you been doing recently?
Diego Sanchez: Hello, I’m doing good. The tour is going very cool so far. Also, this is a very nice venue, a really comforting place, really homely. The tour bus is comfortable and you sleep better than you could back in the days, traveling by vans while on tour. So, we are doing pretty well
DinIntunerec: Tell us a few words about the band. How did you decide to form the band and what did you have in mind at the very beginning?
Diego Sanchez: To Violently Vomit is a Disgorge USA tribute band… Due to policies within the band and management and the label, I chose not to use the name or fight for the name. My bass player, Ben Marlin was in the hospital his last days, with cancer. I told him that I was going to continue the legacy under another name, which is the definition of Disgorge, To Violently Vomit. I put my guitar down, I couldn’t play for over two years, Ben was my childhood friend, you know. Then, one day I was able to just play, so I started Obscured Secretions with Jason Trecazzi of Necrotic Disgorgement and Regurgitation. And that got me back into playing my instrument.
That took about six months and we wrote some songs, did a couple of recordings. Then, I finally found a drummer, that started To Violently Vomit with me. That was the beginning of the legacy back in 2009 or 2010 probably.
DinIntunerec: You split up at some point, had a hiatus and changed the name from Disgorge to the one that you’re using today, To Violently Vomit. What happened exactly?
Diego Sanchez: Basically, I have just told you the short version… there’s been multiple member changes in To Violently Vomit. I had beef with Ricky from the beginning, also due to Ben being sick and situations within the band and label and management I decided not to use the name Disgorge.
However, me and Ricky are good now. We’ve been back to being brothers again. We’ve had a few different hiatuses with Disgorge. Ricky is with Suffocation now and they are our brothers as well. I have a lot of love and respect for those guys. So, there’s no bad blood anymore between the Disgorge members.
But, I have my own legacy with To Violently Vomit. And if Ricky ever picks up his drumsticks again, I won’t need to practice or relearn the songs because I’m already playing them. So, it wouldn’t be a problem to play live again or write a couple songs with him. I would rather do it together with him instead of long distance and all that stuff. We write very well when we jam together.
So I’ve had a couple different member changes in To Violently Vomit.
Originally, I brought back Matty Way. He’s a brother as well. I talk to him all the time. I’ve had Nate Twyman, formerly of Gortuary. He sang in Disgorge for a while. Angel Ochoa has been holding down the fort for quite some time with me doing this. Ran through a couple different drummers. Ron Casey would help me out before from Inanimate Existence and Brain Drill. And the current drummer, he’s been with me for about seven years now.
Pretty solid lineup, but due to life changes we’ll probably be having another new lineup coming up. But, we’re all brothers and whoever can jump in, they’re welcome to. If you’ve played Disgorge songs before, it’s a lot easier to get back in the game. It’s not so difficult to learn and feel everything out. I’ll be playing this stuff when I’m 100 years old. So whoever I must have to fill in or replace.
DinIntunerec: What is the story behind the name of the band? Why To Violently Vomit?
Diego Sanchez: The drummer, Ricky Meyers, he was going to take the name Disgorge if Ben and I didn’t want to do long distance. So I said, take the name, I’ll take the music. Then, I came up with a name To Violently Vomit, which is the definition of Disgorge. It stuck ever since I drew the logo for it in the same vein of Disgorge. However, there’s still people these days that have no idea that To Violently Vomit is a Disgorge tribute. They still say, oh, I heard riffs that sound like Disgorge. Because those are the songs that I’m playing.
DinIntunerec: How has your approach to songwriting and composition evolved since the band’s early days?
Diego Sanchez: We were always striving to be the darkest, most brutal band in the death metal scene. In the early days, we were kind of the creators of the brutal death sound. Besides from maybe Suffocation or something and early Gorguts. We just kind of rode the horse after them, taking it over and just making it faster and more consistent. I never thought that I had melody, but talking to a lot of musicians, they say there’s plenty of melody in there.
