The Last Internationale
Tom Morello loves them; Pete Townshend doesn’t. But no one can ignore the NY firebrands.
Rock bottom is underrated. After all, reasons Edgey Pires, when you’ve got nothing, there’s nothing to lose. “Soul On Fire was written during a low point,” reflects The Last Internationale guitarist of their garage-bluesy second album. “But that’s when we discovered who we really are.”
“We went through Pledge,” says singer Delila Paz, “but when the album was supposed to come out, Pledge disbanded…”
“Everybody got fucked,” continues Pires, the angrier of the New York band’s frontline. “The hardest part was, how do you bounce back financially from that? But we didn’t come this far to stop over some dollars and cents.”
It’s hard to imagine anything killing the momentum of The Last Internationale: a band who have run on righteous fury since Pires and Paz hooked up in 2008. Their socially charged music has attracted A-list fans – Tom Morello has long been in their corner – but they’ve ruffled feathers, too. “We almost got kicked off the Who tour,” says Pires. “I stepped all over Pete’s pedalboard, and it was malfunctioning from the moment he got on stage. Their tour manager was yelling: ‘If it happens again you’re out!’”
Soul On Fire makes no apology, palpably upping their game from 2014’s hit-and-miss debut, We Will Reign. “It was a bit polished,” admits Pires. “We were surrounded by people who shouldn’t even be in society, they should be behind bars. We were always fighting to get our voices heard. So when these people scattered like roaches, we had to re-find ourselves.”
While grubby alt.soul thumpers like Mind Ain’t Free feel like a catharsis, it’s the Soul On Fire lyric sheet that kicks hardest, finding the pair sharpening their claws on social ills from climate change to misogyny. “Fifth World is about the Earth taking back its power and washing away all that we’ve done,” says Paz. “Modern Man is about abuse in different ways. Abuse of the earth, personal abuse, abuse of indigenous women…”
“But we’re not about slogans for the sake of it,” Pires stresses. “There’s too much posturing and bullshit. Every single rock lyric that I’m reading, it doesn’t reflect working-class life. Hip-hop does. Country does. Rock is in a bubble, they’re afraid to say anything. You’re telling me that nobody – not one band, in all of rock – has been evicted from their apartment, has had something tragic happen to a friend, knows somebody that got shot by a cop?”
The pair’s proactive approach goes far beyond posturing. As on-the-ground campaigners, you’re as likely to find them doorknocking to promote worthy causes as in the studio. And yet, the best place to gauge just how much The Last Internationale mean it is their ferocious live show. “I play every gig like it’s my last,” nods Pires. “That’s why I break my guitar strings most nights. We want to make rock’n’roll dangerous again.”
“We want to make rock’n’roll dangerous again.”