MARCOS CURIEL of P.O.D.: Family Ties
An interview by Sarah Kidd.
They have been Grammy Award nominated several times, are multi-platinum and to date they have released a total of nine studio albums. And now P.O.D. [aka Payable on Death] are on their way to New Zealand to play their iconic 2001 album Satellite in full.
Formed in 1992 and hailing from San Diego, California, P.O.D. arguably created some of the most iconic tracks of the nu metal era, stamping their mark on not only the genre but the music industry itself. But to remain relevant in today’s climate one must evolve, something that P.O.D. have continued to do, a fact shown with their last album The Awakening released in 2015.
With the current line-up having remained unchanged since 1994, P.O.D. play with the intensity of both long standing musical bonds and family ties; family playing a big part in lead guitarist Marcos Curiel’s life as when I call he is on the road and has his sons in the backseat…
Hey Marcos, how are you?
“I’m running around! I got two boys; they don’t have school right now so you know we get to spend a lot of time together.”
Oh nice, how old are they?
“I have an eight year old and a fourteen year old – Can I bother you for one quick second? I’m gonna order something for my kids cause they’re hungry…”
Of course! [Being a parent myself I understand the urgency of a child’s hunger pains]
“Ok, hold on I’m at the drive through! Forgive me!”
[phone mutes for a few seconds]
“OK, sorry about that! Forgive me, these kids are hungry and I was like ‘Dude, I’m about to jump on the phone’ and they couldn’t make up their minds and I finally go through a drive through and I’m on the phone with you and I’m like ‘Oh my gosh!’ [laughs] So forgive me. Ok where were we?”
I was just about to say that P.O.D. has been together twenty-five years now, you’re coming up on a quarter century tenure, so how does it feel?
“Feels great, I mean we’ve talked about it all the time. We played a show here with Prophets of Rage, and I had a good conversation with Timmy C from Rage and we were just talking about how grateful we were to continue to be able to play music for a living, it’s awesome! I mean to still be in the same band with the same original members and actually continue to play all over the world and have fans that still listen to your music is amazing, a blessing!”
That’s one of the key elements with P.O.D. is that it is basically the original members, there are very few bands now days that have been together this long and can claim that.
“Yeah, there’s not many … there’s not many left …”
What do you believe the secret is to creating songs that stand the test of time? For example ‘Youth of the Nation’ which is undoubtedly one of the biggest songs that P.O.D. ever created still sounds as fresh today and as relevant today as when you first wrote it.
“Yeah, it’s one of those songs, that album and the singles off that record Satellite [2001] is the gift that keeps giving, they definitely have a kinda timeless vibe and energy to them. I don’t really think there is a recipe; you know we just wrote from one hundred percent our heart and what we were feeling at that moment.
We wrote the song because we were in the studio when a school shooting happened a few blocks away and we just ended up writing that song, it just kinda came. It kinda came to us, you know we were in mourning and we just started jamming and that’s what came out.”
Does it worry you that when you wrote that, in America yes there were a lot of school shootings happening, but nearly eighteen years down the track, not much seems to have improved?
“Yeah, a lot of that – and I will try not to get too political here on a phone call but – a lot of that is because we are a pro-gun country for the most part. And that’s one of the major side effects …
Hold on I gotta pay real quick – you are so patient, thank you so much!”
That’s all good!
“Waiting on my kid’s meal [mutual laughter] I have two boys and guess what they wanted? They wanted Maccas…they wanted Maccas!! I usually don’t like to take them here, but right now it’s convenient! That’s what you guys call McDonalds is Maccas right?”
Yes, that’s right!
“I love your country. I love the terrain, it’s a beautiful country. The people are genuine; the ones I’ve met have been super nice. I have nothing but good things to say about your country. It’s one of the places that I tell people, like if you have to leave the US, you have nothing tying you down and you needed to go somewhere else, and you wanted to be in a Maui State you know what, New Zealand. And they’re like ‘What?’ I’m like ‘It’s that beautiful’ and if I wanted to live in peace I would live there [laughs]. It’s awesome there!
But back to Youth of a Nation, I’m so sorry, thank you for bearing with me, it’s one of my favourite songs to perform live, it’s just that powerful and every time it starts with the guitar note, that beat and every time I hit that note, no matter where we’re at in the world, it’s just such a powerful connection with everybody and that makes it super enjoyable to play. It’s honestly one of our biggest songs.”
I agree, it is one of those tracks that is still very emotive regardless of the fact that it was released many years ago.
“Well thank you!”
With this tour you will be playing Satellite in full, will we get to hear some tracks from your later albums as well?
“Yeah, I mean we always try to throw in one or two from every album, it’s usually just time; you know like how much time we’re given to play. Usually, what we’re doing at the moment we’re like ‘I feel like playing this song’ you know? And sometimes we change it up, sometimes it’s such a good set that we stick with it but right now we are playing that record from beginning to end and then we play some hits after that, you know from other records…
But we’re working, we’re actually writing right now! We just signed a record deal with Mascot Records and we’re going to be putting a new record out hopefully in the summer!”
Your fans will be pleased to hear that!
“Yeah we started in November and we are in production now!”
Are you still a PRS Guitar man?
“Yes I am! Twenty plus years. We keep talking about a signature model, but it hasn’t happened yet. So many fans are like ‘When’s your model coming out?’ You know what I’m not pushing the envelope, I’m not … we talk about it and it just never happens. Then it gets brought up again and it never happens, but I don’t have my manager on this sayin “What’s the deal with this?’ you know, there’s no one really pushing it…maybe I should” [laughs]
Do you still have that gorgeous cutaway that you took on tour with you in Europe?
“Oh yeah, yeah I still have it. I have a black one with a bunch of custom art on it, which my buddy actually hand painted on. Actually we went to South Korea in July of last year and then we went to Japan and United Airlines busted it all up! I mean we rectified it and luckily PRS was able to repair it and get it back up and going as if it had never happened which is fine, I’m very thankful to them for that!”
That would be like seeing a close friend being injured! It must have hurt.
“It hurt, it hurt. It hurt me to my soul, I was like ‘Ouch, this hurts me’” [mutual laughter]
So lastly Marcos, have you got any message for your Kiwi fans? It’s been fifteen years since you were last here, so it’s been awhile!
“It has been awhile. We are always so gracious to go to your country and play for the Kiwi’s and everybody there because, as I said we’re huge fans of the environment and the people and we love playing music and we love playing for you guys! We can’t wait to get there and do our thing!”
P.O.D. will be performing their hugely successful album Satellite in it’s entirety (with a few other hits thrown in for good measure) this Saturday night (14th April 2018) at Auckland’s ‘Studio The Venue’ and Sunday night (15th April 2018) at Wellington’s ‘San Fran’. Tickets are still available for both shows from Metropolis Touring, but get in quick as they’re expected to sell out!
