Mazmorra Brillante at Area53 in Dumbo – Photos by Rachelyn Remz
Last Call is an interview series where I, Brittany Marino, ask talented folk all about their lasts: last time they did something, last time they felt something, etc. This week I sat down with good friends Johann, Daniella, and Jaie of Mazmorra Brillante. We played laser tag, and Daniella and I crushed the boys.
Mazmorra Brillante has finally blessed us with the official release of their single, “I Am Evil”. A song I have heard them play several times live and have been patiently waiting for it to hit the internet. Well, here it is- and there is a lyric video to go along with it. Let us all bask in our solitude and waste more time online watching and listening to the new track. Maybe after we will all feel less alone.
Catch Mazmorra Brillante play Pitchfork Music Festival Mexico City on March 8th – purchase tickets here.
Brittany: What was the last concert you went to? Individually.
Daniella: I went to see Madonna!
Brittany: Ah like yesterday? The day before?
Daniella: Like two days ago!
Brittany: Nice, it was at MSG right?
Daniella: Yeah, MSG. It was fucking awesome. I mean, we have actually one song that we haven’t released that is called “Snake Eyes,” and part of the vox for that song, it was a reference to Madonna, inspiration from Justify My Love. So, seeing her play that live, it was really cool.
Brittany: Had you seen her before?
Daniella: No
Johann: But what didn’t you like– Oh, no, cause Jaie’s going to go to the concert so you can’t say what you didn’t like about the concert.
Jaie: No it’s alright, you can say what you want about it.
Daniella: No, I pretty much liked it all!
Johann: Yeah, but she did medleys!
Daniella: Yes, I mean, yeah, she didn’t finish the songs, I don’t know what you call that… Like, she played them half.
Johann: She played them as, like, a medley right?
All: Yes
Johann: Like a new-age DJ–
Daniella: Exactly!
Johann: Where they just can’t finish a fucking song.
Daniella: There were a few songs she finished, but not the ones I really wanted to hear. But, you know, it’s part of the show, it’s cool.
Brittany: Do you have a favorite Madonna song?
Daniella: I like Justify My Love. I think it’s so sexy, and her vocals, the melody… I don’t know, I think that one is one of my favorites.
Jaie: Did she do Frozen?
Daniella: She didn’t.
Jaie: No Frozen!
Daniella: It’s not part of the show!
Jaie: I want Ray of Light too, I better hear fucking Ray of Light.
Daniella: She uses parts of the Frozen video.
Johann: It’s funny cause I never really listened to Madonna, I don’t really like her, so I have no, like, desire for the concert.
Brittany: You don’t like any Madonna?
Johann: No, and Peter, an old friend of mine, has been trying to push Madonna onto me for years, he’s like “Look at her in New York City when she was young and in the scene!” and stuff, and I’m like, “Don’t care.”
(all laugh)
Brittany: Hot take!
Johann: I don’t really like music documentaries or music books or biographies, or sort of things like that…
Brittany: You don’t like music history?
Johann: Yeah, no–
Jaie: Another hot take!
Johann: No! I don’t like music history in terms of, like, watching a documentary because I prefer to be in the moment and in the scene.
Brittany: You want to be in music history.
Johann: And making a scene with my friends, and doing shows, and actually concentrating on that, because I feel like some people get really stuck in, “Oh, I’m just going to sit at the bar and read this fucking book on Bob Dylan” and base their whole life around being in that city just because of their favorite artist or there’s an element of nostalgia, so then their music just ends up sounding, regulated. And I feel like, I don’t know, personally, I just, it’s cool, and I love all the bands, but just not putting in the work…
Jaie: Different for everyone.
Johann: Different for everyone.
Daniella: I’m going to go see Patti Smith in February, she’s playing in New York, so it’s fucking cool to see these artists, that are such a strong, feminine artist, playing in New York, where they’re from, it’s an inspiration.
Jaie: I watched a Lee “Scratch” Perry documentary last night, that was inspiring to me.
Brittany: Do you want to go with the last concert you went to?
Jaie: The last concert I went to was Tool, that was fucking awesome.
Brittany: Nice, also MSG.
Jaie: Yeah, I went to Tool at MSG last week it was unbelievable! I went with one of my best friends from Australia, who, you know, we used to really enjoy, like, smoking bongs, and watching his roommate’s bootleg Tool DVDs when we were very young together in Australia, so it was a little bit of a nostalgia-trip for me.
Brittany: Was it also the first time you’ve seen them?
Jaie: I’d actually seen them before, but not for a very long time. And their show was quite a… you know, they’d really upped their game since last time, with the whole production of it, with the visuals and everything.
Brittany: Did you enjoy the visuals?
Jaie: It was unbelievable.
Brittany: A friend told me he didn’t like them.
