ILL NINO Frontman CRISTIAN MACHADO: 'PRESIDENT BUSH Is A Moron'

Chris Gonda of PureGrainAudio.com recently conducted an interview with ILL NINO frontman Cristian Machado. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

PureGrainAudio.com: Being a band who does at times delve in the political arena, what are your feelings about the current situation in the United States and how President Bush is handling his job?

Cristian: "I think President Bush is a moron! I think that the only reason he was voted into office is because his family is a very founded political family and they have a lot of power in the world. They have a lot of power in the oil world and obviously to America that means everything. Oil runs America and it's the sad reality. You know it's the country with the most cars in the world, it's the country with the most airplanes in the world, it's the country with the most furnaces in the world. So therefore to me, all that really spells is more oil, which by the way is destroying our environment because there's nothing we can do about it until our governments really really start caring about doing something about it. And it's not really in our individual hands because you can't say to yourself, 'Well, I'm just not going to drive my car anymore,' because how would you get to work? It's the government's job to come in and help their citizens and guide their citizens to a brighter future and unfortunately in America that's not what's happening. The higher classes are starting to look down on the middle classes more, the middle classes are starting to look down on the poorer classes more and vice versa. The poorer classes are starting to rebel against the middle classes and the middle classes are starting to say fuck the rich. So little by little, the government is really just drawing the line and saying if you're poor that's where you live and if you're middle class your house should not have pretty front doors and if you're rich, then you're rich and you stay away from the other classes. So to me, that's basically my answer; Bush is a moron, he really really is, he doesn't even know what he's saying half the time, even if you watch him speak on TV, some of the times I wonder to myself… what the hell happened? And even when he was elected president, he said it, 'This is a personal war, they tried to kill my father,' just on that foundation alone it's like, man how could America sometimes be so blind and stupid? But it might have been the same if they'd picked Kerry. I know I voted for Kerry, but I was almost sure that Kerry was gonna win. But for a president to win over 2% of the country? How could that happen? That's impossible. And most of the people that voted for Bush, you go up to them and ask why did you vote for Bush, they say, 'I don't know, because he was president already.' So to me it's just a fear of change, a fear of really trying to make an attempt at changing your life or changing your belief, people are just too stubborn to admit that maybe they were wrong five days ago and I should really look at reality and say I changed my mind."

PureGrainAudio.com: Being on the road you obviously encounter and interact with a ton of fans. Do you ever meet any bizarre fans or get any weird gifts while on the road?

Cristian: "Well, there was this one fan in Fresno, California that threatened our tour manager with a taser gun. She was video-taping the show and STATIC-X wasn't handing out photo passes and sometimes our fans don't realize that when you're opening up for a band, it's not up to us whether you can bring in a video camera or a tape recorder, it's up to the headliner. Because the headliner is worried that through using us, they can video tape STATIC-X's set and we have to respect that. We have to pay respect to the fact that they are letting us come on their tour and that this is a very strong package, STATIC-X and ILL NINO and we wouldn't want to do anything to fuck it up. So we didn't give her a photo pass, she snuck the camera in regardless, and she's this one fan that always comes to all the shows and it's nice but she always does the craziest shit. Like she'll park her car in front of our bus and won't let us drive away. She'll wear her gun permit around her neck and stand outside our bus and tell us how she's certified to carry a gun. She'll threaten Benji with her gun permit around her neck talking about how she's going to tazer him. She's probably the weirdest fan we've ever met."

Read the entire interview at www.puregrainaudio.com.