Baby Scream: Life Changing Stuff

Exclusive Interview with Band Frontman Juan Mazzola

Nov 22, 2009 Lisa Sutlieff

Indie Suite gets serious with Baby Scream's founder as he speaks openly and movingly about tough times, difficult people, the loss of his father and their musical impact

Baby Scream’s Monsters EP is a beautiful and varied collection of melodic songs, inspired by the Beatles and Bowie amongst others, that all draw on personal experience to mine a rich vein of emotion. Indie Suite wanted to know more about those experiences and how Baby Scream’s driving force, Juan Pablo Mazzola has managed to channel such feeling into his music, whilst maintaining the dignity and anonymity that many others fail to achieve.

Loss, Fear and Life Changing Music

Suite 101: What is the single most life changing experience that has ever happened to you?

JM: Probably losing family members. My life was a nightmare between 2005 and 2009, but it’s probably the same nightmare that has taken me everywhere and got me where I am now. I got really confused, I lost friends, lost family members, lost money, lost jobs…. Literally there was a time during 2006/2007 in which I thought I was going insane. I got scared, trembling 24 hours a day and taking a lot of pills. But then I got married, I recorded a few CDs and I have really changed a lot. I don’t care anymore about a lot of stupid things that I used to care about, I feel more peaceful, I quit drugs. I got really spiritual, learned a lot of important things. The good thing is I understood it, some people just didn’t.

Anyway, it was either that or listening to The Beatles for the first time. I don’t remember the first song I ever heard, but I remember their music really hitting me when I was a child. I was in New York, it was late 1994 and my mum bought me Help! I remember listening to “It’s Only Love” drinking chocolate, with New York covered in snow. Amazing memories.

Positive Influences

Suite 101: Who has had the greatest positive influence over your musical career?

JM: Musically speaking - John Lennon, Ronnie Lane, Paul Westerberg, Chet Baker, Cheap Trick….. Otherwise - Very bitter stupid people, possessive people, obsessive people, selfish people….. as well as nice people, lovely people. Music is always positive and some of the songs I write are inspired by people who are stupid, possessive, or selfish, but it is always a good thing in the end. I write about personal experiences, I try not to mention anybody though, I sometimes use metaphors instead.

Human Being on Mars

JM: As for the lovely people, “Monsters” would be a good example of that. It was inspired by my father’s life and death; he spent his last days in suffering, not only physical suffering but also mental. I was right beside him and he thought he was being kidnapped by the military government, like he was being taken hostage. He really did experience different types of torture in the ‘70s, so every time I tried to hold his hand he thought I was going to hurt him or something. He was so ill that it distorted his mind, so in “Mars” when I’m singing “there’s a human being on Mars” it is basically him, like his mind was lost in space. Also, with “Blue River”, blue was his favourite colour. “Slut” is about how frustrated I felt, a song about guilt and remorse, he wanted me to be something else and I ended up falling in love with rock and roll. And “Gone Forever”, well it’s pretty obvious what that is about.

Heroes and Inspiration

Suite 101: Who is your greatest hero?

JM: My father. He was kind of crazy. Sure, he helped me in a lot of ways. Probably I admire his love and affection, he was an old school kind of guy. He wasn’t a musician though, he was a fashion designer, English style.

Suite 101: What inspires you?

JM: Life, death, the Sun, the angels, the demons, chords, places, all kinds of good people, all kinds of bad people, God, Batman, my little baby sister-in-law, my wife, soulmates, the weather, California, Brazil, London, comics, the countryside, a kiss, Bugs Bunny.

That’s all folks.