Jaie: They were fantastic! I think he might have just been on too many hallucinogens.
Brittany: Too many hallucinogens. Alright, Johann?
Johann: The last show I saw, and I have to say, is maybe the best artist to come out of Australia. I played this festival in New Zealand called Nest Fest, and on the second night, the headliner was Genesis Owusu, and it was maybe the best… Our friend normally plays guitar in his band, but he was by himself, and had visuals, and it was fucking so incredible. I love that guy. His music, and as a performer, it was just an amazing concert. And that’s a current artist that I just think is… Man, it blew my mind.
Brittany: Ok, how about the last person you texted?
Johann: The last person I texted is Emir
Brittany: About what?
Johann: I said that our set list is gonna be 27 minutes, and then I wanted to test out a new track, and I said… actually no… cause I’m dissing somebody.
(all laugh)
Jaie: Drop the diss! Let’s start the interview with a diss!
Johann: No, no! I was jamming today and the last song that we’re doing– it’s like, a new song but it sounds kind of LCD Soundsystem– and I was repeating {REDACTED} vocals… And how boring that shit is. At the end of the set tomorrow I was gonna say, “Thanks guys! We’re {REDACTED}!” Please do not put that in.
Brittany: I will put “redacted”.
Brittany: Daniella?
Daniella: A friend- they asked for a makeup artist.
Jaie: I texted Ray, our distribution guy, cause I’m connecting him with a new artist for his roster, trying to help him meet his quota.
Johann: Ray is also doing the new distro for Mazmorra Brillante, so.
Brittany: What’s the last song you guys wrote, or recorded?
Jaie: Well, the next song that’s coming out will be me and Johann’s oldest song, or one of our oldest songs that we’ve made together, called “I Am Evil.”
Brittany: Okay, yeah, yeah I’ve heard that one live. It’s great.
Johann: Yeah, but we did that I think… When I first moved to New York, I met… you know Jaie and I are both from Australia, we met here in New York through a mutual friend, and we had all this… When I was doing… Well actually, no. He was in a studio on Waverly Street in the Navy Yards, and we started, like, getting in the studio, doing a few things, but then we had all this free studio time, we had all this studio time when I was working on the Promiseland record. And Jaie came in and Julian didn’t turn up for like, a few days, so we had all this time to jam and make music. And so we started… I Am Evil is one of our earlier tracks that we recorded and wrote together, and it touches on both our core melodies that just kind of, flowed in together. And then we had it for so many years, and it made sense when we started doing Mazmorra Brillante during the pandemic, it was like, we had all this cool material that we could bring back to life, and that’s why it made sense to start doing stuff with Daniella and bring her in, and then having that really nice, beautiful female vox over the stuff that previously Jaie and I… it was more like, industrial, punk or whatever, and kind of Daniella brought this soft energy to the project, which was awesome. So yeah, that was the last song we recorded.
Brittany: When did you record it, do you remember when this was?
All: A year ago, two years ago?
Jaie: But that song’s kind of evolved over so many years, where, like, we worked on it, then it sat on the shelf for a few years, and then we’d tinkle with it a little bit, and then…
Johann: I remember I came, you were living at Brian’s house, and I came over with a new verse, and threw that new verse in.
Jaie: Yeah, and that final outro synth line came from that session, too. And after that session it was kind of feeling… And then Liam put his touches on it.
Johann: Yeah, also Liam Gordon who has been a pretty integral part of the project as well. His amazing touch and sprinkle to all the tracks, to kind of help bring everything into…
Jaie: He’s like the glue.
Johann: Yeah! Like the glue that kind of just, like, sort of got that production to kind of, like, a level that we needed to have everything still consistent.
Brittany: When was the last time you cried? Daniella?
Daniella: I cry everyday. So, yesterday… (Laughs) I haven’t cried today, I’ll cry later!
Brittany: After the interview?
Daniella: When I leave here I’ll cry.
(both laugh)
Brittany: Jaie?
Jaie: I watched a film called “Close” the other night, I don’t know if you’ve seen this…
Daniella: I love it! With the kids?
Jaie: The kids, the little kids, and their relationship… And I wept like a little baby.
Brittany: Johann?
Johann: I cried on the photoshoot the other day.
Brittany: No, actually, can we let the record show he put eyedrops in his eyes and fake cried.
(all laugh)
Johann: I fake– Hey, I don’t cry that much but I fake cried the other day for the photoshoot.
Daniella: No, but real crying.
Brittany: Yeah, real cry! Give us a real cry.
Johann: I can’t remember. I do the almost cry, when you do the [pretends to weep] and then nothing comes out. I did it on the airplane, I watched Shawshank Redemption, and I’m like, almost there…
Brittany: Isn’t it the voice that gets you close?
