band's biography please........
Well ARGOT was born in 2003 at that time me Sevananda used to play the bass in the band, and there was another formation and another thought about what was going to be the topic of the band, we started playing hardcore punk and our thoughts were more like political and social, it is still the ideological concept in the band but take it in another way. We play here at that time a couple of shows at that time we were finishing our high school and we were learning about what this scene was going to give us. Time later we had to stop a time the band for external reasons (studies, trips, another occupations). In 2005 I decided to restart the band with other members and with other ideological concept, at that time I had known the Krishna conscience so I took the leadership of the band, with the first drummer and my best friend Teto that in that time was going to be with me the new vocal. We had a discussion about what was going to be the project itself, the sound, the ideas for the lyrics etc. then we found a converge reason and it was that all of us in some way believe in a spiritual life, we believe in god and we believe that through him we found our lifestyle, then we decided not to speak about what god was for us but what god teaches us, compassion, liberty, and some topics that in the hc/punk scene is very common, social problems mixed with our spiritual thought, not giving the people a religion to believe but giving them a lifestyle to use, at that time I found a perfect slogan for this thought and from that time we used it, it says “BUSCANDO LA TRASCENDENCIA DEL PENSAMIENTO” meaning seeking the transcendence of the thought. Now we had our first album with 10 tracks and we work with a local collective label called STEP DOWN REC. and through this label we help new and old bands from Colombia and all around the world to spread his message, we center this in the Latin American scene, looking for one day unify all of them, and make easier to grow up!. We are ARGOT seeking the transcendence of the thought.
- how and why did you got involved with the hc/punk?
Well I got involved in these scene through the devotees of krisna, there was here a project called “for nature” and I use to help them in topics like vegetarianism and no intoxicate the body and having a conscience life, free of violence and free of all those things that the youth now believe because of the tv and the radio. And I met the vocal of a band of hardcore, he was a devotee too and his band was very known in the country the name of the band is RESPLANDOR, he teach me a lot of stuffs and then he became like my older brother who I never had, through him I got involved most of them, then this for nature change to THE SPOON REVOLUTION which is a project that involved all this topics before mentioned but with more activism, these days we had products of the spoon revolutions like soap, shampoo, deodorant, talc, etc and we are working with kids who wants to be part of this revolution giving them the tools to continue this revolution all around the world. The spoon revolution is not something about our religion it became something else it is manage for external persons who believe in this revolution and who want to do something good with this.
- your name is sevananda , how did you got that name?
I am from a different culture which I chose, it is called vaisnavism and through this culture I found the person that gave my life a turn of 180, his name is B.A. Paramadvaiti Swami and his spiritual master was the greatest Srila Prabhupada now my spiritual grandfather, he became my spiritual master and he was who gave me this name, my entire name is Sevananda Das it means who likes to serve the others, and das means servant.
t seems like the devotee?
- you'd told me that your the only one in the band who is interested in vedic culture, how do you adjust with the other members of the band? and what is the reaction of your friends or families when they'd learned about your lifestyle (For those people who don't understand what Krishna is, could you give a brief synopsis of what it means to you and how you came to identify with it?)?
Well my friends know me from years ago, and they know how my life is and what the center of it is, they respect it and they had learned lots of things of my culture, but they are not interested in the culture itself. They have other believes and we started this band with a pact that we will respect all our spiritual ways, because it could be a different path but it will always be the same end. We adjust our thoughts that are common like vegetarianism no intoxicate the body and things like that. My external friends and family also know my culture and they respect it, because they can see that this culture has form the way I am and the way I take my life, they see a good thing on it so they don´t bother at all. I base my life in Krishna my spiritual master and my spiritual brothers, Krishna is god in his maximum form, some people think that we believe in many gods, or that there´s lots gods, but they don´t understand that there´s only one, for all of us and each of us see him in a different way, life a father, like a friend, like a son, that is the relation that each person has with god, god has millions of names, is like I have some names like sevananda some people call me Carlos some people call me seva, some people call me ospi, in the same way krisna has millions of names and it depends of how your conscience can see him, this explain for the Vedas the sacred writings we base our life.
- if you'll educate the kids in the scene about vedic culture, how will you explain it to them? does it has any relevance in the hc/punk scene?
Well, we don’t educate the kids about an specific culture, we just show them what we have learned in our lifes, and as my life is based in vedic culture it has a relevance in our hc/punk. We explain them about this experiences in our lyrics, in our shirts, in our words, in our acts, we think that if we inspire the kids with our acts they will learn in a better way!