It’s just a different essence. I have a handful of songs, original songs, I’ve written for To Violently Vomit. It’s just an extensive process into having to write the lyrics and vocals. I don’t know, I just have fun playing the songs that I have written already. One of these days, there will be a release of an original song. But, the main fact of To Violently Vomit is just playing Disgorge songs live for the people.
I’m more of a live musician than a studio musician. And there’s a lot of people nowadays, they weren’t even born when Disgorge was putting out CDs. So, the fact that they get to see it live now blows their minds. Moreover, the amount of love that I get from the fans still blows my mind. I won’t put it down for quite some time.
DinIntunerec: What got you into extreme metal in the first place and who are some of the bands that got you into this genre?
Diego Sanchez: My older brother, Joe Sanchez, he’s seven years older than me. He was the singer of the band Strangulation that I had with Ben Marlin and Travis Ryan, the singer from Cattle Decapitation. He was our drummer, and I’ve known him since middle school.
Travis and I would always see each other wearing different metal shirts at school. Also, within the death metal scene, it’s more like a family than people would realize. You just get exposed to extreme music because other would give you stuff to listen or recommend various bands, especially when you’re younger.
There wasn’t time or space for bands to sound the same. Everybody was already having their original sound. Nowadays, there’s so many different genres and branches that a lot of stuff can sound the same. Back in the old days, everything was new. My older brother is the one that got me into metal. And Suffocation, Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse, Deicide, and a lot of more underground bands. Also Incantation, Immolation, Hypocrisy, Entombed.
All these bands have their own sound and, I think, from listening to them, it kind of carries over.
Even if it’s just one part of a riff. Monstrosity, for instance… In our song Demise of the Trinity, on one of the most brutal parts that I play, there’s just one little open chord that I do that is a total tribute to those guys, even though it’s only two notes. But, I kind of do it as a tribute to their energy.
All those bands I mentioned, they are all really nice guys. A little darker and with more of a brutal edge. When I was a kid, when they first came out in the early 90s I was really looking up to them. Now, after touring with them and playing with them, I can say they’re all a bunch of really great guys.
DinIntunerec: You haven’t released a new album since so long. What are you up to? When should we expect some new release?
Diego Sanchez: I have a lot of stuff in my back pocket. I have songs that I have recorded. They’re not polished. I don’t know if CD quality is the right way to say it, because I’m such a raw musician. I have a lot of stuff in my back pocket that I’ll release eventually. Nowadays, you don’t need a record label to release your music. You can self-promote. Diego Sanchez, the guitarist, has a name and a legacy in itself. So, I think just by releasing stuff that I’ve done in the raw essence, we’ll get just as much love as if I had a major label to back me and promote me. I think the music will say it for itself. People just want to hear.
Luckily, they embrace what I write, and I’m just really lucky that somehow I get to write stuff that people are into. So, within the next year, on multiple platforms, I’ll release some real raw stuff. If you’ve got enough flavor it will stand out. From just even a rehearsal recording, one microphone in the middle of a room, the essence still comes through. I’ll release some things. I’ve been waiting because I wanted to polish them and re-record them. But we all have kids now, and it’s a lot harder. We put our kids first, as opposed to just going to the studio for hours and days. I’d rather spend my time with my daughter.
DinIntunerec: Tell us about the dark and brutal concepts behind your music. Lyrically speaking, I mean.
Diego Sanchez: Well, that was the essence that Disgorge and myself try to bring. There’s nothing bad about being dark or evil. It’s not satanic evil. It’s just the energy of the brutality and the strength of the essence that it brings. If you like that kind of sound, then it’s going to hit a different part of your brain, and you’re going to like it. My dad’s keeps asking me why I write such dark, melancholic stuff. Well, I don’t know why I write like that, but it sounds good to me. I get to travel all over the world and I’m still getting love for it.
There’s different things that I fiddle around with, but when it comes to playing metal, or playing my guitar in general, that’s pretty much all I write. I’m self-taught. And those are the frequencies that come out within me. So, I don’t think I’ll veer away from that anytime soon.
DinIntunerec: Well, at some point I had a discussion with an acquaintance who asked me what is wrong with us that vibrates on this kind of brutality, because they look at my tattoos, see me wearing black, and know I’m into black and death metal. Also, I write about extreme metal. So, a lot of people believe we are evil and there is something wrong with us…
Diego Sanchez: Well, I don’t think so. We’re just normal people. We’re actually the softest, most empathetic people. Probably because we feel it in the depths, and that’s a reflex.
You go in an elevator, and you hear classical music, and you either love it or you hate it. It either puts you to sleep, or you want to kick the speaker off in the elevator, or something tingles behind your ears, and you like the vibration of what the frequency is going, spreading out throughout the universe. Yeah… it’s the same with metal…
DinIntunerec: Disgorge‘s latest release is a killer. A punch right in the face. Tell us about how this album came about. Also, tell us about the artwork.
Diego Sanchez: For Parallels of Infinite Torture? Believe it or not, Disgorge always had a concept. We were a concept band, once I joined for She Lay Gutted and Consume the Forsaken. She Lay Gutted was basically anti-Catholicism. A lot of the lyrics are dealing with the Virgin Mary and that part of the Catholic side of the Bible. Then, Consume the Forsaken is about the Apostles turning on Christ, which is kind of like the Christian side. Later, Parallels of Infinite Torture, is about a battle within you as you don’t know what to believe.
That is the parallel of the infinite torture because you’re shown this and you’re exposed to this. Do I believe in this? Do I believe in that? And that’s why it’s like the demons and the angels on Earth battling here because this is our world and our planet and organized religion is kind of torturous in a lot of different ways. It’s savior for some, but it’s torturous for others. That’s why we considered it the Parallels of Infinite Torture because it’s infinite. It’s not going anywhere. I’m baptized as Catholic, but I still write and love to write about just gore and religion and brutality. And that was the concept behind the artwork by Jon Zig.
DinIntunerec: Of all the songs in your discography, what is your favorite to play live?
Diego Sanchez: Probably from the ones that I wrote: Exhuming the Disemboweled or Consume the Forsaken. There’s a lot of tempo changes in and some crazy rhythms. The intricacy of them and the flavor just has so many elements. Also, Deranged Epidemic. I had no part in writing that one, but that’s definitely a song I wish I had written. It’s technical in a sense, but there’s just so many chunks and kind of jazzy transitions that are just the most fun stuff to play. I love playing my own music, but I have no problem in playing the earlier stuff off Cranial Impalement.
However, I got blessings from the original Disgorge members prior to me, saying that I do a great job and do them justice and not play it better, but they just get to sit in front of the stage instead of being on stage and they still feel the same essence and they think I do a great job replicating it live and then carry on the writing after they left. Very lucky to be blessed by those guys and have their love for playing their music now almost 30 years later.
DinIntunerec: What inspires you to create?
Diego Sanchez: Oh, just energy. I’m a freestyle writer. Very few rhythms or songs have I actually sat down and tried to map out. A lot of is just wherever my brain goes… I smoke a bunch of weed and get in that creative mood and some people zone out like they’re stuck on stupid and other people find a zone and they just hone in on whatever frequencies are coming out.
DinIntunerec: Each band has defining moments or turning points. What are the key events that shaped To Violently Vomit into what it is today?
Diego Sanchez: I guess it’s the longevity and the sacrifice that you make as a musician. Disgorge has had so many different member changes. We were a solid unit for a few years in the early 2000s, but I don’t know I guess if you want to continue to do it you’re just going to. There’s so many changes in life over decades and the sacrifices of being a musician and a traveling musician… You either got it or you don’t.
