Michel Peyronel, Riff’s drummer defined himself: “I have a legend card up to date”

A mock house north of Greater Buenos Aires, with a detail on its roof that identifies it and speaks about its owner: a weather vane that, instead of the traditional arrow or saeta indicating the source of the wind, has model. of a black and white electric guitar.

When Michel Peyronel was asked if it was possible to climb into that area to take a photo next to his rocking giralda, he refused for a logical reason: the fear of falling. And he ended that denial with a laugh-copyrighted 100% Riff.

That kind of laughter is very characteristic of him, by Pappo Napolitano and Vitico: with Boff Serafine, his historic companions of the metallic musical racing car in which he shone until Carpo’s death in February 2005.

new and old notes

But Michel also has a personal history outside of Riff, which he enjoys more than the active present. the output of new stonehis album with Disident Humanoids, which will show June 9 at La Trastiendais one of those vertices.

The combo is led by his son Jean Jacques (bassist for Viva Elástico and guitarist with his father), and is fresh and modern, with a cocktail mix of rock & roll, seventies glam, punk and metal in the sounds drink it; with a Michel switching between drums and his frontman side.

The other side of it is the re-issue of the CD, for the first time, of full throttle. An album from 1984, developed after Riff’s first breakup with Stuka, who knows how to sound on the radio.

Nearly four decades after its emergence, it has grown even older, as a result of its making and a sound that assimilated the punk pop and new wave side that Peyronel eventually knew how to get the same with Los Violadores (his first album and indian market) as in Virus (inner hole), Attack 77 (Sweet Christmas) and The Visitors (Imbalance), to name some of his productions.

And his time on FM Tango, and his stay in France before the memories of Riff, and Tarzen, and Pappo … An entire afternoon of chatting with someone who, as he said at one point in the dialogue , has his “legend card up to date”. The comment ended, of course, with his unmistakable laughter.

the current band

-How did the Dissident Humanoids appear?

-It started as a trio. But then it changed. The trio is great, but I want more. The truth is I like the sound of two guitars, and not just because of Riff. And another issue based on the mutation has to do with the fact I really love to sing, and it’s hard for me to find a drummer who replaces me and does what I feel he should do. Because I sang so much and I forgot that I also had to play! (laughs) And regardless of whether one is a few years old, one of two things suffers.

There are songs that I feel comfortable playing and singing, and I do those. We are making new themes full throttle and Riff.

-Why is it called the “New Stone”?

-For one of the themes, with a wave I would say close to Virus. Once upon a time, I thought it was very hard to pigeonhole Riff, because we had songs that pop in our own way, like Bad romance. But that’s where I found the form of the guitar, which came to my mind as a producer, and that’s what was left of the song that broke it.

Now I am standing in a more eclectic place, because I have nothing to stop me. When Riff was with us Bad night, which has a half rap part, we played heavy places in which Pappo told me “No, we can’t do this song here, because they kill us”. Who will kill us? Are we not the ones who cause fear? (laughs)

“Shit” is written in the lyrics of that song in one part, and Pappo said to me “Did you have to put bad words?” Just him, speaking sewer! (laughs)

a legendary album

-How to have a CD reissue of “A todo machine”?

-We got to Stuka. The fact is that the record was written almost entirely by Stuka and myself. This was after the famous Riff show at Ferro, the one in which a quilombo father was put together. On that day the opening action was Los Violadores. After Ferro, Riff played in a theater in Mar del Plata with Virus and we parted ways.

I have several songs written: one is called heartless lover and so on Now I am just a survivorwhich I wrote to Pappo. full throttle It has a very specific production.

A lightning band was put together with my brother Danny, Stuka, me and Negro Oucinde, a bass player I started playing, a friend from Liceo Naval. A nice mix that resulted in a punk metal sound, which is the kind of sound I have now. This is an album that is still valid to this day, as it was modern in its time.

It’s an album with the hard rock sound of Riff and the new wave sound of Virus … It’s something I brought back then, from my time at Extraball, our group in France. Extraball is a new wave punk band. We did a very important tour with The Jam all over France, because we had a deal with Warner. For me that’s my music. And this is something I applied to Riff, in the way of playing and even writing.

-At that time, did you perform live?

-No, and the story is so crazy. The record company organized a cocktail launch, and a few days later I went to Spain with a bunch of records under my arm, with the idea to release full throttle there. My brother was playing with Banzai, so I stayed at his house. And there was also my manager, who was with us on all the radio stations to try to do something on the album.

Meanwhile, the idea arose, because I was there, between me and my brother, Salvador Dominguez, to do something. We recorded some demos and Danny went to London. There he met Phil Carson, the sweetheart of Ahmet Ertegun, the boss of Atlantic Records. And Phil told him he was thinking of a band that could speak to this Latino audience in Spanish, not sing in Spanish. And a deal came out that turned out to be Tarzen.

Soon we were recording in Jimmy Page’s studios outside London. And we immediately toured with Twisted Sister: An American Tour of NBA Stadiums. Even full throttlealone and alone, sold nearly 10 thousand units.

I know nothing about it, because for me Tarzen seems to be holding the sky with my hands. That’s why I’m coming down. Years later, they started asking me questions full throttle. And so, because of that, we decided to do the CD with Stuka. It was remastered by Alvaro Villagra, we did a print run and a deal with Pop Art, which released the last two albums of Riff.

Riff’s latest albums

-You’re talking about Riff’s last two albums, “Nobody’s zone” and “Let it be rock”. Don’t you think they were half ignored at the time?

-However now they have millions of listeners on Spotify. I get $ 100 per month royalty, crazy! (laughs). For that to happen, a lot of people have to listen to you, because if you don’t have a lot of listening, you won’t get off the radar. We were discovered by assholes, who were more impartial, and they discovered us by The city of the big river before of Makina either Macadam.

-And what is Riff’s plan for the future if what happened to Pappo doesn’t happen?

-I talked to Pappo so we could meet on the weekend before what happened. He often went with his girlfriend Florencia to a camp I had in Baradero. We talked, and I told him to finish a topic called later down route 40, and it is on the disk of Dissident Humanoids. And he told me to go to his country house in Luján. I remember his instructions: “From Baradero it’s really easy, take the 41 and you’re there”. Eventually I didn’t go. They are the objects of destiny: perhaps if he leaves, nothing will happen, and he is still with us.

-Have you interacted with others, with Vitico, with Boff?

I don’t have good contact. It’s the past, like getting back with an old girlfriend … Impossible.

the radio experience

-What’s the rest of your FM Tango experience?

-The idea is to bring the nod forward. Change the packaging and apply modern codes, similar to a rock radio. In the beginning, came Oscar Del Priore, a male capo of tango, whom we picked up for the subject of music. And he told me “It’s impossible for a radio station to show a nod 24 hours a day, because you have to repeat it”. And of course! The radios have a system of high, medium and low rotation music.

People who said we repeated songs were sick of the nod like Polaco Goyeneche, who told me (imitating his voice) “There are songs I’ve heard a few times on FM”. On what FM? “On FM! Which one is it? ”For Pole the only FM that existed was FM Tango, all the rest of the radio was all AM! (Laughs).

Their years were great, and we even won two Martín Fierro. We did a production company, many tours with tango artists, things like festivals in Istanbul and Nantes, where I was asked to do the same thing on a radio station that depended on Radio France with a million listeners.

They gave me the frequency from 12 at night to 6 in the morning, and we did something more instructive than we did here. And we even scheduled recitals in a Cement-type hangar, but bigger. Rubén Juárez, Néstor Marconi… played

Going to La Trastienda in June

-You will play at La Trastienda with the Disident Humanoids on June 9th. How’s everything then?

We will play wherever they call us. Let’s face it, this isn’t a good time for rock. For assholes, rock seems like something similar to what tango was for us when we were assholes. But the rock always comes back. It’s a band that’s touching in many aspects, that’s pretty eclectic, and I think we have some interesting things to offer.

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