Domestic Fool: An out of the box and ready to play –plug it in for your pleasure- power trio; formed in Guatemala City, (C.A.) back in 1996, as the result of the disintegration of two other bands, an event that brought together Mako, Ignacio and René. Everything happens for a reason.

It only took a phone call:

René and Mako were the remaining part of a previous band that split up after releasing their first and only low budget record in late 1995, where in their own album release concert at a local skate park the lead singer of the band didn't show up, having no rhythm guitar player because he had quit a few weeks before, a bass player that wanted something else and lacking proper rehearsal, they faced a crowd waiting for the band to go on stage; Mako talked René into singing to save the day, he nervously agreed, he had never done it before, they really had no choice; but even so, they went for it, minus a guitar player and singer they managed to pull it off. Yes, it worked, actually, a lot better than previous shows, it was then when they decided that the power trio was the only way to go.

Ignacio on the other hand was playing in a band where he did not only played bass but also sang, their drummer was a “hot underage lolita” (his cousin) that was not allowed to go in the clubs and later was forbidden to play gigs by her parents leaving them without a drummer and later on with no band at all. As active members of the skate scene, Ignacio and Alfredo were looking for a drummer to carry on with the music and put on shows. A local hectic magazine editor, saw potential in the two, now broken apart bands, and as any rational alchemist would do, decided to bring the elements together. The results were greater than what anyone expected.

René and Ignacio had already met at a local music shop where René was being exploited, after discussing bands and how bad the local scene was, they parted ways not knowing they would be reunited shortly. As for Mako and Ignacio, they played music years before at a local youth center, but lost contact after sometime. One march afternoon the phone rang at Mako’s house, the conversation was a bit hectic, not remembering quite clearly who he was talking to, Mako tells Ignacio to go to one of the bands shows. After that show, the guys met for a jam session, the rest is history.

The Domestic Fool Trinity:

Rapidly known by it's unique and melodic sound, a perfectly balanced blend of different styles, such as glam, punk, grunge among others, and the fact that unlike the rest of the bands back then, all of their songs were written in English and spoke of daily events in a “cartoonish” yet -easy to identify with- attitude, made them an easy target for fans to love and critiques to have something to talk about, finally, boredom was over.

The always, innovating creativity of the band and their outstanding live shows helped them gain the recognition of the fans in a very short period of time. After just 3 months of being formed, and having played numerous gigs, some of them with the police intervention quieting the extreme “moshing” caused by their breathtaking presentations and the enormous amount of adrenaline displayed on stage and off; the word had already started to spread around, as local radio stations were receiving requests of a so called band "Domestic Fool" who they had no idea about, never heard of, and of course had no music at all.

The first EP:

Due to the request of the fans, they decided to jump head first into the next step, and record their very first album, however there were some obstacles yet to be solved before going into the studio. First, the local record companies wouldn't sign a -non pop- band, much less a band with a name and songs in English, so they decided to go “indie” instead, more like forced to go “indie” and contacted a friend of them who happened to run/work in some sort of a well known local emerging label back in the mid nineties, he had some equipment of his own and offered to help them out for a reasonable price, at least enough to record 5 songs. The band used a four track to record the drums, then they sneaked into this local “big” studio where our “friend” worked, to do the guitars, bass and vocals and final mixing, the hourly rate for this studio was over $200, money that was much needed to survive, more than it was for recording, so the band pretended to be some other band that actually had an agreement with the studio in case anyone asked what they were doing there, well it worked.

Since the beginning, the late hours of the night have been a friend to all of the band’s recording process, and so the first recording was on its way; “You”, “T.V.”, “Mayo”, “Snoopy”, “La Chalupa”; were the first tracks to ever be put on tape; and as ironic as life can be, when the whole mixing process was done without paying a cent to the actual “big” studio, the guys from the band needed to master it; where did they take it on actual office hours?

That's how on the summer of ‘96 their very first EP came alive entitled "Do it for yourself". As a way to let everyone know it was and independent production, besides the obvious name, the cover of the EP resembled a -childlike drawing- made by the band that got the attention of the fans and media, because it was probably the most ridiculous cover ever made, yet suited perfectly with their irreverence and disrespect for the mainstream local scene and the topics that most bands use to sing and preach about.

“Do it for yourself” helped the band define their very own style and sound and also helped introduce themselves to a whole new audience that had never heard a local band sound like that before. The small EP sold over 1000 copies in less than a month, numbers that were very impressive, considering the fact that the band had almost no media support and was rather new to the whole scene, yet the fans picked up the material with undying energy. Some of these songs are already considered “a classic”, always requested at the gigs and still today on radio programming.

