Recently mentioned in our late Summer feature with Texas based LYED, Mexico based dark, post punk infused screamo band SATÓN are back with their secong full length “ni’in”. Produced in its entirety by the band, mixed and mastered by @Miguel Méndez at Carne Débil (Cali, Col.), the bleak new offering comes as an independent showcase of the band’s philosophy and certainly most mature recording in their canon.
“The word ni’in originates from a Mexican indigenous language meaning “to find oneself”; a word with a strong meaning that unifies the various feelings and sensations throught the album,” – explains the band.
“From “Ver Desvanecer” that sings about the feeling of lacking personal success, to “Qomata” that speaks about the acceptance of oneself in a chaotic yet beautiful manner; a constant and long path to define yourself and ourselves as a musical contingent.” – they continue. “The production like the songs, the songs like the times we’re living, the times we’re living like “ni’in”, they confront us, they redefine ourselves and put us on the way towards a clearer phase for Satón.”
Tapping into post-rock as well as classic screamo, Satón demonstrate their use of dynamics and patience can pay off big time – Bandcamp
We sat down with guitarist and vocalist Emilio to learn more about the background of Satón, understand the content layer of “ni’in“, and learn about their perspective on running this inspiring project.
𝑆𝑎𝑡𝑜́𝑛 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑎 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑔𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑠𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑚𝑜/ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑑𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑒/𝑝𝑢𝑛𝑘 𝑠𝑐𝑒𝑛𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑀𝑒𝑥𝑖𝑐𝑜
“Pretty much like everything in our country, seems like things come and go and don’t last for much…well…at least that’s how we sometimes feel playing in bands from the genre.” – says Emilio.
“I guess what we’re trying to say is that this genre in specific tends to hace great bands that don’t last long, wherever you are in the world and speciffically in Mexico. We’ve had great bands like Nazareno El Violento, LeMat, Ducto, but like everything in the DIY is hard to keep up.”
Despite the pandemic related crisis and may challenges, the band is trying to stay optimistic: “Throughout our evolution as individuals and as a music collective, we’ve experienced tons of support as a community towards a common goal, sharing music, putting out shows, touring, and such, but again… it feels like it kinda comes and goes… even more in times like this when all feels uncertain.”
Nevertheless, we, Satón are really excited in keeping things rolling, we’ve been sitting on this EP since the beggining of the year, wanting to premiere it with our friends from Gillian Carter (US) and Mico (COL) with a Mexican tour…I guess it’s not necessary to explain further more…hehehe.
“And that’s why we took our time and somehow replanned the whole thing. We decided to make more music videos as an extra for our music, to support our message and ideas. We’re staying positive and writing new stuff.
This record, titled “ni’in” comes after our debut LP (listen below), where we as a band were trying to define ourselves… Daniel (bass) joined us for this second one and luckily we immediately found what we wanted for a sound, vibe and message through this new songs.”
“𝑛𝑖’𝑖𝑛” 𝑖𝑠 𝑎𝑔𝑔𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑣𝑒, 𝑏𝑢𝑡 ℎ𝑎𝑠 𝑖𝑡𝑠 𝑢𝑝𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑑𝑜𝑤𝑛𝑠 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑖𝑡 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑑𝑦𝑛𝑎𝑚𝑖𝑐𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑖𝑡𝑠 𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑙.
Starting from Ver Desvanecer, “ni’in”’s focus track, with feedback straight to a constant bass and drums, explodes into a Converge like song. One of the songs written for this album, it talks about getting over own struggles and treason from others just to come out victorious as one self.
Right after this opener, comes Decaer, a fast and short track that doesn’t stop, where we make reference to the constant battles and fights that our society faces in their every day lives, we just want to state that we all are here for each other with our own “voces incontrolables, inconsolables”.
This was the first song written for this album.
After that comes our kinda tribute to a Dillinger Escape Plan type of band, “Monocromo”.
Without losing our touch, we try to go up and down with complex bars and rythms. It’s a song with a sort of epic chorus, and chaoticness around it.
Lyrics wise, this song talks about how we’re all equal when it come to fighting our own demons and the constant struggle to become the person we each desire.
“Olas Negras” is the “mellow” song of the album, with a more straight forward vibe, we take inspiration from bands like Touché Amoré to Daughters…at least we felt like it when writing it hehehe.
This song shares the feeling of experiencing dark thoughts and moments with onself, understanding them, making them your own and living with them without taking a toll on you. Relying on loved ones to overcome addiction.
“A soft intro, a melodic one, where the dynamics are down prepare us to explode into “Del Negro de la Nada, Al Azul del Cielo”. A very screamolike song, fast and again chaotic, yet soft to explode again in the end.
One of the most personal ones, talks about leaving an addiction behind and the constant fight with onself to overcome this disease. People looking at you with disdain, the way you sometimes would look at yourself when understanding how you’re damaging your own person.”
““Qomata” is the closing track for “ni’in”, the first song released from the album, yet the last one written. A combination of all feels and vibes represented througout the album.
Treason, back stabing, feeling like nobody is honest, feeling ignored…it all makes us become the worst in ourselves, wanting to not feel anything anymore.” – concludes Emilio.
For more captivating moments with SATÓN, be sure to check out their debut album “Lleno de hienas“, and a number of music videos and visualizers released in supoort of their art:
