Ninjas Mutantes Adolescentes is a fast hardcore band from Rengo, Chile that only recently landed on my radar. Since I enjoyed their Lovely Violent Thrash split EP from earlier this year, I hit up vocalist Jean to learn their story.
“We discovered hardcore through punk in our early teens,” Jean tells No Echo about his and his brother Benja89's upbringing in rural Chile. “The first bands that really excited us were Gorilla Biscuits, Youth of Today, Minor Threat, Attitude Adjustment, Wide Awake, 7 Seconds, and others.” With no local hardcore scene, they cobbled things together on their own, eventually finding the bands that inspired them to start Ninjas Mutantes Adolescentes, or NMA.
Formed in 2010, Ninjas Mutantes Adolescentes also fell over heels for European bands like Heresy, Ripcord, and Larm, along with Japanese groups such as Crucial Section, Flash Gordon, and Complain, and American acts like Scholastic Death, WHN?, and Hit Me Back. The labels behind those bands mattered just as much.
“We were obsessed with discovering new bands through labels like 625 Thrash, Slap a Ham, and Sound Pollution,” Jean recalls.
A split with Chilean hardcore unit Reflejo, Lovely Violent Thrash draws on material from every era of NMA The new record started far from Chile. At a show in New York City, NMA met Sasha Stroud from Artifact Studio, who offered to record them. “It was an amazing experience recording in her studio,” Jean says.
The record ended up with Germany's Merciless Records, run by the band's friend Joern. “He visited Santiago, and we closed the deal eating tacos,” Jean says. “It was a great day.”
Keeping NMA going has not been easy. The members have to coordinate work schedules, and guitarist Speedy D. has spent long stretches living in Japan, which makes playing regular shows tough. The band has not traveled much in Latin America, with their only show outside Chile happening in Argentina in 2019.
NMA's ties to underground music go beyond playing in the band. The members run Tobi Records, and Jean recommends checking out ActivarHTM, Rising Voltage, Incendia Records, Cintas Contaminación, Sello Viejos Patéticos, Malfunction Zine, and Misfortune Core Records for anyone interested in Chile's hardcore and punk underground.
And when asked to name the all-time sickest band from Chile, NMA couldn't settle on just one. Benja89 chooses Los Jaivas, Jean goes with Los Prisioneros, drummer GUGA picks Quilapayún, and Speedy D. gives his vote to Los Blops.
From bootleg tapes in rural Chile to finding Japanese and European thrash, recording in New York, and releasing music with a German label, Ninjas Mutantes Adolescentes are having a ball.
***
Ninjas Mutantes Adolescentes on social media: Facebook | Instagram
Tagged: ninjas mutantes adolescentes