Johann: The voice gets me very close to crying.
Daniella: I’ve seen you cry, like, two or three times in seven, eight years. Johann: Yeah, when Milo died.
Jaie: Milo!
Daniella: That was the first time I ever saw you cry!
Johann: When it’s an animal, I cry when animals die.
Brittany: Oh yeah.
Daniella: Or watching The Voice!
Johann: Or watching The Voice.
Jaie: It’s like Tony Soprano!
Brittany: Those are the same thing to him.
Johann: Yeah, because animals, they just hold so much more… They’re so innocent, they just hold so much innocent spirit, you know? Like, humans suck, man. Humans can like, humans suck. Humans really like, meh, whatever, it’s too, like, whatever.
Jaie: I feel you.
Brittany: Last thing you splurged on?
Jaie and Daniella: Madonna tickets. (all laugh)
Brittany: Yeah, okay. So both Daniella and Jaie, Madonna tickets. Last thing you splurged on, Johann?
Jaie: I know…
Johann: Clothing.
Jaie: Uh, your big framed picture of Malice K?
Johann: Ah. (all laugh) Yeah, I bought a picture of Malice K from Alex Hall.
Brittany: Nice, nice. Johann likes to support the arts, and we love that.
Johann: Yeah, but I think it’s a fucking… cause we also shot the video for Malice K in that space.
Brittany: Yeah, which came out today.
Brittany: Last time you called your mother?
Daniella (to Johann): You start.
Johann: Well, I just hung out with my mother. We took a car ride together to get Reiki healing. Well, I got Reiki healing, but I don’t see her that much. So, I just spent time in Australia, so she was happy. We did a two hour car ride together and spent some time in a friend’s garden. It was nice.
Daniella: I spent two weeks in Dallas for Christmas, so. And then, now that I’m back, I’ve been calling her now and then.
Brittany: Nice, does your mother live in, where does she live?
Daniella: She lives in Mexico, but right now she’s in Texas with my brother, so I spent some time there.
Jaie: I called my mom the other day, because I’m going home to Aus in a couple weeks, so she’s getting very excited.
Brittany: When was the last time you saw her?
Jaie: A year. I try to go back every February or two.
Brittany: Last time you got your heart broken?
(all groan and laugh)
Brittany: Let me make this clear, it doesn’t have to be about relationships, you know? I’ve gotten heartbroken over a job opportunity I didn’t get or, something that I wanted to buy but it was sold out.
Johann: Honestly, when Milo died I was so heartbroken. I still have the food at our house. I can’t throw out the food. And I tell Daniella–
Daniella: He’s still my background on my phone.
Johann: Our sausage dog.
Daniella: I see him everyday.
Johann: And one day we’re gonna throw the food out together, we’ll walk to the bin, and we’ll throw the food out.
Brittany: Or you can do, like, ashes where you spread them over… (laughs)
Jaie: Take dog food to the ocean! Summertime. Summertime sadness.
(all laugh)
Johann: So we’re gonna sprinkle dog food into the ocean. Should we do that? Okay, we’re handshaking right now.
Brittany: They’re handshaking. Daniella and Johann.
Johann: We’re gonna take Milo’s dog food.
Brittany: To the ocean? What ocean, to…?
Jaie: To Rockaway!
Brittany: To Rockaway, okay.
Daniella: Aw, sorry Milo.
(all laugh)
Johann: No, no! We’ll travel with the food to Mexico, we’ll take him, cause he’s a Mexican dog. So we’ll get the dog food back to Mexico!
Daniella: Back to his roots.
Johann: The airport will probably be like, “Why are you bringing in dog food?”
Daniella: You wouldn’t understand!
(all laugh)
Johann: You wouldn’t understand, this is our dead dog’s food.
Brittany: We’re putting it in your waters.
Johann: This is our dead dog’s food that we’ve been holding onto for three years.
Brittany: They’ll send you right back to the US.
Jaie: You really won’t get rid of that.
Brittany: Jaie, do you have an answer?
Jaie: Heartbroken? Probably when my old band fell apart. (laughs)
Johann: Feels like yesterday.
Brittany: Last thing you obsessed over?
Jaie: I was obsessing over a song I was editing today. I recorded my friend Molly, who’s the world’s greatest whistler, on a song that I’m working on. And I recorded probably 20 takes of her whistling over a song, and I was obsessing over making a perfect combination of all the takes.
Brittany: Nice
Johann: I think music is like, number one obsession.
Brittany: Your music? Other people’s music?
Johann: I think making– and I understand what Jaie is saying, cause we’re synth dudes. Well not even synth dudes– but just, finding melodies and then obsessing over them and recording them in and having that obsession of jamming on your own music, and then, balancing it out, and putting it in your headphones, and then walking around with it, and obsessing over the same, same track. It’s like, you can have three chords, and listen to them for, two weeks, and still be obsessed with the same three chords in the headphones with the same song. I think that would be my obsession.