- is there anyone in the band who are vegetarians or vegans? why?
Yes there´s more vegetarians in the band, why?, I can not explain that, I think each process is different, so each of the members has their own explanations, but I think that the main problem is the exploitation of every thing that the man can found in the world, and think that is his propriety
- what do you mean by "argot" and the logo on top of it? how did the band formed and what motivates you to start a band?
Well, argot was form when we were in school, at the time we want to form a band but we want to have a name that represent us, so a teacher once told us about a word “argot” and he explain us that its meaning born in the middle age, and it was the insult that the church used to point the person that doesn´t think and act as they want to, so we found in that word the expression we look for. Then when the years passed I started to know about the vedic culture and when I reform the band I want to show the kids what I learned with this culture, and my lyrics explain that but I wanted to show it in a different way so I chose HANUMAN an important figure in the vedic culture, that doesn´t represent god, but represent the spiritual form that we want.
- what is d one thing you have done through your involvement with hardcore that you are most proud of? what is something that you regret?
We think that the thing that we could be most proud of is the works we can release, and we could cooperate for the dream that we could come true, with the label and collective that we are part of, we don´t have regrets really, we think that the one regret we can have in this life is not to fight for our dreams and ideas, so we don´t have regrets, maybe mistakes but never regrets.
- tell us more about your local hc/punk scene...(bands,zines,diy labels, shows..)
Well our hc/punk scene as many in Latin America have had lots of changes at the time we started in this scene it was really a great time, the words had the meaning and the importance that always used to talk in the hc/punk songs, and our ideas were the most important value that we could found here, there used to exist the tolerance between the ideas, and we liked to hear it always. Nowadays it is very different I talked about 5 years ago, now the scene has change, it got apart because of the ideas, and the meaning that each and every one found in this space, then started to grow lots of different bands with their own scene and their own message, now there´s a lot of labels too that work with each part of this scene, as they think it is the better way, but those things that form the scene when we started here have been disappearing. We right now are working with one of the labels that have had formed it is called STEP DOWN REC. and it is a collective also, form to help growing our bands and our scene in Latin America and the rest of the world, to show the kids now that the D.I.Y. is a very important tool that we will always have in our hands, well if you want to know more about our work there enter to this link and you can see more www.myspace.com/stepdownrecords.
- pls explain further about your songs " liberacion" and "unidad"
Liberacion and unidad were the first 2 songs we ever wrote, it talks about the problems that I expose in the past question, they like the others songs we wrote, born through the dissatisfaction we got with the life with the world and with our own space, our hc/punk scene.
- what is real revolution for you?
For me there´s no real or unreal about this specific word, for me the evolution is just the change that the things have with the time, it just depends of us to make these changes for something positive or for something negative in our life.
- simple living and high thinking, what do you think of it?
It makes me think in just one word, conscience!
- what do you do with your spare time?
I have many occupations, one of them is study, I am studying industrial design and I have works with one big organization that is call spoon revolution, it is an organization that teaches to the people about the vegetarianism the good things and the bad things about it, and work for it. Besides that I work with the label I mention it before.
- who are the band's influences? how about in you life who influenced you most and how they'd influenced you? did hardcore changed your life?
There´s 3 important bands that influence our thinking and our sound, one and the most important for us is a band from Colombia, it is called RESPLANDOR, the other 2 bands were SUDARSHANA from Argentina, and Shelter from USA. To me my biggest influence have been the Krishna’s devotees, my spiritual master B. A. Paramadvaiti S., they are the protectors of my life, they made the change I needed in my life and show me the world in a different way. Through the Hardcore I found the Krishna conscience, then yes It changed my life in every single way you can think.
- nike exploits its child workers in the third world countries, do you know anything about this and what can you say about it?
Yes I know about this situation, and it is not just nike, there´s lots of companies that do that kind of things, it depends of us what we do with that kind of tragedies, it depends of us in what we support, it is really difficult and delicate cause we are very involve in things that we can not imagine, but that ARE true!
- what is peace for you?
For us peace is know how to life with us, with our space, and with the space of the others, learning about how we need to behave with all of this things coupled. A complete balance.
- what are your plans for the bands?
For ARGOT our plan is could exist and could work with this scene for many years, and trying to put out our message to the rest of the countries, just move senses, and live our process, we hope just leave a mark in our history.
- anything else you wanted to add? pls say it freely....
Let´s fight back for the value of the words, lets learn hearing and not suffering for our negligence, thanks for steal a time for the illusion, thanks for have the control of your life once for all, seeking the transcendence of the thought. HARI BOL!