Fools on radio:

Step number 3 was to get the music played on the radio, luckily a very famous DJ that ran the most popular underground radio station at that time attended to one of their shows, loved their sound and offered to play their song on the prime time radio shows. A couple of days later with the EP ready, the first radio airplay of domestic fool took place, and the song chosen to be their first single was "You", the song was already popular with the fans and quickly became one of the most requested songs in the radio station that had the exclusivity of their music. "You" also made it to the top 10 and started a moderate boom about this new band and their sound that kept their name on everyone's mouth. A couple of months later, after giving several radio interviews and appearing on local newspapers and magazines, the second single was released; "T.V", an ode to cartoon shows like “The Simpsons” and “Ren & Stimpy”, a signature song that not only became an anthem among the fans, but helped the band jump into a sort of a mainstream level, as other radio stations were requesting their music due to the popularity the band had gained and the constant calls requesting their music.

T.V. also made it to the top ten charts; increasing their popularity and helping them build a name in the local and international music industry. A third single was released then; Snoopy, a mellow ballad hit the airwaves getting the same results and favorable response as the 2 previous ones.

Domestic fool was on the air, the people loved it, and the sky was the limit.

MTV:

On late September of 1996, a well-known brand of “cola” soft drink sponsored along with a radio station a special for MTV Latin America, about the music movement in C.A. (Central America, not to be confused with California).

Domestic Fool was asked to appear on it and talk about their music, “the pros and cons of the local biz”, their addiction for “x-treme” sports such as surf, skateboarding and hiking among others. Also, a very peculiar live performance at one of the top convention centers in the country; the special aired on January of 1997, but it was received with a diverse mix of feelings, mainstream was not ready for a big change yet.

Celebrity –stage-match-:

After playing countless gigs of all sizes, backyard mayhem, living room chaos, friends birthday parties and their own, in 1998 they got to be the opening act for a very famous Latin American punk band from Argentina called “Dos Minutos”, it was the perfect opportunity to expose themselves to a larger and harder to impress audience, as expected, the “domestics” pulled it off again and a lot more people added to their ever growing fan base.

Countless gigs followed, they went abroad to promote their material, El Salvador was the closest country to visit and experiment, the crowd received the band with open arms, invitations came after that to go even further, Costa Rica, Colombia, Spain and the U.S., but the lack of financial stability forced the band to stay in Guatemala, until the opportunity for being the opening act for an even bigger band came along in 1999, this time it was the argentine band A.N.I.M.A.L, well known in L.A. (Latin America) and in the U.S. through the “Ozzfest”, they were promoting their most successful album ever and the expectation was huge, so was the media attention. All of which made domestic fool raise the bar and push the envelope a bit more with their performance.

The show started with a 2 hour delay, the crowd was getting jumpy, there was a very tense atmosphere surrounding the event, domestic fool takes the stage, with barely time for a sound check, just a minute before they started playing; a pissed off crowd, and some of them still struggling to get into the stadium packed with over 12,000 people, Domestic Fool rocked the house again and again with every song they played, turning the crowd's thirst for blood into a thirst for moshing, slam dancing, stage diving and head banging, they rocked so hard that even the headliners had a rough time following the domestic fool act.

A helping hand:

Aside from all the shows that are just there to have fun, in 1998/99 domestic fool was an active member of the charity shows held to help the victims of the MITCH Huricane, that hit hard the Guatemalan Coasts, leaving thousands of families homeless and destroyed their way of life. It is a strong belief of the band, that music is a powerful tool to call in the masses, and it is their duty as musicians to lend a helping hand when needed.

The band has participated in hundreds of charity events, being the most recent (2004) for the INCAN (Institute for Cancer Research) and to help raise funds for the Breast Cancer Research facilities, it's not all about cartoons and foolin' around, this is a band that cares.

The Second Album (Y2K, what a Hoax):

In late 1997 the boys decided it was time to go into the studio again, since the money was still an important issue, the most reasonable idea was to release another 5 track EP, they had great new songs worth to be recorded and the main idea was to keep the noise and attention around the band.

Fortunately, Aleja, their friend who recorded “Do it for yourself”, had gone independent and owned a recording studio called “El Estudio”, he cut them a great deal and even threw an extra song for free, so instead the recorded tracks were in fact 6. This second EP entitled "Living embodiment" officially released on march 1998, immediately hit the charts, as singles like Limp Maggot, U/S and E.L.E -in their first versions- reached important positions in the weekly top 10 of several radio stations.

The final sound of this new material was the result of endless experimentation, regarding the gear, equalization, tuning, writing process and metric of the songs, pushing each others limits to the top in order to expose something new, something different. Though it was successful in a way, the band was not entirely satisfied with the final result, specially because after a few months there were new and improved versions of the songs along with a brand new breed of tunes that rocked even harder and defined their sound even more.