DinIntunerec: What were the main obstacles that you had to overcome during your activity?
Diego Sanchez: Member changes. Luckily everybody’s always pretty cool, but when you’re the driving force and say you have a flat tire, you’ve got to fix it, you’ve got to get a new car, get a new engine… Just the longevity process of it and having the ups and downs, then starting over all the time or anticipating. Now that I’m older, 48 years old, and the wisdom of life thought me stuff. People are going to get new jobs or start families or not feel it anymore, not have the ability to anymore. It’s just constant ups and downs.
With To Violently Vomit I won’t have a hiatus. If somebody’s on their way out, I’ll already start working on the replacement. Before, it was just love for the music and now it’s love for the scene and for myself to be able to give that to the fans and continue on with the legacy. Luckily, people always ask about writing new music and they want to hear new music, but they’re still content with whatever Disgorge or To Violently Vomit are playing live now. We’re very lucky that people still want to play songs that we wrote so many decades before. We were ahead of the game and we’re still ahead of the game in a lot of ways.
DinIntunerec: What is the main driving force behind the band?
Diego Sanchez: Energy. Just simply put, the energy of Disgorge‘s sound. I think for me being the front man now and the leader of the band per se, all those years of air guitar playing to the old thrash metal bands back in the 80’s before I even knew that I would be playing guitar paid off… I’ve got musicians blood in me from my family and I just honed in on it. With Ricky and Ben, we were a unit for so many years and it’s just instilled in me and it’s not going to go anywhere now.
DinIntunerec: I meant to ask you what makes you more wired up writing new music or performing live, but from what you’ve just told me, obviously it’s performing live… It sounds like an addiction.
Diego Sanchez: It really is like an addiction. When you see the smiles of your fans faces, just enjoying themselves whether they’re moshing and pitting or just banging their head, but you see them have that ‘oh my god’ moment… I do the same thing, that’s why half the time you see me smiling up on stage, because I just see the other guys smiling out in the crowd and it just makes me happy. It’s a brutal, dark, fast pounding energy, but all you can do is smile when you’re feeling good.
DinIntunerec: What was the best or the worst or some unforgettable incident or memory that happened while you were on tour or during a live show?
Diego Sanchez: There haven’t been many technical difficulties with us fortunately. One time, at Ohio Death Fest I said I had a technical difficulty but I had forgotten to go from my tuner to my regular sound. We were all freaking out, then all I had to do was push a button and go back to my guitar tuner. Also, in the early days touring in a van with three different bands and sharing a hotel room with multiple bands and showers was rough in the early days. When you know you’re making 50 bucks a night, traveling the country or the world and living off your credit card… That’s a lot of sacrifice you make…
Back in the days it was only tape trading or writing letters there was no easy exposure of just somebody hearing your band on the internet. Death metal wasn’t being played on the radio and so it was by word of mouth that it got spread. So, in the early days, it was a struggle and you found out really early if you were road worthy or not.
Regardless of the situation, it takes a lot of patience to be a traveling musician whether personalities differ or politics…
I remember one time, back in the She Lay Gutted era, everybody was sick in the van, you could see condensation dripping from the van and we pulled over on the side of the road just to sleep. Then, I got out of the van with my sleeping bag and my pillow and there was a dry spot under the van, because it was raining outside, and I slept underneath the van outside, because it was fresh air. I thought, oh it’s all dry right there so what am I doing sitting shoulder to shoulder and people are coughing and sneezing. I wasn’t paranoid about getting sick and so much peace came.
DinIntunerec: What is the most important life lesson that you have learned so far as a musician?
Diego Sanchez: Sacrifice! I’m telling you, sacrifice builds a legacy and you don’t understand it unless you go through those sacrifices!
DinIntunerec: Thank you for your time. The final words are yours.
Diego Sanchez: I love and appreciate all of you, thank you so much for the interview and for your welcoming us! It was a pleasure to meet you!