Brittany: Daniella?
Daniella: Well, I don’t know, I’m a very anxious person, so I like to control things to work my way, so I become very obsessive about pretty much everything. Like work, everything, it becomes very intense.
Brittany: Okay. I have an obsessive quality as well.
Daniella: Like, I find a new obsession everyday that I need to, yeah…
Brittany: Last note in your notes app?
Jaie: That’s a fun one.
Daniella: So we might be playing in Mexico in March, so my last note I was trying to translate the offer they sent us in Spanish to send to Johann in English.
Jaie: Nice. I’ve got a list of all the movies I’ve watched on Criterion lately.
Brittany: Nice, do you have a Letterboxd?
Jaie: I don’t, but I want to!
Johann: Actually, Letterboxd suits you…
Brittany: I just got one and I’ve been having fun with it.
Jaie: I will, I will.
Johann: What about something that’s not in your phone notes that’s not work-related but something that’s, like, creative-related? Like, when you have an idea, you put it in your notes?
Daniella: I write everything on my notes.
Johann: So what’s your last one that’s not, like, “Oh, just this fucking music venue”? Cause mine is, and I just looked at my notes, my last thing, and it’s just two words, it says, “Before pure.” And I don’t know what that is, I must have, like, had that in my mind as an idea for a song title or something. But that was the last… and maybe it was a movie title, or I saw it somewhere, or somebody said “before pure” and I thought that sounded cool, and maybe it was from a movie I saw or something. And that’s the last creative thing I thought that could be a cool song. Before pure. I don’t know if you guys have one like that.
Daniella: Yeah, I mean, I have plenty of them.
Johann: Just your last line.
Daniella: Nudity doesn’t always come from skin.
Daniella: I was thinking… I wrote that because I’m making a playlist for Alt, actually, about Valentine’s Day. So I was just listening, and I’m trying to accommodate it, and then I was like, you know, this is very… Sometimes music really shows what’s going through someone. So I was like, that’s a part of nudity. The music that you listen to, that’s a part of nudity that you can show someone, so it’s not only through the skin.
Johann: Awesome, I really like that.
Jaie: What is it?
Daniella: Nudity doesn’t always come from skin. I don’t know if it will even…
Johann: It’s cool, I like it.
Jaie: Put it in a song.
Brittany: Did you find one, Jaie?
Jaie: Mine are all quite functional, they’re like, money I owe, and models of headphones that I’m considering buying.
Johann: Not so much a lyricist, huh?
Jaie: (laughs) Yeah, all my creativity is more abstract.
Johann: Hands on.
Brittany: Last question, last thing that you created that you’re proud of?
Jaie: I made borscht this afternoon.
Brittany: Oh, hell yeah.
Jaie: It’s waiting for me at home!
Daniella: What?
Jaie: Borscht, it’s a beet soup. Like, a kind of Polish-Ukrainian beet soup.
Johann: On the record, Jaie is one of the most incredible cooks.
Daniella: Yes.
Brittany: I know. I’ve had a Jaie’s Pie. Thanksgiving, right?
Jaie: Don’t you mean “Dranksgiving”?
Brittany: Dranksgiving, yeah. Apparently Thanksgiving is a party holiday now.
Jaie: Yeah, well we made it one.
Johann: Yeah, on the record, Jaie can make it all.
Daniella: When Jaie makes you breakfast, it’s like, you’re so blessed. You’re like, “This is a good day!”
Johann: Yeah, when Jaie makes you breakfast you’re so blessed.
Jaie: Hell yeah!
Brittany: Okay, well I’m going to need a Jaie breakfast at one point. Maybe in the Philippines when Jaie invites me.
Jaie: Oh yeah! That’s right, we’ll go to the Philippines. They’ll love us there cause Daniella speaks Spanish.
Daniella: We should play in the Philippines.
Johann: Dude, Philippines would be awesome.
Brittany: I’ll be there.
Johann: I mean just because it’s been on my mind for like six years is just the Promiseland record.
Brittany: Okay, yeah.
Johann: And both these guys–
Brittany: It dropped at the end of this last year.
Johann: Yeah, October 20th. But both Daniella and Jaie contributed to the record in so many ways, it was so much studio time that I did with these guys, and some things didn’t make it to the record that made it to Mazmorra, but as the Promiseland record, it took fucking six years or something, so that’s what I’m proud of.
Daniella: I’m very proud because in one month my show I did in Spain comes out, and that was very exciting to do because it was the first time I acted outside of Mexico, in an international production, so that’s something I’m proud of.
Brittany: Thank you!
Jaie: Let’s go shoot each other now.