Back at “El Estudio”, Aleja was talked into letting them record 6 more songs, including some new versions of the previously recorded tracks. So what started out, as an EP would end up as a full length CD containing 12 tracks, the very first in the Domestic Fool career, of course by then, “El Estudio” had grown into a profitable business so the conditions were a little bit tougher for the band. Domestic Fool was allowed to use the facilities no more than 3 days a week and only at non-office hours, which really meant passed 11:00 pm. So, after going to their jobs, and attending college classes until 10:00 pm they would head to the studio, set the gear up and start recording around midnight, the sessions would often last and end at 4:00 am, and as you can imagine, you just can't function at a 100% by that time. The next day after listening to what had been recorded in the previous session, the outcome was not of their entire satisfaction, unfortunately these severe conditions became a pattern that kept going on and on, an endless loop of frustration that really started to wear them out.

Finally after putting up with demanding and exploiting jobs, universities, relationships and overcoming the rough studio schedule, their first full length CD was completed, and it rocked!. It rocked harder than what everybody expected, (with a 2 year delay by the way), still, with such a fresh yet dark and mellow sound, that reflected in a way everything they've been through, and everything they've had to endure in order to get it done, they decide, as a tribute to all the chaos, to baptize it as "…still waiting for the end", this name also proves as a parody for all the expectation created around the y2k effect, and the so called -end of the world-, as many “prophecies” had foreseen. November 2000 was the date this progressive and "ahead of its time" production saw the light.

The immediate success of the album was overwhelming as it's first single "seventy times 7" skyrocketed to the top of the charts reaching the number 1 spot in many of the hottest national radio stations and some international radios as well. Other singles like Stand, Dreamland, Limp Maggot also reached the first 10 positions creating a strong fan base and helping them get the mainstream media exposure they needed, as many local newspapers and magazines cover the release and development of the album. Things were looking up.

HORROR ON FILM:

On the year 2001 domestic fool was asked to be in the soundtrack for the first Horror Film ever produced in Central America, the name of the film was "Almas de la Media Noche" (Souls of Midnight), a film made in Honduras that participated in the international film festival ICARO receiving multiple awards. The band actually wanted to be in the movie but there was no parts written for dead musicians so the idea was scratched out of the notes very fast, instead the producers of the film used "seventy times seven" as the opening song, it was an exciting moment for the band.

Y2k's extinction of rock:

The world didn't end as we all know, but a real life E.L.E. (extinction level event) -also the name of the second song on the album-, threatened to eradicate all the local rock bands, as clubs decided to go pop instead and refused to let them play, radio stopped playing local rock bands and everyone was pushed a bit into obscurity. This strange phenomenon had closedown the doors on every local rock band; no explanation was ever given about it, except the usual denials and -management decision- responses. Many well known bands didn't make it at all, some went even deeper underground and some converted rapidly to the demands of the ever growing POP scene, it really seemed like rock was dying for good.

The lack of spaces for gigs, media support and personal problems made Domestic Fool decide it was time to take a break, the frustration of having a record out and not be able to take it to the fans was overwhelming, and after bleeding on stage a thousand times in self organized events they found out it just wasn't going nowhere.

So in 2001 they took a leave of absence to work on personal projects, getting university degrees, starting their own business, and going abroad, musical side projects, among others. Leaving a hole in the music scene, and a question mark on everyone’s mind, could this be the end?

February 2004 Rise from the ashes:

After almost a 3 year break and having survived the demise of many other bands, the guys reunite again and decided to keep rocking or die trying, the chemistry among them was even better, they've come up with an even fresher, melodic and improved, yet basic and direct repertoire. They found themselves staring at their own unique sound that rocked harder than ever, the fans were eager to see them on stage again, since many of them never forgot about the band and kept insisting and calling the radio stations asking for news about them and requesting their music.

By this time the conditions had gotten a little bit better, as radio stations started to play local rock bands again and some bars were re-opened and a few new ones appeared, giving some hope to the remaining bands and the local scene, more international bands were playing dates in Guatemala giving even greater exposure to established and up and coming acts. The ground was set for the guys to give it one more shot.

The third Album:

The chemistry was so good that in a very short period of time they managed to write and produced new powerful songs and were ready to have them recorded, so after contacting old friend and partner in crime, Aleja (El Estudio) the one responsible for all of the band's recordings, and having talked him into it -yet one more time- he agreed to let them record again, their third album production began.

Still in process this material promises to be their best work ever, and fulfill the big expectations built around it. With a collection of 7 new tracks and some live performances, -use no hooks- will hit the airwaves and reach your hands on October 15th, it’s guaranteed to make you sing along and bang your head over and over again. Enjoy!